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By means of EO-based information extraction and service provision, GIM will be able to deliver improved information content for the geomarketing business sector. Sophisticated image processing techniques applied on EO imagery allow to extract impartial physico-morphological information, seamless cross-boundary data, improved spatial resolution and a better control of the update frequency.

VAE project EOMark addressing new and evolving opportunities for EO-based information services in the geo-marketing and retail business sector

In response to a need to enhance the existing geo-marketing services portfolio with the contribution of Earth Observation (EO) images, ESA awarded a contract under the name Value Added Element (VAE) to GIM for the development of those services. GIM is one of the top ranked private companies in terms of turnover in the EO activities in Belgium.

The first of the four suggested geo-marketing services concerns dasymetric population and purchasing power products with enhanced geographical detail compared to the current product offering. This technique of spatially redistributing statistical data based on the land cover of the area will be applied with low, high and very high resolution land cover maps. The second service corresponds to improved geo-demographic segmentations by offering relevant indicators on the urban land use like the presence of agglomerations, city centres, small urban housing areas, etc. The goal of the third service is to extend existing street segmentations by adding relevant information on the richness of the neighbourhood. In this instance focus is on the extraction of building typologies (detached housing, residential, etc.) and other relevant wealth indicators such as the presence of swimming pools and the size of the garden. This information is derived from very high resolution satellite images. The last service is rich urban maps, offering 3-D city maps at the individual building level which are used to update census data based on the usage and volume of the buildings

By means of EO-based information extraction and service provision GIM and its partner Epsilon will be able to deliver improved information content by using objective physico-morphological information extracted from EO imagery, uniform cross-boundary data, improved spatial resolution and a better control on the update frequency.

It has been agreed in collaboration with the Downstream Partners to test the proposed services on a number of areas of interest such as: Belgium (border region, NUTS 3 regions, and various municipalities), France (border region, Grand Lyon, Lyon municipality and Lille), Belo Horizonte (Brazil), Morocco, Moscow (Russia), Patras (Greece), Milton Keynes (UK) and Bournemouth (UK).

The Downstream Partners are represented by customer organisations of the geo-marketing sector such as MB-Research (Germany) specialised in EU wide purchasing power indicators, Pitney Bowes Business Insight (UK and France), specialist of location intelligence services with 1000+ employees, Experian (Belgium), a global information services company, the Mellon Group (Greece) and organisations of the direct marketing sector such as Bisnode Group (represented by Bisnode Sweden), a global leader in business & market information services.

The Downstream Partners all expressed a clear interest in the proposed services and confirmed that the offer corresponds to the current and future market needs. Additionally, for emerging markets characterised by a lack of accurate statistical data, the market potential is enormous.

The proposed service offering has been approved by ESA in January 2010 during a Service Readiness Review Meeting. The services are being prototyped by GIM and Epsilon and will be tested by the Downstream Partners over the first half of 2010.

VAE is an element of the ESA Earth Observation Envelope Program (EOEP-3). It follows on from its predecessor (EOMD) and maintains focus on the needs of the EO service industry. VAE is starting now its new activities over the financing period of the next 5 years (2008-2012).

About GIM

GIM is an internationally operating EO and GIS services company based in Heverlee near Leuven in Belgium. The company provides consultancy, software application development services and products in the geo-spatial domain. GIM specializes in remote sensing services and GIS applications as well as value adding data services and geo-spatial web applications.
Since start of activities in 1995, GIM has been able to establish a broad international customer base and successfully participated in more than 500 local, national, and European projects.
GIMs customers are to be found in private industry sectors, public organisations and research institutes. GIM is dedicated to provide a wide range of value added services for remotely sensed data and GIS applications in segments such as: defence, disaster management, humanitarian aid, nature resources and environment.

The GIM team has expertise in managing and executing national and international projects. At present, GIM is employing a staff of 30 experts and consultants graduated in earth sciences, engineering and informatics.

GIM uses cutting edge GIS and image processing software and provides consultancy, processing and development capabilities for software components from major G IS and remote sensing software vendors.

