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we need to ensure that our present socio-economic development does not compromise our future. Current EU policies are based on the renewed Sustainable Development Strategy (EU SDS) pdf 191 Kb of June 2006, where research and development (R&D) plays an important and multifaceted role.

The Seventh Framework Programme has been set up to allow European research to live up to the R&D needs expressed in the EU renewed sustainable development strategy.

‘The Seventh Framework Programme reflects our joined up approach to sustainability’. Janez Potocnik, Commissioner responsible for Science and Research.

This web portal is the entry point to consolidated information on FP7’s contribution to sustainable development. When browsing through this website, you can find out about the multiple means through which FP7 contributes to sustainable development. Furthermore, you can explore links to national and regional initiatives on sustainable development research, learn about the sustainability potential of the European Research Area, and find out about relevant events

Sustainable development: a challenge for European research

The Conference Sustainable development: a challenge for European research organised by the Research DG took place on 26-28 May 2009, in Brussels. This high-level meeting, which attracted a large and multidisciplinary audience, aimed at highlighting ways and means for putting the European research system at the service of sustainable development. We invite you to visit the Conference website updated with participants’ presentations and reports – a useful communication tool available for the conference participants and all actors interested in progress on sustainable development in the research field.
Read more…

EU Commissioner for Science and Research Janez Potočnik shares his views on the challenges raised in the Manifesto presented by the Scientific Committee at the opening of the conference. Read more in his blog …

Research on Sustainable Indicators Conference

The Research DG and Eurostat are organising a conference entitled Research on Sustainable Development Indicators: Taking stock of results and identification of research needs on 30 September in Luxemburg. The conference will reflect on the research carried out so far on Sustainable Development Indicators – mainly in FPs – and will also prompt the discussion on the remaining gaps. Read more…

Source EC-Europa

EUMETSAT, the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites, held its 67th Council meeting in Darmstadt, Germany, on June 20th and July 1st.

The meeting was chaired by General Dr. Massimo Capaldo, Head of the Meteorological Department (Chief of the Staff Office – Ufficio Generale Spazio Aereo e Meteorologia) in the Italian General Meteorological Office. This was the first EUMETSAT Council attended by Latvia and Poland as full Member States. The accession process continues, with the Council adopting a resolution on the accession of Romania as a full EUMETSAT Member State by January 2010.

The_Jason-3 altimetry program and Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES)_ received impetus from the Council. A draft program proposal, declaration, and enabling resolution on the optional Jason-3 altimetry programme were approved, opening the Jason-2 ocean altimetry satellite follow-on program to subscriptions by interested EUMETSAT Member States. The aim is for the Jason-3 programme to be fully funded by the end of 2009. EUMETSAT is prepared to contribute 63 million euros to the 252 million euros program costs of Jason-3.

The Council also approved a Framework Agreement with the European Space Agency (ESA), which will pave the way for further detailed arrangements between both organizations for cooperation on GMES Sentinels (Sentinels-4 and -5). The Council also adopted a draft program proposal and EUMETSAT/ESA implementing arrangement on the GMES Sentinel-3 Program under the responsibility of ESA. EUMETSAT will be the operator of Sentinel-3, serving the marine user community with near-real-time and off-line products.

Other future programmes discussed by the Council were the Post-EUMETSAT Polar System (Post-EPS) and Meteosat Third Generation (MTG). The full MTG program is expected to be approved in 2010. The first generation of EUMETSAT’s successful Meteosat series will continue operations, with Council extending the Meteosat Transition Program (MTP) to provide the Indian Ocean Data Coverage service for three years starting in 2011, and closing out in 2014. It also approved the provision of Météo France’s RETIM data distribution service via EUMETCast.

The Council approved the concept for EUMETSAT’s involvement in the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales’ (CNES’), the French space agency’s SARAL (Satellite with ARgos and ALtimeter in Ka-band) program, as a baseline for starting negotiations with CNES. The EUMETSAT Secretariat was tasked to negotiate with CNES an exchange of letters establishing EUMETSAT’s tasks in the SARAL mission. EUMETSAT’s proposed contribution would focus mainly on near-real-time processing of SARAL data and the dissemination of these processed data to end users. Finally, the Council endorsed a resolution on climate monitoring activities in EUMETSAT. As a first priority, EUMETSAT will generate Fundamental Climate Data Records and as a second priority Thematic Climate Data Records, making use of the expertise of its Satellite Application Facilities.

