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Multi risk preparedness supported by Earth Observation and Eurosense at INTERGEO 2011 (Nürnberg, 27-29/09/2011)

Multi risk preparedness supported by Earth Observation (15.06.2011)

Paper on “Multi risk preparedness supported by Earth Observation” presented at the Gi4DM 2011 Conference – Antalya (Turkey), 03-08 May 2011.

In the context of global warming, intensity and frequency of rainfall events is expected to increase and cause more severe transnational floods. Developed for EC’s Flood Directive, assets mapping (AM) services address the needs of pan-European disaster preparedness. Eurosense developed its AM services in the frame of the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) – Services and Applications for Emergency Response project (SAFER).

No technology can prevent natural hazards, but, Earth Observation (EO) maps and services can support the multiple phases of disaster management (prevention, early warning, in-crisis or post-crisis). By monitoring the hazards impacts, these generic and multi-risk assets mapping services help in preventing risks and deaths and in setting up responsible prevention measures. Assets mapping services comprise multiple criteria: either quantitative (e.g. economical damage and affected people), or qualitative by analysis of the impact (e.g. on the environment).

EO based geo-models integrated in spatial data infrastructure combine EO data with ancillary data such as population census, socio-economic statistics and land-use maps. Three scales of generic products are proposed within SAFER: pan-European, regional and local. Challenges in the development of AM maps are (i) the harmonization at European level and outside the EU, (ii) multi-risk transferability, (iii) the access to input/source data, and (iv) the delivery of dynamic multi-media to interact with users. The validation of these assets mapping services follows a strict quality check protocol (in relation to reference data). The accordance to the directive and relevance in terms of users requirements are part of this validation.

Click here to download the paper

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Intergeo 2011(12.05.2011)

Also in 2011, EUROSENSE will be present with a booth on the INTERGEO-conference.

INTERGEO is one of the most important conferences in the geo-information sector in the world. Also in 2011, EUROSENSE will be present with a booth on this year’s edition held in Nürnberg from the 27th till the 29th of September 2011.
More information on INTERGEO can be found on: http://www.intergeo.de/de/deutsch/index.php

You will find the booth of EUROSENSE in hall 7A, booth number F60. We are eager to welcome you at our booth!

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Following a Membership Campaign, the EARSC Board is glad to welcome two New Companies in our Association: Eurosense s.r.o. Slovakia, Eurosense Romania SRL, Geoville Environmental Services Luxemburg, and GRAS in Denmark

On EARSC behalf, we are certain that new Members will contribute actively to the aims of EARSC enthusiastically involved in coordinating and strengthening the Earth-observation chain and promoting the European Earth observation industry.

The membership increase encourage us in the Board of Directors to continue to do our best to fulfill the tasks that you as members could expect of the association. On EARSC behalf, Welcome!

More information about new member at:

Eurosense Romania SRL

EUROSENSE ROMANIA SRL was established in 2004 in Bucharest, as the local branch of the EUROSENSE group of companies. The company participated in the execution of some of the largest aerophotography projects in Romania in recent years, using always state of the art equipment and technologies and delivering quality products to its clients in the Romanian public administration or to private companies.

Presently EUROSENSE ROMANIA SRL offers a wide range of services and applications in geodata acquisition, mapping, remote sensing and GIS, taking also advantage of the combined resources of the EUROSENSE group.

Our clients in Romania for photogrammetry and remote sensing are, among others: Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Transportation, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Environment, local administration.

Our headquarters are located in Bucharest, this giving us the possibility to have close contacts with all important clients in governmental and private sectors.

More info

Eurosense s.r.o., Slovakia

Eurosense s.r.o. is a 100% % subsidiary of the Eurosense Group. Was established in 1994 and is leading and largest photogrammetric production and services’ subject in Slovakia even compared to state institutes for over 15 years. Its prime focus is to address the local market , but in close cooperation with the other Eurosense subsidiaries also target the regional aspects that are cross-border .It has self-standing technical and production capabilities , but works in close synergy with the mother company.

