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By Fabio Dell’Acqua, Elizabeth A. Wentz, Soe W. Myint, Maik Netzband, source earthzine


Introduction

From April 1-3, 2011, two parallel, international workshops were held in Scottsdale, Arizona, devoted to Urban Remote Sensing (URS) and Forecasting Urban Growth (FORE). The URS workshop, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to Arizona State University, was devoted to understanding the drivers and consequences of global urbanization using emerging remote sensing technologies. The organizers were Elizabeth Wentz and Soe Myint, both at the Arizona State University, and Maik Netzband from Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany (Figure 1).

Given the focus on urban areas and their dynamics, it was natural to co-locate the URS workshop with a complementary workshop, sponsored by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and organized through Urbanization and Global Environmental Change (UGEC), on forecasting urban land use change. Karen Seto and Michail Fragkias led the FORE effort.

Further details on the two workshops and bios of each participant can be found online at the joint webpage.

1. Rationale

The rationale for focusing explicitly on remote sensing activities on urban areas stems from recent massive population changes in worldwide demographics. In the past, humans occupied predominantly rural areas subsiding on local economic opportunities.

Today, more employment opportunities exist in high density, large population centers, which leads to the relocation of people to these centers of activity. The ecological footprints of these cities — as well as the impact that the cities make themselves locally — require intensive observation, monitoring, and forecasting. Intensive examination of cities requires comprehensive understanding of the physical, political, social, and economic dynamics. One aspect that remote sensing technologies offer is that they can efficiently and objectively quantify the physical characteristics and growth of cities1234. The physical characteristics can be anything from temperature [5]6, soil moisture [7], vegetation [8]9and impervious surfaces [10]11, to albedo, evapotranspiration, pool, other water bodies12, infrastructure, and building density13. City growth involves the conversion of land categories from rural uses such as agriculture or undeveloped land to urban uses such as industrial, residential, commercial and supporting infrastructure ( roads and utilities). These land-use and land-cover changes represent one of the most significant alterations that humankind has made to the surface of the Earth. Each land transformation impacts, to varying degrees, the local climatology, quality of air and water, energy, hydrology, geology, and biota that predate human settlement. The importance of remote sensing, both optical [14] and radar [15] in this context, has been referenced at many scientific conferences including JURSE16.

2. Organization and major themes

The goal of the workshop was to share ideas on the needs, problems, expectations, consequences, and opportunities we face on the challenge of global urbanization. We aimed to identify the appropriate and necessary steps to move forward with this challenge. We had a combination of pre-workshop, during-workshop, and post-workshop activities.

Prior to the workshop, three participants were invited to write in-depth papers on three policy-based themes prior to the workshop: Data, scale, and applications. The goal with these white papers was to develop a common reference to improve group interaction. These themes were coincident with those in the workshop on FORE (three FORE participants also wrote theme papers). These background papers presented overviews of the current state of knowledge and served, whenever applicable, as the starting point for discussions. The remaining workshop participants received pre-workshop memos and were asked to submit comments and questions. The three white papers and participants memos were compiled and disseminated to all participants the week before the workshop commenced.

The starting points for discussions during the workshop were based on six themes:

  • Theme 1: track urban area growth and change: speed, density, direction, structures, impervious surfaces, land consumed;
  • Theme 2: assess the spatial arrangement of green/open space within cities and at the periphery: amount, distribution, connectivity;
  • Theme 3: monitor changes in peri-urban regions: farmland conversions, wetland infringement, biodiversity threats;
  • Theme 4: track land-cover and land-use changes that influence urban climatology and atmospheric deposition: impervious surfaces, vegetation cover, particulate matter, carbon release, haze, smoke;
  • Theme 5: monitor urban growth as it intersects with areas of potential environmental hazards: earthquake, subsidence, mudslides, floods, tsunami;
  • Theme 6: map environmental parameters (microclimate, heat island, access to open space, percent of impervious surface, percent of green space), assess the geographic differences within the region, and identify correlations with social, economic, and ethnic divisions.

The themes were examined from two different perspectives. This happened because roughly half of the participants were academic researchers engaged either in the use of new remote sensing technologies or in their application to solve problems associated with rapid urbanization, or even in formulating better management options for a sustainable built environment. The remaining workshop participants were local government planners, managers, and decision-makers who, on a daily basis, are confronted with problems and seek smart growth options where remote sensing technology may serve as a tool.

For example, a planner or local decision-maker may ask is if a tree planting and replacement program has been effective at reducing the urban heat island effect. Remotely sensed images taken before the program was established through to the present can help answer this question and justify the continuation of the program to budget planners and the general public.

3. Workshop outcomes

Similar to the pre-workshop documents, the discussions were also organized around three themes: Application, scale & date.

3.1 Application

Application refers to the use of remotely sensed imagery and software to solve a particular problem in cities. This topic emerged as a strong mismatch between stakeholder requests and remote sensing experts (RSEs). There were questions on both sides on what hinders a wider use of remotely sensed imagery in city planning or management. Parts of the problem we identified are:

Software for handling remote sensing data is often expensive and difficult to use for the non-expert;

  • Data are in ‘silos’ requiring knowledge on where to go and how to acquire them;
  • There is the impression that Google-Earth-like systems ‘solve’ the problems of software and data;
  • There is little understanding beyond experts on what interpretation of non-visible spectral bands offers (e.g., NDVI); the visible spectrum seen in Google-Earth-like images simply offers zero-level interpretation ( “peeking into your neighborhood backyards”);
  • Remote sensing data needs robust preparation to be effectively used, especially if we are talking about extracting quantitative information.