Source SatNews

At the end of June, the Swedish Presidency of the EU, which drives the Union from 1st of July until 31st of December 2009, published its sixth month working programme. Climate, energy and environment, as well as the Baltic Sea region, are among the overarching themes of this programme.

Regarding climate change, the primary objective of the Swedish Presidency is that the EU continues to take responsibility for the climate threat and pursues its global efforts. Therefore the Swedish Presidency will seek the adoption of a new climate agreement during the international climate negotiations in Copenhagen in December

Moreover, according to the Swedish Presidency, the battle against climate change will give the EU an opportunity to strengthen its competitiveness and contribute to a better environment by developing cooperation between different policy areas through advanced policy instruments and increased innovative capacity

In parallel, on 10 June 2009, the European Commission proposed an EU strategy for regional cooperation in order to tackle common urgent environmental problems and to enhance the growth and development of the Baltic Sea states. One of the concrete actions proposed by the Commission is the development of integrated maritime governance structures and maritime and land-based spatial planning. The Swedish Presidency of the EU will seek to adopt this strategy

More information at:

SE

The 6 month work programme of the Swedish EU Presidency

Source GMES.Info]=47&tx_ttnews[backPid]=1&cHash=2a9d1ed725

Global Earth Observation (GEO), such as satellite observations, helps manage environmental resources and prevent disasters. However, they are expensive.

(July,3) A recent study proposes a framework to assess the value of GEOs in which stakeholders are consulted.

GEO consists of all observational information about the state of the world, including satellite observations and ‘in situ’ information. Many governments and international organisations invest a large amount in GEO to inform their decisions. However, there have been recent budgetary pressures on GEO. To assess its benefits, the European Commission has funded the GEO-BENE project1, which supported this Dutch study. The study proposes a framework based on ‘Bayesian decision theory’, whereby the probability that a decision-maker will invest in information depends on how much uncertainty will be reduced by the information.

In order to assess the framework, the study assessed the value of satellite observations to monitor water quality in the North Sea. More specifically, the study examined three case studies: eutrophication (observed via chlorophyll-a – the pigment (colour) from algae, which acts as an indicator of eutrophication), excessive algal blooms and suspended sediments. A range of stakeholders was consulted, including policy makers, water managers, researchers and representatives of interest groups, using a questionnaire based on Bayesian decision theory.

On average, the results demonstrate that respondents expect satellite observations to improve water quality monitoring in the North Sea. This expectation is greatest for suspended sediments. It is considered slightly less valuable for monitoring for algal blooms and least valuable for eutrophication as respondents believed a well-functioning water monitoring system already exists and there is a good understanding of the relationship between source and effects.

Estimates of economic pay-offs could only be made for an early-warning system for algal blooms, based on an event in 2001 where algal bloom caused an approximate loss of EUR 20 million to the Dutch mussel farming industry. From this, the study estimated a value for satellite observations of EUR 74,000 per week for monitoring algal blooms. Since the total additional costs of satellite observations are about EUR 50,000 per week, the net benefits were estimated at EUR 24,000 per week. This suggests a social rate of return of 48 per cent. It is difficult to estimate economic pay-offs for eutrophication as more than 85 per cent of nutrients which cause eutrophication come from poorly controllable sources, such as historical stocks of phosphates and nitrates and atmospheric deposits. Hence, better information about chlorophyll-a’s spread contributes little to better-targeted interventions.

The authors acknowledge much uncertainty surrounding the estimates used in the study, particularly those arising from participants’ assumptions about the reliability of GEO information. However, when accounting for these uncertainties, the probability that investments in early warning enhance welfare is still 75 per cent.

