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The Earth has lost more than half of its wetland extent since 1900. The satellite-based Wetland Observation Service (SWOS) is working to provide a data portal that will have real-world impacts, helping to track wetland degradation, identify pollution sources, and assess restoration strategies.

Since the beginning of the 20th century, wetland extent has declined drastically. The Ramsar Convention, which focuses on wetland assessment and protection, estimates the loss as between 64 and 71 percent across the globe. Degradation of wetlands continues today, but researchers, stakeholders, and data managers are working to coordinate data and information to help address this ecological concern.

Wetlands are a breeding ground for life, rivaling rainforests in their productivity. In spring, the air is filled with insects transforming from aquatic pupae into flight-borne adults. Migrating birds rely on wetlands as a stop-over in their journey, dependent on the abundance food sources that wetlands provide. For other species, wetlands are the final destination for breeding.

The ecosystem services provided by wetlands are numerous, ranging from freshwater supply and food production to water filtration and flood mitigation. Yet wetlands continue to face threats of pollution, draining, and encroachment. Better data availability can help track these changes and allow decision-makers to better protect the resources.

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The Norwegian Coast Guard recently took part in a demonstration to test the feasibility of using satellite derived sea ice information products for navigation at high latitudes in the Arctic Ocean.

Nick Walker from eOsphere Limited and Lauri Seitsonen from VTT were invited onboard the Coast Guard’s icebreaking vessel, KV Svalbard, for a mission which left from Longyearbyen, Svalbard on 9 February 2016, travelled north into the sea ice, ultimately reaching a latitude of 82 degrees and 20 minutes, before returning to Longyearbyen on 16 February.
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The aim was to demonstrate a system that integrates satellite derived ice information from different sources and delivers these products where they are needed, onboard vessels in the high Arctic where communication bandwidth is limited and expensive. Several of the most useful ice products were derived from ESA’s Sentinel-1 satellite radar imaging sensor, which allows sea-ice to be monitored even during the dark Arctic winter and through clouds, fog or snow. The system has been developed as a part of the POLAR ICE project, which is supported by the European Commission and includes partners from several European countries as well as Canada.

The demonstration highlighted the importance of the timeliness of getting the data out to vessels in these conditions. Sea ice is constantly moving because of winds, currents and tides. So the position of the ice might have changed substantially from that shown in a product that has taken several hours to arrive. The KV Svalbard encountered an example of this when tidal forces caused the gaps between the ice, which were clearly visible in a Sentinel-1 image in the morning, to have closed by the time a second image arrived later in the day. This “accordion” effect, where the ice opens and closes according to the lunar tidal cycles, was first described by the Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen over a century ago.
crew members

One way to obtain up-to-date information is to use ice forecasts, which of course, also provide information about the future. A popular product with the crew’s navigators was the ice forecast provided by the Danish Meteorological Institute, which includes information about ice concentration, thickness and drift. Robin Jensen, one of the KV Svalbard’s navigators explained “what we really like is a good forecast model with the drift and thickness of ice compared with up to date or real time pictures, because it’s really important for us to see how it looks like right now. Sometimes we have to go quite far to the east just to get a little bit north. There is a saying don’t work against ice.”

Nick Walker, the coordinator of the POLAR ICE project said “Lauri and I are really grateful to the KV Svalbard’s crew for making us so welcome onboard. We learnt a huge amount about really using ice information in action in the Arctic which is a completely different experience to being back in our offices. The whole issue of the timeliness of the data became really important, with the ship’s navigators often asking us “has a new satellite image arrived yet”, which also demonstrated to us how keen they were to see this data.”

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ECMWF has launched a new dataset called Simulated Satellite Data (SSD), which provides global high-resolution forecasts of the weather as seen from space.

Simulated satellite images generated from the SSD provide a unique view of global cloud cover and moisture features up to ten days into the future.

The new product is based on ECMWF’s global forecasts at the record-breaking resolution introduced by the model upgrade announced on 10 March 2016.

“These images provide an exciting and unique view of the atmosphere predicted by our new high-resolution model – as it would be seen from space,” ECMWF scientist Cristina Lupu said.

“Forecasters will be able to apply their expertise in inferring current weather from observed satellite images to understand future weather from the forecast images,” she added.

“We believe these products will play a crucial role in visualising forecasts of high-impact extreme weather events.”

The data is produced using relevant atmospheric model profiles and surface parameters from the operational high-resolution forecast. These are used to calculate brightness temperatures, which can be visualised as simulated satellite images.

Detailed comparison between simulated and actual, observed satellite images can alert modellers to deficiencies to focus on for future model development.

The data provides a nadir (top-down) view for every model grid point, whereas previous simulated images reproduced the equator-centred view from geostationary satellites.