Press Contact
GIM
Patricia Desmet
Marketing & Communications Assistant
Patricia.desmet@gim.be
+32 16 40 30 39

March News


Aerodata wins another Dutch nationwide orthophoto tender – Mar 12th, 2010

Aerodata has again been awarded a major contract by the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality (Ministerie van LNV) for flying the entire country of The Netherlands in 2010 (incl surrounding 10km buffer).

This marks the 3rd time Aerodata will be executing the project for this Ministry (previous occasions were 2003 and 2007).

Aerodata has so far executed nationwide aerial photography 6 times:

  • 1992 & 1993 for ROBAS (analogue film)
  • 2003 & 2007 for LNV (analogue film & digital with 2 Ultracam-D’s)
  • 2005 for the Dutch “Rijkswaterstaat” (digital with 1 Ultracam-D)
  • 2009 (@ 10cm GSD) for the Dutch Cadastre in cooperation with Cyclomedia (digital with 3 Ultracam-Xp’s)

In 2010 will execute yet again the 10cm project for the Dutch Cadastre as well as the 25cm project for the Ministery of LNV.

The end product of the latter, a 25cm orthophoto mosaic, will be widely used in various applications, such as crop monitoring, emergency response, soil mapping, and many more.

Flights will start from April onwards and final deliveries are foreseen in September.

Interested parties can request a quote via email or telephone (+32 3 287 00 30)
From September 2010, when principal deliveries should be completed, the data will be online for purchase at http://www.aerodata-shop.nl

Over 22.000 UCXp images (14TB) in 7 local sunny days! – Mar 10th, 2010

In just 7 flying days during early March, Aerodata’s Flight Operations crews went into high gear, made good use of the local sunny weather and clear blue skies and successfully captured over 22.000 Ultracam-Xp (UCXp) frames or around 14TB of raw imagery!

These days mark a successful season kick-off, following months of poor conditions.
The crews are on full stand-by waiting for more!

Netherlands 2009 10cm now available! – Mar 5th, 2010

Aerodata International Surveys is proud to announce to have successfully completed the NL2009 10cm project covering the entire territory of the Netherlands (over 40.000 sq km).
During 2009 nearly 100.000 images were acquired and processed to a seamless orthophoto mosaic of 10cm.

A specific achievement was the successful capture of this imagery in the Schiphol TMA (zone around the airport of approximately 7.000 sq km).

This huge dataset was processed with Aerodata’s Pixel Pipeline into a stereo product (Stereo10, 50 TB) and a countrywide seamless orthophoto mosaic (Ortho10, 15 TB).

For more detailed information or sales inquiries, please visit Cyclomedia

In 2010 Aerodata will again undertake this mega aerial photography project.

At this moment the first photos have already been acquired.

Aerodata thermal survey of Laval (FR) – Mar 3rd, 2010

Very recently Aerodata Int. Surveys executed thermal survey flights over Laval in France for which purpose one of Aerodata’s survey aircraft was equipped with a downward looking, dedicated thermal camera, just as with previous Aerodata thermal projects.

JCI (Junior Chamber International) has posted this short film of the project on their website (in French).

The thermal camera used is able to record temperature values with an accuracy of up to 0.1 degree centigrade.

The flight is done in the coldest period of the night or early in the morning when the contrast in temperature between heated objects and the surrounding areas are at their greatest.

The result of such a survey is a digital map of temperatures, that can be overlayed with a normal map of the city.

Analysis of the data shows for instance heat loss phenomena due to improper insulation in houses or other buildings. This information can then be used to improve insulation and minimize the loss of heating energy.

For more thermal information visit our thermal section

Bordeaux releases thermography movie – Mar 1st, 2010

The City of Bordeaux, locally also known as La CUB, has released a movie on their thermography project.
The project, executed in February 2009 by Aerodata Int. Surveys, in close cooperation with Aerodata France and ITC, consisted of 4 nighttime missions of the Bordeaux area.

Following the delivery of the thermal data, the city has produced this movie to promote its thermography website and energy awareness to its inhabitants.

