Readings from the other desks

The Earth observation baseline is read through each steward’s lens, then once as a whole. Each lens is a projection of reviewed findings, not a separate argument. The other desks’ own editions of this subject are listed first, as cross-references, not copies.

14 min read0 figures8 tables33 notesNR-SECTOR-EO-GLOBAL-2026-BASELINE

Contents

6.1The other desks’ editions of this subject

Federation: each desk writes its own edition for the subjects in its remit. Until a desk releases, its edition shows its frame and the reading this edition printed for it.

Desk	Edition	State
GCRI Systems Evidence	No edition of this subject at this desk in the 2026 Baseline cycle	Not in this cycle
GRF Public Deliberation	Outside this desk’s remit	Not in remit
GRA Capital Readiness	No edition of this subject at this desk in the 2026 Baseline cycle	Not in this cycle
Standards Progress	No edition of this subject at this desk in the 2026 Baseline cycle	Not in this cycle
Academy Capability	No edition of this subject at this desk in the 2026 Baseline cycle	Not in this cycle
Index Measurement	Outside this desk’s remit	Not in remit

6.2Three lenses

One edition, read by each steward. The lens of this site comes first.

GCRI · KEY T

Technical Truth

The evidence supports reading Earth observation as the sensing layer of the WEFH+B system. Data are open and abundant, models are changing fast, and continuity of sensors is the sharpest pressure. Evidence is strongest for climate state and data access, and weakest for in situ coverage, footprint and validation of data-driven products.

CLI-001 · GOV-008 · DAT-004 · SYS-012

GRF · KEY M

Public Meaning

For most people Earth observation arrives as a warning, a forecast or a map. The baseline asks that public debate treat observation as shared infrastructure, and keep the countries and islands with thin coverage in view alongside the story of abundant data.

HLT-009 · DAT-004 · GOV-008

GRA · KEY F

Capital Meaning

Readiness implications only. Public funding is rising in Europe and shifting toward defence globally, and the Earth observation downstream market is mostly services⁷²⁴. These show where finance-readiness evidence will matter. Nothing here is advice, a rating or an approval.

GOV-006 · FIN-007

NEXUS

Synthesis

The sensing layer is well measured at the level of data volumes and climate state and thinly measured at the level of redundancy, ground segments and validation. The 2027 programme should bind regional observing evidence, test the observation gap under extremes, and map single-mission records before they end.

SYS-012 · O-01 · O-02

6.3Standards, Academy and steward contributions

How the Nexus Standards drafts, the Risk Academy and the three stewards feed each quarterly edition for Earth observation. The standards are a preparatory working draft (2026) and are cited as drafts, never as adopted standards.

Table 6.1The quarterly rhythm every edition follows
Quarter	Edition	Question	Boundary
Q1	State and Agenda	What matters this year, and what is the starting position?	observed baseline stays distinct from planned work
Q2	Evidence and Build	What new evidence and capability exist?	a configured capability is not a validated result
Q3	Stress Test and Readiness	What do scenarios and tests show?	simulated loss or performance is not observed impact
Q4	Annual Synthesis and Renewal	What changed in the year, and what renews?	release follows review, not event publicity deadlines

Table 6.2Who contributes what each quarter
Steward or body	Role	Contribution route
The Global Centre for Risk and Innovation (GCRI Canada)	Lead Institution and Consortium Secretariat; publisher of record; technical truth (key T)	science and practice communities · GCRI gateway
The Global Risks Forum (GRF)	leadership, dialogue and the Universe programme; public meaning (key M)	policy, Universe and national adoption · GRF gateway
The Global Risks Alliance (GRA)	finance, insurance and development readiness; capital meaning (key F)	finance and insurance · GRA gateway
Nexus Standards	preparatory drafts on vocabulary, hazards, indicators and methods	Standards site · working groups HAZ, IND, MTH, FIN, AI
Risk Academy	learning pathways tied to the agenda questions	Academy gateway · learning by review
Reports sector desks	Earth observation chapter inputs: GCRI evidence, GRA readiness, NXS standards, RA capability	sector editorial board