The study concludes that Bayesian decision theory provides a suitable framework for assessing the economic value of GEO information through stakeholder consultation, but that it requires a high level of expertise and awareness from the respondents to quantify their responses. It also indicates the importance of including several decision-makers in the consultation since estimates of value vary depending on background, expertise and possible allegiance to existing monitoring systems or organisations

Source European Commission, Environment DG

Info from Environmental -Expert

Western China is a very seismically active area and has had many catastrophic earthquakes during its history.


A joint European-Chinese team is using satellite radar data to monitor ground deformation across major continental faults in China to understand better the seismic cycle and how faults behave.

Using Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite data and a technique known as SAR Interferometry (InSAR), along with GPS data, scientists participating in ESA’s Dragon 2 Programme have been able to measure the ground deformation that occurred during the Wenchuan earthquake that struck China’s Sichuan Province last May.

InSAR involves combining two or more radar images of the same ground location in such a way that very precise measurements – down to a scale of a few centimetres or even millimetres in some cases – can be made of any ground motion taking place between image acquisitions

Using the InSAR technique on data acquired before and after the Wenchuan earthquake, Dr Sun Jianbao of the Institute of Geology, China Earthquake Administration (IGCEA), Prof. Shen Zhengkang of IGCEA and Peking University, and collaborators including Dr Cecile Lasserre from France’s Laboratoire de Geophysique generated ‘interferogram’ images, which appear as rainbow-coloured fringe patterns, showing the ground displacement that occurred during and after the earthquake

The Wenchuan earthquake occurred on the Longmen Shan fault, along the eastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau. Following major earthquakes, changes in stress along the faults in the region can lead to subsequent earthquakes. Using InSAR and GPS data, scientists are able to measure and monitor where and how this stress changes as well as how any associated deformation is distributed.

“Combining InSAR with GPS data, we have learned that some regions on the fault did not rupture that much during the earthquake. We must then ask ourselves if the energy is still partially locked and therefore continuously accumulating for the next ‘big one’, or perhaps there was not that much energy accumulated in the regions prior to the quake,” Shen said. “By combining the co- and post-seismic study results, we are about to answer these questions.

“If the area is moving slowly after the quake, then we know it is not accumulating energy, so we believe it to be safe. If, however, one area on the fault is not slipping but there is creeping movement around it, then we know that is a bad sign and we have to watch it more carefully.”

Earthquake monitoring is only one of numerous Dragon 2 Programme research themes, which range from agriculture and forests to flooding and landslide monitoring, assessing drought, air quality, oceanography and climate. Preliminary results of the 25 ongoing projects were presented at the Dragon Symposium in Barcelona last week.

The nearly 200 symposium participants also heard how effective the Chinese measures taken last year ahead of the Olympic Games to improve air quality were. The measures, in place from 20 July until 20 September, included taking 50 percent of Beijing’s 3,5 million vehicles off the road and closing factories in and around Beijing.

Using the GOME-2, an atmospheric instrument on MetOp, Dr Ronald van der A of the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) and Prof. Pucai Wang of the Institute of Atmospheric Physics, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IAP-CAS) evaluated the direct effect of these measures and found the levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) reduced by about 60% above Beijing. The team confirmed these findings using data from the Dutch-Finnish OMI satellite instrument.

By comparing MetOp’s GOME-2 measurements available at KNMI with air-quality model results, the team was able to determine that although the air quality measures were especially effective in the Beijing area, they were also noticeable in the surrounding cities, with Tianjin experiencing a 30% NO2 reduction and Shijiazhuang a 20%.

“We could really see the effects of the measures taken by the government. There was a huge reduction in nitrogen dioxide, more than we expected at first,” van der A said.

Also unveiled at the symposium was the first Envisat ASAR wide swath image of the Kuroshio Current inverted to radar Doppler velocity. The image reveals the structure of the Kuroshio Current off China’s coast southwest of Japan with speeds up to 1,5 m per second.

The Kuroshio Current – equivalent to the Gulf Stream in the North Atlantic – is a warm current in the western Pacific Ocean. Its tropical waters transport heat northward along the east coast of Asia.

