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a new H2020 project focussing on the integration of EO capacities in North Africa, Middle East and the Balkans.

The importance of regional initiatives that support coordinated, comprehensive and sustained EO information as an enabler for informed decision making is strongly recognised by GEO and Copernicus. Could you please describe how GEO-CRADLE contributes in that direction?

GEO-CRADLE, funded under the EU’s H2020 programme, has brought together a unique team of key players from a total of 26 countries, representing the EO value chain and combining extensive experience from past or ongoing projects in the regions of North Africa, Middle East and the Balkans (e.g. BalkanGEONet, AfriGEOSS, etc.). Building on the outcomes of such initiatives, GEO-CRADLE aims at establishing a multi-regional network of EO stakeholders that will effectively support the integration of EO capacities existing in these three regions. The ultimate goal of the project is to support the implementation of GEOSS and Copernicus in the three regions, whilst also raising awareness of the benefits of EO services amongst end-users, and promoting the uptake of market opportunities for EO companies, especially SMEs.


Representatives of GEO and DG RTD presenting the key priorities for the implementation of GEOSS and Copernicus in the three regions. (source: GEO-CRADLE KOM)

In supporting enhanced and integrated capacity building across these three regions what are the main challenges you have identified and how do you plan to address them?

Despite the important progress in the Balkans and in North Africa, in both regions, but even more so in the Middle East, there still exist several critical gaps when it comes to the assessment, coordination, and synergetic utilisation of EO services, skills, and data. This includes for example the ineffective and fragmented exploitation of available complementarities in EO resources and expertise, the inadequate engagement of the user community and stakeholders in the regions, the low involvement of the private sector and the limited public awareness on the benefits that EO can bring to the market and into people’s everyday lives.

In order to address these challenges, GEO-CRADLE plans to engage the complete ecosystem of EO stakeholders, advocate the benefits of EO towards addressing priorities in the domains of Climate Change, Raw Materials, Food Security, and Energy, and deliver a set of tools that pave the way for the establishment of region-wide EO services and project initiatives.


GEO-CRADLE in a nutshell

Could you please elaborate a bit further on the type of activities that the project will undertake and the concrete tools it will build?

The activities of GEO-CRADLE have commenced with the execution of a survey amongst key actors in the region that represent the supply side (i.e. raw data providers, value adders, GIS providers). The outcomes of the survey will help us construct an accurate and comprehensive picture of the EO capacities and skills in the three regions, which will be then analysed against the needs of end-users (through a series of interviews) to allow the identification of gaps. The analysis of the regional and national capacities will also help us to establish a novel methodology for the assessment of regional EO maturity and to identify the main priority areas that can benefit from the use of state-of-the-art EO data and services.

The next important step in our approach includes the execution of four feasibility studies, demonstrating how the regional priorities can be tackled by the GEO-CRADLE Network. These studies will focus on thematic areas of particular importance for the regions: Adaptation to Climate Change, Improved Food Security, Access to Raw Materials, and Energy. In parallel, GEO-CRADLE will set up a Regional Data Hub, which abides by the GEOSS Data Sharing Principles, and facilitates access to and dissemination of region-wide EO data.


GEO-CRADLE priority domains

Finally, the project will elaborate a roadmap for the future implementation of GEOSS and Copernicus in the region, with the ultimate aim to enable sustainable exploitation of the regional infrastructures and capacities as well as informed decision-making.

Given that end-users are the principal beneficiaries of the wealth of information that can be extracted from and delivered by EO data and services, their effective engagement in your activities could be considered critical. How does GEO-CRADLE plan to ensure this?

There are two main aspects to this matter. Firstly, GEO-CRADLE will strive to raise awareness amongst end-users and policy makers of the benefits that EO brings to various application sectors. This will be pursued through a series of engagement and outreach activities. The GEO-CRADLE portal, once fully launched will promote successful use cases from the region, inform on the value of EO data and services and support effective linking between the end-user community and the supply side. To give a concrete example, all planned GEO-CRADLE events will be marked by active participation of end-users. Thus, in the upcoming 10th GEO European Projects Workshop in Berlin (31/05-02/06), GEO-CRADLE will organise a session on the Regional dimension for GEO and capacity building priorities, where the testimonies from end-users will be presented.

