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The European Association of Remote Sensing Companies (EARSC) is the European organisation which promotes the use of Earth Observation (EO) technology and represents the interests of the geo-information services sector in Europe. We have 101 members from 23 countries covering the full EO services value chain including commercial operators of EO satellites, data resellers, value-adding companies, geospatial information suppliers, consultancies and system/software providers.

As such, EARSC is deeply concerned about the potential impact upon the Copernicus programme should the United Kingdom cease to be a full participant and contributor to the programme. This brief statement sets out our views on the subject and articulates our desired outcome, which is to see the UK continue to contribute and participate fully in the programme.

The key arguments in support of this are as follows:

• Firstly, the UK government has invested significantly in Copernicus since the start of the programme, both via European Space Agency and European Commission programmes. This investment has benefited the programme substantially and has in part enabled its achievements to date. The Copernicus programme will benefit if this were to continue, as it will be able to exploit a larger financial envelope with the UK as a contributor.

• Secondly, the UK EO industry has contributed strongly with technical skills and capability since the start of the programme, making a significant contribution to its overall success. Copernicus would be able to achieve more with continued UK participation than without it, and the UK EO industry has the technical skills and industrial capacity to continue supporting the programme strongly.

• Thirdly, there are many successful pan-European partnerships and collaborations between EU and UK organisations in both the upstream and downstream elements of the Copernicus programme. Customers in the UK and the EU could lose access to specialist suppliers for both UK companies in the EU and EU companies in the UK. Partnerships developed in the business, in research and in scientific exploitation would suffer significant disruption and setbacks if the UK is no longer able to participate. UK research expertise in climate change has been extremely valuable to Copernicus.

In a recent UK government white paper , the UK indicates its interest to continue partnerships with the EU in space, including in particular the Copernicus programme. EARSC strongly supports this. There is precedent for this as Norway and Iceland have similarly negotiated participation to Copernicus despite being outside the EU. Financially, it should be attractive for the EU to maintain the UK financial and technical contributions, whilst the UK would continue to benefit from the data and information streams which Copernicus and its Sentinels generate, and from continued participation in Copernicus projects and contracts. We appreciate that relationships with the agencies, not all of which are under EU governance, entrusted with the responsibility to deliver Copernicus Services would need to be negotiated by the UK on a case by case basis.

EARSC would welcome the continued participation of the UK in the Copernicus programme following the withdrawal of the UK from the European Union, with the UK continuing to make a financial contribution to the programme and with UK industry continuing to be able to participate fully in EU-funded Copernicus projects and contracts. We would strongly encourage the UK Government and European Commission representatives to negotiate and reach agreement on such an arrangement as a high priority. Urgent clarification on the intended future arrangement would help to avoid disruption to current business arrangements.

Brussels, September 2018.

EARSC Statement on Brexit

European Association of Remote Sensing Companies – EARSC:

EARSC represents the Earth Observation geo-information services sector in Europe with today 101 members (92 full members and 9 observers), coming from 23 countries covering the full EO services value chain including commercial operators of EO satellites, resellers of data, value-adding companies, geospatial information suppliers, consultancies and system/software providers. The sector plays a key role in providing value-added, geo-spatial information to its customers in Europe and the world. In 2016, the sector revenue in Europe was over €1.2b giving work to 7700 highly skilled employees; The sector is dominated by SME’s with over 95% of the companies having less than 50 and over 60% less than 10 persons employed.
This paper has been prepared and issued by the EARSC board of directors on behalf of the members of EARSC which are commercial companies, coming from Member States of the EU or ESA, providing services (including consultancy) or supplying equipment in the field of remote sensing or using EO data.

Agriculture is a major driver of African economies. In recent years, climate change is increasingly affecting crop production in Sub-Saharan Africa, negatively impacting farmers livelihoods and hampering economy growth. The G4AW SUM Africa project is addressing this challenge by using satellite-based weather data to create a low-cost insurance product for smallholders in Mali and Uganda. With this insurance, farmers have a greater chance to obtain the credit they need to increase crop production and improve their livelihoods.

