Skip to content

The workshop “Improving EO services industry involvement in EU space programmes and initiatives” organised by EARSC with the support of the European Commission was held on 26 April 2017 in DG-GROW in Brussels .

The workshop aimed at discussing concrete ways for the improved industry involvement in the exploitation of Copernicus Services and the delivery of GEO vision. The event attracted more than 90 people.

The morning session underlined the key priorities of GEO with regards to industry engagement notably through the example of the GEO-CRADLE project. Project partners provided a concrete account of tools that can help EU industry develop business in the Balkans, North Africa and Middle East.

The afternoon session brought together representatives from the European Entrusted Entities (EEEs), institutional stakeholders and industrial actors. After presenting the preliminary findings of a study undertaken by EARSC and PWC, a series of three round-tables consisting of representatives of EEEs and EO services company representatives, provided the opportunity for a lively exchange on the current interfaces between the Copernicus services and the industry.

Presentations and more information are available at EARSC’s website.

Toulouse, 30 May 2017 – Airbus Defence and Space has launched the “Global Earth Observation Challenge”, encouraging start-ups worldwide to innovate and develop new applications primarily based on Airbus satellite data. These creative ideas are designed to bring new developments of Earth observation services, as well as ground-breaking solutions.

The goal of this 4-month challenge is to create added value for new businesses focusing on themes identified as important topics for the global population. This gathers forestry, agriculture, smart cities and maritime, but can be enlarged to any other themes that would be judged relevant. The first two months will be dedicated to ideation, followed by two other months of deepening.

Five finalist start-ups will have the chance to pitch their pioneering project in front of Airbus Executives and selected stakeholders. The challenge winner will receive a voucher worth €50,000 for satellite data as well as coaching for the development of their start-up, the second winner will be rewarded with satellite data vouchers worth €20,000, the third €15,000, the fourth €10,000 and the fifth will get €5,000. Participating in this challenge will also include the opportunity of being integrated to the Airbus BizLab, the global aerospace business accelerator.

The following Airbus imagery, data and services will be provided to participants:

  • Very large imagery datasets available online or for download: City of Sao Paulo, City of Toulouse, State of California
  • Machine Learning datasets: planes and ships signatures and imagery
  • Various API: OneAtlas for Innovation, Universal Earth Observation Catalog

Companies interested are invited to join the Airbus Defence and Space Global Earth Observation Challenge by registering here.

Media contacts
Fabienne Grazzini. ph: +33 5 62 19 41 19. Email:fabienne.grazzini@airbus.com

30 June 2017. A set of user satisfaction surveys is open. It takes only few minutes to fill out and your input will greatly help improve Copernicus products!

The European Commission intends to establish a User Feedback Mechanism to monitor and continuously improve the performance of the Copernicus programme, and user satisfaction. This mechanism is under development with the support of Copernicus Entrusted Entities to get all necessary intelligence, and identify necessary service improvements.

As a Copernicus user, your opinion is integral to the development of the programme! So answer these surveys and help to improve our services and products.

Below you can access the current open surveys:

EARSC organised a session on Industry Contribution to SDGs on 20th June alongside the 11th GEO European Projects Workshop.

The session on “Leveraging EO services to help monitoring SDGs, the industry contribution” took place in the framework of the European GEO projects workshop from 19-21 June 2017 in Helsinki.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are being launched with an emphasis on collecting data that will be extensive and specific enough to serve these needs. They are designed to balance the three dimensions of sustainable development: the economic, social and environmental. European EO industry can help achieve the SDGs by providing critical information on natural resources, government operations, public services, and population demographics. Industry helps on the SDG implementation role, monitoring, reporting, and the facilitation and shaping of reporting methods, policy and tools. These insights can inform national priorities and help determine the most effective paths for action on national issues.

The workshop brought experts from the public and private sectors to underline the key priorities of GEO with regards to industry engagement and how to work in practice for the uptake of R&D projects. The panel focused on existing business cases against the SDGs. It was a great opportunity to make evidence on the actual capabilities of EO industry using relevant indicators that may be useful when contributing to the SDGs (measuring/reporting).