Secondly, the project has already set out to capture and understand the concrete requirements of end-users in a way that is as much unbiased from the supply side as possible. In this way, the foreseen feasibility studies will be tuned onto the needs of end-users paving the way for the subsequent establishment of regional scale EO services.

The importance of the involvement of EO companies in the implementation of GEOSS has been increasingly recognised in a number of recent occasions. How does GEO-CRADLE aspire to ensure this and what are the main benefits that EO companies can expect from their engagement in the project?

In line with the strategy of GEO for the period 2016-2025, and the outcomes of recent workshops that were focussing on the respective challenges, GEO-CRADLE has put strong emphasis in the effective involvement of the EO industry and SMEs. First, we have invited and are keen to be joined in our consortium by EARSC – who has recently become a GEO participating organisation. EARSC’s participation shall ensure the appropriate platform for the representation of the European EO industry in the project, whilst also allowing the establishment of concrete links with other important activities run at regional level such as the Inventory of African EO Companies


GEO-CRADLE consortium: A unique team of key EO actors from North Africa, Middle East and the Balkans. (source: GEO-CRADLE KOM)

The benefits for EO companies and in particular SMEs participating in GEO-CRADLE activities are multiple. Firstly, they can become members of a large regional network of stakeholders that can effectively work together towards creating business opportunities, and generating EO services that meet regional needs. Secondly the will gain access to a number of tools promoting regional cooperation on EO-related activities such as the GEO-CRADLE portal and the Regional Data Hub. Thirdly, they can be informed through the GEO-CRADLE portal and our engagement activities about business and/or collaboration opportunities, networking events, and regional EO-related news. In that respect, a dedicated industry engagement workshop is planned to be held in Brussels in a year from now. Last but not least, companies will have the opportunity to participate in concrete consultation activities that pave the way towards a future regional GEO/Copernicus initiative.

With all this in mind, we invite EO companies but also all other stakeholders along the EO value chain, to closely follow our activities through our website, participate in our upcoming events, become members of the GEO-CRADLE network and support us in the implementation of GEOSS and Copernicus in the region.

Dr KONTOES Charalampos (Haris) holds the position of Research Director in the Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics Space Applications and Remote Sensing of the National Observatory of Athens (NOA/IAASARS). He received his Doctorate in Remote Sensing of the Environment (NTUA, 1992). He completed his doctoral studies holding a grant from the European Commission in the Institute for Space Applications of the Joint Research Centre at ISPRA (Environmental Mapping Group, JRC). Since 1992 he has been assuming responsibilities in managing Earth Observation operational & research projects, focusing on risk assessment and mitigation, risk monitoring and management, environmental resource management, and mapping in various territorial contexts and scales. He leads a research team with active participation in projects funded by ESA, EC Framework Programs, H2020, COPERNICUS, and GEO.

With his capacities as National Delegate in Space, he has been responsible for leading and coordinating interdisciplinary high level representations in several Decision Making Boards and Program Committees (e.g. ESA PBEO, EC Space Program Committees (FP7, H2020), COPERNICUS Committee, Space Advisory Committee). He assumes the responsibility of the National Point of Contact to promote ESAʼs CollGS initiative, coordinating the development and sustained operation of the first Copernicus data dissemination facility available in the SE Europe and the Balkans (the so called Hellenic Sentinel Data Hub). He has developed, and is currently assuming the responsibility of the Ground Segment facilities operated by NOA, for receiving in real time a multitude of EO satellite missions. He is author of more than 120 publications in reviewed journals and scientific conferences. Member of the editorial board and reviewer of highly ranked Scientific Journals (IJPRS, IJRS, SENSORS, IEEE Geoscience and RS). Member of the Advisory Boards of on-going EU and ESA projects. EC expert evaluator in the various framework programs (FP6, FP7, H2020).

