Target Evaluation and Correlation Method (TECM) as an Assessment Approach to Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS)

The Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) is a ten-year-long Implementation Plan, which commenced in 2005 as a group effort by numerous participating countries and organizations to build a large-scale network to effectively monitor and respond to the increasingly complex web of global environmental and socio-economic issues. This paper proposes the Target Evaluation and Correlation Method (TECM) as an assessment approach to GEOSS with its 241 Targets across the nine “Societal Benefit Areas,” along with a method to identify Target Correlation Levels (TCL). Applying TECM allows concluding whether the chosen targets within the GEOSS fall into the domain of System of Systems (SoS), while using TCLs delineates the extent of inclusion for these targets in the form of a system. Furthermore, this research investigates the possible ways of raising the correlation levels of the targets for the cases in which TCLs are low.