The outcomes of the discussion were that:

  • Some examples on how industry help on the SDG implementation role, monitoring, reporting, and the
    facilitation and shaping of reporting methods have been addressed.
  • SDGs are providing a common language to products and services that industry is already producing and
    EuroGEOSS could help to establish regular and consistent communication around the contribution to SDGs
    by all European stakeholders.
  • Industry bring a broad industry perspective across all commercial sectors to contribute towards meeting
    SDGs. Example of the full chain from research to operational have been covered by some sectors (case of
    fisheries)
  • Some companies in other market sectors (corporates) are already utilizing reporting indexes, ratings or
    standards (helping to monitor SDGs) for their reporting on market impact to their various stakeholders
  • It has been noted as important to look into evidence of the practical integration of the SDGs into existing
    business measuring indicators.
  • Overall, European EO industry can help achieve the SDGs by providing critical information on natural
    resources, government operations, public services, and population demographics; however, it is
    recommended to be very precise when companies refer to a target or to an indicator so we do not try to
    oversell the EO contribution to the Global Indicator Framework.
  • When referring to indicators, those EO products should make a direct contribution to the monitoring of
    the subject indicator.

Presentations are available at EARSC’s website

11 July 2017. EARSC published today a position paper entitled “Copernicus evolution: Fostering Growth in the EO Downstream Services Sector”.

Copernicus is a European programme designed to meet the needs of the public sector for space-derived, geospatial information in support of policy making. Public expenditure on the programme can also be used to support economic goals through commercial use of the data and information that Copernicus produces. The EO services downstream sector is enthusiastic about the opportunities that this can present and has been an active participant to the programme from the outset. Now, as the European Union evaluates its next steps, we consider that it is time to re-enforce the governance to include the voice of industry alongside other stakeholders. This should go hand-in-hand with an industrial strategy based on a service-led approach and coupled with a Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda to help develop the sector.

Download the Position Paper on Copernicus evolution

The 1st Round table aiming to develop an integrated programme and an interregional initiative to achieve the implementation of Sustainable Development Goals in the Balkan Peninsula was carried out successfully in Vlasti Kozani, Greece on Saturday 17th of June, under the auspices of the Group on Earth Observation (GEO), the Ministry of Rural Development and Food and the Ministry of Digital Policy, Telecommunications and Posts.

The Region of Western Macedonia and the Decentralized Administration of Epirus and Western Macedonia organized and hosted the activities of event, while Interbalkan Environment Center (i-BEC) acted as the accelerator of the whole endeavor in the Balkan region being Participating Organization of GEO. Mrs. Katerina Notopoulou from the Prime Minister’s Office also honored the event with her presence.

The Minister of Rural Development and Food Mr. Evangelos Apostolou welcomed the event and focused on the need to strengthen the competitiveness of the agricultural sector by adopting Earth Observation applications in the national rural development policy with the aim of ensuring the highest quality in the agricultural products. The Minister highlighted that the goals of the Initiative for the increase of competitiveness in the agri-Food Sector in Balkans are in line with the Ministry’s strategic guidelines and highlight the need to engage and further assiste the cooperation of the stakeholders in the Balkans to establish the EO ecosystem towards the sustainable development. The Secretary General of Telecommunications and Posts Mr Vasilios Maglaras representing the Ministry of Digital Policy, Telecommunications and Information through stressed out the need to exploit research and scientific applications related to Earth observation for the modernization of agri-food sector and that the outcomes of the meeting must be incorporated to the implementation of the national digital strategy. In the light of the above, the need for co-operation between the two Ministries was pointed out to develop the necessary infrastructure to enhance digital agriculture.

