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A new global portrait taken from space details Earth’s land cover with a resolution never before obtained.

ESA, in partnership with the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, presented the preliminary version of the map to scientists last week at the 2nd GlobCover User Consultation workshop held in Rome, Italy.

Earth’s land cover has been charted from space before, but this map, which will be made available to the public upon its completion in July, has a resolution 10 times sharper than any of its predecessors.

Scientists, who will use the data to plot worldwide land-cover trends, study natural and managed ecosystems and to model climate change extent and impacts, are hailing the product – generated under the ESA-initiated GlobCover project – as ‘a milestone.’

“The GlobCover system is a great step forward in our capacities to automatically produce new global land cover products with a finer resolution and a more detailed thematic content than ever achieved in the past,” Frederic Achard of the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) said.

“This GlobCover product is much more than a map. It is an operational scientific and technical demonstration of the first automated land cover mapping on a global scale and may provide the detailed description of the land surface states needed for regional climate modelling,” said Prof. Pierre Defourny, from the Universite catholique de Louvain, who designed the land classification process.

“Land cover data is an essential requirement of the sustainable management of natural resources, environmental protection, food security, climate change and humanitarian programmes,” John Latham of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said.

“The GlobCover product will be the first freely available product at 300m resolution and is therefore a milestone product which will be fundamental to a broad level stakeholder community.”

Jaap van Woerden from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) said: “This map can greatly support the work of UNEP and partners in addressing environmental priority issues such as climate change and ecosystem management.”

Prof. Christiane Schmullius from the University of Jena in Germany said the new GlobCover product “revolutionises global land cover mapping.”

“This map can greatly support the work of UNEP and partners in addressing environmental priority issues such as climate change and ecosystem management.”

The map is based on 20 Terabytes of imagery – equivalent to the content of 20 million books – acquired from May 2005 to April 2006 by Envisat’s Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) instrument.

All images then undergo a standardised processing technique developed and operated by Medias-France/Postel, together with Brockmann Consult, the Universite catholique de Louvain and partners.

There are 22 different land cover types shown in the map, including croplands, wetlands, forests, artificial surfaces, water bodies and permanent snow and ice. For maximum user benefit, the map’s thematic legend is compatible with the UN Land Cover Classification System (LCCS).

GlobCover, launched in 2005, is part of ESA’s Earth Observation Data User Element (DUE). An international network of partners is working with ESA on the project, including the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), FAO, the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC), the European Environmental Agency (EEA), the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP) and the Global Observations of Forest Cover and Global Observations of Land Dynamics (GOFC-GOLD) Implementation Team Project Office.

For more information about GlobCover products and their availability, please visit the GlobCover website

Source ESA

Thales Alenia Space welcomed the successful launch of the fourth SAR-Lupe satellite, which occurred at 18:15 hours from Plesetsk on March 27th.

The spacecraft will join three other SAR-Lupe satellites as the constellation grows, all providing high-resolution images to the German Ministry of Defence. The satellite was boosted into orbit from the Plesetsk space center by a Russian Cosmos-3M rocket, which released the satellite into its intended orbit about one-half hour after launch.

Thales Alenia Space was responsible, on behalf of the prime contractor OHB-System AG, for the design and development of the Sensor Electronic Units, comprising radio frequency, processing and control sub-units.

The SAR-Lupe program, which has a life-time of 10 years, comprises a constellation of five identical small satellites (720 kg), which will be positioned into 3 quasi-polar orbital planes at approximately 500 km altitude, plus a ground segment.

The program is based on sophisticated technologies in SAR radar field, able to get images under any weather or light conditions (day or night). The satellite’s SAR will provide image in X-band and offer a spatial resolution of less than 1 metre. The last SAR-Lupe satellite is planned for launch this summer. The German Space Agency DLR in Oberpfaffenhofen is handling the satellite control, with the German Armed Forces to assume responsibility for the spacecraft in about four weeks time. All of the preliminary tests indicate this fourth satellite is working properly without the need of even minor adjustments—Cannes, France

Source SatNews

GAF AG, an internationally active geo-information company, has completed its consultancy services including technical assistance, know-how transfer, provision of skills and experience in the fields of coral reef ecology, coral reef management, GIS, web and institutional strengthening to the headquarters of CRITC in Gedung LIPI, Cikini, Jakarta and 8 districts in Sumatra.

Works started in January 2005 and has been performed under a contract for the Coral Reef Rehabilitation and Management Program (COREMAP), Phase II.

