Data & technology for sustainability
Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS)
Any satellite constellation providing global positioning, navigation, and timing services — including GPS (USA), Galileo (EU), GLONASS (Russia), and BeiDou (China).
Definition
A Global Navigation Satellite System is any satellite constellation that provides global positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) services by transmitting ranging and timing signals that receivers use to determine location. Four global systems are currently operational — GPS (United States), Galileo (European Union), GLONASS (Russia), and BeiDou (China) — supplemented by regional systems and satellite-based augmentation systems.
References
definition and systems
Overview
What it means
GNSS performance is judged on accuracy, integrity, continuity, and availability. For sustainability applications it is the positioning backbone: plot-level geolocation for deforestation-free supply chains, precision agriculture, emissions-efficient routing, disaster response, and environmental monitoring all depend on it.
How it is used
Regulators (for example under the EU Deforestation Regulation) require geolocation coordinates of production plots, typically captured with GNSS receivers; logistics, agriculture, and conservation integrate GNSS with GIS for mapping and verification.
Why it matters
Traceability commitments are only as good as their coordinates; GNSS is what makes "where" verifiable in sustainability claims. **Note:** 1231 Global Positioning System (GPS) merges into this entry as the US member of the GNSS family.
Review
Public comments appear only after editor acceptance. Draft comments stay in the review queue.
Reviewers choose the definition or an overview paragraph, leave a comment or replacement, and attach evidence or a source link.
Editors compare reviewer cards side by side. AI may help find agreement, conflicts, unsupported claims and possible source issues.
Only an editor-accepted synthesis changes the public page. Reviewer identities are shown only with consent and an editorial decision to attribute them.
Submitted reviews stay private until an editor decides whether to accept and attribute them.
Contribute to this entry
Help improve this definition
Your contribution is private while it is checked. Nothing changes on this page unless an editor accepts it.
Loading verified endorsements… Endorsements are not votes and never determine publication.
Endorse this definition
Endorse the exact version shown here. This is not a vote, and publication remains an editorial decision.
Review board
Comment on a specific line. Each reviewer stays separate until an editor accepts a merged draft.
Each person comments on the definition or overview in their own draft card, with role, evidence and suggested wording kept together.
AI can compare comments against the current text, flag conflicting claims, surface missing evidence and identify where reviewers agree.
An editor merges compatible suggestions into a draft change, checks sources, records disagreements and decides what can be published.