The South African Environmental Observation Network (SAEON)
is a response to the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) of 2002. The
WSSD recognised that, in order for sustainable development to occur, long-term environmental
observations were essential for policy formation, decision-making and implementation.
Since environmental change is slow relative to the noise in the signal, detecting
change is impossible if no long-term data are available. When change does occur,
however, it is often non-linear and has a tendency to be irreversible. To this end,
the WSSD called for the improvement of environmental monitoring stations, as well
as for capacity building, education and information/knowledge sharing with regard
to environmental monitoring.
SAEONs mandate is “to develop and sustain a dynamic South African observation and
research network that provides the understanding, based on long-term information,
needed to address environmental issues” (SAEON Advisory Board 2003). The vision
of SAEON is a comprehensive, sustained, coordinated and responsive South African
Earth observation network that delivers long-term reliable data for scientific research
and informs decision-making for a knowledge society and improved quality of life.
SAEON aims to bring about cohesion between existing, but fragmented, environmental
research programmes nationally and internationally and provides a facility to ensure
that long-term data is archived and accessible, as well as extrapolated for large-scale
interpretation, as a national asset for generations to come.