Abstract
Increased exposure to natural hazards in combination with limited preparedness and risk reduction leads to a rapidly growing number of major disasters and loss of property and human lives. The concept of the risk management cycle with the four phases of mitigation and preparedness, early warning, response, and recovery captures the steps necessary to reduce the number and scale of disasters. In many regions, geohazards dominate the spectrum of natural hazards. Understanding the associated processes and gaining a comprehensive knowledge of the location and characteristics of these hazards is pivotal for informed risk management. Over the past few years, initial steps have been taken by members of the former Integrated Global Observing Strategy Partnership (IGOS-P) Geohazards Theme to make progress towards a Geohazards Community of Practice (GHCP) for the Group on Earth Observations (GEO). A recommendation of the 3rd International Workshop on Geohazards held in 2007 led to the establishment of the Supersite Initiative, which has the goal to ensure for a small number of supersites access to comprehensive data for research related to geohazards. This initiative has established a web page where relevant data are available for a number of globally distributed sites. The GHCP has developed a draft roadmap, which lies the ground for utilizing the Global Earth Observing System of Systems (GEOSS) in support of all phases of the risk management cycle. Although the roadmap focuses on the risk management cycle as it applies to geohazards, it is to a large extent generic and applicable to all hazards considered in the frame of the Societal Benefit Area (SBA) "Disasters" of GEO.