## 4 Current Status and Identified Needs
### Level 2 Bio-Geophysical Land Products
#### 4.3.7 Validation Tools and Database
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**ID** & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Status and Needs**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Recommendations**} \\ \hline \multirow{3}{*}{IDN-13} & There is a clear geographical data gap, over the African, South American and Asian continents in the availability of Cal/Val data for vegetation parameters, notably & Space Agencies, in coordination with CEOS-LPV, should work towards filling the geographical gap for validation of vegetation parameters, mainly in Africa, Asia and South America. \\ \hline \multirow{3}{*}{IDN-14} & For some variables, notably for vegetation parameters (FAPAR, LAI), current validation capacity in Europe solely relies on non-European networks, particularly NEON, which is representative of only North America biomes. & ESA should support and promote a European funded network with long-term perspective for validation of satellite-based vegetation parameters. Leveraging of existing facilities (ICOS) should be explored for setting up such network \\ \hline \multirow{3}{*}{IDN-15} & Existing networks are not primarily designed for validation purposes; as a matter of fact, the lack of uncertainty information and the disparity of used protocols still limit their synergistic use for satellite-products validation. & Space Agencies, in coordination with CEOS-LPV, should foster adoption of community-endorsed Cal/Val best practices across existing networks and support the adaptation of these networks (upgrade protocols, improve uncertainty estimation) for meeting Cal/Val needs. \\ \hline \multirow{3}{*}{IDN-16} & The heterogeneity in data format, documentation, quality information and metadata availability in existing networks is still limiting their integrated usage for satellite products Cal/Val & Space Agencies, in coordination with CEOS-LPV, should support on-going effort (GBOV) in requesting Cal/Val data providers to meet community agreed standards for quality information, metadata, and documentation. \\ \hline \multirow{3}{*}{IDN-17} & Assessing maturity of existing networks to support Cal/Val needs is a laborious work. Moreover, this assessment should ideally be reported to networks’ owners for helping them to converge to common quality standards, so that to facilitate inter-operability. & Space Agencies, in coordination with CEOS-LPV, should promote adoption of Maturity Matrix concept across existing and future ground-based networks for Cal/Val for enhancing interoperability. \\ \hline \multirow{3}{*}{IDN-18} & Sustainability long-term still represents a major concern for existing and future Cal/Val networks. The lack of sustained funding is particularly urgent for operation and maintenance. & ESA should reinforce cooperation with national networks and promote within the EC the need for long-term sustainability. ESA to consider this need in the early phases of the mission design. \\ \hline \multirow{3}{*}{IDN-19} & ESA, in collaboration with EC, is developing a suite of innovative space-borne sensors focusing on land, mainly: FLEX and CHIME. There is a need to enhance preparedness to support Cal/Val needs for these new missions. & ESA, in cooperation with CEOS-LPV, should improve readiness of ground-based infrastructure to support Cal/Val needs of current and future optical land missions. The strategy should exploit synergies across missions, such as using super-sites for measuring multiple variables, and work towards filling the gaps, such as for SIF measurements. \\ \hline \multirow{3}{*}{IDN-20} & There is currently a lack of an integrated solution addressing Cal/Val needs of current Copernicus Sentinels. Synergies are under exploited with risk of duplicating the efforts and increasing cost in validation activities. & ESA should support on-going activities [180], working towards an integrated solution for sustaining Copernicus Sentinels Cal/Val needs. This includes promoting and exploiting synergies across existing and planned ESA and EC Cal/Val projects. \\ \hline \end{tabular}
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