GEO-CRADLE: Coordinating and integRating state-of-the-art Earth Observation Activities in the regions of North Africa, Middle East, and Balkans and Developing Links with GEO related initiatives towards GEOSS

Last 15-17 March 2016, Planetek Italia participated the Conference on Big Data from Space 2016 (BiDS’16), held in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain, jointly organized by ESA, EUSC and CCR.

The event gave the opportunity to present Rheticus®, the Planetek cloud-based data and services hub designed to deliver products through complex automatic processes and, if appropriate, a minimum interaction with human beings. One of the main purposes of the system is to enable Planetek Italia to shift from the provision of data to the provision of services, intended as continuous access to information from the users.

At the conference, it was showcased how this system applies the Big Data concepts through the fusion of EO and ancillary data – with a particular attention to INSPIRE data – operated through a Big Data infrastructure that supports the batch processing of a continuously increasing volume of data for the generation of environmental indicators and alerts.

The Rheticus® platform is able to automatically deliver geoinformation services and products to subscribed user in a wide range of application fields, related to land, infrastructures and resources monitoring: wildfires, landislides and displacements, water quality and urban dynamics.

The description of a specific service case – the detection of new artificial areas -, explained in detail in the BiDS’16 paper, gives the opportunity to illustrate the Rheticus® capabilities to generate environmental indicators and alerts through the fusion of EO and ancillary data, and to indicate how the integration of INSPIRE data can add value to the final product, in the context of an operational workflow driven by the Rheticus Big Data infrastructure that supports the batch processing of a continuously increasing volume of data.

The application developed takes advantage from the new generation of Earth Observation data (e.g. Sentinel-1 and Senitnel-2) in combination of data coming from not-EO sources, like INSPIRE data.

A further characteristic of Rheticus® is the ability to act as an interoperable service node offering processing capabilities within a wider Big Data infrastructure. This concept will be demonstrated in the on-going ESA project Coastal Thematic Exploitation Platform (CTEP). CTEP project is addressing the coastal theme in the context of the Thematic Exploitation Platform (TEP) initiative, whose purpose is to exploit EO big data for the provision of a set of data and tools for thematic communities of users.

The Rheticus webportal has been released at the beginning of April, ready to deliver its first service Rheticus®Displacement.

Rheticus®Displacement is a geoinformation service designed for the monitoring of ground surface movements, aimed at monitoring areas subject to landslides and subsidence, and the stability of infrastructures.

The mapping of the earth’s surface movement speed and acceleration is made through the monitoring of points on the ground with high stability called Persistent Scatterers (PS). The PS is produced through the processing of Sentinel-1 images of the European Copernicus programme or COSMO-SkyMed data.

The PS processing algorithm used is SPINUA produced by GAP Srl, a spin-off of the Politecnico di Bari, and has been certified by the Italian Space Agency.
The service is targeted to: Infrastructures and works managers and builders; Public Administration; Planners & professionals in the territory.

Rheticus®Displacement service with some sample data is available at www.rheticus.eu. Links:

Remote Sensing Application Center – ReSAC, Bulgaria in a consortium with other organizations finished the project for Mapping flood hazard and flood risk in East Aegean River Basin Directorate (EARBD) in Bulgaria.

The project was a second step in implementation of the Flood Risk Directive in Bulgaria, namely preparation of the flood hazard and risk maps.

The project was focused on analyzing 31 areas with significant potential flood risk with a total length of 1078 km. in the rivers and 19 reservoirs for which a scenario for dam break and dam overflow was modeled.

The territory of the EARBD is almost 1/3 from the territory of Bulgaria. The second largest river in the country flows here – Maritsa River which is a transboundary river for Bulgaria, Turkey and Greece. The other important rivers also transboundary are Arda River, which takes the water from the East Rhodopy Mountain and Tundzha River – both of them tributaries to Maritsa.

For very short time frame from the beginning of May 2015 the project consortium performed activities on preparatory actions for analysing the areas with significant flood risk, more than 2000 cross section measurements, hydraulic (1D and 2D) and hydrologic modeling in order to assess the flood hazard.