Mrs. Ryan Barbara, GEO’s Director-General, who honored the event with her presence, mentioned the importance of providing digital services to citizens through the incorporation of Earth observation capabilities into daily applications and the need for them to be disseminated in the Balkan countries with the aid of the Inter-Balkan Environmental Center as an interregional organization of GEO and as a Technology Broker. In this context, the need for an Earth Observation System of Systems (BalkanGEOSS) that will initially focus on monitoring the most important crops fulfilling the role of Balkan GEOGLAM in the Balkan region was highlighted. The Scientific Director of the Inter-Balkan Environmental Center, Professor George Zalidis coordinated the 1st Session of the Round Table Meeting that discussed the utilization of space technologies and applications for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) implementation related to the agri-food sector. In particular, Michel Deshayes and Juan Pablo Guerschman coordinators of the Global Agricultural Monitoring Initiative (GEOGLAM) and GEOGLAM Rangeland and Pasture Productivity (GEOGLAM-RAPP), respectively, presented several applications that could be used to increase agricultural yields, reduction of ecological footprint, as well as the sustainable management of grasslands and pasturelands. The representative of the Ministry of the Environment and Energy, Mr. Ioannis Kazoglou, stressed out that remote sensing practices should be used as part of the national strategy for rural development and the protection of natural resources. The utilization of modern technological tools in the agri-food sector were made by videoconferencing by Brian Killough, NASA and Committee in Earth Observation satellites (CEOS) scientist and, Espen Volden and Gordon Campbell, as representatives of the European Space Agency (ESA) for the Balkan Peninsula region. All speakers referred to the significant potential exploitation of multi-dimensional data-processing structures such as the Data Cube and the Thematic Exploitation Platforms for increasing the competitiveness and sustainability of agricultural practices. These applications have already been utilized in a number of countries and thematic sectors and the speakers underlined the common belief that these opportunities could be exploited in the Balkans through the Contact Points set up by GEO-CRADLE to strengthen the agricultural sector. Lawrence Friedl, Director of NASA’s Applied Science Program and Aditya Agrawal Director of the GPSDD highlighted the value of satellite data availability for monitoring SDGs. Summarizing, at the end of the Session, the Rector of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Mr. Pericles Mitkas, emphasized the role of AUTH in the interconnection of research with the productive sector and set the year 2018 as a landmark year for the further interconnection of i-BEC in the Balkans, while Mr. Athanasios Paliatsos, special advisor of the Directorate of Radio Spectrum and Satellite Communications focused on the need for co-operation between stakeholders so that Earth Observation Systems can be harnessed to the benefit of many sectors of the agri-food economy.

The discussion followed by representatives of the ecosystem of stakeholders from the Balkan region in order to draw up a plan to improve the implementation of regional development policies to actively support entrepreneurship. The Coordinator of the Decentralized Administration of Epirus – Western Macedonia, Mr. Vasileios Mihelakis, representing the majority of the Coordinators of the Decentralized Administrations in the event, highlighted the importance of common actions and strategies with Interbalkan Environment center related to water, forest and environment. Theodoros Karypidis, Governor of the Region of the Western Macedonia, Nikolai Chanev, Regional Governor of Kardzhali (Bulgaria), the Deputy Regional Governor of the Region of Central Macedonia Fanis Pappas and the Deputy Governor Mr. Panagiotis Plakentas emphasized the importance of cooperation between cross-border countries and the need to integrate Earth Observation applications into the Regional Operational Programs enhancing the funding for Small and Medium Enterprises to increase their competitiveness. Mr. Kyriakos Loufakis, President of the Greek International Business Association and Alexander Zarkov, Director of the Chambers of Commerce of Macedonia highlighted that the Chambers of Commence in the Balkans would be very interested in certified labelled products as reduced input practices products using Earth Observation applications and proposed to organize a round table on entrepreneurship in the Balkans.

Finally, interventions were made by the President of the Geotechnical Chamber Mr. Spyros Mamalis, the Technical Chamber’s representative Mr. George Tsakoumis and the Vice President of the Central Union of Chambers Mr. Pavlos Tonikidis, focusing on the need for a long-term national planning for economic development that will include specific measures and mechanisms for the further adoption of innovative digital technologies. The meeting was completed after the interventions of Μr. Theodoros Karypidis, Governor of the Region of the western Macedonia and Mr. Vasileios Michelakis, Coordinator of the Decentralized Administration of Epirus and Western Macedonia.