Two possible approaches were suggested, one that we might call “democratization of data,” and the other consisting of a tighter, probably also forced to some extent, interaction between RSEs and stakeholders. “Democratization of data” can be referred to as transforming data and information into a form, and providing tools, that make it easy for non-experts to use them and access answers to questions they need to address.

This “democratization” of data and tools would potentially trigger interest and thus education of the potential users, similarly to the way Google Earth functions and the awareness about performances of very high-resolution optical satellites.

Figure showing that Scales depend on a number of aspects, and scales of any two processes may largely overlap.

Scales depend on a number of aspects, and scales of any two processes may largely overlap.

3.2 Scale

Scale turned out to be a very complex issue to address. Even the very concept of scale was questioned by arguing that a hierarchy of scales is not a correct representation of the urban reality and a system of interlaced and overlapping scales should be used instead. Some scales represented are physical and some are socially or politically based. For example, scales of a physical model on groundwater recharge and scales of decision-making processes generally do not overlap, although they have to fit with each other for a correct planning to be carried out; remotely sensed data works on other, different scales, which add even more complexity.

Consequently, a dedicated ontology should be developed. Other interesting themes that emerged included:

  • There is a common misperception that “finer is more accurate” in terms of spatial resolution; this is not the case because a higher resolution dataset simply implies more pixels and more detailed land cover features being observed in the imagery that can potentially lead to poor accuracy;
  • More subtly, a wrong perception that finer and finer resolution in remote sensing data will eventually lead to potential identification of every details about the observed urban areas without realization that there will be numerous different land cover classes and features sharing the same spectral responses;
  • With regards to fine resolution data, what remains missing is the contextual and perhaps social view of what is being observed (“Socialization of the Pixel”);
  • Another important issue to be considered for a fine resolution data is that it takes longer processing time or makes it impossible to perform a classification, especially when using an algorithm that requires extensive computation such as an object-based classifier;
  • Linked to the above, convincing stakeholders of the usefulness of mid- and low-resolution remote sensing data for processes at the appropriate scale; this is vital because it provides cost-efficiency, processing efficiency, and larger area coverage.

3.3 Data

Data was the least controversial topic we encountered. The experts in the workshop were well aware of the abundantly available data. The use and selection of data generally depends on availability of budget, level of scale or spatial resolution required to generate land-use and land-cover classes or indices, spectral bands required to achieve the objectives, and expert knowledge of or familiarity with the type of remotely sensed data. Given our extensive knowledge, the conversation turned to:

  • How to exploit the abundance of remote sensing data without being overwhelmed by the effort of locating the correct repository and finding the right dataset (e.g., data silos);
  • How to translate remote sensing data into geospatial information at different scales (links to previous topics).

Various guidelines were proposed:

  • Improving access and processing tools;
  • Improving data comparability and compatibility;
  • In general “democratizing data”, i.e. making it more easily accessible and processable.

3.4 Case studies, Outreach, Scenarios, Typologies

The second day of the workshop involved a deeper interaction between the two workshops, as a series of cross-cutting issues were discussed.

Case studies were discussed as a means to test and showcase models and techniques, and possible applications.

A strong need for outreach was recognized. Not many potentially relevant stakeholders and policy makers are convinced that remote sensing data can be useful for their work, and this is one of the biggest hindrances to routine use of remote sensing in urban planning and management for a sustainable future.

Urbanization scenarios are important for stakeholders to make the correct decisions, and the construction of scenarios should be started with the stakeholders’ engagement.

Defining city typologies is necessary to compare them across case studies. It is interesting to wonder what are the typologies that can be defined based only on remotely sensed data. Elements of the classification do not necessarily have a “snapshot” character. Rather, changes in time also are considered.

4. Take-home Points

The workshop represents just one step of a continuing effort to understand a complex and diversified environment such as urban areas, and especially what remote sensing techniques and technologies can do to improve their growth, policy formulation, planning, and management. The workshop participants are currently engaged in several communication activities, including outreach, software development, organized sessions at meetings, and publications. We are creating a pilot website (J-Earth) to facilitate access to remotely sensed data and tools. In addition, manuscripts are being written for publication in a variety of peer-reviewed and outreach outlets. These summarize the workshop but more importantly, they identify what we believe are next steps and opportunities for the broader research community.

The overall impression is that, notwithstanding a great deal of work carried out in the past to bridge the gap between available technology and requests for information provision, there is still much to do. There seems to be a continuing mismatch between what remote sensing can offer and what stakeholders ask for; this is certainly, partly due to a lack of mutual understanding, given the different points of view and even different languages spoken by the two communities. Unrealistic expectations (including the cost of services) on one side and naïve offerings on the other side seems to be quite commonplace. This calls for more bridging actions in the future, such as this joint workshop.

References

[1] Wentz, Elizabeth A., David Nelson, Atiqur Rahman, William L. Stefanov, Shoursaseni Sen Roy 2008. Expert system classification of urban land use/cover for Delhi, India International Journal of Remote Sensing 29 (15): 4405-4427.

[2] Keys, Eric, Elizabeth A. Wentz, Charles Redman 2007. The spatial structure of land use from 1970-2000 in the Phoenix, Arizona metropolitan area. Professional Geographer 59(1): 131-147.

[3] Myint, S.W., Wang, L. 2006. Multi-criteria Decision Approach for Land Use Land Cover Change Using Markov Chain Analysis and Cellular Automata Approach. Canadian Journal of Remote Sensing 32(6):390-404.

[4] Myint, S.W., Jain, J., Lukinbeal, C., Lara-Valencia, F., 2010. Simulating urban growth on the U.S.-Mexico border: Nogales, Arizona and Nogales, Sonora, Canadian Journal of Remote Sensing , 36(3): 166-184.