Standards drafts used in this edition

Risk vocabulary NRS-C1 (424 terms) for terms in the glossary
Hazard atlas NHS-1 1.1.0 (905 hazards in 120 families) for risk objects
Seven risk classes: global, catastrophic, existential, emerging, planetary, exponential, frontier-tech

Standards calendar to watch

Founding calls from 20 October 2026; working groups meet from 5 November 2026
Inaugural Global Standards Council session, 12 January 2027
Quarterly reviews in March, June, September and December, aligned with each edition

6.4GCRI reading: the model card

GCRI’s reading of this edition is its model card: what the national model is, what it computes and where it stops. It is printed in full in Annex A, with the methods it belongs to. Annex A, methodology

6.5Global Risks Forum reading: editorial essays

Four signed essays by the Reports editorial team set out the positions this edition takes. They are interpretation, labelled as such; the evidence they draw on is in the findings register.

A flood map, a crop report and a heat warning all begin in the same sensors. Treating Earth observation as a technology market understates how it carries evidence between systems. This edition asks what each system loses when a sensor goes dark.

EDITORIAL ESSAY · 01

Observation is a coupling, not a sector

Open archives deliver data at scale, yet the instruments behind long records age and funding is decided year by year. Measuring the whole chain, from sensor to decision, is the first adaptation.

EDITORIAL ESSAY · 02

Abundant data, fragile sensors

Data-driven forecasts and foundation models run faster and use less energy, and they depend on deep, open and consistent archives. The risk moves from the sensor alone to the archive and the validation. This is an early lesson, not a verdict on any model.

EDITORIAL ESSAY · 03

Models move the risk to the archive

Small island developing States report early warning systems at 43%, and in situ networks are thin over Africa and the deep ocean. Closing those gaps is not separate from resilience; it is part of it.

EDITORIAL ESSAY · 04

Coverage is the unfinished half

6.6Global Risks Alliance reading: 2027 Earth observation readiness pack

The registers that open the 2027 global cycle. At baseline each is initialised from this edition.

Table 6.32027 Earth observation readiness pack
Item	Register	State at baseline	First 2027 entry
E1	Earth Observation risk state delta	baseline set by this edition	changes against the baseline
E2	WEFH+B state delta	five global system readings set	indicator updates and freshness
E3	Agenda and Portfolio movement	eight agenda items · 6 proposed objects	admission decisions
E4	Federation delivery register	national chapters in preparation	national chapters
E5	Consortium capability register	national consortia forming	first contributions
E6	Leadership questions and challenges	none yet	first challenge log
E7	Foundry technical state	national environments prepared	first federation cut
E8	Publication candidates	twelve findings carried forward	PUBLISH · HOLD dispositions
E9	Universe readiness	one candidate mission	admission and role spine
E10	Correction register	none	first federation-wide cycle

Publication dispositions

Publish
Hold
Needs evidence
Restricted
Superseded

6.7Nexus Standards reading: standards and regulatory watch

Instruments and published guidance that shape the systems in this edition, by status on the retrieval date. Nexus standards drafts used for terms and hazards are cited as preparatory working draft (2026). The edition assesses no one’s compliance.

IN FORCE
ADOPTED
PUBLISHED · GUIDANCE
PUBLISHED · VOLUNTARY

Table 6.4Standards and regulatory watch
Instrument	Body	Scope	Status	Relevance
Unified Data Policy, Resolution 1 of the Extraordinary Congress¹⁸	WMO	global	ADOPTED 2021	data exchange
EU Space Act proposal, COM(2025) 335²⁵	European Commission	EU	PROPOSED 2025	space rules
Union Space Programme Regulation⁴¹	European Union	EU	IN FORCE	Copernicus
High-value datasets implementing regulation⁴²	European Commission	EU	IN FORCE	open data
CEOS Analysis Ready Data specifications²⁰	CEOS	global	PUBLISHED · VOLUNTARY	interoperability
ISO 19115-1 geographic metadata⁴⁰	ISO	global	PUBLISHED · VOLUNTARY	metadata
Guidelines for the Long-term Sustainability of Outer Space Activities⁴⁴	UN COPUOS	global	PUBLISHED · GUIDANCE	orbit sustainability

