Goal #1: Understanding user needs
Concepts such as Digital Earth Americas need to be focused on real-world user needs and not be driven by specific technologies or a perspective that if it works in one location, it must also work elsewhere. It is therefore very difficult to step towards a large-scale solution without having a broad understanding of user needs and challenges across the region. The diversity in the region creates a significant challenge regarding the sort of information that different users need from data as well as the way it needs to be delivered.
Goal #2: Delivering value to users
It is essential that the core objective of Digital Earth Americas is to deliver value to users. A critical component to having this value realised is to help users across the region to be able to use the tools, data and systems that already exist or might be built under Digital Earth Americas. While data and technology are available from many sources around the world, in addition to the need for capacity building, there are still significant challenges with data access, data preparation and delivery.