The action plan of the Round Table can be found online

This article was first published in EU Observer on 11 July 2017. Nick Wallace, the author, is a Brussels-based senior policy analyst at the Center for Data Innovation.

Copernicus – a joint project between the EU and the European Space Agency (ESA) that uses satellites and ground sensors to monitor the environment – is the world’s largest civil Earth observation programme, producing over 8 petabytes per year.
Earth observation data has many important uses, such as tracking deforestation and rising sea levels, helping farmers and fisheries to operate sustainably, and monitoring humanitarian crises.

But Copernicus is not the world’s only supplier, and if the EU and others agreed to provide standardised Earth observation data through a shared and trusted platform, that platform could support additional innovative uses of data in science, business, and policy-making, on a greater scale than any lone data supplier.
Unfortunately, inadequate implementation of common data standards and reuse policies across different Earth observation programmes currently makes it difficult to reuse combined data.

One attempt to resolve this is the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), run by the Group on Earth Observations (GEO), an intergovernmental organisation with over 100 member countries – including the EU’s 28.

GEOSS provides a single portal for various sources of independently-supplied Earth observation data, along with common standards for incorporating them via the GEOSS Common Infrastructure (GCI).

No common standards

Despite the broad membership of GEOSS, it still faces the challenge of pushing for its standards to be widely adopted. There is no binding international agreement that commits the world’s Earth observation programmes to common standards.

If the world could move from merely having disparate suppliers of Earth observation data to sharing a common platform for them, it would be easier to incorporate data from different sources into important research.

It could range from tracking the effects of climate change to planning for global food security, and to use algorithmic techniques, such as text and data mining, to derive insights from huge and diverse data sets. This would help scientists to learn more about the Earth’s climate and its resources.

A shared platform for the world’s Earth observation data would enhance the abilities of governments that lack their own Earth observation technologies to monitor local environmental threats.

For example, the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) & Africa initiative uses Copernicus data to help African nations plan infrastructural development, manage their natural resources, and monitor the effects of climate change, natural disasters, and war.

An international agreement on Earth observation data standards and reuse policies would also support economic innovation globally.

Copernicus data already has various commercial uses, such as helping farmers to manage land and crops more effectively, as well as identifying optimal locations for fisheries that are environmentally sustainable.

A larger, multilateral supply of interoperable data would enhance global capacity for this kind of data-driven innovation by broadening the amount of data businesses can work with at once.

The EU, alongside the ESA, should take the lead in forging an international agreement on the implementation of common standards and reuse policies for Earth observation data.

Driving innovation

The Copernicus programme itself already drives innovation by making its data freely available, including for commercial reuse. And the Copernicus B2B challenge offers cash prizes for participants with the best commercial applications of Copernicus data, such as helping insurance companies to predict losses.

If the EU wants to remain at the forefront of the production and use of Earth observation data, it should work with others to show that when many countries integrate data from their disparate sources, everyone is made better off.

The EU already has cooperation agreements on Copernicus data with the United States and Australia. These agreements help those countries to address local needs with data, such as detecting oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico.

They also bring together leading experts to collaborate on developing uses of Earth observation data that have common benefits, such opening up new markets for data-driven products and services in industries such as agriculture, fisheries, and mining.

Agreements like these demonstrate the benefits to the global environment and economy when different countries share data and expertise.

Similar bilateral cooperation with other countries running Earth observation satellites, such as India and Japan, could help build momentum for a multilateral agreement on interoperable data sharing.

Furthermore, the EU-backed Research Data Alliance publishes guidelines on data standards and reuse policies, which, in addition to GEOSS standards, could further contribute to an agreement on interoperable data feeds that third parties can compare, combine, and freely reuse.

Earth observation data is an important driver of innovation in environmental policy, urban development, scientific research, as well as in industry and business.

Copernicus alone is a towering achievement, but stronger political commitment to GEOSS, with binding agreements, would make it easier for scientists, governments, and businesses to make the most of the data provided by the world’s Earth observation platforms.

The EU should move swiftly to make this happen.

Source

VisioTerra is an independant French company specialized in Science Consulting for Earth Observation. They developped VtWeb an most innovative solution for Earth Observation.