The dataset is available in three-hourly steps up to day seven and in six-hourly steps up to day ten. It can be used to produce animations showing changes in the atmosphere over time

“More info“http://www.ecmwf.int/en/about/media-centre/news/2016/ecmwf-launches-new-simulated-satellite-data-product

The Newsletter is intended to provide information on the Project goals, activities and results, and it will regularly report the progress of the Project. The Newsletter can be downloaded from the Project website, www.ecopotential-project.eu

What is ECOPOTENTIAL?

ECOPOTENTIAL is a EU-H2020 project, funded under the call SC5-16-2014 – Making Earth Observation and Monitoring Data usable for ecosystem modelling and services. It started in June 2015 and it will last four years. With 48 partners and 28 protected areas involved, it is one of the largest EU funded projects on ecosystems and it … Continue reading “What is ECOPOTENTIAL?”

Who are the ECOPOTENTIAL Partners?

The ECOPOTENTIAL consortium is formed by 48 partners, including research institutions, universities, environmental agencies, international institutions, small and medium enterprises, with a high complementarity and expertise in all the various fields needed in the Project. The whole structure of the ECOPOTENTIAL Consortium creates a chain of research/applications/actions that go from the recovery, analysis and interpretation … Continue reading “Who are the ECOPOTENTIAL Partners?

What are the ECOPOTENTIAL Storylines?
The scientific partners are defining a number of narratives (the storylines), which contextualize the overall workflow of ECOPOTENTIAL in particular ecological, management and policy settings. A storyline links real-life issues which have broad relevance to many Protected Areas included in the ECOPOTENTIAL project. The storylines will specific the needs for Earth Observation data and in-situ … Continue reading What are the ECOPOTENTIAL Storylines

A storyline: alpine mountain lakes
Ohrid/Prespa, Gran Paradiso National Park, Sierra Nevada: Ecosystem services and biodiversity crisis across mountain lakes Mountain lakes are usually oligotrophic and host specialized ecosystems, rich in endemic species but with limited species range. This, paired with increasing environmental pressures, makes their biodiversity particularly sensitive to external pressures. As one of the primary species responses to … Continue reading A storyline-alpine mountain lakes

Discover a Protected Area: The Gran Paradiso National Park (Italy)
The Gran Paradiso National Park (GPNP) is located in Italy, in the western Alpine region. Instituted in 1922, it is the oldest Italian National Park and, with its surface covering 70,000 ha, is one of the most extended. It borders with the Vanoise National Park in France, thus forming a huge system of high-elevation protected … Continue reading Discover a Protected Area.The Gran Paradiso National Park

Discover a Protected Area: The Wadden Sea (The Netherlands)
The international Wadden Sea is a productive estuarine area, and one of the largest coastal wetlands of the world, in the southeastern coastal zone of the North Sea bordering northern Netherlands, Germany and Denmark. It is characterized by extensive tidal mud flats, saltmarshes, and deeper tidal creeks between the mainland and the chain of islands … Continue reading Discover a Protected Area-The Wadden Sea

News and Events in ECOPOTENTIAL
ECOPOTENTIAL General Assembly – Texel (the Netherlands) June 27th-30th 2016 The ECOPOTENTIAL General Assembly will take place in Texel (The Netherlands), on June 27th-30th 2016. It will be a unique occasion for gathering all the consortium partners and the scientific advisors, and it provides an important forum for discussing all scientific issues of the project. … Continue reading News and Events in ECOPOTENTIAL

19-20 October 2016, ExCel, London, UK: This event is a showcase for new civilian and commercial applications for UAVs. Our visitors span the breadth of new users: surveying, photography, mapping, GIS, emergency services, agriculture, utilities, infrastructure and more. Our exhibitors are the world’s most innovative UAV and UAV systems manufacturers.

As the industry grows, so does the Commercial UAV Show, which is now established as the best event for this industry outside of the United States. Why is it the best? It attracts more users, more buyers, and more business.

WHAT’S ON THE EXHIBITION FLOOR?

Demo Zone
A safe, netted large area on the exhibition floor where exhibitors who’ve booked 30 minute session demonstrate their UAV. This is one of the most popular innovations in 2015 and we plan to significantly extend our demonstration programme in 2016.

User & University Pavilion
We encourage UAV users and researcher to take a small space in our user & university pavilion. This ever-popular part of the floor is a great space to share ideas and meet innovators and to find out how new technologies are being combined in imaginative ways.

Poster Zone
A first for 2016, the poster zone is open to researchers, academics, and individuals who have a particular project or research area that they’d like to share with the industry.