Prof. Johnny Johannessen of Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Centre, Dr Bertrand Chapron of IFREMER (the French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea) and Dr Fabrice Collard of France’s CLS (formerly the BOOST Technologies Company) compared the ASAR image to a sea-surface temperature model, which clearly shows how the current moves warm water from the tropical Pacific towards the coast of Japan

“The radial Doppler velocity map shows the strong southwest-to-northeast motion associated with the path shown in the sea-surface temperature model, so it confirms the velocity pattern associated with the Kuroshio Current,” Johannessen said
. “Since we removed the effects of wind and waves, what is shown is close to a picture of the pure surface current projected in the SAR-looking direction.”

More information and images at RedOrbit

ESA

Spacemetric is working with Elsag Datamat (www.elsagdatamat.com) to develop next-generation satellite image browse services for the European Space Agency.

The objective of the Interactive Browse project is to provide users with enhanced services for reviewing and selecting the data best suited to their needs.

The Interactive Browse Server will be built upon Spacemetric’s Keystone image management system and use open standards including GeoTIFF, JPEG2000 and OGC Catalogue Services to enable a richer and more flexible access to browse imagery. While current services typically serve up fixed, multipurpose browse or quick-look imagery, the new services will allow users to pan and zoom in high-resolution data, select which channels are displayed, and use interactive tools to refine image geometry and mask cloudy areas before ordering data. A monitoring service will also send users automatic notifications of new imagery meeting their criteria.

The Interactive Browse project is an important step in the development of next-generation user services at ESA. Lars Edgardh, CEO of Spacemetric, noted that “in the Sentinel era, the ability to efficiently locate and evaluate the imagery needed will be a key capability for emerging information services”.

About Spacemetric

Spacemetric is a Swedish company providing geospatial image management solutions. Its customers include the Swedish cadastre, mapping and land registry authority, the Swedish Air Force, Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. and the European Space Agency.

CONTACT
Ian Spence
EMAIL: is@spacemetric.com
TELEPHONE: +46 8 594 770 83

For more than 50 years, the International Council for Science (ICSU) has had world data centers — open, nonpolitical repositories of data for scientists in every country.

Now, the ICSU is replacing the centers with a leading-edge World Data System (WDS) whose scope and technologies are evolving but whose policy of nondiscriminatory access to science remains a priority.

The ICSU, founded in 1931 as the International Council of Scientific Unions, is a nongovernmental organization with a global membership of 114 scientific bodies representing 134 countries and 29 international scientific unions. It was formed to provide a mechanism for international exchange of data in all disciplines related to the Earth and its environment and the sun.

In 1957, ICSU coordinated planning for the large-scale International Geophysical Year, a 17-month event intended to allow scientists from around the world to take part in coordinated observations of geophysical phenomena. ICSU established the world data centers to capture the solar, geophysical and environmental data arising from the event and developed data-management plans for each discipline. The centers were a success and became a permanent forum for exchanging data.

The original system included 27 data centers distributed among government and academic institutions in the United States, Europe, the then Soviet Union and Japan.

At the time — the height of the Cold War — the data centers gave scientists in the politically polarized United States and Soviet Union a way to freely exchange data and improve each other’s global databases, said David Clark, a visiting scientist with the U.S. National Geophysical Data Center in Colorado, part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

“It was better for science,” he told America.gov, “and transcended politics.”

By 2008, when ICSU members agreed to upgrade the aging centers with the new WDS, the 50 world data centers in 12 countries had holdings that included a range of solar, geophysical, environmental and human-dimensions data — data related to the interwoven system of human activities and natural processes.

“When the first world data centers were established, the main goal was to facilitate the continued exchange of scientific data for research and educational purposes between East and West. That is no longer an issue,” said Bernard Minster, professor of geophysics at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and incoming chairman of the ICSU World Data System Scientific Committee.

“The issue looming today,” he said, “is to create and sustain exchange of scientific data between North and South,” meaning between developed and developing countries.

MANAGING DATA

Data — which ICSU characterizes as “the raw material of scientific understanding” — are gathered systematically night and day by scientists, computer networks, and terrestrial, oceanic, airborne and space-based instruments around the globe.

Geologists set up a device on Mount St. Helens in 2004 that monitors the ground for movement and sends data to scientists by satellite.