For more thermal information visit our thermal section

We are now entering an era in earth observation characterised by a new generation of spaceborne sensors.

A workshop is planned to explore the application of these satellite sensors to the oil and gas sector and to find ways of ensuring that these applications are fully developed.

The workshop will take place from 14-15 September 2010 at ESA/ESRIN

Objectives

The workshop aims will be:

  • To ensure that key oil and gas industry personnel are aware of the capabilities of the current and new generation of earth observation sensors in relation to new technical operating challenges, obligations relating to legislation and new geographical areas of activity .
  • To provide a forum where the combination of key personnel from both the oil and gas and space industries can exchange ideas and develop new approaches and possibilities for the enhanced use of earth observation within the oil and gas industry.
  • To provide insight to ESA and other data providers on how the use of earth observation data and products may be assisted by changes to procedures and policies.
  • To communicate evolving oil and gas industry requirements to satellite operators and service providers so that the space sector can work to meet these requirements.

Our expectation is that the workshop would help develop the following:

  • A move towards identification of best practises/guidelines for use of earth observation in the industry.
  • Identified requirements for demonstrations in order to consolidate newly developed application capabilities.
  • Identified R&D with respect to new sensors/products to develop/enhance applications.
  • Future studies related to requirements for new sensors, constellations etc.

More info at: http://earth.esa.int/workshops/gasoil2010/index.html

Workshop Co-Ordination by Earth Observation R&D Team
E-mail: envmail (at) esa.int

Please be informed that in case a member subscribe it will be a pre registration. The organizing committee will review submission individually and they will be informed whether their pre registration will be accepted or not.

The European Commission has taken a number of decisions to implement the organisational consequences of the allocation of portfolios to Commissioners.

(Feb 21). Two new Directorates-General have been created: DG Energy (ENER) and DG Climate Action (CLIM). The Energy DG consists of the departments in the former Transport and Energy DG dealing with energy issues and of the Task Force Energy which will be transferred from the External Relations DG. The position of Director-General will be assumed by Philip Lowe, a British national, currently Director-General in DG Competition. The departments responsible for transport policy will remain in the renamed Mobility and Transport DG (MOVE). The Climate Action DG will be created from the relevant activities in DG Environment, the activities in the External Relations DG related to international negotiations on climate change and the activities in the Enterprise and Industry DG related to climate change. Jos Delbeke, a Belgian national and currently Deputy Director-General in the Environment DG, has been appointed Director-General of the Climate Action DG.

The Commission has also decided to appoint Christian Leffler, a Swedish national, to the position of Deputy Director-General in the DG for Development and Relations with African, Caribbean and Pacific States. Rudolf Strohmeier, a German national, has been appointed to the position of Deputy Director-General in the Research DG.

The Commission also made a number of appointments at the level of Director and Principal Advisor, including two officials from the Member States which joined the EU in 2004. These decisions were delayed while it was in caretaker mode. It also agreed to transfer a number of activities from one DG to another to better align them with the responsibilities of the respective portfolios of the Commissioners. The DGs concerned are those for Mobility and Transport, Competition, Enterprise and Industry, Environment, Humanitarian Aid and Health and Consumers.

To advance the Commission’s strategic approach on research, a task force, to be chaired by the Secretary-General, has been set up. This will launch a strategic reflection at Commission level on the evolution of the research budget, the degree of externalisation in the management of research programmes and the links between research and other policies in organisational terms.

The European Commission has launched the Europe 2020 Strategy to go out of the crisis and prepare EU economy for the next decade.

You’ll find here in attachment the press release, the proposal of the EC and the timeline for implementation.