[5] Weng, Q. : A remote sensing-GIS evaluation of urban expansion and its impact on surface temperature in the Zhujiang Delta, China. International Journal of Remote Sensing, vol. 22, issue 10, pp. 1999-2014, 2001.

[6] Myint, S.W., Brazel, A., Okin, G., Buyantuyev, A.. 2010. An interactive function of impervious and vegetation covers in relation to the urban heat island effect in a rapidly urbanizing desert city, GIScience and Remote Sensing 47: (3) 301-320.

[7] J.A Voogt, T.R Oke, Thermal remote sensing of urban climates, Remote Sensing of Environment, Volume 86, Issue 3, 15 August 2003, Pages 370-384, ISSN 0034-4257, 10.1016/S0034-4257(03)00079-8.

[8] Myint, S.W., 2006. Urban vegetation mapping using sub-pixel analysis and expert system rules: A critical approach, International Journal of Remote Sensing 27(12-14):2645-2665.

[9] Myint, S. W., Jyoti, J., Guhathakurta, S. 2010 Patterns and rates of land use change: a case study of Ambos Nogales (Arizona and Sonora), Journal of Latin American Geography 9(3): 246-274.

[10] Ridd, M.K.: Exploring a V-I-S (vegetaton-impervious surface-soil) model for urban ecosystem analysis through remote sensing: comparative anatomy for cities. International journal of remote sensing, 1995, vol. 16, no12, pp. 2165-2185 (2 p.1/2).

[11] Myint, S.W., and G.S. Okin, 2009. Modelling land-cover types using multiple endmember spectral mixture analysis in a desert city, International Journal of Remote Sensing, 30(9):2237 – 2257.

[12] Myint, S.W., Gober, P., Brazel, A, Grossman-Clarke, S., and Weng, Q., 2011. Per-pixel versus object-based classification of urban land cover extraction using high spatial resolution imagery, Remote Sensing of Environment 115(2011): 1145-1161.

[13] Dell’Acqua, F.; Gamba, P.; , “Texture-based characterization of urban environments on satellite SAR images,” Geoscience and Remote Sensing, IEEE Transactions on , vol.41, no.1, pp. 153- 159, Jan 2003. DOI: 10.1109/TGRS.2002.807754

[14] Dell’Acqua, F.; Gamba, P.; Ferrari, A.; Palmason, J.A.; Benediktsson, J.A.; Arnason, K.; , “Exploiting spectral and spatial information in hyperspectral urban data with high resolution,” Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters, IEEE , vol.1, no.4, pp. 322- 326, Oct. 2004. doi: 10.1109/LGRS.2004.837009

[15] Gamba, P.; Dell’Acqua, F.; Lisini, G.; , “Change Detection of Multitemporal SAR Data in Urban Areas Combining Feature-Based and Pixel-Based Techniques,” Geoscience and Remote Sensing, IEEE Transactions on , vol.44, no.10, pp.2820-2827, Oct. 2006. DOI: 10.1109/TGRS.2006.879498

[16] Stilla, U.; Gamba, P.; Juergens, C.; Maktav, D.; , “Preface,” Urban Remote Sensing Event (JURSE), 2011 Joint , vol., no., pp.V-VI, 11-13 April 2011 DOI: 10.1109/JURSE.2011.5764702

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Earthzine invites undergraduate and graduate students from around the world to submit an essay for its 2011 Third Annual College and University Student Essay and Blogging Contest. This year’s contest theme is “How Can Earth Observation Help Us to Build a More Sustainable World?”

Earthzine, an online publication dedicated to promoting the societal benefits of Earth observation and Earth information, is conducting a competition to encourage students to explore the role of Earth observation in creating a sustainable world.

Students are invited to submit original essays that describe, reflect upon, or envision roles for Earth observation in improving sustainability around the globe. Earth observation includes technological solutions such as satellite observation, navigation and positioning systems; in situ observations, international web-based collaboration and data sharing initiatives; and social perspectives that address sustainability through a better understanding of our planet.. From local to global benefits, we are interested in essays that address the potential of Earth observation to meet the environmental challenges we face.

After an initial judges’ review, Earthzine will post candidate essays on its website. The author(s) of the essay will be invited to lead a blog about their essay and to participate in blogs of competing essays. Winners will be determined based on the overall quality of the essay and blog.

Winners will share $1,200 in prizes, with $500 for the first prize. They also will receive certificates. All finalists will receive an Earthzine T-shirt.

Eligibility: Enrollment in any (e.g. American, European, African, Asian, etc.) undergraduate or graduate degree program at an accredited college or university, attending full or part-time at the time of essay submission. Please indicate your anticipated year of graduation and the contact email of your registrar.

Submission Guidelines:

*The submission deadline is Dec. 22, 2011 (Solstice).
*Winners will be announced on March 20, 2012 (Equinox).
*Essays should be no longer than 2,500 words and should conform to Earthzine’s Writer’s Guidelines. See earthzine.org/about.
*All essays must be original and previously unpublished.
*Please include a brief (<100 words) biographical sketch of the student, corresponding mailing address and T-shirt size.
*Images are welcome, but must be either owned by the author or in the public domain.
*Failure to comply with the Submission Guidelines may result in disqualification.
*Earthzine reserves the right to edit any content posted on its site.
*Queries and final essays should be sent to Dr. David Mullins, Associate Editor for Education, at dmullins@sf.edu.