(© Netherlands Space Office/Photo by Makmende Media b.v.)
How does it work?

Agricultural index insurance products are linked to an index, such as temperature, rainfall, crop yield or evapotranspiration, rather than actual loss. Daily information from (meteorological) satellites, provides timely, independent and continuous monitoring of climatic and drought conditions for crop growth. This information is used by insurance companies for risk assessment, insurance pricing, and for pay-out calculation. Because insurance companies no longer need to visit the farmer to assess their loss and determine payout, transaction costs are much lower.

Synergy between insurance and credit

It is difficult for African smallholders to get a loan if their business is not cash-flow positive. Potential investors also demand a proven, reliable and scalable business model, making it harder for smallholders to emerge from poverty. Joost van der Woerd, SUM Africa Project Coordinator, explains: “Low-income farmers in Africa don’t have access to traditional indemnity-based agricultural insurance, putting their livelihoods at stake. Weather index insurance makes a great investment for farmers, as it helps them to increase yield sustainably.” With insurance, farmers are more likely to get a loan, enabling them to invest in new technologies that could continuously boost crop production.

The results

Since the programme started in 2014, SUM Africa has insured about 70,000 coffee farmers against weather-related losses in Uganda. It has proven more difficult to achieve the same level of uptake in Mali, due to lack of infrastructure and security issues. SUM Africa aims to enable 150,000 farmers in both countries to benefit from satellite-based index insurance by 2021.

Why zero hunger matters

The UN indicates that agriculture is the single largest employer in the world, providing livelihoods for 40 percent of today’s global population. As climate change intensifies, achieving food security will be even more difficult. Sum Africa was introduced to farmers through the Geodata for Agriculture and Water (G4AW) programme. It is one of 23 G4AW projects in 14 countries aiming to boost climate resilience of agricultural production systems. The G4AW programme is carried out by the Netherlands Space Office (NSO), and commissioned by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Fighting hunger with space technology

While GEO’s Global Agricultural Monitoring Initiative (GEOGLAM) uses Earth observations to provide actionable and open information on crop conditions as a means to improve food security and reduce food price volatility, G4AW services use Copernicus satellites and meteorological data to provide end-user focused (B2C) solutions that target smallholder farmers. G4AW aims to support widespread adoption of such technologies for achieving food security. Fulfilling their ambition requires actors across the value chain to open up new markets and enable scalable solutions around G4AW–like services. Visit www.spaceoffice.nl/G4AW to learn more about this programme.

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We would like to invite you to “European Land Monitoring at its crossroads – opportunities and challenges”, a conference to be held in Innsbruck, Austria. This conference will be organised under the auspices of the Austrian Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

When: 8 October 2018 (1300h) – 9 October 2018 (1230h)
Where: Assembly Hall of the University of Innsbruck, Austria

The purpose of the conference is to discuss the current state of the European public, scientific and industrial land monitoring capacities in face of increasing international competition. The open framework will leverage on the presence of high-level representatives and decision makers from the European Environment Agency (EEA), the European Environment Information and Observation Network (EIONET), the European Space Agency (ESA), as well as international experts from the science domain and industry, to discuss the challenges of European land monitoring and identify opportunities and challenges for future agendas.

In the evening of the 8th of October, GeoVille also invite you to an evening reception at the Olympic Ski Jump SKY Restaurant to celebrate the company’s 20th anniversary.

Would you like to attend? As the number of participants is limited, please let us know as soon as possible, but not later than August 15, 2018 if you would like to join us for both events.

For any further questions, please contact Maria Lemper (lemper@geoville.com or +43 (0)512 562021-20).

We are looking forward to seeing you in Innsbruck in October!