ReSAC was involved in the aforementioned steps supporting the consortium with GIS analyses, cross section distribution, data processing for modeling, preparation of DEM from topographic maps in scale 1:5 000 and cadaster information.

The main responsibility of ReSAC was focused on assessing the flood risk within the 31 areas of the project. National data for population, economic infrastructure, land use, cadaster, critical infrastructite, cultural heritage, protected areas etc. were processed in a way to allow assessing the flood risk in accordance to the Flood Risk Directive of the EU.

As a result of the project more than 5300 maps in scale 1:10 000 and 1: 5 000 for flood hazard and flood risk were produced and delivered to the East Aegean River Basin Directorate and to the stake holders and interested users.
ReSAC was also responsible for preparation all the GIS databases containing the in-situ data, source data and final project results databases. ReSAC produced the database which the River Basin Directorate will directly report to the EC in relation to the Directive together with the GIS layers to be integrated in WISE.


Example of flood hazard map


Example of flood hazard velocity map


Example of flood risk map

The project was a continuation of the activities and professional expertise ReSAC provides to the specialized governmental authorities in the past several years related with disaster management and especially these related with the Flood Risk Directive. ReSAC as a center of excellence supports the Ministry of Environment and River Basin Directorates in the implementation of the Directive since 2011 with the Preliminary Flood Hazard and Risk Assessment for Danube Region River Basin Directorates (DRRBD), in 2012 with the Determination of the Areas with Significant Potential Flood Risk for DRRBD and participation in the Danube FloodRisk Project with preparation of Flood Hazard and Risk Maps for Bulgarian Sector of Danube River and training of the local users and stakeholders.

For more information

Remote Sensing Application Center (ReSAC)
61, Tzar Assen Str., fl. 2, 1463, Sofia, Bulgaria. Tel: +35929800731 / Fax: +35929818216. 
E-mail

Captured on March 2nd by UrtheCast’s full-color UHD video camera, Iris, the HD video reveals an increase in activity at Iran’s Imam Khomeini space launch facility. The video suggests the potential launch of the Simorgh SLV rocket, which is designed to send satellites into space.

Captured on March 2nd and delivered to the United Nations Office of Outer Space Affairs for analysis, this recent HD Iris video of Iran’s Imam Khomeini space launch facility shows increased activity in the area, suggesting that a launch of the Simorgh SLV rocket — which is designed to send satellites into space — could be fast-approaching.

The launch preparations and heightened activity were recently reported by the Arms Control Network and are corroborated by this Iris video, which reveals the spaceport’s Launch Complex 2, Mission Control, and Engine Test Facility.

The anticipated launch, which is expected to deliver a satellite into orbit, comes on the heels of controversy surrounding North Korea’s successful launch of a satellite in early February.

The video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCe2UQrBM64 has already been featured in the leading space news site, Space.com


Fig.1: Iran’s Imam Khomeini space launch facility still frame image as pictured by UrtheCast’s Iris.

UrtheCast

With a diverse suite of sensors in space and an innovative open-API web Platform, UrtheCast is helping usher in a new era of Earth Observation (EO). Our current sensor suite — Deimos-2, Iris, Theia, and Deimos-1 — offers imagery and video at multiple resolutions to address diverse and complex requirements, marking only the first stage in our mission to democratize EO. UrtheCast’s groundbreaking 16 satellite SAR + Optical Constellation, now under development, will take that vision to new heights.
To learn more, visit www.urthecast.com

Come see us at booth No.24 at ESA Living Planet and at the at European Space Solutions event (booth to be assigned) and learn more about EARSC activities, its members, the marketplace alliance and our brokerage service EOpages

The booth will serve as a meeting place for the European companies. Members could bring promotion material to be delivered or can meet and talk to colleagues and partners about current products and services.

Be presenter at the EARSC Booth!

EARSC members can also utilize the booth to prepare dedicated sessions. Please let us know your interest so we should be able to announce those presentations in advance by keeping potential customers & partners informed about company’s activities before, during and after the trade shows.

We look forward to seeing you at our Stands. Be with us at this remarkable experience!!!