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(Issue #16, 11 October 2011)


IMPLEMENTING GEOSS

G20 calls for GEO Global Agricultural Monitoring initiative (GEO-GLAM)
First proposed by the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) and various research centers in G20 countries, the Global Agricultural Monitoring initiative was launched at the Paris meeting of G20 Agriculture Ministers in June 2011. The initiative forms part of the G20 Action Plan on Food Price Volatility, which also includes the Agricultural Market Information System (AMIS) initiative led by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Continued…

How ACRE recovers historical weather data
The International Atmospheric Circulation Reconstructions over the Earth (ACRE) Initiative both undertakes and facilitates the recovery of historical observations of the weather over the terrestrial and marine areas of the Earth’s surface. These observations are vital for underpinning three-dimensional (3D) global weather reconstructions (reanalyses) spanning the last 200-250 years. Continued…

The GEOSS workshop series turns its focus to societal benefits
GEOSS Workshop XLIII on “Sharing Climate Information and Knowledge” was held on 23 September at NCAR Center Green in Boulder, Colorado, USA, concluding a week of related meetings organized by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) and partner organizations. Continued…

ISPRS symposium explores advances in environmental monitoring for health
The International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS) Technical Commission VIII Working Group 2 (Health) organized an international symposium on “Advances for Geospatial Technologies for Health” in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA on 12-13 September 2011. Continued…

GEO UPDATE

Colombia becomes 88th GEO Member
The Government of Colombia joined GEO on 29 August. It will be represented by the Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies and by the Geographical Institute Augustin Codazzi.

Preparations advance for GEO-VIII Plenary in Istanbul
The agenda and other documents for November’s meeting of the GEO Plenary have been distributed to GEO Principals. Information on logistical arrangements has been posted on the GEO-VIII website

GEO Committees hold September meetings
The four GEO Committees met individually as well as in a joint session during the week of 12 September in Salzburg, Austria. The meetings were hosted by the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) at the Mozarteum University of Salzburg, Austria. The following articles provide brief summaries of each meeting; the meeting reports will be posted on the GEO website when available.

CBC addresses transition to new Work Plan
At its September meeting in Salzburg, the Capacity Building Committee (CBC) assessed the progress being made on the Tasks that it supports, reviewed the Work Plan Progress Report covering the period since the Beijing Plenary, and discussed the draft 2012-2015 Work Plan that will be submitted to the GEO­-VIII Plenary in November. Continued…

STC addresses Tasks, performance indicators, management transition
The GEO Science and Technology Committee (STC) met on 12-13 September for the 17th time since it was established in 2006. The meeting reviewed updates on the STC-led Tasks ST-09-01 on “Catalyzing Research and Development (R&D) Resources for GEOSS” and ST-09-02 on “Promoting Awareness and Benefits of GEO in the Science and Technology Community.” Continued…

UIC focuses on the importance of user engagement
The 19th meeting of the GEO User Interface Committee (UIC) discussed the importance of ensuring that the issue of user engagement is fully addressed by the new Work Plan’s Implementations Boards on Institutions and Development and on the Societal Benefits. Continued…

ADC sprints to Plenary
The 17th meeting of the Architecture and Data Committee (ADC) addressed preparations for the GEO-VIII Plenary, including the planned demonstration of the GEOSS Common Infrastructure (GCI) and responses to the Monitoring and Evaluation Report and the 2012-2015 Work Plan. Continued…

ANNOUNCEMENTS

GEOSS Asia-Pacific Symposium to be held in India on 23-25 January 2012
The Fifth GEOSS Asia-Pacific Symposium, which was postponed earlier this year due to the natural disasters that struck Japan, has been rescheduled for January in Ahmedabad, India. The theme will be “GEOSS Initiative towards Green Growth in the Asia-Pacific Region,” and the technical sessions will cover the Asian Water Cycle Initiative, the Asia-Pacific Biodiversity Observation Network, Forest Carbon Tracking, and Ocean Observation and Climate, and Agriculture and Food Security. The Symposium website will be available shortly.

Abu Dhabi to host Eye on Earth Summit from 12 to 15 December 2011
The Eye on Earth Summit will bring together senior policymakers and global thought leaders with the world’s leading environmentalists and specialists in data gathering, management and sharing. Continued…

Second Asia/Oceania Meteorological Satellite Users’ Conference
This GEO-sponsored conference is being organized by the Japan Meteorological Agency from 6-9 December in Tokyo. Its goals are to share experiences on application techniques among satellite data users, advance satellite observation technologies and promote synergetic development related to meteorological satellites. For more information please visit the conference website

4th International Conference on GEographic Object Based Image Analysis
GEOBIA 2012 will be held 7-9 May 2012 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and is been jointly organized by the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio) and by the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research (INPE). Further details can be found on the conference website

Symposium on leveraging satellite applications for global change
UNITAR and WMO will host a Symposium on “Leveraging Satellite Applications for Global Challenges” in Geneva on 11-12 October 2011. In addition to providing the first Geneva-based briefing on the International Charter for Space and Major Disasters, the Symposium will explore lessons learned regarding the use of satellite imagery for case studies on natural disasters (Pakistan flooding) and human security (South Sudan). Further information is available here

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“Multi-million” euro agreement covers engineering and flight model phases of a next-generation optical payload for Earth observation.

The French infrared detector specialist Sofradir will supply the high-resolution focal plane arrays used in a new constellation of Earth observation military satellites being built by a European consortium.

The “multinational space-based system” (MUSIS) comprises a partnership between France, Germany, Belgium, Spain, Greece, Italy and Poland, and is designed to replace the existing Helios II satellites with visible and IR imaging technology at a higher resolution.

France is providing the optical space component (CSO) visible and IR imaging elements of MUSIS, while Germany and Italy are working on a pair of radar imagers, and Spain is to provide a broadband imager called “Ingenio”.