More info

Geoville Environmental Services, Luxemburg

GeoVille Environmental Services is an internationally operating company in the field of Earth Observation for environmental purposes. Our services are merging sound EO and GI analysis techniques with what the information means for our environment.

We see our position along the value adding chain mainly at the start of the chain, i.e. user requirement analysis, and at the end of the chain, i.e. in quality assessments.

More info

GRAS, Denmark

Geographic Resource Analysis & Science A/S

GRAS provides innovative mapping products and solutions based on satellite images and aerial photographs. We specialise in environmental assessment, water resources and marine monitoring.

  • Environment: Impact assessment, mapping of land cover, forest cover and invasive species
  • Marine Monitoring: Daily monitoring of sediment spill, sea ice, algae and temperature
  • Climate Change: Mapping and monitoring impacts of climate change on local livelihoods and industries
  • Coastal Mapping: Mapping the trend of coastline movement 40 years back in time

GRAS is using information technologies for marine environmental monitoring and for natural resource management. Expertise and experiences cover a wide range of applications within the marine environment, water resources, agriculture and forestry. GRAS is associated with the University of Copenhagen and consequently always up-to-date with the latest technologies and methods.

These include the use of remote sensing data and methods, using geographical information systems (GIS) for assessment of marine parameters, mapping, analysis and compiling comprehensive spatial databases.

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 costumised to match the actual needs of the client.

GRAS was created in October 2000 jointly by the University of Copenhagen and DHI. The company staff is complemented with the expertise and experience of key personnel from the Department of Geography and Geology, University of Copenhagen, within marine environmental assessment and monitoring, natural resource management and Geographic Information Systems (GIS). GRAS is owned by DHI but remains a not-for-profit company; generated revenue is used for further research and development.

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(May 2011) EUROSENSE is partner in 2 ‘eoworld’ projects, namely “Satellite Tools for Building Flood Defense Systems in Guyana’ and ‘EO to Multi-Hazard Vulnerability assessment in Ho Chi Minh (Vietnam) and Yogyakarta (Indonesia)’.

The European Space Agency (ESA) and the World Bank (WB) have agreed to increase their collaboration for the purpose of mainstreaming the use of Earth Observation (EO) in the World Bank. With this goal in mind the World Bank and ESA jointly reviewed and elected 12 projects to be used as test cases for demonstrating the utility of EO-based information in Bank’s operations, called the ‘eoworld’ joint initiative. The main aim of the eoworld initiative is to demonstrate the value of European and Canadian satellites, both ESA and national missions, and the capabilities of specialized value-adding companies that can provide information services to benefit the World Bank’s operations.

EUROSENSE is a partner in 2 of these projects, namely “Satellite Tools for Building Flood Defense Systems in Guyana” and “EO to Multi-Hazard Vulnerability assessment in Ho Chi Minh (Vietnam) and Yogyakarta (Indonesia)”. The projects started in March 2011 and will have a duration of 10 months. Our main part is the production of an urban map and a flood risk analysis of the specific region.

A two-day event took place in April at World Bank headquarters in Washington, DC, that brought ESA, the World Bank and Earth observation information companies (including EUROSENSE) together to get the projects started.

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WALPHOT, partner of EUROSENSE, awarded with aerial acquisition (LiDAR and photography) of burned areas in “High Fens” (Hautes Fagnes / Hoge Venen).

Following the fire of more than 1300 ha in the Natural Reserve of the “High Fens” (Belgium), during the end of month of April, the DEMNA (Département de l’Etude du Milieu Naturel et Agricole) of the SPW (Service Public de Wallonie) wanted to obtain accurate data to realize a precise mapping of vegetation and topography of the ground, and so evaluate the damage. Our partner, WALPHOT, won this project.