Indonesia has 17,600 islands with 80,000 km of shorelines and is known to have the richest coral reefs in the world. The coral reefs of Indonesia serve many purposes for their adjacent coastal communities: natural barriers that protect the beach; natural barriers that are there to be modified to make boat launching less difficult; habitats for locally consumed seafood and habitats for seafood harvest and cage rearing for net income generation to the village. The coral reefs, however, are facing immense threats from human activities such as overexploitation, destructive fishing, and pollution, which have become widespread throughout the country. Using coral reef resources properly will sustain and increase their value to coastal villagers in the long term as habitats for diverse fisheries, sources of building materials, and protectors of shorelines.

Community based resource management (CBRM) is the underlying concept for COREMAP in the management of coral reefs. CRITC has supported the CBRM processes in the following sectors :

  1. characterize (compiling specific local information for preparing a coral reef management plan),
  2. design (providing support in preparing coral reef management plans including zoning maps, regulations and alternative income generation schemes).
  3. Implement (supporting role by collaborating in public awareness and education) and
  4. monitor (CRITC`s major ongoing activity as Benefit Monitoring and Evaluation using the indicators of reef health and socio-economic well-being.

Major contributions were made for the development and refinement of the Coral Reef Management Information System (CRMIS), reflecting the National CRITCs important role as the central coral reef information repository for Indonesia.

David Peters, GAF representative in Indonesia observes: The successful completion of CRITC project is an important milestone for GAF, now providing technical assistance services to this geographic area from its new representative office in Jakarta. The CRITC project underlines the emphasis GAF is now devoting to environmental consulting in the coastal and marine domains.

CRITC is funded by a loan from the Asian Development Bank, Manila. Works have been performed under contract to LIPI, the Indonesian Institute of Sciences by GAF AG as the lead firm in association with Coffey International Development of Australia and PT. Geosys Intipiranti of Indonesia. In total 101 person months of on-site technical assistance and consulting were provided. For more details on CRITC please visit the project website.

About COREMAP
COREMAP (Coral Reef Rehabilitation and Management Program) began in 1998. It is a long term program with the overall objective to establish a viable, operational, and institutionalized coral reef management system in priority sites in Indonesia. It consists of three phases: Phase I: Initiation (1998- 2004), Phase II: Decentralization and Acceleration (2004-2009), Phase III: Institutionalization (2010-2015). COREMAP is now in Phase II, with goals of establishing viable reef management systems in at least six priority participating districts in order to empower and to support coastal communities to sustainably co manage the use of coral reefs and associated ecosystem resources. The second phase expands the number of program sites to build upon the pilots tested in Phase I and focuses on promoting collaborative management partnership between communities and local governments. The COREMAP website offers further details and access to the COREMAP reef GIS.

About GAF AG: (www.gaf.de)
GAF AG is an international consulting company with leading competence and expertise in applied remote sensing and spatial information systems. GAF has been active during the last 20 years in more than 100 countries throughout Europe, Africa, South-America and Asia. The company offers a comprehensive portfolio of services including the supply of geo-data (e.g. satellite and aerial imagery, digital elevation models) and geo-services (e.g. image processing, thematic mapping, GIS/DBMS applications and software development), as well as consulting, capacity building and training. GAF AG has a proven track-record in performing technical assistance projects in the natural resources and environment sector. The company�s activities are overseen by the CEO, Dr. Peter Volk.

India will later this month launch a remote sensing satellite equipped with high-resolution cameras and advanced scientific instruments, space agency officials said.

Cartosat-2A, as the all-weather, reconnaissance satellite is called, will be used to plan urban and rural development projects. It can also be used for intelligence gathering, the officials said.

“The tentative launch date is April 28,” Indian Space Research Organisation chairman G. Madhavan Nair told reporters in Bangalore where the agency is based.

“The exact date and time will be finalised in a fortnight after factoring weather and other relevant data,” he added.

Identical to the mapping satellite Cartosat-2, which was launched in January 2007, the 680-kilogram (1,500-pound) Cartosat-2A will be placed in a polar orbit at an altitude of 630 kilometres (391 miles).

The satellite will be launched by the Indian-developed rocket, the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, from the Sriharikota space station in southern India.

India started its space programme in 1963, and has since developed and put several of its own satellites into space. It has also designed and built launch rockets to reduce its dependence on overseas space agencies.

Space agency chairman Nair said the body has finalised a project report concerning a manned mission by 2014-15.

“The report is being submitted to the government for approval and budgetary allocation,” he said. “The Space Commission, headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, will meet next week or so to review the report and take a decision.”