VtWeb is a platform enabling users to easily browse free Earth observation data across the Web, display them in 2D/3D and process them on-the-fly. Raw or processed images may also be exported in GeoTIFF or KML.

This software has 5 key features :

  • It enables 2D and 3D visualisations of Earth Observation datas
  • It is an intelligent data-layer manager for earth observation such as Google Earth
  • It is an innovative data treatment on-the-fly
  • VtWeb server at VisioTerra premises maintains a database of qualified datasets for more than 240 Terabytes : Altimetry (DEM, geoids, bathymetry), LU/LC (ESA Globcover), Envisat ASAR, Envisat MERIS FRS
  • It offers a wide range of services (VtAoiWatcher, VtFinder, Vt Alti, VtPace…) with various data catchers or producers to provide users with Earth Observation data.

An example with the STUDIES TOTAL – Cryosat over Arctic :
Study of the potential of satellite data to monitor the environment in very cold areas
See a hyperlook of an other altimeter: S3/SRAL

The last 3 months have been an incredibly busy time for EARSC and to cap it all this edition of EOmag is the 50th!

It signifies that we have been publishing this magazine to inform the EO services sector for 12.5 years. The first edition in Spring 2005 featured an interview with my long-time friend Luc Tytgat who was then Head of the Space Policy and Co-ordination Unit in EC DG Enterprise and reported on the EARSC Industry summit that had been held just a few weeks previously. A socio-economic benefit study for GMES was about to be launched. EOmag was the brainchild of Monica who had just become EARSC’s first employee (part-time) to help the EARSC chairman who at the time was Paul Kamoun.

In that time, the EO sector has changed enormously and yet most of what was reported back then is recognisable today. Our membership has grown from around 40 back then to 97 as I write and now, as reported in the last EOmag, we have an office in Brussels with 5 employees and have established EARSC as an organisation well-known internationally throughout the EO services sector.

Other milestones of note are:

We are about to publish our 3rd industry survey covering the EO services industry in Europe and Canada.

We have developed the concept of a Marketplace Alliance for EO Services and shall launch a call to develop eoMALL in the next few weeks.

We are starting a next round of economic benefit analyses to follow the three cases which we published last year and plan to publish 2 more reports by the year end. These are really quite exciting and I am really looking forward to digging deep into the use of the EO products and services throughout a value-chain extending from the service provider to the citizen in the street. We already have the 2 next cases identified and both have very interesting dimensions to them. You will have to wait to find out what they are!
As there is strong interest in this work, we have applied to organise a side-event on analysing the benefits of EO services at the GEO plenary in Washington DC.

On top of all this, we have recently organised our 4th international event (at the ISRSE in Pretoria last May) where European companies can meet up with potential local partners and we are embarking on at least 3 further visits (to Chile, Bolivia and Washington) during the 2nd half of 2017.
I feel exhausted just writing about it!!

Since we started EOmag, many other professional magazines have been started and we partly wonder if there is still a need for our efforts. But we get a lot of positive feedback and encouragement so we shall continue to publish and consider even to increase the frequency to 6 issues per year from the current 4.

We love to hear from you so maybe drop us a line (info_at_earsc.org) to mark the 50th edition and give us your views on the future of the EOmag e-zine.

I am now off for a summer break and to return in September recharged and ready to continue our efforts to help develop the European EO industry.

Geoff Sawyer
EARSC Secretary General

The Centre for Earth Observation Instrumentation (CEOI) recently held an Industry Consultation Workshop on ‘Advanced Manufacturing Techniques for Space Instrumentation’

The round-table consultation brought together industry representatives from a range of sectors to discuss and provide input on market trends, challenges and opportunities that will inform CEOI’s strategy for the next generation of Earth observation / remote sensing instruments. The participants identified a wide range of opportunities and challenges in adopting Advanced Manufacturing Techniques (AMT) and this report synthesises the discussion and summarises the key points raised.

CEOI, funded by the UK Space Agency, supports innovative research in Earth observation instrumentation and technologies. Further information is available at http://ceoi.ac.uk/.

Download the final summary report