France Astrium is the prime contractor for the CSO satellite development contract, having been awarded that deal by the French space agency CNES last year. Sofradir describes the detector contract as being worth “multi-million” euros and says that it will deliver the high-end mercury cadmium telluride (MCT) components to Thales Alenia Space France, which is building the optical systems used in the satellites, by 2015. As the only high-volume MCT manufacturer outside the US, Sofradir has already been working on the development since 2005.

State of the art

“After our successful involvement in the satellites Helios IIA and IIB, launched in 2004 and 2009 respectively, Sofradir is proud to be part of the MUSIS/CSO project and have the continued confidence of the French MoD and TAS,” said Philippe Bensussan, chairman and CEO at Sofradir.

“Our expertise in developing state-of-the-art IR detectors for Earth observation applications will be further strengthened through this collaboration.”

The next-generation satellite system is designed to deliver enhanced intelligence by improving on the optical resolution and detector sensitivity within the existing Helios II satellites, and also disseminating the images captured by the satellites more quickly than is currently possible.

Handling the huge amounts of data created by high-resolution aerial and satellite imaging at a speed that can benefit forces on the ground was identified by Regina Dugan, director of the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) as a major bottleneck earlier this year in a plenary talk at the SPIE Defense, Security and Sensing (DSS) conference.

“We are swimming in sensors; drowning in data,” said Dugan at the time, while indicating that much of the data is produced by optical sensors like visible-range surveillance cameras, and infrared and hyperspectral imaging technologies.

Germany, Belgium, Spain, France and Greece signed a letter of intent to create MUSIS in November 2008, while Italy joined the consortium in early 2009 and Poland signed up in late 2010.

In June this year, the Spanish wing of Thales Alenia Space said it had been awarded contracts worth a total of €7.5 million, covering the design, development, manufacturing, qualification, and supply of electronics for the focal plane of the optical instruments, and a service module for the two high-resolution CSO satellites for MUSIS.

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avionweek

Requirements and examples of products for analysis at a European and regional level

Geoland2 project aims at developing and demonstrating a range of reliable, affordable and cost efficient European geo-information services, supporting the implementation of European Directives and their National implementation, as well as European and International policies.

Planetek Italia and ISPRA promote a workshop dedicated to the dissemination of some of the Geoland2 activities as well as to related projects legacy over the Italian territory. A special emphasis will be placed in the description of the 5 High Resolution layers (HR): Imperviousness, Water Bodies, Wetland, Agricultural and Forests. The key aspect is to present a realistic and convincing overview where HR layers may support environmental reporting, together with examples of how the HR-layers can be used for CORINE LC update. The focus should be on the regional/national usage of the data – not only for pan-European analysis.

The workshop wants to stimulate and promote the debate around new land monitoring techniques based on Earth Observation data, and how this can create new opportunities for Public Administrations.

This workshop wants to represent an opportunity to discuss other approaches for land monitoring and spatial information analysis across Europe. The format of this workshop is similar to other initiatives with a common objective to raise user awareness across Europe with regards to the use of the 5 HR layers for which Geoland2 contributed substantially for the prototype development.

GeoLand2 will be presented next 16th November 16-18, 2011 during the XV Italian Conference ASITA.

LINKS
Official website GMES-Geoland
Project Description
Event information and subscriptions

11th October 2011


In this Issue
1. European Parliament Discusses EC Communication Addressing GMES
2. DG Enterprise & Industry Highlights the New Space Policy
3. Conference on European Union Space Policy
4. End of European Remote-Sensing Satellite Missions
5. Artic Sea Ice Reaches New Low Record
6. ESA Awards New GMES Contract
GMES Project Corner:
7. Activations of GMES Emergency Management Service
8. G-MOSAIC Second User Workshop
9. MyOcean Product Showcase
10. MACC Stratospheric Ozone Service

1. European Parliament Discusses EC Communication Addressing GMES

At its meeting of 30-31 August 2011, the European Parliament Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) had an exchange of views on the Commission Communication “Towards a space strategy for the European Union that benefits its citizens”. Rapporteur at the EP is Aldo Patriciello from the Group of the European People’s Party. One of the top priorities for the future EU space policy set out by this Communication is implementing, in close collaboration with Member States, the European Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) programme.

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2. DG Enterprise & Industry Highlights the New Space Policy

The Enterprise & Industry (European Commission’s Directorate General) magazine n°11 was released on 8 September 2011. An article in this issue highlights the new space policy that the European Commission is developing to ensure continued success to this strategically important sector, and the role which security-related research plays in protecting European citizens.

Read More…

3. Conference on European Union Space Policy

Under the theme “A space policy for society and citizens”, the 4th annual Conference on European Union Space Policy will take place in Brussels (Belgium) on 8 and 9 November 2011. Among other things, this event offers a perfect opportunity for policy-makers, business leaders, scientists and representatives of civil society to take stock of the current state of the two large-scale programmes in development, Galileo and GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security), directly from those in charge of them.

Read More…

4. End of European Remote-Sensing Satellite Missions

The European Remote-Sensing (ERS) missions of the European Space Agency (ESA) ended on 5 September 2011, after 20 years of continuous high-quality data covering the oceans, land, ice and atmosphere. They paved the way for the development of many new Earth observation techniques. To reduce the risk of collision with other satellites or space debris, the average altitude of the ERS-2 observation satellite had already been lowered from 785km to about 573km before it was safely taken out of service. This summer, the satellite took one last image over the Antilles Islands in the Caribbean.

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5. Artic Sea Ice Reaches New Low Record

On 8 September 2011 the Arctic sea ice extent index reached a new historical low point, according to the calculations of a research team at the University of Bremen, which has been observing the sea ice at both poles for many years. Already in July the new record minimum had been expected because in this month the sea ice extent was minimum, compared with the same month in other years. While the Northeast Passage (also known as the Northern Sea Route) has been open to shipping traffic since mid-August, the Northwest Passage –so recently a hostile challenge– could soon become navigable as well.