Source SpaceMart

ReSAC, together with BulgaRisk Project partners – organised a training seminar for the Bulgarian administration focused on the use of Earth Observation data and GIS for disaster management.

Partners Involved in French-Bulgarian project BulgaRisk: SPOT Image, SERTIT, DDSC, ReSAC, Infoterra, Boost Technologies Bulgaria is highly exposed to natural and man-made hazards, as evidenced by repeated flooding and pollution in the Danube river basin, earthquakes, fires, and pollution in the Black Sea.

As Europe is working to organize the security and defence of its populations and monitor the environment through the GMES programme, the increasingly frequent disasters that Bulgaria is experiencing, and their human and economic costs, are motivating a concerted drive within the country to improve hazard management. Government decisions, legislation, Bulgaria’s international presence and the allocation of funding to support crisis management and reconstruction are all part of this effort.

BulgaRisk is a French-Bulgarian project, finance by the French Government, aiming at the integration of satellite imageries in the operational procedures of risk management in Bulgaria. Main beneficiaries are the Bulgarian State Agency for Information Technologies and Communications – SAITC and Agency for Sustainable Development and Eurointegration – ASDE. Authorised users will be the National Fire Safety and Protection of Population Service – Ministry of Interior, Aerospace Monitoring Center and National Civil Protection Service – Ministry of State Policy for Disasters and Accidence, Ministry of State Administration and Administrative Reform, National Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology – BAS, Institute for Oceanology – BAS, and some regions and municipalities.

The project is lead by Spot Image (France) with partners from SERTIT, DDSC, Infoterra, Boost Technologies. The Bulgarian partner in the project is ReSAC.

The specific objectives of the project are defined as:

• To create a report for the status and the needs of the governmental institutions in Bulgaria for geographic data during all stages of disaster management – prior, during and after their occurrence.
• To demonstrate to the decision makers and to other interested parties the usefulness of satellite imageries as a source for natural hazards information and as a key instrument for their management for whose purpose to present the most resent achievements in this field and to create 3 data base prototypes for 3 pilot regions for 3 types of disasters (floods, forest fires and water pollution).
• To list the recommendations for the creation of the Bulgarian Information Center for Disaster Management and for the integration of satellite imageries and new information and communication technologies in the development of national data base for the disaster management (database content, human and material resources, necessary for the creation and support of the database).

The project started in June 2007 and is planned to finish in October 2008.

On the 6th and 7th of March 2008 in the SAITC, the first of the training workshop series related to the BulgaRisk project was held.

The seminar was opened by Mr.Petar Iliev – Director of the Network Integration and Planning Directorate, SAITC. The lectures and exercises were prepared and presented by lecturers from the Bulgarian partner ReSAC and the French company SERTIT. The main topics discussed during the training workshop were: remote sensing, GIS technologies, image processing, including radar data for natural hazard risk assessment, such as forest fires, floods etc.

The participants were experts from State Forestry Agency, Center for Aerospace Monitoring at MSPDA, NFSPPS at MIn, NIMH/BAS, IO, Municipality of Rousse and Basin Directorate – Pleven at the Ministry of Environment and Water

For more information
Remote Sensing Application Center – ReSAC

GESEIN and AURENSIS develop a system for the Spanish Ministry of Development + The Spanish Ministry of Developments entrusts Aurensis a management system + Events

GESEIN and AURENSIS develop a system for the Spanish Ministry of Development – 28/03/2008

The Spanish Ministry of Development, to manage the payments related to the EU FEDER funds that it allocates, needs to know the identifying data of each FEDER target and their associated data (economic, etc…).

With this objective in mind, the Spanish Ministry has entrusted GESEIN and AURENSIS the development of a secure web application for the management of the payments of the EU FEDER funds distributed by this Ministry. With this application, which is integrated into the Intranet of the Ministry, it is possible to define the FEDER targets, and to obtain, consult and revise the economic data of these targets, export the data in different formats and make reports and summaries.

The Spanish Ministry of Developments entrusts Aurensis a management system – 18/03/2008

This project for the MFOM includes the management of the inventory of Immovable Properties owned by the State. This system called SGBI, centralizes all the inventories of the different Ministerial Departments and Public Bodies related to the General Administration of the State. The tool developed will be accesible from the Intranet of the Ministry of Development and will be integrated into the IDE System of the Ministry of Development.