EARSC has confirmed as Supporting Partner of Geospatial World Forum 2019. The Forum is a collaborative and interactive platform, which demonstrates collective and shared vision of the global geospatial community. It is an annual gathering of 1500+ geospatial professionals and leaders representing the entire geospatial ecosystem. Coming to its 11th edition, Geospatial World Forum has become the most talked about geospatial event, best-known for its futuristic themes, engaging content, and top-level attendees.

The 2019 Forum will carry the theme ‘#geospatialbydefault – Empowering billions!’ to demonstrate geospatial technology as ubiquitous, pervasive, and ‘default’ in our daily lives. Some of the topics to be discussed, includes sustainable development goals, smart cities, geointelligence, location analytics & business intelligence, environment; and emerging technologies such as AI, IoT, big data, cloud, blockchain and others.

We encourage EARSC members to contribute your expertise and participate at the Forum. Call for speakers are open until 30 September 2018. More details are available at www.geospatialworldforum.org

Our ONDA Data and Information Access Service was officially launched at the Baveno+20 event which took place on 20 and 21 June 2018.

The event has been organised by the European Commission DG GROW as a celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Baveno Manifesto, the document which gave birth to the Copernicus Programme.
To mark the launch, on the evening of 20 June Roberto Mulatti, General Manager for Serco Italia, addressed an audience of several delegates from the European Commission, European Space Agency and industry.

Watch the ONDA presentation at Baveno here.

Visit the Marketplace to know more about the available results using the ONDA platform

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July 2018
Start Date End Date Name Locality Country
July 23, 2018 July 27, 2018 Valencia Spain
July 30, 2018 August 10, 2018 Rome Italy
August 2018
Start Date End Date Name Locality Country
August 1, 2018 August 3, 2018 Bangkok, Thailand
August 6, 2018 August 10, 2018 Sao Jose dos Campos, Brazil
August 12, 2018 August 17, 2018 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
August 13, 2018 August 14, 2018 Bali Indonesia
August 13, 2018 August 14, 2018 Amsterdam Netherlands
August 15, 2018 August 17, 2018 Nairobi, Kenya
August 21, 2018 August 23, 2018 Denver, Colorado USA
August 28, 2018 September 3, 2018 Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
September 2018
Start Date End Date Name Locality Country
September 2, 2018 September 7, 2018 Napoli Italy
September 2, 2018 September 7, 2018 La Valletta Malta
September 5, 2018 September 7, 2018 Warsaw Poland
September 10, 2018 September 14, 2018 University of Leicester United Kingdom
September 12, 2018 September 14, 2018 Geneva, Switzerland
September 17, 2018 September 21, 2018
September 17, 2018 Antwerp Belgium
September 17, 2018 September 24, 2018 Frascati Italy
September 18, 2018 September 21, 2018 Antwerp Belgium
September 23, 2018 September 26, 2018 Amsterdam Netherlands
September 24, 2018 September 26, 2018 Bochum Germany
September 24, 2018 September 29, 2018 Azores Portugal
October 2018
Start Date End Date Name Locality Country
October 1, 2018 October 5, 2018 Delft Netherlands
October 1, 2018 October 5, 2018 Bremen Germany
October 8, 2018 October 11, 2018
October 9, 2018 Brussels Belgium
October 9, 2018 October 11, 2018 Amsterdam Netherlands
October 15, 2018 October 19, 2018 San Sebastián Spain
October 15, 2018 October 16, 2018 Matera Italy
October 16, 2018 October 18, 2018 Frankfurt Germany
October 16, 2018 October 18, 2018 Frankfurt Germany
October 22, 2018 October 26, 2018
October 22, 2018 October 26, 2018 Frascati Italy
October 23, 2018 October 25, 2018 Redlands, CA, USA
October 23, 2018 October 25, 2018 London United Kingdom
October 23, 2018 October 25, 2018 Nigeria
October 25, 2018 October 29, 2018 Alejandria, Egypt
October 29, 2018 November 2, 2018 Kyoto Japan
October 29, 2018 October 31, 2018 Space for inspiration Bilbao Spain
November 2018
Start Date End Date Name Locality Country
November 1, 2018 November 2, 2018
November 6, 2018 November 9, 2018 Tainan, Taïwan
November 12, 2018 November 15, 2018 Hammamet, Tunisia
November 12, 2018 November 15, 2018 1st Conference of the Arabian Journal of Geoscience
November 12, 2018 November 23, 2018 Gaborone, Botswana
November 19, 2018 November 21, 2018 Deqing China
November 19, 2018 November 21, 2018 The Geospatial Way to a Better World-UNWGIC Deqing, Zhejiang Province, China
November 26, 2018 November 30, 2018 Amsterdam Netherlands
November 28, 2018 November 30, 2018 Brussels Belgium
December 2018
Start Date End Date Name Locality Country
December 3, 2018 December 4, 2018 Rome Italy
December 10, 2018 December 14, 2018 Washington D.C. USA
May 2019
Start Date End Date Name Locality Country
May 13, 2019 May 15, 2019 Milan Italy
May 22, 2019 May 24, 2019 Vannes France

