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Module
6
GEO products

As of 2007, GEO products are available on the Internet (www.unep.org/geo) and include: 1
? Global assessments (GEO-1, GEO-2000, GEO-3, GEO-4 and GEO-5)

? Regional and sub-regional Reports (see Box 2)

? Technical Reports

? GEO education products Abu Dhabi, UAE

UNEP has published three volumes of the comprehensive GEO report series: GEO-1 in 1997, GEO-
2000 (GEO-2) in 1999 and GEO-3 in 2002 prior to the World Summit on Sustainable Development.

GEO-4 was launched and released in 2007 while GEO-5 was released in 2012. The IEA process
based on the GEO approach has been used for many regional, sub-regional, national and sub-national
assessments. The findings of the GEO assessment have also been used to produce youth and meeting
reports, capacity building materials and associated products responding to specific user needs. The

wide range of IEA outputs reflects the diversity and reach of the GEO assessment process. The
GEO Cities reports underscore the “portability” of the GEO approach to other levels and to cover
both ecosystem and socio-economic contexts. This portability to different spatial and organizational
scales underlines the robust nature of the GEO approach that is unique among global environmental
assessment approaches.

The compilation of core global data sets is a crucial element of the long-term GEO strategy, because
reliable and accessible data must be the basis for integrated environmental assessments. The GEO Data
Portal, which is the authoritative source for the global data sets used in UNEP’s GEO reports, has been

developed by DEWA-Europe in consultation with DEWA HQ, and guided by the GEO Data Working
Group (http://www.geodata.grid.unep.ch).

The portal, discussed in more detail in Module 4, provides online access to more than 400 statistical
and geographical data sets at national, sub-regional, regional and global levels. The data sets are
compiled mostly from primary sources, and cover a broad range of environmental and socio-economic
themes. State-of-the-art functionality for online data visualization and exploration is available for

creating graphs, tables and maps. Initiated in 2000, the GEO Data Portal is continuously maintained,
updated and improved. Regional adaptations of the global portal are being developed. West Asia
Data Portal (e-portal http://www.geoportal.ae/) is being under development by the University of
Emirates within the Abu Dhabi Global Environmental Data Initiative (AGEDI) (http://www.agedi.info/
en/agedi/show.jsp).

IEA Training Manual Workshop for the National Reporting Toolkit (NRT) 21