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6. ESA Awards New GMES Contract

The European Space Agency (ESA) has recently signed a three-year contract with Astrium Services for the provision of satellite images to public institutions in Europe under the terms of the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) programme. This contract, initially worth 17 million euros, is being funded by the European Commission. ESA is developing and managing the space component for the GMES initiative.

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GMES Projects’ Corner

7. Activations of GMES Emergency Management Service

The GMES Emergency Management Service powered by SAFER (Services and Applications for Emergency Response), a project co-funded under the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Commission, reinforces the EU capacity to respond to emergency situations: it provides a reactive cartographic service to the registered users involved in the management of humanitarian crisis, natural disasters and man-made emergency situations with timely and high quality products derived from Space Observation. During the period covered by this issue (August-September 2011), the SAFER Service has been activated three times due to fires in Greece and Bulgaria, as well as flooding in Pakistan.

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8. G-MOSAIC Second User Workshop

The G-MOSAIC (GMES services for Management of Operations, Situation Awareness and Intelligence for regional Crises) Collaborative Project will provide the European Union with intelligence data that can be applied to early warning and crisis prevention as well as to crisis management and rapid interventions in hot spots around the world. It aims at identifying and developing products, methodologies and pilot services for the provision of geo-spatial information in support to EU external relations policies and at contributing to define and demonstrate the sustainability of GMES global security services. It began in January 2009. This article reports on the project’s Second User Workshop which took place this summer.

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9. MyOcean Product Showcase

Within the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security programme (GMES), the aim of MyOcean project is to provide a sustainable service for Ocean Monitoring and Forecasting validated and commissioned by users. Its information includes observations, analysis, reanalysis and forecasts describing the physical state of the ocean and its primary biogeochemical parameters. The project recently published its new product showcase.

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10. MACC Stratospheric Ozone Service

MACC (Monitoring Atmospheric Composition and Climate) is the project establishing the core global and regional atmospheric environmental services delivered as a component of Europe’s GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security) initiative. It is funded under the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Union and began on 1 June 2009. To illustrate the evolution of ozone hole, MACC has recently put together an animation showing the amount of ozone day after day during the months of August and September from 2003 until 2011.

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Source GMES.Info

More than 100 ideas have been submitted to the first GMES Masters Competition between 1 July and 15 September 2011.

Initiated by the European Space Agency (ESA), the Bavarian Ministry of Economy, the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and T-Systems ( and supported by the EU), the new innovation competition will reward the best projects and business ideas for a GMES commercial service in five categories:

Ideas Challenge
Best Service Challenge
ESA App Challenge
DLR Environmental Challenge
T-Systems Cloud Computing Challenge

Dedicated experts are currently assessing the submitted proposals while for the Best Service Challenge the winner has already been selected by the online audience: SRRS – Satellite Rapid Response System, submitted by Luca Mellano from the Italian company CHELYS. SRRS performs real-time processing of satellite data from ESA and NASA missions, making these data available only 2 minutes after acquisition. SRRS ‘ strength is instant availability: raw data are processed without waiting for them to become higher level products, meaning no reliance on processing times in reception centres, and instant access to images and data for users and researchers on any type of client (mobiles, PCs, tablets, etc.).

All other winners will be announced at the Awards Ceremony on 19 October 2011.

The overall winner of the competition – the GMES Master – will be selected among the winners of the Ideas Challenge, ESA App Challenge, DLR Environmental Challenge, and T-Systems Cloud Computing Challenge. The GMES Master will receive a cash prize of 20,000 Euro.

The results of the first European Earth Monitoring Competition will be published on the competition website www.gmes-masters.com on 20 October 2011.

For further information on the GMES programme please refer to www.esa.int/gmes & www.gmes.info

The winning service of the first GMES Masters Best Service Challenge performs real-time processing of satellite data making it instantly available for users and researchers who need to respond quickly in emergency situations. From 25 services, the audience chose SRRS – Satellite Rapid Response System as the most beneficial services for European citizens.

The Best Service Challenge was launched as one category of the first European Earth Monitoring Competition, the GMES Masters 2011, as an online audience award. 25 existing services have been uploaded to the GMES Master’s website from various service providers. All visitors of www.gmes-masters.com had the opportunity to register and vote for the service they regarded most beneficial for European citizens. A clear majority chose SRRS – Satellite Rapid Response System with a total of 559 public votes. The emergency service was submitted by Luca Mellano from the Italian company CHELYS.

SRRS was created to make satellite data in form of images or value-added products available as quickly as possible to be used in response to emergency situations. The system performs real-time processing of satellite data from ESA and NASA missions, making these data available only two minutes after acquisition. SRRS’ strength is instant availability: raw data are processed without waiting for them to become higher level products, meaning no reliance on processing times in reception centres, and thereby enabling instant access to images and data for users and researchers on any type of client such as mobiles, PCs or tablets.

About the GMES Masters:

From 2011 onwards the GMES Masters will reward on an annual basis the best projects and business ideas for a GMES commercial service, with the aim to support the development of GMES related entrepreneurship in Europe. Initiated by the European Space Agency (ESA), the Bavarian Ministry of Economy, the German Aerospace Center (DLR), T-Systems, and supported by the EU, the GMES Masters 2011 has called for proposals between 1 July and 15 September 2011 in five categories. The overall winner of the competition – the GMES Master 2011 – will be selected among the winners of the Ideas Challenge, ESA App Challenge, DLR Environmental Challenge, and T-Systems Cloud Computing Challenge and receive a cash prize of 20,000 Euro.