AURENSIS participation in the ICC Seminar – 03/03/2008

Barcelona, 15th of April, 2008. Soon, it will take place the ICC (Cartographic Institut of Catalonia) Seminar with the title “The Cartography, an essential tool to analyse the territory”. The Director of the Dept. of Digital Cartography and Remote Sensing, Iwona Maciejewska, will take part in the round table to debate “If cartography is produced according to the real needs of cartography”

1st International Congress of Geomatic and Surveying Engineering – 03/03/2008

Valencia, Spain, 18-21 February, 2008. Along with the IX National Congress TOP-CART, the 1st International Congress on Geomatic and Surveying Engineering began this year its activity. To this congress attended specialists of Europe, China, South Africa and Nigeria among other. The Congress program covered extensively many topics of interest for the Geomatics and Surveying sectors. It was outstanding the anouncement of the Spanish National Cartographic Plan. These international congresses are an important tool to exchange ideas and make contacts.

AURENSIS attendance to the ICC Seminar “Changes in the Reference System” – 27/02/2008

On the 1st February, AURENSIS attended the seminar organized by the ICC (Cartographic Institute of Catalonia) regarding the substitution of the reference system ED50 by the ETRS89. The aim of this change is to achieve a global and unified reference system throughout Europe. This system will be compatible with other global reference systems and will enable the expansion of the terrestrial, maritime and arerial positioning and navigation systems

Aurensis takes part in a workshop of the International Federation of Surveyors (FIG) – 01/02/2008

This workshop of the FIG Commission3 will take place this time in Valencia, the 18th-21st February, 2008 in the framework of the 1st International Congress of Geomatics and Surveying Engineering. The title of this edition is “Spatial Information Management Toward the Environmental Management of Mega Cities”. In this occassion, the director of the Dept. of Digital Cartography and Remote Sensing, Iwona Maciejewska, together with Ralf Schroth, Director of Sensors and Photogrammetry of Hansa Luftbild, takes part with the paper “Disaster Response in Maritime Zones of Harbour Cities by Robotic Systems”.

The workshop organised by EARSC, in collaboration with the EC-GMES Bureau and ESA and held on March 19 in Brussels, was successful in that it lived up to the main objective identifying the positioning of the different players and their respective functions and raising the question to stakeholders “Is GMES an opportunity for the service industry?”

One of the workshop’s main strengths, warmly acknowledged by speakers and attendees alike, proved to be its relevance to the representatives from the EO industry community and institutions who were all there to discuss the future opportunities for the Service Industry whether through the Core or the Downstream services.


GMES has been hailed since 1998 and the Baveno Declaration as one of the flagships of Europe not only as a giant step forward in the monitoring of the environment but also as a key political framework and a possible boost to Europe in terms of scientific and technology advances as well as in terms of employment along the lines of the Lisbon Agenda.
Ten years later this initiative is becoming concrete with the study of the overall GMES architecture, the analysis of needs in terms of information access, the set up of the sentinels space segment, the finalisation of the INSPIRE directive and the initiation of the Fast Track Services.
The so-called upstream GMES service sector is engaged in a serious preparation for producing the core service elements and for implementing operational services, without having a clear view of their role in the delivery phase. The situation is also confused concerning the downstream service sector. In particular the road ahead for SMEs is not clear and the dialogue with the GMES decision makers is somewhat limited.
The question legitimately raised by Industry is thus: Is GMES an opportunity for the service industry?
The EARSC Workshop organised around these topics with participations from small and large industries as well as from European and national institutions and users will be an occasion to shed light on these issues and to draw with all parties involved a possible roadmap to make GMES an opportunity for the service industry. Among others, the workshop will face issues related to applications industry access to information about GMES data and service availability and schedule, and ongoing and future support to application development and deployment by the public sector and large corporations. The service industry sector is indeed a key for the success of the GMES Programme as a whole not only inside Europe itself but also to allow the benefits of the European GMES to be shared worldwide.

PROGRAMME
MORNING
08h15 – 09h15: Registration
09h15 – 09h30: Welcome Paul KAMOUN, Chairman EARSC
High level introduction on GMES: Potential impact on the Commission’s growth and jobs strategy. Heinz ZOUREK, Director General EU-DG-ENT

|09h30 – 09h50: Position speech from EU: Overall presentation of GMES: state-of-play of Commission’s actions. Valère MOUTARLIER, EU-GMES BUREAU