Changed since 2024

The EU Space Act proposal was tabled on 25 June 2025 and would apply to assets launched after 1 January 2030 if adopted²⁵
The WMO Unified Data Policy was adopted in 2021 and is in the standards watch¹⁸
The third phase of Destination Earth was confirmed on 1 February 2026²⁸

To watch in 2027

Progress of the EU Space Act proposal through Parliament and Council²⁵
Updates to the CEOS Analysis Ready Data specifications²⁰
The next GCOS status report and actions¹⁶³⁷

6.8Risk Academy reading: literature and evidence review, science and assessments

The review behind this edition covers Earth observation assessments, peer-reviewed science and the institutional reports that bind its findings. Systematic reviews for each agenda item begin in 2027.

Review protocol

Question: What does the published evidence establish about the world’s Earth observation and planetary intelligence system and its couplings?
Sources searched: agency flagships; programme documents; peer-reviewed Earth observation literature; statistics
Window: releases available at evidence close, 30 September 2026
Selection: sources that bind or contextualise a finding in this edition
Next step: systematic reviews for agenda items 01 to 05 in 2027

Table 6.5Peer-reviewed science and preprints
Reference	Type	Year	Role	Used for
Hansen et al.³²	journal article	2013	framework	forest change from Landsat
Pekel et al.³³	journal article	2016	framework	surface water change
Lam et al.³¹	journal article	2023	context	data-driven forecasting
Brown et al.²⁹	preprint	2025	context	embedding field model
Szwarcman et al.³⁰	preprint	2024	context	foundation model
Zhu et al.³⁹	journal article	2019	context	free and open data benefits

Table 6.6Institutional flagships
Reference	Issuer	Year	Role	Used for
State of the Global Climate 2025³	WMO	2026	supports	climate indicators
Global Climate Highlights 2025⁴	Copernicus Climate Change Service	2026	supports	temperature
Space Environment Report¹	ESA	2026	supports	orbital environment
Global Forest Resources Assessment 2025⁶	FAO	2025	supports	forest extent
2022 GCOS Implementation Plan¹⁶	GCOS	2022	supports	observing gaps
GCOS Status Report 2021³⁷	GCOS	2021	context	status of observation
Global Assessment Report 2025³⁵	UNDRR	2025	context	disaster risk
2025 Lancet Countdown⁴⁵	Lancet Countdown	2025	context	health and climate

Table 6.7Programmes, statistics and data services
Reference	Issuer	Year	Role	Used for
Annual report 2024⁹	Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem	2025	supports	data access
National Land Imaging Program update¹⁰	USGS	2026	supports	Landsat statistics
Landsat, What’s Next?¹¹	CRS	2025	supports	Landsat Next
Post-CM25 presentation⁷	ESA	2025	supports	programme funding
Subscription tables, CM25⁸	ESA Council	2025	context	programme envelopes
The Space Economy in 2023²⁴	ESA	2024	supports	space budgets
Space Economy in Figures³⁶	OECD	2023	context	public budgets

Table 6.8Policy, data rules and standards
Reference	Issuer	Year	Role	Used for
Unified Data Policy¹⁸	WMO	2021	supports	data exchange
EU Space Act proposal²⁵	European Commission	2025	supports	space rules
Analysis Ready Data²⁰	CEOS	2026	context	data interoperability
ISO 19115-1⁴⁰	ISO	2014	context	metadata
Space Programme Regulation⁴¹	European Union	2021	context	Copernicus
High-value datasets regulation⁴²	European Commission	2023	context	open data
Long-term sustainability guidelines⁴⁴	UN COPUOS	2019	context	space sustainability
Basic observing network and financing facility¹⁷⁴³	WMO	2023	context	in situ networks
Warning status report²	UNDRR and WMO	2025	supports	early warning

Where the evidence agrees

The climate indicators from WMO and Copernicus point the same way, with a small difference in level³⁴
Open data access has expanded and use is growing⁹¹⁰
In situ observations are deficient over parts of Africa, South America, Southeast Asia, the deep ocean and the poles¹⁶