Start Up Zone
We have a range of small pods available to start-up businesses. Only companies registered on or after 1 January 2014 are eligible.

Photo Gallery & Video Installation
Not just focused on industrial purposes, people are using drones to make art, taking stunning photographs and videos that show the world from a completely new angle. At the show, we are celebrating the creativity and talent that UAVs can unlock, with a video installation showcasing films shot from drone’s-eye-view. 

On top of this, there will be a gallery exploring the work of innovative photographers who strive to capture nature and civilization from a new perspective. Visitors will have the opportunity to choose their favourite, with the winner announced at a drinks reception on the 19th of October. 

Photography Workshop
Running throughout the conference will be a workshop which aims to teach photographers, both amateur and professional, the tips and tricks for using UAVs to increase the tools in their photographic arsenal. Drones can get to places that a conventional camera could never take you, and can capture great swathes of landscape. They represent a significant development in the history of photography.

Learn to use UAVs effectively, safely, and legally, and discover a new way of seeing.

WHAT’S IN THE CONFERENCE?

Regulation, Insurance & Training
The key to getting this industry off the ground the sessions covering regulation, insurance & training will ensure attendees come away knowing what is legal and safe.

Blue Light & Emergency Services Theatre
In response to visitor requests, we will be hosting a theatre dedicated to blue light and emergency services. Facilitating a series of discussions and case studies covering the broad variety of UAV applications utilised in civil operations.

Mapping, Surveying & GIS Theatre
Also, in response to visitor requests, we will run mapping, surveying and geospatial applications and case studies together in one theatre. This will help us attract a larger visitor audience from this sector and help you raise the profile of your brand in this space.

Utilities and Infrastructure Theatre
This theatre will cover key UAV applications across oil and gas, utilities, transport and other related sectors.

Book your place today via the show website at www.terrapinn.com/uav
www.facebook.com/CommercialUAVShow
www.twitter.com/totalunmanned
#uavshow

China’s sweeping program to restore forests across the country is working.

The vast destruction of China’s forests, leveled after decades of logging, floods and conversion to farmland, has become a story of recovery, according to the first independent verification published in today’s Science Advances by Michigan State University (MSU) researchers.

“It is encouraging that China’s forest has been recovering in the midst of its daunting environmental challenges such as severe air pollution and water shortages,” said co-author Jianguo “Jack” Liu, Rachel Carson Chair in Sustainability and director of MSU’s Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability (CSIS). “In today’s telecoupled world, China is increasingly connected with other countries both socioeconomically and environmentally. Every victory must be measured holistically, or we aren’t getting a true picture.”

Forests are crucial to ensuring soil and water conservation and climate regulation. The fate of forests in the world’s most populous nation has global consequences by virtue of the country’s sheer magnitude and its rapid development.

Since the beginning of the 21st Century, China has implemented the largest forest conservation andRecovering forests, with deforested areas in the background in Wolong China restoration programs in the world, the Natural Forest Conservation Program (NFCP), which bans logging, and in some forested areas compensates residents for monitoring activities preventing illegal timber harvesting.

The MSU scientists used a unique combination of data, including the big-picture view of NASA’s Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) annual Vegetation Continuous Fields tree cover product, along with high spatial resolution imagery available in Google Earth. Then they combined data at different scales to correlate the status of the forests with the implementation of the NFCP.

And, as the Chinese government has contended, the program is working and forests are recovering, with about 1.6 percent, or nearly 61,000 square miles, of China’s territory seeing a significant gain in tree cover, while 0.38 percent, or 14,400 square miles, experienced significant loss.

“Our results are very positive for China,” said author Andrés Viña of MSU-CSIS. “If you look at China in isolation, its program is working effectively and contributing to carbon sequestration in accordance to its agenda for climate change mitigation. But on the other hand, China is not in a vacuum.”

In the future, it is important to quantify how much China’s forest gain and improved carbon sequestration may be a loss for places like Madagascar, Vietnam and Indonesia. Those are among the countries that are chopping down their forests to sell products to China. And the global increase in greenhouse gases and loss of biodiversity may have just changed addresses.

Viña noted more research is needed to document the broader impacts of forest degradation and recovery around the world. He also noted that the voracious appetite for natural resources – both timber and the agricultural products grown on converted forestland – is not just China’s issue.

“We are all part of the problem one way or another,” he said. “We all buy products from China, and China has not changed their imports and exports of wood at all. What has changed is where timber is coming from.”

