The Second International Conference on Earth Observation for Global Changes (EOGC2009)

The Earth environment has always been affected by change, since all forces interacting to shape world landscapes are intrinsically dynamic. However, the pace of change varies widely between processes: from slow moving plate tectonics and erosion, to fast changing wind or temperature conditions. Considering phenomenon at the human time scale, weather and vegetation changes are the most noticeable. Along with temporal change, spatial variations are also evident over arrange of scales from the very local to thousands of kilometers, depending on the process being considered. Both temporal and spatial transformations are considered in terms of Global Change, although the expression has a broad range of meanings. Earth observation has become a valuable tool in global change studies because of its unique capability for acquiring measurements of various environmental conditions over large areas. The First International Symposium on Earth Observation of Global Changes (EOGC) was held in Madrid, Spain in 2006. The Second Conference on Earth Observation for Global Changes (EOGC2009) will be held in Chengdu, China, 25-29 May 2009. In the future, the EOGC events will be held bi-yearly and rotate between Asia, Europe, North America, and other continents. We plan to organize EOGC2011 in Germany and EOGC2013 in Canada. The EOGC2009 Conference aims to bring together researchers, developers, users and practitioners carrying out research and development in the use of Earth observation technologies to study global changes taking place on the Earth. The conference will provide a forum for original research contributions and practical experiences of the development and use of various Earth observation technologies, data interpretation techniques, and application methods. Validation of the societal impact of operational Earth observation products, as well as the benefits from the enhanced products to be produced by the Global Earth Observing System of System (GEOSS) and Committee of Earth Observing System (CEOS), currently under development, will be discussed. The conference will be organized in a way to promote networking between the participants, to initiate and favor discussions regarding cutting-edge technologies in the field, to exchange research ideas and to promote international collaboration. The EOGC2009 Conference is jointly organized by Peking University (China), University of Waterloo (Canada), and the Technical University of Munich (Germany); co-sponsored by International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS), International Cartographic Association (ICA), International Association of Geodesy (IAG), and International Society for Digital Earth (ISDE). The local host is Chengdu University of Technology, supported by Southwest Jiaotong University, Sichuan University, Sichuan Normal University, and Sichuan Agricultural University.