Note especially in the EC proposal, on p.15, under Flagship Initiative: “An industrial policy for the globalisation era”:

“To develop an effective space policy to provide the tools to address some of the key global challenges and in particular to deliver Galileo and GMES;”

In its document “public consultation – overview of responses”, the EC notes that “Many contributors highlight that Europe needs a strong industrial basis and an ambitious, future-oriented industrial policy and support an integrated industrial policy in the framework of Europe 2020. They stress that industrial policies should aim at improving framework conditions in general. Other contributors underline the need to launch large structuring, federating pan-European programmes, in particular in the aeronautics, security and space sectors […]”

COMPLET EN BARROSO 007 – Europe 2020 – EN version.pdf

IP-10-225_EN1.pdf

annex3.pdf

(Source Eurospace)

In this Issue

1. Highlight: Proposal for a Regulation on the GMES Programme and its Initial Operations (2011-2013) – follow-up
2. Highlight: GMES Workshop in Bulgaria
3. Good Progress of the SMOS Mission
4. EU Green Paper on Forest Protection and Climate Change
5. EU 2020 Strategy – a Significant Breakthrough for Galileo and GMES
6. EU Strategy to Reinvigorate Global Action after Copenhagen
7. European Parliament’s Resolution on Natural Disasters that Occurred in Madeira and Europe
8. A Major Step Forward in the Development of the GMES Sentinel Satellites
9. Post-2010 EU Biodiversity Strategy
GMES Project Corner:
10. Geoland2 Spatial Data Infrastructure
11. Upcoming LIMES Workshops

***

1. Proposal for a regulation on the GMES programme and its initial operations (2011-2013) – follow-up

The draft report on the Commission’s proposal of 20 May 2009 for a Regulation on a GMES programme and the rules for the implementation of GMES initial operations (2011 2013), prepared by the MEP rapporteur Norbert Glante (S&D), was voted by the Parliament’s Industry, Research and Energy Committee on 18 March 2010. Prior to this vote, the Presidency of the Council presented a progress report on the proposal for a GMES regulation to the Competitiveness Council that met on 1-2 March 2010. The report identifies budget, governance, and data policy as the main outstanding issues. Finally, the Commission’s proposal is expected to be voted by the whole European Parliament in June this year.

Read More…

2. GMES workshop in Bulgaria

The 25-26 March 2010 GMES workshop in Bulgaria, which was organised by the Bulgarian Information Office for GMES, under the aegis of the Bulgarian government, and with the support of the European Commission, aimed to raise awareness on GMES and increase involvement of the new EU Member States. In addition to the Bulgarian Commissioner, Kristalina Georgieva, high level representatives of the Commission, ESA, EUMETSAT and the European Environment Agency gave speeches during the first day of the event, followed by numerous other presentations from national representatives and EU funded projects, addressing specific GMES activities or services.

Read More…

3. Good progress of the SMOS mission

Since its launch on 2 November 2009, ESA’s SMOS mission has been commissioned, showing recently first promising calibrated images of ‘brightness temperature’, which after substantial processing can give information about soil moisture and ocean salinity. Although the in-orbit commissioning phase of SMOS will continue until the end of April 2010, the quality of the SMOS data products will be assessed throughout the lifetime of the mission.

Read More…

4. EU Green Paper on forest protection and climate change

By publishing a Green Paper on 1 March 2010 the European Commission launched a public consultation on protecting Europe’s forests against climate change. The outcome of this consultation will guide the Commission to explore what value action at EU level can be added to national efforts for forests protection. As regards existing forest information systems, the Green Paper underlines that the European Forest Data Centre builds on several initiatives, including GMES. As next steps, the Commission will organise in the first half of this year a workshop and stakeholder meeting as well as a forest protection conference.

Read More…

5. EU 2020 Strategy – a significant breakthrough for Galileo and GMES

As a response to the global economic crisis and built upon the experience of the EU Lisbon Strategy, the European Commission set up on 3 March 2010 the new EU 10-year plan for growth and jobs. Based on three interlinked priorities for action, the EU 2020 Strategy seeks to strengthen, among others, the EU industrial policy. One of the actions that the Commission will undertake in this field is the development of an effective EU space policy able to deliver Galileo and GMES which acknowledges the important role these two space programmes will play for the future of the Union. The new economic roadmap was discussed by the whole European Parliament on 10 March and the European Council on 25-26 March, while its final adoption is foreseen for the June European summit.