The latest issue of the Mercator Ocean Journal is now available! You can access it by clicking on this link: http://goo.gl/h3vn89

Contents:

  • Introduction: MyOcean2 and MyOcean Follow-On projects
  • MyOcean user service
  • Evolution of the catalogue of products during MyOcean 2 and MyOcean Follow-On
  • Main achievements on MyOcean global and regional prediction systems
  • MyOcean regional reanalyses: overview of reanalyses systems and main results
  • Main achievements for MyOcean satellite thematic assembly centers
  • Main achievements for MyOcean in situ thematic assembly center
  • Main achievements for Nemo evolution during MyOcean period
  • Product quality achievements within MyOcean

This issue is dedicated to the main outcomes of the MyOcean2 and Follow-On projects. The EC/FP7 MyOcean2 and H2020 MyOcean Follow-On projects covering the April 2012 to May 2015 period have paved the way for the current Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service

(March 18) The Group on Earth Observations announced the launch of the Early Warning Crop Monitor, a new tool to fight food insecurity. The announcement was made during the GEO 36th Executive Meeting held in Geneva on 8-9 March.

Developed by the GEO Global Agricultural Monitoring Initiative (GEOGLAM), initiated by the G-20 Agriculture Ministers, the Early Warning Crop Monitor (ECWM) provides consensus reports on crop conditions in countries at risk of food insecurity in Central and South America, Africa, the Middle East, and Central and East Asia. The March EWCM bulletin reports that countries in Southeast Asia, and even more so in Southern Africa, face severe droughts attributed to the on-going El Niño.

The Early Warning Crop Monitor, together with the GEOGLAM Crop Monitor for the Agricultural Market Information Service (AMIS), will ultimately monitor crop development in 124 countries, totalling about 94 percent of the world’s agricultural area. Both reports synthesize remote sensing data, field observations and environmental modelling conducted by more than 40 international, regional and national organizations. The monthly reports are made available to decision-makers across the food security community and to the commodities markets. (http://www.geoglam-crop-monitor.org/)

GEO’s US Co-Chair, Dr Kathryn Sullivan, Administrator of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), stated, “Concerns over food and water security are rising globally. Ensuring that agricultural industries around the world have access to the best science, data, tools and resources is essential as we work to increase food security and mitigate the effects of droughts and floods. The GEOGLAM Early Warning Crop Monitor provides decision-makers with essential information, gathered from satellites, buoys and other observational tools, to be ready, responsive and resilient against extreme weather and water events.”

During its latest meeting, the GEO Executive Committee also welcomed new Participating Organizations: European Association of Remote Sensing Companies (EARSC); Joint Board of Geospatial Information Societies (JBGIS); Mountain Research Initiative (MRI); and a new Observer, the Asia-Pacific Regional Space Agency Forum (APRSAF).

In addition to Kathryn Sullivan, the Executive Committee Co-Chairs include Hejun Yin, Vice-Minister, Ministry of Science and Technology (China); Rudolf Strohmeier, Assistant Director-General, Directorate-General for Research and Innovation (European Commission); and Philemon Mjwara, Director-General, Department of Science and Technology (South Africa).

The Group on Earth Observations (GEO)

The intergovernmental Group on Earth Observations (GEO) is comprised of 102 Member states, including the European Commission, and 95 Participating Organizations. Established in 2005, GEO strives to improve the world’s observation systems and provide policy makers and scientists with accurate and useful data that can be used to make informed decisions on issues affecting the planet. GEO’s primary focus is to develop a Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) to enhance the ability of end-users to discover and access Earth observation data and convert it to useable and useful information. GEO is headquartered in Switzerland. For more information, visitwww.earthobservations.org

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The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency is producing flood and damage assessments for areas in the southern U.S. at the request of the Federal Emergency Management Agency to aid in response and recovery efforts.

NGA is providing geospatial analysis of areas affected by the flood, primarily in Louisiana and along its Texas border. NGA has produced over 2,200 assessments, highlighting affected and destroyed properties (residential and non-residential) as well as sections of roads that have become impassable. This analysis is critical to the state, local, and federal emergency response officials in allocating resources for the overall effort.

“Our value to the FEMA response is the flood and damage assessments we’re providing using geospatial data,” said Brian Cameron, NGA team lead and FEMA liaison. “FEMA uses our products to determine and prioritize affected populated areas in need of assistance. NGA’s analysis assists state officials in determining evacuation routes based on impassable roads and inundated areas.”

As of March 16, NGA has identified over 1100 homes and non-residential buildings that have been affected by the floods, over 1000 buildings that were destroyed, over 500 sections of roads that have become impassable and analyzed a total flooded area of more than 500 square miles.

One of NGA’s core mission sets is providing accurate and timely geospatial intelligence to first responders in the wake of natural disasters. NGA supports humanitarian and disaster relief efforts by working directly with the lead federal agencies responding to fires, floods, earthquakes, landslides, hurricanes or other natural or manmade disasters.

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