Where it is unsettled

How funding for NASA Earth science and Landsat Next resolves after the FY2026 request¹¹
How far data-driven forecasts and foundation models hold outside their training conditions²⁷²⁹
How 2025 temperature is stated: WMO 1.43 °C and Copernicus 1.47 °C, and the ranking differs³⁴

Notes

Numbers are the edition’s reference numbers, so a note reads the same in every chapter. The full list, with every source and its licence, is in Annex C. Annex C, references

7ESA (ed.), FutureEO after CM25 (Floberghagen), presentation on the outcome of the November 2025 ministerial meeting for the Earth Observation Programme. European Space Agency, Paris. Observation year 2025. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
24ESA (ed.), The Space Economy in 2023, ESA space economy report, published December 2024 (title page not present in the extracted text; section 2 headed The Space Economy in 2023). European Space Agency, Paris. Observation year 2023. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
18WMO (ed.), WMO Unified Data Policy Resolution (Res.1) of the Extraordinary World Meteorological Congress 2021, information page. World Meteorological Organization, Geneva. Observation year 2021. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
25European Commission (ed.), Proposal for a Regulation on the safety, resilience and sustainability of space activities in the Union (EU Space Act), COM(2025) 335 final, transmitted to the Council on 26 June 2025 as document 10935/25. Council of the European Union, Brussels. Observation year 2025. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
41UNVERIFIED, not opened: Regulation (EU) 2021/696 establishing the Union Space Programme (including Copernicus), Official Journal of the European Union, 2021, cited from memory. Observation year 2021. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
42UNVERIFIED, not opened: Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2023/138 laying down a list of specific high-value datasets and the arrangements for their publication and re-use, Official Journal of the European Union, 2023, cited from memory. Observation year 2023. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
20CEOS (ed.), CEOS Analysis Ready Data, overview page. Committee on Earth Observation Satellites. Observation year 2026 (current page). Accessed 2026-11-03.back
40UNVERIFIED, not opened: ISO 19115-1:2014, Geographic information: Metadata, Part 1, fundamentals. International Organization for Standardization, Geneva. The catalogue page returned an access error; cited from memory. Observation year 2014. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
44UNVERIFIED, not opened: UN COPUOS (ed.), Guidelines for the Long-term Sustainability of Outer Space Activities, 2019, named in the opened ESA report [1]; no figure is used. United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, Vienna. Observation year 2019. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
28ECMWF (ed.), Third phase of Destination Earth confirmed, 1 February 2026. European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, Reading. Observation year 2026. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
16GCOS (ed.), The 2022 GCOS Implementation Plan (GCOS-244), abstract and summary of themes, as held in the AWI EPIC repository (the full plan was not opened). World Meteorological Organization, Geneva. Observation year 2022. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
37UNVERIFIED, not opened: GCOS (ed.), The Status of the Global Climate Observing System 2021: The GCOS Status Report (GCOS-240). World Meteorological Organization, Geneva. Named in the opened summary of the 2022 plan [16]; no figure is used. Observation year 2021. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
32Hansen, M.C. et al., High-Resolution Global Maps of 21st-Century Forest Cover Change, Science 342(6160), 850 to 853, 2013 (journal record and summary opened). American Association for the Advancement of Science. Observation year 2012 (study period 2000 to 2012). Accessed 2026-11-03.back
33Pekel, J.-F. et al., High-resolution mapping of global surface water and its long-term changes, Nature 540, 418 to 422, 2016. Springer Nature, London. Observation year 2015 (study period 1984 to 2015). Accessed 2026-11-03.back
31Lam, R. et al., Learning skillful medium-range global weather forecasting, Science 382(6677), 1416 to 1421, 2023 (journal record and abstract opened). American Association for the Advancement of Science. Observation year 2023. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
29Brown, C.F. et al., AlphaEarth Foundations: An embedding field model for accurate and efficient global mapping from sparse label data, arXiv preprint 2507.22291, July 2025 (abstract opened; not peer reviewed). Observation year 2025. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
