The information accessible on this area of the INSPIRE site has been provided by Spatial Data Interest Communities (SDICs) and Legally Mandated Organisation (LMOs) via the ongoing Call for Expression of Interest for INSPIRE development.

The information includes:

Description
SDIC Title ESA GSE Global Monitoring for Food Security
Acronym GMFS
Details
Mission and Objectives GMFS aims at providing Earth observation based services which monitor indicators of food security and related environmental processes. By using new techniques, new algorithms, data from new satellite instruments and effective mixtures of high and low resolution data, GMFS aims at adding value to existing service offerings. The services are concentrated on Africa where food security problems are most acute and assist African and European stakeholders as well as major international food security organisations to implement their food security and sustainable development policies more effectively. An important feature of the approach is to develop effective working partnerships with stakeholders and other information providers to ensure that all available information is used as effectively as possible. This is particularly important given the complex organisational structures in the food security domain.
Mandate Public+private consortium/association.
Formal Mandate None
Main Activities The main activities of the SDIC GMFS are to monitor the crop state of the main food crops on the African continent in order to assess the progress of the current growing season. To that respect GMFS closely links and collaborates with the activities carried out by JRC (AGrifish unit, MARS-FOOD project). GMFS works together not only with European partners, but also with international level UN organizations dealing with Food Security issues, such as WFP and FAO, and with users from the African continent. The latter organizations concern national Ministries of Agriculture (e.g. Senegal, Malawi and Kenya) and regionally mandated organizations (SADC-RRSU, IGAD-RCMRD and CILSS Agrhymet). GMFS products (data, maps, reports) are made available through a dedicated website including a catalog and data distribution service.
SDIC URL http://www.gmfs.info
Membership The GMFS consortium consists of 13 companies / public/private institutes: VITO nv, Belgium; TRASYS, Belgium; University of Liege, Belgium; G.I.M. Geographic Information Management nv, Belgium; AVIA-GIS, Belgium; FMA, Italy; ITA, Italy; Sarmap, Switzerland; EARS, the Netherlands; Synoptics, the Netherlands; UK Met office, UK; ESYS, UK; EFTAS, Germany.
Typology Thematic Sectorial
Comments
Contact information for SDIC
Contact Person Caroline Heylen
Organisation G.I.M.-Geographic Information Management nv
Function Coordinator Product Catalog and dowload services
Address Interleuvenlaan 5, 3001 Heverlee, Belgium
Country BELGIUM
Tel +32 16 40 30 39
Fax +32 16 40 69 39 
PROPOSED ROLE IN INSPIRE DEVELOPMENT
Which role(s) do you foresee for the SDIC in INSPIRE development
  1. submit reference material as input to the Drafting Teams
  2. participate in the review process
Area of work/experience
Geographic Domain: International
Description of geographic extent Africa
Societal Sector local government, economic groupings (SADC, IGAD, CILSS), UN
Specific Expertise
Metadata
Network services
INSPIRE Data Themes
Title UserProducerCoordinator
Coordinate reference systems    
Geographical names    
Hydrography    
Elevation    
Land cover    
Statistical units    
Soil    
Land use    
Environmental monitoring Facilities    
Population distribution and demography    
Atmospheric conditions    
Meteorological geographical features    
Previous Experience relevant for INSPIRE development 1. Metadata: Experience in describing geographic information using the CEN and ISO standards. The consortium has experience in drafting metadata profiles based on the ISO 19115 standard. GMFS is implementing the FAO GeoNetwork software as catalog, using the FAO ISO metadata profile. 2. Network services and technologies: Discovery services: GMFS is using FAO GeoNetwork software as catalog. The catalog contains the products of the GMFS service providers and all ancillary GIS and statistical data that are collected and used by the GMFS service providers to create, validate or support their products. Download services: GMFS products are made available in two ways: through the GeoNetwork catalog for "simple" products, and through a special order and download website/service for highly repeatable products (10-daily). Transformation services: for the GMFS 10-daily products, two transformation services are available: (1) extract (clip) region of interest, (2) coordinate transformation. Customised products are created "on the fly" and delivered to the user.
Primary Business Environmental Management , Agriculture , Remote sensing 
Environmental application domains Climate change, Vegetation Management, Drought Prevention and Management, Floods & extreme weather Prevention and Management, Food security  

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