09h50 – 10h10: Opportunities, potential services in GMES at large. Han WENSINK, Vice-Chairman EARSC
10h10-10h30: Economic Models and Expected Socio-Economic Benefits. Michael OBERSTEINER, INT. INSTITUT APPLIED SYSTEMS ANALYSIS, IIASA
10h30 – 10h50: Coffee Break
10h50-11h10 Lessons from the GSE for future GMES Services by Stephen COULSON, ESA
11h10 – 12h15: Core Services (CS): Opportunities and Threats
-Land – GEOLAND: Alexander KAPTEIN, INFOTERRA + Rob BECK, NEO
-Marine – MERSEA: Fabienne JACQ, CLS + Charlotte O´KELLY, TECHWORKS
-Emergency – PREVIEW: Gil DENIS, INFOTERRA + Nuno ALMEIDA, CRITICAL SOFTWARE
-Atmosphere – GEMS: Nöel PARMENTIER, BELGIUM INSTITUTE SPACE AERONOMIE + Hein ZELLE, ARGOSS
-Security – LIMES: Marco MANCA, TELESPAZIO + Emilio SIMEONE, FLYBY
12h15- 13h15 ROUND TABLE AND DISCUSSION: Are the GMES Core Services opening opportunities for the service industry? (1st PART)
Moderator: Colin HICKS, EURISY
Rapporteur: Stigbjorn OLOVSSON, EARSC Director
Introduction Remarks: Alain PODAIRE, GMES BUREAU
PARTICIPANTS: Phil CURTIS (VEGA), Marcello MARANESI (TELESPAZIO), Pat NORRIS (LOGICA), Miguel BELLÓ (DEIMOS), Rainer HORN (SpaceTec Capital Partners AG)
13h15 – 14h15: Buffet Lunch
AFTERNOON
14h15 – 14h40 Cross-cutting issues
-Data access: Erik WILLÈN, METRIA
-Security of information, data management. Role of the different actors: Fulvio SANSONE, ORACLE
14h40 – 15h00 Downstream Services: Opportunities and Treats: Christian HOFFMANN, GEOVILLE
15h00-15h45 Expectations in Downstream Services from federation of Users
-Land: GMES FTS/CLC2006 a blueprint for fair procurement, Chris STEENMANS, EUROPEAN ENVIRONMENTAL AGENCY
-Marine: Effective linking of the Marine Core Services to end-user applications, Ralph RAYNER, ASSOCIATION MARINE SCIENTIFIC INDUSTRIES
-Emergency: Findings on Eurisy WK on Local and Regional Risk Management, Nicolas DOSSELAERE, EUROSENSE and MEDAD, best practice case for downstream services on emergency by Bernard ALLENBACH , SERTIT
15h45-16h45 ROUND TABLE AND DISCUSSION: Are the GMES downstream services opportunities for the service industry? (2nd PART)
Moderator: Colin HICKS, EURISY
Rapporteur: Marcello RICOTTILLI, EARSC Director
Introduction Remarks: Alain PODAIRE, GMES BUREAU
PARTICIPANTS: Ren CAPES (NPA), Paul DE FRAIPONT (SERTIT), Jaume FONS-ESTEVE (GNU), Serge GALANT (TECHNOFI), Rupert HAYDN (GAF), John STYLES (ASSIMILA), Steve COULSON (ESA)
16h45 –17h00 Wrap-Up and Recommendations for the way ahead

FINAL LIST OF PARTICIPANTS MARCH 19TH 2008
FINAL PROGRAMME MARCH 19TH 2008
RECOMMENDATIONS MARCH 19TH 2008

Stakeholder´s active involvement was helpful to discuss, with small and large industries as well as European and national institutions and users, the perspectives within GMES for the downstream services sector.

Telespazio, a Finmeccanica/Thales company, has acquired full control of Aurensis SL, a Spanish company specialized in technologies for territorial applications and aerial, satellite and Earth observation services.

The signing of the contract was held in Madrid in the presence of the Italian Ambassador to Spain, Pasquale Terracciano.

With this acquisition, Telespazio continues its international expansion and consolidation of its position as European leader in the Earth observation sector.

Aurensis, along with German company GAF AG, acquired in 2003, represents for Telespazio a further step towards the development of an international distribution network of data and products for environmental monitoring and territorial control in a highly competitive market.

For the Finmeccanica Group, this is the first direct investment in Spain, a fast-growing market where the government is pursuing a policy of strong support for space activities.

Aurensis is specialized in technologies for territorial applications and aerial, satellite and Earth observation services. Aurensis manufactures, processes and markets territorial information (cartography, remote sensing and Geographic Information Systems / GIS), with offices in Barcelona (headquarters) and in Madrid. With around 150 employees and a turnover of EUR 8.4 million in 2007, the company boasts a portfolio of Spanish and international corporate and business clients.

(Source Avionews)