The objective is to realize quickly a high resolution topographic survey on the part of the Natural Reserve of the “High Fens” which was affected by fire. The flight (LiDAR and digital aerial camera) must be done very soon because the burned areas grow green again. The parameters of flight allow a specific density for the LiDAR survey of 10 pts /m², and a resolution of 20 cm for aerial photography.

A total of 15 days will be necessary to process and deliver accurate digital orthophotos (resolution of 20cm) and DTM (grid 0.25m) of the area of interest.

The flight was executed on the 30th May 2011.

Source

European Space imaging is happy to be a sponsor of the inaugural Arab-German Majlis organised by the German Emirati Joint Coincil for Industry and Commerce based in Dubai.

The event will take place at the Hotel Bayerischer Hof, Munich and will act as a platform for both Arabic and German companies to come together to network and expand their business relations within a relaxed and friendly majlis-like atmosphere.

The presentations of Roland Berger Consultants, European Space Imaging, SAP, Amereller Legal Consultants and Bauer Kompressoren will be followed by a dinner, hosted by H.E. Martin Zeil, Bavarian Minister of State for Economic Affairs, Infrastructure and Technology.

European Space Imaging will also have a stand at the event.

Source

(09June2011) BMT ARGOSS, a subsidiary of BMT Group, the international design, engineering and risk management consultancy, has announced its latest recruitment drive to further strengthen its ship response expertise and offer additional web-based information services using existing vessel performance monitoring capabilities.

12 new staff including naval architects, wave specialists and software engineers have recently joined the team at the company’s headquarters in the Netherlands and there are plans to recruit six more in the coming year. The new recruits have added further specialist knowledge to BMT ARGOSS’s wealth of MetOcean experience which now includes: hindcasting and forecasting, tidal and ocean current analysis, shallow water bathymetry studies, wave penetration into harbours and high resolution atmospheric modelling.

The new recruits bring experience in the simulation of moored ship response and ship manoeuvring allowing them to provide additional support to the vessel performance management activities carried out by the BMT ARGOSS team operating out of Southampton. This will be closely aligned with BMT’s PC Rembrandt software which is a real time, ship-handling and manoeuvring simulator that provides a method of assessing the safety of ship based infrastructure (e.g. ports or offshore LNG terminals) for safe arrivals and departures in a wide range of environmental conditions and scenarios.

Han Wensink, Director of BMT ARGOSS comments: “The worldwide demand for raw materials and energy is increasing. This means that ports are expanding, the transport of oil and LNG is rising and offshore energy infrastructures such as wind farms are quickly being established. Our ambition is to establish ourselves as a worldwide centre of expertise for MetOcean services and ship response simulation.

Having the highest calibre of people is critical to ensuring we can offer the best possible, specialist advice to our customers in the offshore, coastal and harbour sectors.”

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SPOTMAPS Australia (08/07/2011)

On going updates and high location accuracy

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New volcano eruption in Chile (01/07/2011)

SPOT 4 monitors the plume of ashes
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Astrium to Showcase End-to-End GEO-Information Services Capabilities at the 25th International Cartographic Conference (30/06/2011)

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Astrium GEO-Information Services has increased investment in i-cubed (30/06/2011)

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The 2011 Paris Air Show from space (27/06/2011)

FORMOSAT-2 satellite image of the Parc des Expositions on 24th June 2011

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Emergency Response (10/06/2011)

Service GMES in action and space-based products in SAFER Newsletter No. 1

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USGIF Announces Commercial Synthetic Aperture Radar Satellite Working Group (04/05/2011)

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Press Releases

SPOTMAPS Australia (08/07/2011)

On going updates and high location accuracy

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Astrium to Showcase End-to-End GEO-Information Services Capabilities at the 25th International Cartographic Conference (30/06/2011)

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Astrium GEO-Information Services has increased investment in i-cubed (30/06/2011)

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Source Astrium Services

During its first two years, the Deimos-1 Earth Observation system has undergone constant and significant updates in operations, mission planning and data processing. Its current capability allows the frequent cloud-free coverage of very large areas, providing high-quality data and services while remaining cost-effective.
As examples, Deimos-1 has obtained a complete coverage of the sub-Saharan Africa in the first five months of 2011, and it is currently obtaining two coverages of the US per month.