Read More…

6. EU Strategy to reinvigorate global action after Copenhagen

In its Communication of 9 March 2010 the European Commission demonstrates determination to keep up the momentum for global action on climate change after the December 2009 Copenhagen conference. The Communication proposes thus a set of actions to be undertaken by the EU such as swift implementation of the Copenhagen Accord, EU leadership and active outreach to support the UN climate talks. The Environment Council meeting of 15 March and the Economic and Financial Affairs Council meeting of 16 March adopted conclusions on climate change that are in line with the proposed Commission’s strategy. Lastly, the European summit of 25-26 March affirmed the necessity to bring a new dynamic to the international climate negotiation process and to set up an appropriate roadmap.

Read More…

7. European Parliament’s resolution on natural disasters that occurred in Madeira and Europe

Following the natural disasters that hit the autonomous region of Madeira and Europe in February 2010, the European Parliament adopted a resolution at its plenary meeting of 11 March 2010. Highlighting that extreme weather phenomena are likely to be increasingly frequent in recent years, the resolution urges a set of actions to be undertaken at all levels to prevent future natural disasters and help the affected regions. Regarding prevention the Parliament calls for appropriate measures for land use, water and efficient risk management as well as for long term investment in prevention policies.

Read More…

8. A major step forward in the development of the GMES Sentinel satellites

After having signed a contract with ESA in December 2009, on 12 March 2010 Thales Alenia Space started the construction of the Sentinel-1B and -3B satellites (the company is the prime contractor for the Sentinel-1 and -3 constellations). Later, on 31 March 2010 ESA signed a contract with Astrium for the development of the Sentinel-2B satellite (the contract to build the Sentinel-2A was signed with Astrium in 2008). These realisations will ensure that the first three of the series of five Sentinel missions will fly as pairs to achieve fast coverage of Earth’s land surface.

Read More…

9. Post-2010 EU Biodiversity strategy

Worrying about the failure of the EU efforts to tackle efficiently biodiversity loss, the Commission proposed on 19 January 2010 a post-2010 EU Biodiversity Strategy with options for new biodiversity targets and a long-term vision by 2050. At the Environment Council meeting of 15 March 2010, Ministers agreed on the strategy, but stressed, among others, the need for appropriate targets and integration into other relevant EU policies and strategies. Finally, the European summit of 25-26 March underlined the urgency of the matter and committed to the long term biodiversity 2050 vision and the 2020 target set out in the Environment Council’s conclusions of 15 March 2010.

Read More…

GMES Projects’ Corner

10. Geoland2 Spatial Data Infrastructure

The FP7 geoland2 project, which provides the pre-operational land service of GMES, is composed of two different geo-information service layers- the Core Mapping Services (CMS) and the Core Information Services (CIS). The Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) is mandatory for the access to input data, the internal data flows and processing chains, and the dissemination and provision to users. Currently, a baseline version of this SDI is released, where the identification and viewing clients are operational and provide access to datasets from different Service Providers. The full functionality of the SDI will become available within only a few months and from that time the geoland2 Expert Portal will provide the user community with a convenient access to GMES Land data.

Read More…

11. Upcoming LIMES workshops

Given that the FP6 project LIMES, providing the pre-operational security service of GMES, will end this year, two final workshops will be held in the coming months. Firstly, on 15 April a Final End User Workshop will be organised in Farnborough, United Kingdom with the main objective to present the GMES Maritime Surveillance element to established and potential new users and get their feedback on it. Secondly, the Workshop “Space Monitoring for Complex Crisis Management” will take place on 6-7 May in Rome, Italy. The event will seek to raise awareness on existing European satellite services for Safety and Security as well as to present final results and recommendation of the LIMES project and the FP7 ongoing Security and Emergency initiatives.

Read More…

Disclaimer
This E-News is published by the SWIFT project whose aim is to support information dissemination in the framework of the European Commission GMES initiative.
SWIFT is a Coordination and Support Action funded by the European Commission / Directorate General Enterprise and Industry under the 7th Framework Programme.
The views expressed in this E-News are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the European Commission.
You receive this E-News because you are registered in the mailing list hosted on www.gmes.info.

