Value-Tree Development and Weighting Through User Input and Evaluation For the Earth Observation Assessment

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy oversees development of the Earth Observation Assessment (EOA), conducted to ensure greater coordination of civilian Earth observations. The EOA is a government-wide assessment of the Nation’s Earth observation portfolio, the principal purpose of which is to guide the US Group on Earth Observations’ (USGEO) development of the next National Plan for Civil Earth Observations. This poster describes the methodology for conducting an EOA, overseen by USGEO. The EOA documents the relationship between available observing systems and their impact on the Nation’s diverse missions and objectives. EOA 2023 refreshed two of the Societal Benefit Areas (SBAs) from the 2016 EOA: Climate, and Agriculture & Forestry. The EOA capability provides a snapshot of the value of all currently available observing system impacts on current missions and services.

The EOA is built around a Value Tree that represents the key objectives, products, and services that contribute to each SBA in a hierarchical model. The EOA is based on surveys, which incorporate inputs from Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) knowledgeable of observing system impacts upon the products and services for which they are responsible. This poster will discuss the structure of the value-tree, the weighting approaches and the methodology employed to elicit the SMEs.