Deimos-1, the first Spanish Earth Observation satellite, was launched in July 2009, and it is right now completing its first two years of successful operations.

Deimos-1 has been designed specifically to provide high-resolution coverage of very large areas, thanks to its 640-km wide swath at 22-metre resolution. Its data are used in a wide variety of applications including agriculture, forestry and environmental mapping.

DEIMOS Imaging (DMI) owns the complete Deimos-1 Earth Observation system, providing operations, mission planning and data processing, and offering an end-to-end service to customers worldwide.

Taking advantage of the large experience of ELECNOR DEIMOS in similar ESA projects, DMI has developed an advanced mission planning system (PlanEO) which allows optimising image acquisition scheduling in order to complete large coverage campaigns while avoiding clouds. PlanEO is now fully operational in DMI premises in Boecillo, Spain.

The data processing chain has been also continuously improved, increasing the productivity and the quality of the final products, through an on-going cooperation with the Remote Sensing Laboratory of the University of Valladolid and a constant feedback from the users of Deimos-1 data.

The current level of capability of the Deimos-1 system allows to image huge areas within a very short time-frame, providing the equivalent of a single cloud-free acquisition.

During its first year of operations DMI was responsible for an ambitious ESA project aimed at covering in a few months all tropical rainforests in South America and Asia, in the frame of the TropForest initiative. In 2010 Deimos-1 also contributed significantly to the DMCii coverage of the sub-Saharan Africa, acquired for the European GMES programme.

Taking advantage of the improvements in its capabilities, in the first five months of 2011 Deimos-1 has acquired a complete, and almost cloud-free coverage of the sub-Saharan Africa (see image). This dataset will be completed in 2011, and it will soon become available to all European users through the GMES Space Component Data Access (GSCDA).

DMI is also currently providing a complete and almost cloud-free coverage of the Continental US at 22m resolution every two weeks, combining Deimos-1 and UK-DMC2 data (see image), which is used to monitor the US 2011 crop season. Each image is processed and delivered within 72 hours from acquisition, allowing the prompt use of the time-sensitive data by the whole user community.

At the beginning of its third year of operations, the Deimos-1 system keeps improving, in order to provide an even better service to its customers.

About DEIMOS Imaging S.L.

DEIMOS Imaging S.L. (DMI), a Spanish private company, is the owner and operator of the Deimos-1 satellite, and markets its images and value-added products worldwide.
DMI was formed in 2006 and is the company devoted to Earth Observation within ELECNOR DEIMOS, the technology division of ELECNOR. ELECNOR is one of the largest industrial corporations in Spain, involved in engineering, renewable energy, new technologies, and the development and construction of large infrastructure projects.
For more information, please see www.deimos-imaging.com

Notes to editor:
High quality images of the coverages are available upon request from DEIMOS Imaging.

Press contacts:
Fabrizio Pirondini, Business Development Manager,
DEIMOS Imaging S.L.,
Tel: +34 91 806 3450,
Email: fabrizio.pirondini@deimos-imaging.com

U.K.-based satellite imagery provider DMC International Imaging Ltd (DMCii) signed a 110m pounds deal with Beijing-based company 21AT, to provide access to high-resolution satellite imagery for its customers during the Chinese premier’s U.K. visit. 21AT will lease capacity from three new satellites that are to be launched into a new Earth Observation constellation DMC3, which will be owned and operated by DMCii.

Twenty First Century Aerospace Technology Company Ltd. (21AT) is the first customer to adopt DMCii’s innovative new satellite services model. Traditionally, a satellite imagery provider would purchase and operate their own satellites.