Thanks to its high revisit rate capabilities, the Very High Resolution (VHR) Deimos-2 satellite eyed the whole SES-9 campaign, starting from pre-launch operations in early February, capturing the Falcon 9 at the Launch Pad in Cape Canaveral on Feb. 23, 27, 28 and then spotting the drone ship ‘Of course I still love you’ ready to recover the first stage in the Atlantic Ocean on March 4.

SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off on March 4 and placed SES-9 satellite in orbit, while the first stage landed back hard on the drone ship off Cape Canaveral coast. SES-9 satellite is the ninth SES telecommunication satellite in the SES family and the second one launched by SpaceX.

The Falcon 9 dropped the SES-9 satellite in a Geostationary orbit, about 36000 km high in altitude. To get there the rocket needed a lot of propellant in the first stage, which meant the combustible left to attempting a return to the drone ship was limited.

The launch date was initially set up for Feb. 24, then several launch attempts were made respectively on Feb. 25, 26, 28, 29 and on March 1. Sharply changing upper level winds and a boat entering the restricted maritime zone were some of the circumstances causing the launch postponing.

Thanks to its high revisit rate, Deimos-2 Very High resolution (VHR) satellite eyed the whole SES-9 campaign, starting from pre-launch operations in early February (Fig. 1) and then capturing the Falcon 9 at the Launch Pad in Cape Canaveral on Feb. 23, 27, 28 (Fig. 2) and spotting the drone ship ‘Of course I still love you’ ready to recover the first stage in the Atlantic Ocean on March 4 (Fig. 3).

The three-hour tasking-to-delivery capabilities of Deimos-2, made possible to acquire and timely publish the barge image just a couple of hours before the launch.

The drone ship picture achieved widespread impressions in the social media, being quoted, among others, by SpaceNews , Spaceflight Now and the Planetary Society


Fig.1: SpaceX’s Launch Pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, FL, (USA) seen by Deimos-2 on February 16, 2016, during SES-9 launch preparation.


Fig.2: The Falcon 9 at the Launch Pad in Cape Canaveral on Feb. 27 captured by Deimos-2.


Fig.3: The drone ship ‘Of course I still love you’ ready to recover the first stage in the Atlantic Ocean spotted by Deimos-2 on March 4.

Deimos Imaging

Deimos Imaging based in Spain, a subsidiary of UrtheCast (Canada), is one of the world’s leading satellite imagery providers. Deimos operates the DEIMOS-1 and DEIMOS-2 satellites, and two cameras on-board the International Space Station, including a UHD video camera. Deimos also provides imagery from the satellites of its partners in the PanGeo Alliance, a fleet of 14 Earth Observation multispectral sensors, in a wide range of resolutions.

To learn more, visit http://www.deimos-imaging.com/

Demonstration of innovative ways how to visualize metadata from Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 satellites in 4D using open source libraries within the Web World Wind framework were voted Best Demo and Best Poster at the conference.

The 2016 Big Data from Space conference was jointly organised by the European Space Agency (ESA), the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission and the European Union Satellite Centre (SatCen), in collaboration with the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC). The conference took place at the Auditorio de Tenerife, in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain, from 15 to 17 March 2016.

Web World Wind is an open source framework for displaying the 3D globe and layers and elements on top of this globe. This framework is written in JavaScript and the main contributor is NASA. Within the ESA project “Software Prototyping and Mobile App Development” Gisat participates in the activity aiming at helping NASA Web World Wind developers to add new features to the framework. Gisat is currently developing the support for the KML format.

The demonstration application built using the Web World Wind has been presented at the conference. We aimed at creating tools for transforming the metadata from various ESA data sources and at meaningful visualization of the results. Number and type of products acquired by different ESA EO missions have been selected for the practical demonstration.

In the application, the amount and spatial distribution of ESA products acquired within the defined time series are displayed together with the information about the type of products. To provide a user with an accurate overview of the data status the information is displayed using the 3D globe. The main asset which differentiates this solution from other tools is the adaptation of the choropleth to the currently visible area.

