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The ISO 9000 series of standards embodies comprehensive 
quality management concepts and guidance, together with sev- 
eral models for external quality assurance requirements. It is 
accompanied by a series of related standards, the ISO 10000 
series, e.g.: 
e ISO 10011-1:1990: 
"Guidelines for auditing quality systems" Part 1: 
Auditing, 
e ISO 10011-2:1991: 
"Guidelines for auditing quality systems" Part 2: 
Qualification criteria for quality systems auditors, 
e ISO 10011-3:1991: 
"Guidelines for auditing quality systems" Part 3: 
Management of audit programmes, 
e ISO 10012-1:1992: 
"Guidelines assurance requirements for measuring equip- 
ment" Part 1: 
Metrological confirmation system for measuring equip- 
ment, 
e ISO/DIS 10013:1993: 
"Guidelines for developing quality manuals". 
Efforts are underway in several countries to achieve quality 
management certification under the ISO 9000 program also in 
the surveying field. Being certified has become a competitive 
tool for companies as it includes auditing a company by a 
single accredited independent (third-party) registrar organiza- 
tion. Such a third-party certification scheme provides a num- 
ber of benefits: certification demonstrates that a company has 
implemented an adequate quality system for the products or 
services it offers; by this, better internal commitment as well 
as enhanced purchaser confidence may be achieved. 
3. REGIONAL STANDARDIZATION (EUROPE) 
The task of creating a uniform body of standards meeting mod- 
ern needs and applying throughout a single European Market is 
the responsibility of the Joint European Standards Institute 
CEN/CENELEC and ETSI based in Brussels, in an association 
comprising the national standards bodies and electrotechnical 
committees of the member states of the European Union as 
well as of Iceland, Norway and Switzerland. 
CEN (Comité Européen de Normalisation), CENELEC 
(Comité Européen de Normalisation Electrotechnique) and 
ETSI European Telecommunications Standards Institute) are 
the European counterparts to ISO, IEC and CCITT. However, 
CEN and CENELEC were founded in the early 1960's and 
agreed in 1982 to collaborate as a joint European standards 
institution.. 
European standards are generally based on standards of ISO, 
IEC or CCITT. However, specifically European standards are 
also created in cases where corresponding international stan- 
dards are not yet available. 
In 1991, agreements regarding technical collaboration and the 
avoidance of parallel standard development were made 
between ISO and CEN, and IEC and CENELEC, respectively. 
The agreements require that each new standard project with 
CEN/ CENELEC needs to be checked first to determine 
whether this project could not be handled by ISO or IEC. This 
process requires that the new international standards reflect 
the technical state of development in Europe and fulfil the EC- 
"basic requirements". It is further desirable that non-European 
ISO and IEC members, in particular the USA and Japan, are 
221 
prepared to accept those standards as national standards. 
Hence, international (e.g. ISO) and regional (e.g. CEN) 
standard development procedures have been harmonized and 
include cross connections in the various comment and voting 
stages. 
The standards of ISO 9000 series have all become European 
standards as well. 
4. COMMITTEE ON EARTH OBSERVATIONS (CEOS) 
The collective space programmes of the world have reached a 
level where distinctions between the existing missions result 
from the technology involved rather than the disciplines 
served. CEOS was formed in 1984 as an outgrowth of the 
International Economic Summit of the Industrial Nations (G- 
7) Working Group on Growth, Technology, and Employment’s 
Panel of Experts on Satellite Remote Sensing, which was 
examining co-operation of technologies, to co-ordinate 
informally current and planned systems for Earth observations. 
4.1 CEOS Objectives 
The CEOS has as members Governmental organizations that 
are international or national in nature and are responsible for 
civil spaceborne Earth observations programmes currently 
operating or at least in the definition phase (phase B). The 
CEOS three primary objectives: 
e to optimize the benefits of spaceborne Earth observations 
through co-operation of its members in mission planning and 
in the development of compatible data products, formats, 
services, applications and policies; 
e to aid both its members and the international user communi- 
ty by inter alia serving as the focal point for international co- 
operation of space-related Earth observations activities, in- 
cluding those related to global change; and 
e to exchange policy and technical information to encourage 
complementarity and compability among spaceborne Earth 
observation systems currently in service and development, 
and the data received from them. 
Issues of common interest across the spectrum of Earth obser- 
vation satellites will be addressed. CEOS does not operate in- 
dependently but co-operates with other international organiza- 
tions which have affiliate status (see 4.4 below). 
CEOS has at present two WG’s: the WG on Calibration and 
Validation (WGCV) and the WG on Information Systems and 
Services (WGINS) which was recently formed by combining 
two former WG's, the WG on Data (WGD) and the WG on 
Information Systems and Services (WGISS). 
4.2 CEOS WG on Calibration and Validation 
The CEOS recognized already in 1984 the need to both under- 
stand and quantify current and future data to be derived from a 
larger number of Earth observing satellites and established 
WGCV. The work of the group has taken on a more important 
role since 1990 when the full importance of high-quality 
satellite data and potential climate change observations came 
to the forefront The WGCV has developed an as yet 
unpublished strategic plan to address the future of high-quality 
satellite data. 
The objectives of the WGCV are to enhance co-ordination and 
complementarity, to promote international co-operation and to 
focus activities in the calibration ("... the process of quantita- 
International Archives of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. Vol. XXXI, Part B1. Vienna 1996