The winners of the first European Earth Monitoring Competition will be awarded on 19 October and the results published on the competition website www.gmes-masters.com on 20 October 2011.

Anwendungszentrum GmbH
Oberpfaffenhofen
Friedrichshafener Str. 1
D-82205 Gilching

Managing Director
Thorsten Rudolph
Munich Municipal Court
HRB 150 549

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GRAS provides innovative mapping solutions worldwide based on satellite and aerial imagery


ABOUT GRAS

GRAS is specialised in earth observation, satellite image processing and GIS analyses for assessment of natural resources, environmental impact assessment and very high resolution mapping. Water quality monitoring and mapping of land cover, urban areas, vegetation and coastal change has been carried out in most parts of the world and often in interdisciplinary project settings in close collaboration with engineers, botanists, coastal experts, anthropologists etc.
Since 2000 GRAS has completed more than 150 projects in 50 countries worldwide. Most of these projects are related to environmental assessment and detection of changes based on time series of satellite images. Examples of the diversity of the scope of services include sea ice and vegetation mapping in Arctic areas, detailed mapping of urban environments in Europe, land cover and forest cover mapping in South America and mapping of water quality and turbidity in South East Asia.

GRAS has a long track record of delivering high quality services both within satellite based water quality monitoring and land cover and vegetation mapping. Furthermore GRAS is an official distributor of all the most popular satellite images and also maintains a number of operational processing chains delivering image data in near real time to clients around the world. GRAS is owned by DHI – an independent, international consulting and research organisation specialised in water, environment and health – but also closely associated with the Department of Geography and Geology at the University of Copenhagen. GRAS works closely with universities, research institutions and commercial partners in order to develop improved and cost effective methods that can be applied in projects. Map of GRAS activities

EO SERVICES AND PROJECTS

Monitoring

Remote sensing is a unique tool for extracting information about oceans, lakes and other water bodies. With Earth Observation satellites it is possible to map large areas instantaneously and systematically which enables the user to monitor the development in ocean parameters such as sea surface temperature, and chlorophyll-a or sediment concentrations. Remote sensing is a very cost-effective method for marine monitoring and the relevant information can be delivered in near real time. The method can also be applied to land areas where dynamic features such as snow cover, land surface temperatures, flooding and vegetation status can be monitored.

GRAS is specialised in setting up operational systems for monitoring the environment. Satellite images are automatically processed to the relevant products and several times a day and delivered via ftp or email to clients anywhere in the world.

Project example: Operational monitoring of suspended sediments

GRAS has been involved in several mapping and monitoring services related to detection of total suspended matter (TSM). For the areas of interest automated mapping of TSM for historic time series has been conducted. Daily automated maps and data of TSM have been produced and delivered in near real time to the clients. This information is important for monitoring environmental compliance or for model calibration.

Mapping and feature extraction

Land cover mapping represents perhaps the most common and useful application of satellite remote sensing and land cover mapping is used within a wide range of applications including natural resource management, urban planning, hydrological modelling and exploration of oil, gas, and minerals. GRAS has profound expertise in mapping of land cover and feature extraction of desired objects in various regions worldwide. GRAS is using state-of-the-art object-based image analysis for mapping and feature extraction.

Project example: Vegetation and snow mapping in West Greenland

GRAS has performed vegetation and snow mapping in an area located in Western Greenland for use in the preparation of a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) for the construction of a large hydroelectric plant.

Change Detection

The access to historical data makes it possible to detect land cover back in time and the continued supply of new image data allows monitoring and detection of changes in land cover in the observed period of time. Up-to-date land cover maps and change detection maps are often used in environmental impact assessments.

Project example: Change Detection of Forest Cover in Peru

GRAS has performed land cover mapping and change detection in a rain forest environment in Amazonas, Peru. GRAS has worked with archaeologists, anthropologists and botanists to synthesise land cover changes over the past 500 years, with detailed analyses supported by satellite images and GIS to document changes over the past 35 years.

Training and Capacity building

Capacity building is an essential part of our activities and we assist the implementation of projects through training. In this way the methods can be developed and customised to match the actual needs of the client. Based on long term and thorough experience with GIS and Image Analysis, GRAS offers training courses within GIS and Remote Sensing software and applications. The training courses can be customized to the user’s specific needs and ideally involves local case stories and data from the users. Often the image analysis applications are accompanied by collection of ground truth data with GPS. GRAS has a broad experience with collection of ground truth and teaching within these subjects as well.

Project example: Remote Sensing and Mobile GIS to assist health survey

GRAS was responsible for implementing the use of Remote Sensing and Mobile GIS in a research project related to health surveying in Ghana, Western Africa. Following land cover mapping and development of Mobile GIS applications, GRAS has been building local capacity and transferring of knowhow to local stakeholders through workshops and training sessions.

Further information at www.grasdk.com
GRAS – Geographic Resource Analysis & Science A/S
Geocenter Denmark, Øster Voldgade 10
1350 Copenhagen K, Denmark
Phone: +45 3532 4175
gras@grasdk.com
www.grasdk.com

Eomag!27_GRAS (Denmark) (Autumn 2011).pdf

According to Frost & Sullivan analyst Daniel Longfield: “The explosion in the collection of advanced imagery and other spatial data and its consumption by non-GIS experts necessitates solutions to make data-rich intelligence more conveniently available and actionable by the broader enterprise and in the field.” , extracted from Susan Smith, GISCafe.com Managing Editor.

In mid-September geospatial companies GeoEye and TerraGo entered into a partnership to increase the access of their content to their broad community of users.