The Software Prototyping and Mobile App Development project is run by an international consortium led by Solenix Deutschland GmbH (DE) with TERRASIGNA Srl (RO), Gisat s.r.o. (CZ), Progressive Systems Srl (IT) and Qualteh JR Srl (RO) as subcontractors.

Gisat provides wide range of geoinformation services based on Earth Observation technology. It focuses on operational application of satellite mapping to monitor various aspects of our environment and development of dedicated web based platforms for geoinformation analysis and assessment
Web // E-mail // Tel:+420 271741935 // Fax: +420 271741936

The ESA-funded initiative of an Urban Thematic Exploitation Platform (U-TEP) aims at bridging the gap between the technology-driven Earth Observation sector and the information needs of urban and environmental science, planning, and policy.

A large-scale transformation has occurred on Earth, often ignored in headline stories on the topic of global change – for some years now, the number of people living in urban areas has exceeded that of those living in rural regions. Today, approximately 7.2 billion people inhabit our planet. By 2050, this number will have risen to nine billion, 70 percent of which will be living in cities. As a result, urban areas will account for 90 percent of population growth, 80 percent of increased prosperity and around 60 percent of energy consumption. Consequently, urban conurbations occupy a key role as centres of political, economic and cultural life. They will exemplify the future, defining how the coming generations will live and work.

How can the opportunities that urbanisation presents be put to good use? How can the negative ecological and social effects of rapid city growth be mitigated or avoided? These are central challenges that society will face over the coming decades. And it is here that Earth Observation can make a valuable contribution. Satellite-based geo-information delivers a current and comprehensive image of the built environment, while at the same time documenting its changes over time. The European Space Agency is operating Earth Observation satellites since more than 20 years and is serving the scientific, operational and commercial user community with different levels of information products. The traditional way of (single) sensor ground segments delivering physically data products to users performing their work locally and isolated, needs to be revised. While the availability of the growing volume of environmental data from space represents a unique opportunity for science, general R&D, and applications, it also poses a major challenge to achieve its full potential in terms of data exploitation.

Objectives

Urban Thematic Exploitation Platform (U-TEP) aims at bridging the gap between the technology-driven Earth Observation sector and the information needs of urban and environmental science, planning, and policy. U-TEP is using Earth Observation data and modern information technology to create and disseminate knowledge about the status, properties, cross-linking and dynamics of human settlements and their hinterland. Therefore, U-TEP provides a web-based, open and participatory platform that enables any interested user to easily exploit and generate thematic information on the status and development of the built environment.

Key component of U-TEP is the use of distributed high-level computing infrastructures providing functionalities for i) high-performance access to satellite imagery and thematic data, ii) modular and generic state-of-the art pre-processing, analysis, and visualization, iii) customized development and dissemination of algorithms, products and services, and iv) effective networking and communication. Based on these characteristics the U-TEP platform aims at opening up new opportunities to enable the creation and safeguarding of liveable cities by systematically exploring:

  • The unique EO capabilities in Europe;
  • The existing Big Data perspective;
  • The rising high-level IT-infrastructures and processing power;
  • The existing vast expert knowledge;
  • The new media and ways of communication and connecting people.

With the objectives and functionalities described above, U-TEP is supposed to initiate a step change in the use of Earth Observation data and modern information and communication technology for the societal benefit. The new platform and its pool data and services help to acquire a better understanding of the urban environment and hence, in future, to respond appropriately to the immense social challenges of mushrooming cities, population explosion, climate change and the erosion of biodiversity. By improving the quality of spatial analysis and modelling, scientists benefit from the increase in the precision of data relating to settlement structures. Planning agencies and development banks are also important users of these new data and technologies. For instance, uniform data – applicable worldwide – on the location of settlements and including important parameters on their sizes and shapes, and also their compactness, help with the derivation of important information of a kind urgently needed in infrastructure planning. This is a crucial advantage, especially in remote and underdeveloped regions of Earth, where suitable geographical data are frequently scarce.