On 20-21 June, CREODIAS was presented to the honorary members of Copernicus, European Union, the EO industry as well as to the open public. Our participation involved presenting CREODIAS by means of an unique video, which provided information concering the platform, as well as provided guidelines for potential business to come.

CREODIAS was presented by members of the consortium: CloudFerro, Creotech Instruments SA, Sinergise, WIZIPISI, Eversis and Geomatys. Over 200 participants of the Baveno+20 event had the opportunity to discuss the CREODIAS platform with our representatives, many of whom found the EO Browser and EO Finder to be the tool capable of pushing their business forward.

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GEO-CRADLE organised the 3rd South-Eastern Europe GEO Workshop on the uptake of GEO and Copernicus, with emphasis on Climate Change, Food Security and Water Extremes, Raw Materials and Solar Energy which took place in Thessaloniki on 4 and 5 June 2018! The Workshop organised by the Interbalkan Environment Center [i-BEC] and the National Observatory of Athens [NOA],partners of GEO-CRADLE.

Attended by over 100 delegates representing research, private and public stakeholder from across the region, the workshop offered an opportunity for key actors across the Earth Observation [EO] value chain to share and exhange insights on the long-term actions that can help maximize the impact of EO and leverage EU investments. Your thought and inputs were very valuable to the GEO-CRADLE project team and their efforts to develop a roadmap for the improved implementation of GEO/GEOSS in the region.

GEO-CRADLE at the 3rd joint EARSeL/NASA LULC Workshop “Land-Use/Cover Change Drivers, Impacts and Sustainability within the Water-Energy-Food Nexus” on 11-12 July 2018 in Chania, Greece.

GEO-CRADLE partners from NOA, iBEC, CUT, TUBITAK, TAU and CEDARE participated the Mediterranean Regional Information Network (MedRIN) Kick-off Meeting in Chania, Greece, 13 & 14 July 2018. MedRIN will serve as a liaising network of remote sensing scientists working on land cover/land use change and stakeholders in the Mediterranean region.
GEO-CRADLE partners presented the the Soil Spectral Library which was created in the context of the GEO-CRADLE project in the region of Balkans, Middle East and North Africa, the SENSE system :Access to solar energy applications using EO data through GEO activities and THE “Photosynthetically active radiation climatology in Greece for optimal vineyard planning and exploitation”.

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Last month, I attended the 20th anniversary of the Baveno meeting which established the GMES programme which has now become Copernicus. The Baveno Manifesto was a landmark document put together by representatives of Europe’s space agencies under the guidance of the European Commission.

EARSC was there represented by our then chairman Claes Goren Borg. It was great meeting up with so many friends (I shall not say old friends!) who were also there in 1998 and especially comparing notes on our respective perspectives of what happened 20 years ago. For more details on this moment of history see my latest blogpost.