To subscribe or unsubscribe to this E-News, see http://www.gmes.info/pages-secondaires/newsletter/newsletter/

Council Conclusions on “29 measures for reinforcing the protection of the external borders and combating illegal immigration”

Please note in particular, that concerning the development of the European Surveillance System – EUROSUR, the Council has agreed “[…] To invite the Commission to report before the end of 2010 on how the conclusions of the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) border surveillance group on common application of surveillance tools, such as satellites, could be implemented in the EU land and sea borders”

st06975.en10.pdf

Please find here attached the EC Work Programme 2010.

This document translates the priorities of President Barroso’s political guidelines into concrete actions. Overall, emphasis of the CWP is on (1) putting the Europe 2020 Strategy into practice thereby building the basis for exiting the economic crisis and creating sustainable growth and jobs (2) enhancing the rights and security of European citizens and (3) strengthening Europe’s role on the world stage.

Please note in particular, in Annex II “Indicative list of possible strategic and priority initiatives under consideration”:

p.20:

- Communication on the future involvement of the European Union in space

The communication will define the priorities and the main activities of a future Space framework programme, to be implemented under the next financial perspectives. The programme would respond to fundamental policy challenges. The programme would build on what has been achieved in the context of GALILEO, GMES and FP7 Space theme.

p.21:

- Proposal for a Regulation establishing the European Earth Observation Programme (GMES)

In the context of the next EU Multi-annual Financial Framework, the proposal will address in particular the programmatic and financial aspects of the GMES service and infrastructure components. It will also establish the legal and regulatory framework for the implementation of the regulation including ownership and data policy, governance and international cooperation aspects of GMES.

- Regulation establishing a European Space Programme

Art 189 TFEU gives the EU the competence to establish a European space programme. The specific objective of the space programme would be to support the implementation of the European Space Policy, in a way complementary to activities carried out by ESA and national space agencies. The programme would build on what has been achieved in the context of GALILEO, GMES and FP7 Space theme.

- Proposal for governance and financing of the European GNSS Programmes

There needs to be a new programme regulation for the post 2013 period covering governance issues and funding. This also covers the question what the agency should do.

Other points might also be relevant for the space sector: In Annex I “Strategic initiatives scheduled for adoption in 2010”:

9. Communication on a European Digital. Agenda (2nd quarter)

The European Digital Agenda will aim at exploiting the potential of Information and Communication Technologies as a major enabling technology for moving to a low-carbon, knowledge-based and competitive economy. It will adopt an integrated approach to the challenges of a digital economy and society, addressing the issues both from the supply and demand side. It will identify concrete measures to be taken at EU or Member States’ level for rolling out high speed internet, achieving a borderless online market for goods, services and content; upgrading skills and delivering the services of the future.

10. Communication on “An Industrial Policy for the Globalised Era” (3rd quarter)

The Communication will translate the overall objectives of enhancing industrial competitiveness whilst pursuing a low-carbon path into concrete initiatives at EU level; it will define a framework with stakeholders to steer the restructuring of sectors towards future oriented activities combining instruments such as smart regulation, public procurement, competition rules and standards, as well as work with social partners to deal with the anticipation and management of change, and the social consequences of restructuring.

11. Communication on a European Plan for Research and Innovation (3rd quarter)

The European Plan for Research and Innovation will propose an indicator to track innovation, as announced in the Europe 2020 Communication. It will also specify a policy framework for developing European Research and Innovation Partnerships, developing underpinning technologies, optimizing framework conditions for research and innovation, strengthening, simplifying and further developing the scope of EU instruments to support research and innovation. Building on the review of Environmental Technology Action Plan (2004-2009), eco-innovation will also be addressed.

29. Communication on the reinforcement of the EU’s Disaster Response Capacity (4th quarter)

Communication setting out options to reinforce the EU Disaster Response and preparedness capacities inside and outside the Europe, covering three main building blocks: civil protection, humanitarian aid and increased civil-military cooperation.