Technological Advances

By exploiting the new opportunities in the Earth Observation and Information and Communication sector, U-TEP Urban will contribute to initiate step changes regarding:

  • Remote processing, by bringing users and functionalities to big data inventories.
  • Enabling technology, by supporting large-scale and complex data exploitation.
  • Market place of ideas and driver of innovation, by facilitating the sharing of data, technology, and knowledge.
  • Community stimulation and outreach, by following an open, participatory, and collaborative policy.

The U-TEP technical concept is based on a generic, modular, multi-purpose design facilitating maximum flexibility with respect to the adaptation to and integration of user requirements, application scenarios, processing and analysis technologies, and IT infrastructures. Nevertheless, the U-TEP platform is not designed to provide direct access or distribute Earth Observation data.

Users

Users whom the platform is designed to benefit, therefore, are scientific users, public authorities and governmental organisations, non-governmental and non-institutional communities, and commercial communities from all levels relevant to the urban domain (global, European, national, regional, local).
The main user community groups involved in U-TEP are the World Bank Group, Group on Earth Observation, European Environment Agency, DG Regio, International Society of City and Regional Planners, and City of Prague.

The Team

The Urban Thematic Exploitation Platform is being developed by a consortium led by the German Aerospace Center (DE), and involving Brockmann Consult GmbH (DE), Gisat s.r.o. (CZ), IT4Innovations (CZ), and Terradue Srl (IT).

Gisat provides wide range of geoinformation services based on Earth Observation technology. It focuses on operational application of satellite mapping to monitor various aspects of our environment and development of dedicated web based platforms for geoinformation analysis and assessment
Web // E-mail // Tel:+420 271741935 // Fax: +420 271741936

For the 2nd time in 6 years, EUROSENSE acquired recently several thousands of thermal images covering the city of Antwerp and some neighboring municipalities. Similar to 2009, these images will be processed into a thermographic map focusing on heat losses through roofs. An easy-to-use interpretation key with corresponding legends, established by means of volunteer measurements on the ground, will help the citizens to check the status of the roof insulation quality of their building. The city actively will use the map to sensitize its citizens about efficient energy use, reducing CO2 exhaust and the fight against climate change.


In the month of February 2016, EUROSENSE acquired several thousands of thermal images covering the city of Antwerp and some neighboring municipalities. The flights, executed during cold and clear winter nights, were executed upon request of the city of Antwerp and aim to identify the heat losses occurring through the roofs of the buildings. Simultaneously with the flights, several hundreds of volunteers measured the temperature in the rooms under the roof. Afterwards they submitted their measurements, together with other information about their roof, via an online form and hereby provided EUROSENSE with ground truth data. In the coming weeks EUROSENSE will process the thermal images into a homogeneous thermographic map and elaborate an easy-to-use interpretation key and corresponding legends. The city of Antwerp will integrate the map and the interpretation key into an updated version of the website http://zoominopuwdak.antwerpen.be. Through this website, citizens can consult the thermographic map and interpret the colors on the map in terms of roof insulation quality. They furthermore will also find more information about the different types of support which can be obtained when investing in a new roof insulation.

In 2009, EUROSENSE created a similar thermographic map for the city of Antwerp and 20 surrounding municipalities (currently still consultable through http://zoominopuwdak.antwerpen.be). Seen the large success of this sensitization campaign, the city of Antwerp launched a procedure for an update which was won by EUROSENSE. This time 6 neighboring municipalities decided to participate to the project. In comparison with 2009, the acquired thermal data now has a resolution of 50cm instead of 1m allowing to see much more details on the roofs.

EUROSENSE has a large and long-lasting experience in aerial thermography with a long list of projects in Belgium (image at the left: extract from Leuven, BE), Germany, The Netherlands, GD of Luxembourg and France. Our global approach with a high number of volunteer measurements and a specific interpretation key, designed for the rendering of the thermal values in terms of roof insulation quality, is unique in Europe, and probably even in the world.

For more than 50 years now, EUROSENSE is your partner in all services related to geographical information. From data collection, treatment and provision to value-added applications, EUROSENSE offers a broad variety of geographical information made according to your specific requirements and needs. Our company is known to provide high-quality end products created on the latest technologies on the market. More info