The Baveno celebrations preceded our annual meeting which, as always, is held in Brussels in June. We are very pleased to welcome 4 new directors who were elected to the board of EARSC; Agnieszka Lukaszyzck (Planet), Pierre-Alain Bosc (Airbus), Marc Tondriaux (Terrannis) and Maciej Kryzanowski (Cloudferro). Florin Serban (Terrasigna) and Didier Azoulay (Geo4i) were the 2 unlucky candidates who lost-out but we really appreciate their interest to stand and hope that they may consider to stand again for future election (which takes place every 12 months).

The evening before the AGM is always (for the last 4 years!) the occasion for members, policy makers and other stakeholders to mingle and meet at the EARSC cocktail. It is also where the winners of the EARSC awards are announced. This year the winner of the company of the year was Sinergise and the winner of the product of the year was Dust Frequency Maps produced by Silex Clouds. We should also like to acknowledge and thank our sponsors for this event; Planet (gold sponsor), Planetek, Spacetec Partners and Terrasigna (all silver sponsors).

The AGM was preceded by a workshop where we explored the DIAS which were launched the previous week in Baveno. 4 of the 5 team leaders – Airbus (Sobloo), ATOS (Mundo), Creotech (CreoDIAS) and Serco (Onda) – presented their DIAS capabilities and invited companies to test and use their services. We also provided an update on eoMALL which is making good progress even if a little slower than I should like. Three software development companies were given 3 months to present us their ideas through eoMALL prototypes. This has led us to select one winner which as I write is being contracted to develop the full version. We plan to go live at the end of August.

After the AGM, we held a strategic workshop where we asked the industry to discuss their views on where the sector is heading and how they would like to see the Copernicus programme evolve to help them meet this future. We introduced a format where for 6 sessions, a keynote speaker presented some ideas which was followed by a moderated debate around a framing question. The audience were asked to respond to questions in real time through an app; these responses were shown live on the screen as they voted.

The format worked very well and we shall use it again in the future. The outcome was excellent and a report on the “proceedings” will be published over the summer. It will also lead us to develop a position paper in response to the EC’s newly published proposal for an EU Space Programme. I congratulate the EC on a very well formulated document which covers Galileo, Copernicus and GovSatCom as well as reflecting aspirations in space surveillance and space exploration. We mostly agree with the ideas expressed so our position paper could be quite short! However, we shall also use it to present extended views on the evolution of the Copernicus Programme which will lengthen it.

Finally, I would just like to report that in May, we were very pleased to finalise and sign an agreement with EuroChile. This is the 4th formal agreement which we have signed to strengthen our internationalisation efforts. This has become a very important part of the work we are doing and which we hope to expand further once we are back to full complement. Which leads me to a final, final word as the 21st June was the day when a key person working for EARSC (they are all key!) gave birth to her first daughter. So, in 2038 she will be 20 years old and I am sure that if Natassa has anything to do with it, Artemis will be a true space girl maybe celebrating at the 40th anniversary of the Baveno Manifesto. Who knows?

Under ESA contract our team has developed a cloud-based IDE (Integrated Development Environment) for building scripts, algorithms and also complete EO data processing chains. JupyTEP IDE is a software with preconfigured EO toolboxes (e.g. SNAP/Snappy and Orfeo ToolBox) and libraries for GIS processing (e.g. GDAL, Grass GIS, PostGIS).

It is built as an extension of Jupyter environment and Docker engine dedicated to working with EO data and it is based on the notebook philosophy of scripting. JupyTEP IDE allows scientists, developers of satellite remote sensing applications and other professional or non-professional users to create their own isolated development environment in an easy way. The users are able to write algorithms choosing various languages (Python, R, etc.) and a wide range of tools and libraries. The results can be presented and shared in the interactive and common Jupyter notebook format.

If you are interested in the open and free JupyTEP IDE solution or you wish to test the current version please visit the project site https://wasat.github.io/JupyTEPIDE/ or contact us by e-mail at jupytep@wasat.pl.