GeoEye has developed an access platform called EyeQ that allows them to stream out imagery through web services and their web interface. One of the early customers for that technology was the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA). “The service makes all the imagery we collect on behalf of the NGA available online to be used by commanders, warfighters, and any user from the federal government that needs for that content,” said Tony Frazier, GeoEye senior vice president of Marketing. “We noted that many users in the community need to be able to take that content on the go and also collaborate through lightweight mobile tools. TerraGo is really a market leader in that space. We licensed technology from TerraGo to enable users to download our imagery in a GeoPDF format.”

GeoEye references both the work to extend their GeoIQ access platform to enable users to take that imagery on the go with a GeoPDF while at the same time collaborating on value added use cases where they can push value added products out to that same format. They are going to demonstrate at GEOINT how the right imagery can find users rather than the users always having to go looking for it.

On the TerraGo side, about 1,000 production customers create GeoPDF mapbooks, maps and imagery but there are about at least 10,000 organizations around the world who consume GeoPDF, that’s evidenced by the TerraGo toolbar.

“The GeoPDF is generic, in the Adobe environment as well so that number could be low,” noted Richard Cobb, president and CEO for TerraGo. “If you look at that user population of consumers, the 10,000 organizations are largely in areas other than defense and intelligence which would be crisis management and response. Numerable vertical industries could leverage imagery with the Terrago platform.”

“The whole idea of portability and mobility of spatial data imagery is the hardest problem,” Cobb said. “It’s big and complex and cumbersome. It’s going to take some work to crack that code.” The average size of a single file of high resolution imagery – a single image strip – a unit measure of what GeoEye would collect on a pass — could be upwards of 8 Gb of storage and requirement, and so part of the value of being able to have this online is being able to pick what product you want rather than downloading the whole thing.

“That solved part of the problem which is to find content you really care about,” said Cobb. “Another challenge is it’s still big data. One of the benefits of GeoPDF is you can take large files and compress them down into a format where people who don’t have access to great communications infrastructure can get access to great quality content and take it on the go. We’ve seen some examples of products that would be more than 200 Mb in size get compressed to 100th of that using GeoPDF.”

Downloads of the US Geological Survey’s (USGS) quadrangle maps increased from an average of 4,000 per month to nearly 150,000 per month following the introduction of TerraGo’s GeoPDF technology and software, which at the time was in the form of Topo Quads, 11 ½ min quads. These were offered at the USGS store online as geotiffs. In the past two or three years the National Map Program of the USGS has been creating the U.S. Topo that currently has eight layers of data that includes hydro information, one meter NAIP imagery,topo maps for elevation, and newly added vegetation maps. They have quickly gone from zero to 127,000 US topo downloads of GeoPDF. This technology is fast replacing the previous Topo Quads.

Mobile users can now take robust imagery that has been recently gathered and apply it to situational awareness and navigation, and also use it as a basis for collaboration – to collect data that can then be shared using tools and technologies like TerraGo Mobile. “This addresses the challenges of limited bandwidth and the desire for people to collaborate more effectively in the field,” said Cobb. “We believe we’re going to be able to reach not only new users in our existing base but new industries and really expand the penetration of GeoEye imagery dramatically.”

GeoEye has a system in production using their EyeQ technology to power different installations. “The installation we’ve deployed for the U.S. government under the NAIP Program runs in the cloud, and any government user/employee can request access to that system to be able to access imagery on demand. One of our team members that focuses on the state and local government and has been doing quite a bit of work with disaster response,” said Frazier. “Several years ago you couldn’t collect, process and disseminate imagery in enough time to be of use for a first responder. During the recent hurricane Irene that hit the East Coast, one colleague said the customer went from a request to having imagery in their hands within three hours. Being able to collect that content and stream it out – once it’s in a format like GeoPDF— then you can easily distribute it to many people. It allows everyone to have a common operating picture to what’s occurred on the ground.”

With the acquisition of the analytics firm SPADAC, GeoEye can now take not only imagery but other forms of geospatial data, analyzing information and discovering patterns to predict where new events may occur.

“We have tremendous imagery collection assets and we can really capture with our resolution and accuracy a precise view,” said Frazier. “But the adoption is going to be driven by how quickly you can get it into people’s hands, and so investments in enabling technology are a big part of our strategy.”

As more people demand access on mobile devices, TerraGo is stepping up to the plate to offer TerraGo mobile collaboration software to both Android and iOS in the Q4 2011 and Q1 2012 respectively. In the past twelve months, they have released TerraGo on Microsoft Windows Mobile.

“We see definite demand in core markets from working in defense and intelligence who were not traditionally interested in commercial mobile technology,” Frazier pointed out. “That has changed in the last year fairly dramatically. In other markets we serve, the Android and iOS platforms are fairly dominant.”

GeoPDF is a platform for collaboration and the GeoPDF imagery itself is a container that can be merged with other data such as vector data. You can put live services inside of GeoPDF. Cobb said that with intelligent imagery in GeoEye’s EyeQ platform, a GeoPDF can have smart services embedded in it that can act when there is connectivity. With connectivity the services inside the GeoPDF can do “just about anything,” including update itself with local weather, with content from different sources, or newer content during a rapidly moving crisis for example. GeoPDF is a collaboration platform that can be used when you have no connectivity or limited bandwidth also.

Frazier said that three-quarters of GeoEye’s business today is focused on imagery, the balance is producing other types of value added products. “We built over 3,000 3D airport products,” Frazier said. “We look at the exterior imagery of an airport, and we’re able to extract features or vectors that allow us to build a map accurate representation of both the airport itself as well as surrounding elevation and obstructions that can be helped to facilitate safe flight navigation. That’s a value added product we can distribute using this mechanism.”

Articlle by Susan Smith, GISCafe.com Managing Editor
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