Data include digital observations, scientific monitoring, data from sensors and sensor webs, metadata (data about data), computer model output and scenarios, qualitative or observed behavioral data, visualizations, statistical data and historical data.

“Progress in science depends heavily on the worldwide exchange of ideas, information, data, materials and people,” former ICSU presidents Goverdhan Mehta and Jane Lubchenco — now NOAA administrator — wrote in Science magazine in 2004.

Advancing information and communication technologies have produced an explosion in data volume and diversity and increased the need for scientific datasets to be properly identified, assessed for quality, tracked and held to defined standards.

A NEW PARADIGM

An ICSU Strategic Coordinating Committee for Information and Data, with members from around the world, has three years to consider how best to coordinate ICSU data activities, including the WDS, incorporating the newest information and communication technologies, international partnerships and innovative funding mechanisms.

The WDS will incorporate some or all of the world data centers’ holdings and those of the Federation of Astronomical and Geophysical Data Analysis Services, and will have closer links to the ICSU Committee on Data for Science and Technology, called CODATA.

Members of the new coordinating committee are building partnerships with institutions and organizations around the globe that collect massive amounts of data.

These include the World Meteorological Organization, the European Space Agency, NOAA, NASA and the Global Earth Observation System of Systems, an effort that integrates data from the Earth-observing networks of surface-based, airborne and space-based monitoring instruments.

“It doesn’t make sense to have a system without having it be interoperable with or part of other data systems,” Clark said. “That’s another challenge of the scientific committee — to determine how that [integration] would work.”

A new, integrated World Data Center for Geoinformatics and Sustainable Development was recently established in Kiev, Ukraine, led by academician and WDS Science Committee member Michael Zgurovzky, strengthening the Russian-Ukrainian WDS segment.

Two pilot projects are under way, Minster said. One involves a portal for oceanographic data and will connect multiple oceanography data centers by high-bandwidth networks. The project is led by Michael Diepenbrock at the University of Bremen in Germany.

A second pilot project with the National Research Foundation in Pretoria, South Africa, aims to develop a new World Data Center for Biodiversity and Human Health.

More information about the International Council for Science is available at the organization’s Web site.

Source All Africa

Following the AGM, we held a well-received seminar on the oil and gas industry, also extending into related areas such as renewable energy, and how remote sensing can be used in this sector.

The event included presentations on the oil and gas sector from Han Wensink; on energy security and European energy policies from Henryk Faas of the JRC energy security unit; on the Renewable Energy Directive from Lucie Tesnière of the European Renewable Energy Council (EREC); and on developing EO activities in the energy industry, from Stephen Coulson of ESA. EARSC has for many years helped its members expand their business with public sector bodies such as ESA and the EC, and with this event on oil & gas we marked an important additional focus on helping our members expand into new commercial sectors.

The seminar concluded with a round-table panel discussion, with several key points made. One important message was that EARSC should start building bridges with trade/industry associations in other commercial sectors, to help explore the use of EO in those sectors. Another important point which received strong support around the table was that the industry needs a set of recognised “best practices” that would help suppliers and services be more readily accepted in new market sectors. This is again something EARSC can contribute to, with ESA as an important partner.

As announced at the AGM, EARSC plans to step up its activities in helping its members expand EO services into more non-traditional areas and market sectors.

EARSC has been in discussions with ESA over the last several months to gain ESA’s support for a number of new EARSC activities in this direction, and we are close to agreeing a set of activities.

These will include:

*Producing position papers on various topics of relevance to our industry, engaging experts from different market sectors to tell us what the geo-information needs are in that sector, and what we need to do in order to better promote our capabilities and services towards those sectors.

*Related to the above, producing promotional materials publicising EO services and the capabilities of European EO service providers, targeted at and customised for specific new market sectors.

*Producing a trade directory for our industry – to provide details of companies active in EO value-adding services across Europe, with details on the services each company is able to provide, organised by thematic domain, geographical coverage, and location so as to be easily searchable by potential customers.

*Organising trade missions open to all EARSC members to participate in. These will provide a significant opportunity for EARSC members to present their capabilities to new customers, and also to network and establish contact with key individuals and stakeholders in those sectors. One of these trade missions is likely to be to the World Bank in Washington, with a second still to be decided.