Source Eurospace

cwp2010_en.pdf

Initial screening and planning of the Impact Assessment Board of the EC regarding the future EC Communication “on the future involvement of the European Union in Space” which should be issued in September this year.

You’ll find in the attached document:

A. Context and problem definition:

a. Political context

b. Main problems identified;

i. Space policies and investments are decided at national/intergovernmental level

ii. The level of national investment for dedicated space programmes has reached its upper limit

iii. EU is dependent on third parties for critical technologies

iv. Space capabilities are not fully exploited to the benefit of climate change challenges

v. Security in space and from space is not ensured

vi. The EU lacks involvement and a long-term strategy for space exploration

vii. EU funding for space research and innovation is still inadequate compared to other space powers

B. Objectives of EU initiative

a. General objectives:

With the entry into force of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, the EU has a clear mandate to act in the space areas and to respond to the European Space policy general objectives: promote scientific and technical progress, promote industrial competitiveness, support research and technological development, coordinate efforts for the exploration and exploitation of space

b. Specific objectives:

i. Provide a model of coordination that allows to:

1. Ensure that space policies are implemented in the context of a long-term plan addressed to better respond to EU needs, including other key European policies, as well as the needs of European citizens

2. Ensure that the EU space policy is addressed at enhancing the competitiveness of the EU space industry; Develop and industrial policy adapted to the needs of the sector; Develop a regulatory policy responding to existing and emerging needs at European level

3. Avoid overlap, fragmentation and discontinuity of space initiatives; Aggregate policy and user needs, provide long-term programmatic coherence and continuity.

4. Ensure availability of space-based applications at EU level

5. Establish appropriate measures to ensure interoperability between existing space systems and ground-based infrastructures among EU countries.

6. Establish and implement coordination mechanisms to ensure that space action is taken at the most efficient level and that there is a common response to global regulatory issues.

ii. Ensure a level of investment adequate to meet EU objectives

1. Aggregate resources at EU level, instrumental to create synergies between EU policies and respond to EU priorities. However, not to the detriment of current investments within ESA activities.

2. Develop a long-term and clear vision of for national and EU programmes and secure investment in them will be crucial to ensure long-term development prospects for an industry that is largely dependent on institutional demand (e.g. 60% of the European space segment turnover comes from institutional customers.)

iii. Reduce the dependence on critical technologies and capabilities from outside Europe for future space applications; enable the European industry to get non-restricted access to high performance components that will allow increasing its competitiveness and expertise in the space domain. As explained by the EC-ESA-EDA Joint Task Force19, Europe is not aiming at technology independence but at taking actions to ensure European non-dependence for technologies which are considered critical for the European space industry.

iv. Fully exploit space capabilities and, notably, Earth observations systems to tackle the challenges of climate change.

v. Enhance security in space and from space

vi. Define a long-term strategy for the EU role in space exploration

vii. Ensure adequate EU funding for space research and innovation

c. Options

i. Option 1: Baseline scenario: Adequate funding for GMES is provided; moderate increase in space research and innovation funding

ii. Option 2: Baseline + climate change and space and security as well as a further increase in space research and innovation funding and increased coordination

iii. Option 3: Option 2 + limited space exploration expenditures

iv. Option 4: Option 2 + Substantial space exploration

d. Initial assessment of impacts

e. Planning of further impact assessment work

Source Eurospace

59_entr_involvement_in_space_en.pdf

The GMES Bureau is organising an exhibition from 15th till 30th April 2010 in Brussels.

The GMES Bureau is organising an exhibition on Urban Atlas from 15th till 30th April in the Berlaymont Piazza.

Urban Atlas is a digital mapping tool providing pan-European, reliable and inter-comparable urban planning data.

Compiled from thousands of pictures from European satellites, Urban Atlas provides coverage for detailed and cost-effective mapping of larger urban zones, yielding accurate land cover and usage data. Urban Atlas’ mission is to provide high-resolution hotspot mapping of changes in urban spaces and decision-support indicators for users such as city governments, the European Environment Agency (EEA) and European Commission departments.

Urban Atlas falls within the Land Monitoring of GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security).

Registration is possible here

Source GMES.Info