However, in this case, 21AT will lease from DMCii 100 percent of the imaging capacity of the three high resolution satellites under a seven-year contract. In return, 21AT will receive timely, high resolution (1 metre GSD) satellite imagery with planning and tasking but without the complexity associated with procuring and operating a satellite constellation.

The three satellites will be built and launched for DMCii by U.K. small satellite pioneer Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. (SSTL) and are scheduled to be ready for launch in 2014. It is anticipated that more satellites will be added to the constellation as additional capacity is required for DMCii’s international customer base and other early adopters of this unique service model.

The 1m panchromatic and 4m multi-spectral imagery from the DMC3 satellites will provide 21AT’s customers with greatly enhanced data continuity from its current satellite, Beijing-1, and by leasing capacity from three satellites, the company will have the power of the new constellation at its disposal – providing both increased resolution with rapid imaging and revisit. Applications for the imaging service include monitoring China’s land use and land cover changes, and enabling regional governments to plan and monitor the phenomenal rate of urban development in China’s cities. With access to the constellation imaging capacity, 21AT will also be able to provide more rapid imaging of the affected area in the event of a disaster because the time between satellite passes over an area is dramatically reduced.

By combining the coverage from three satellites, the DMC3 constellation will be able to revisit a given area daily, which is crucial for change detection, disaster monitoring and response planning, and essential for acquiring cloud-free imagery. Like its SSTL-300 counterpart, the new 350kg satellite also features advanced avionics and optical systems that make it possible to perform several different types of imaging such as mapping terrain, strip imaging and mosaic imaging for wide areas.

UK-based satellite imagery provider DMC International Imaging Ltd (DMCii) signed a £110m deal with Beijing-based company 21AT, to provide access to high-resolution satellite imagery for its customers during the Chinese premier’s UK visit. 21AT will lease capacity from three new satellites that are to be launched into a new Earth Observation constellation “DMC3” which will be owned and operated by DMCii.

21At President Mme Wu Shuang and DMCii executive Chairman Sir Prof. Martin Sweeting sign landmark agreement

An unparalleled collection of high resolution satellite imagery covering sub-Saharan Africa in a single season is available in the DMCii image archive, providing an invaluable snapshot of more than 40 countries, including Cameroon, Congo, and Ethiopia for assessing phenomena such as deforestation, urbanisation and desertification.

The DMCii 2010 coverage, acquired for the European GMES programme, captures a moment in time – providing an irrefutable marker for urbanisation, desertification and forest cover against which future coverage can be compared.

DMCii has now almost completed its second full 2011 update of Africa at 22metre GSD cross calibrated within 1% of Landsat, providing a unique resource for resource management in the continent. Sub-Saharan Africa is a vast and diverse landscape with climatic extremes ranging from arid desert to the Congo rainforest. Satellite imagery is an invaluable tool for monitoring region-wide changes in land use and the environment.

Since the DMC satellites acquire very large images, up to 650km wide, such vast areas can be mapped quickly, and in detail using the 22metre resolution imagers on the DMC satellites. Because the DMC imagers are accurately calibrated to Landsat, they enable detailed comparison with the past 30 years of imagery for changes in crops, forests, rivers and towns. Most importantly, because huge areas can be imaged by the DMC constellation within a short time-frame, the images acquired are acquired at a similar point in time, which is vital for effective monitoring. Processing is also minimised for the end-user – large contiguous images can be assembled to produce clear and accurate continental-scale maps with minimal image analysis and manipulation.

Tropical forests present specific challenges. Because rainforests are frequently obscured by cloud, single satellites often had to acquire images for a decade to map an area. In contrast DMCii liberates forest management from this constraint by coordinating a constellation of satellites which, through daily imaging, acquire cloud-free images whenever there is a gap in the cloud. For the first time annual and seasonal tropical forest maps are available, providing vital information for REDD+ monitoring of forest carbon resources.

The DMCii 22m coverage of sub-Saharan Africa is being fully updated in 2011

(Source DMCii)