In support of these activities, we warmly encourage all EARSC members to come up with fresh ideas and input for EARSC to take forward. The EARSC secretariat will keep you informed of ways to get engaged in the process. Your active participation will add value to the association and bring greater benefit to all of our members and the industry as a whole.

A very warm welcome to the summer 2009 edition of EOMag!. EARSC has had a busy time in spring. We held our Annual General Meeting in Brussels on the 25th of June, which was well-attended with over 35 members present. The Chairman, Han Wensink, presented an overview of the association’s activities over the past year: some highlights are that EARSC now has its own office up and running in Brussels; we hope to soon have a secretary-general appointed; and strong engagement at senior levels with the European Space Agency and the European Commission continues, as you will read below

Seminar on Oil & Gas

Following the AGM, we held a well-received seminar on the oil and gas industry, also extending into related areas such as renewable energy, and how remote sensing can be used in this sector. The event included presentations on the oil and gas sector from Han Wensink; on energy security and European energy policies from Henryk Faas of the JRC energy security unit; on the Renewable Energy Directive from Lucie Tesnière of the European Renewable Energy Council (EREC); and on developing EO activities in the energy industry, from Stephen Coulson of ESA. EARSC has for many years helped its members expand their business with public sector bodies such as ESA and the EC, and with this event on oil & gas we marked an important additional focus on helping our members expand into new commercial sectors.

The seminar concluded with a round-table panel discussion, with several key points made. One important message was that EARSC should start building bridges with trade/industry associations in other commercial sectors, to help explore the use of EO in those sectors. Another important point which received strong support around the table was that the industry needs a set of recognised “best practices” that would help suppliers and services be more readily accepted in new market sectors. This is again something EARSC can contribute to, with ESA as an important partner.

Meeting with the GMES Bureau

After the oil & gas event, the EARSC board of directors met with the GMES Bureau to discuss specific messages and views from industry. Those of you who attended our GMES Governance workshop in Brussels on 11-May will recall the EARSC position paper on GMES that we published; this meeting gave us an opportunity to further explore the points raised by that paper and receive an update on steps the bureau has taken and will take to help address some of our industry’s concerns.

The meeting shows how EARSC is strengthening its links as the consulting counterpart of the GMES Bureau for the development and implementation of rules for operation and governance of GMES, for aspects which are of importance for the service industry.

We will report in a separate information letter to EARSC members on the full details of the meeting.

eoVox-2: Activities in support of the value-adding sector

As announced at the AGM, EARSC plans to step up its activities in helping its members expand EO services into more non-traditional areas and market sectors. EARSC has been in discussions with ESA over the last several months to gain ESA’s support for a number of new EARSC activities in this direction, and we are close to agreeing a set of activities. These will include:

• Producing position papers on various topics of relevance to our industry, engaging experts from different market sectors to tell us what the geo-information needs are in that sector, and what we need to do in order to better promote our capabilities and services towards those sectors.
• Related to the above, producing promotional materials publicising EO services and the capabilities of European EO service providers, targeted at and customised for specific new market sectors.
• Producing a trade directory for our industry – to provide details of companies active in EO value-adding services across Europe, with details on the services each company is able to provide, organised by thematic domain, geographical coverage, and location so as to be easily searchable by potential customers.
• Organising trade missions open to all EARSC members to participate in. These will provide a significant opportunity for EARSC members to present their capabilities to new customers, and also to network and establish contact with key individuals and stakeholders in those sectors. One of these trade missions is likely to be to the World Bank in Washington, with a second still to be decided.

In support of these activities, we warmly encourage all EARSC members to come up with fresh ideas and input for EARSC to take forward. The EARSC secretariat will keep you informed of ways to get engaged in the process. Your active participation will add value to the association and bring greater benefit to all of our members and the industry as a whole.

In the meantime we wish you a very pleasant summer holiday!

With warm regards,
Chetan Pradhan, EARSC Director
Franz Jaskolla, EARSC WG on External Relations

Editorial Summer 2009.pdf