Innovative data mining techniques in support of GEOSS: A workshop's findings

It is envisaged that the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) will provide data streams to decision-support tools for a wide variety of users and applications. As with the Internet, GEOSS will be a global and flexible network of content providers facilitating decision makers' access to an extraordinary range of information products at their desk. However, the challenge for the global users community is to have access to fast and reliable tools to process the data streams into actionable information. On August 31 - September 2, 2009 a workshop was held in Sinaia, Romania to discuss the current state-of-the-art in data mining tools and technologies for Earth Observation (EO) data by a group of international experts. The intent of the workshop was to lead to an understanding of and an objective assessment of the world's practice in extracting information from Earth Observation data and in developing a strategic plan for advancing the tools, as well as important open issues. This paper summarizes some of the major findings and recommendations resulting from this workshop.