30Szwarcman, D. et al., Prithvi-EO-2.0: A Versatile Multi-Temporal Foundation Model for Earth Observation Applications, arXiv preprint 2412.02732, December 2024 (abstract opened; not peer reviewed). Observation year 2024. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
39UNVERIFIED, not opened: Zhu et al., Benefits of the free and open Landsat data policy, Remote Sensing of Environment 224, 382 to 385, 2019. Elsevier, Amsterdam. Only a bibliographic record without abstract was read; no figure is used. Observation year 2019. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
3WMO (ed.), State of the Global Climate 2025, one-page summary of the report released 23 March 2026. World Meteorological Organization, Geneva. Observation year 2025 (greenhouse gases 2024). Accessed 2026-11-03.back
4Copernicus Climate Change Service (ed.), Global Climate Highlights 2025. ECMWF, Reading, for the European Commission. Observation year 2025. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
1ESA Space Debris Office (ed.), ESA’s Annual Space Environment Report, issue 10.0, 1 May 2026. European Space Agency, ESOC, Darmstadt. Observation year 2025 (modelled population at reference epoch August 2024). Accessed 2026-11-03.back
6FAO (ed.), Global deforestation slows, but forests remain under pressure, FAO report shows, release on the Global Forest Resources Assessment 2025, 21 October 2025. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome. Observation year 2025. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
35UNVERIFIED, not opened: UNDRR (ed.), Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction 2025: Resilience Pays. United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, Geneva. The page returned an access error and no figure is used. Observation year 2025. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
45UNVERIFIED, not opened: Lancet Countdown on health and climate change (eds.), The 2025 report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change, The Lancet, October 2025; the figures used are taken from the WHO release [34], not from the report. Elsevier, London. Observation year 2024. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
9Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem (ed.), Annual Report 2024. European Space Agency and consortium partners, Paris. Observation year 2024. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
10USGS National Land Imaging Program (ed.), NLI Update to the National Geospatial Advisory Committee, March and April 2026 (fiscal year 2025 archive statistics; Landsat 8 and 9 status). US Geological Survey, Reston. Observation year 2025. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
11Congressional Research Service (ed.), Landsat, What’s Next? In Focus IN12281, updated 16 June 2025. Congressional Research Service, Washington. Observation year 2025 (FY2026 request). Accessed 2026-11-03.back
8ESA Council (ed.), Subscription to optional programmes at the CM25, ESA/C-M(2025)100, rev. 5, Paris, 1 December 2025. European Space Agency, Paris. Observation year 2025. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
36UNVERIFIED, not opened: OECD (ed.), The Space Economy in Figures: Responding to Global Challenges. OECD Publishing, Paris, 2023. The pages returned an access error and no figure is used. Observation year 2023. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
17WMO (ed.), Closing the gaps in the observing network (news article on the Global Basic Observing Network and the Systematic Observations Financing Facility). World Meteorological Organization, Geneva. Observation year not stated on the page. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
43UNVERIFIED, not opened: WMO and SOFF (eds.), Global Basic Observing Network compliance monitoring and SOFF annual reporting, taken from search-result summaries; no figure is used. World Meteorological Organization, Geneva. Observation year 2025. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
2UNDRR and WMO (eds.), Global Status of Multi-Hazard Early Warning Systems 2025, as reported in the WMO press release of 12 November 2025, Early warning systems reach new heights, but critical gaps jeopardise global progress (the report itself was not opened). World Meteorological Organization, Geneva. Observation year 2025. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
27ECMWF (ed.), ECMWF’s ensemble AI forecasts become operational (AIFS ENS), 2025. European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, Reading. Observation year 2025. Accessed 2026-11-03.back

Cite this chapter

Valadbaygi, S. (Ed.). (2026). Chapter 6: Readings from the other desks. In Global Earth Observation Risk and Resilience Report 2026: Baseline Edition, The State of the World’s Earth Observation and Planetary Intelligence. (Baseline Edition 2026, Report No. NR-SECTOR-EO-GLOBAL-2026-BASELINE) [Draft under review]. The Global Centre for Risk and Innovation (GCRI).

Every citation form of the whole report, BibTeX and RIS included, is on the edition home. Cite this report

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