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CORINE Land Cover is the official pan-European land cover monitoring programme being operational since the late 1980s and covering four survey periods for 1990, 2000, 2006 and 2012.

Ariane Walz and Luisa Gedon, Institute of Earth and Environmental Science | University of Potsdam

We investigated land cover changes as detected by the CORINE programme for all protected areas (PA) of the European Union and showed how ECOPOTENTIAL PAs compare with the total of European Protected Areas. We used the “Nationally Designated Areas” database, which is the official source of information on PAs from European countries to the World Database of Protected Areas and includes a total of 85´319 individual protected areas in its Geodatabase for 2015 (version 11). For the land cover, we use the CORINE Land Cover Change, which is based on an improved technique to detect changes in land cover. The “mapping change first” technique has been applied by most countries since 2006, and it covers changes in land cover in a higher resolution than the initial wall-to-wall land cover surveys. Changes in land cover are mapped, if they affect an area >5 ha with a width >100 m. We convert land cover changes to the six main “land cover flows” (LCF) identified by Feranec et al. (2010) which prevents double-counting of changes from and to a specific land cover. First results show the most important land cover flows within PAs include LCF4 “Reforestation” and LCF5 “Deforestation”. LCF4 contains areas changing away from “forest and semi-natural vegetation”, and LCF5 contains areas changing towards “forest and semi-natural vegetation”. Both flows can be caused either by natural processes or by human intervention. Comparing these flows from within PAs and from a 1 km buffer around PAs shows considerably higher changes around the PAs. Assuming natural processes are similar in intensity within PAs and their direct surroundings, this indicates considerably less human intervention within PAs. However, we can still not estimate the degree of human intervention within PAs due to limitations in the categorical resolution of CORINE land cover. Both flows occur to a large extent within PAs of IUCN Category V (“Protected Landscape/Seascape”), where the human intervention is allowed (Fig 1). Changes in Category V exceed to a remarkable degree the rates of changes observed in Category VI (“Protected area with sustainable use of natural resources”), where human intervention is explicitly needed to maintain the current state of ecosystems. In absolute terms, land cover changes add up also for Category II (“National Park”) which is due to the usually large extend of these PAs.


Fig 1. Sum of LCF4 and LCF5 for different IUCN categories in (A) absolute area of change/year and (B) normalized by size of PAs.

Plotting LCF4 and LCF5 over the size of PAs shows that land cover change occurs at all sizes (Fig 2). Normalising land cover change with the size of the individual PAs indicates a high vulnerability of very small PAs. If they are affected by a land cover change, very large proportions of the PA can be transformed according to CORINE. The limited set of ECOPOTENTIAL PAs covers well the range of observed rates of changes except for very small, highly impacted PAs.


Fig 2. Distribution of LFC4 and LCF5 across the size of PAs (1) in absolute area of LCF and (B) fraction of PA, in red: ECOPOTENTIAL PAs.

In summary, CORINE confirms that changes in “forest and semi-natural vegetation” dominate land cover change in European Pas. It shows that changes in close proximity to PAs occur at considerably higher rates, which can give us some indication on both the functioning of the protection and the prevailing pressures on PAs. The data further indicate a high sensitivity of small PAs to land cover change. Major short-comings of CORINE Land Cover Change could be identified mainly in the spatial and categorical resolution, including the ability to distinguish natural processes from human intervention in the dataset which is of particular interest for PAs. ECOPOTENTIAL PAs all show land cover changes, and their change rates cover a large range of observed change rates for large European PAs. Further refinement of these findings will deepen our knowledge about the applicability of CORINE land cover for the management of PAs. Furthermore, we might be able to compare the results from CORINE land cover change with the targeted reconstruction of past changes from LANDSAT for the ECOPOTENTIAL PAs. After all, this will enable us to provide guidance to improve large-scale land cover monitoring towards the needs of PA management.

Source: ECOPOTENTIAL Newsletter

(By Keith Campbell, Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor) Worldwide, the Earth Observation (EO) sector is being shaken-up by disruptive innovations by major enterprises.

“Globally, traditional EO value chains are changing radically due to technological developments, rapid commercialisation and operationalisation by, especially, leading IT [information technology] companies,” highlighted Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Meraka Institute chief scientist in EO science and IT Dr Konrad Wessels.

He was speaking at the EO Indaba in Pretoria on Monday. “These developments are being actively funded by the European Commission and UK government agencies, and in the US by venture capital, to increase the competitiveness of their EO offerings.”

The traditional EO value chain was: sensors provide raw data; this is processed into spatial data information; this is subject to analysis and/or turned into application products and/or services; and these are then used to create decision support tools. Decision support tools must be customized for each client. Traditionally, different types of companies or agencies were responsible for different elements of this value chain. Thus, there were (and still are) satellite-owning and -operating companies or agencies, responsible for the sensors and the provision of raw data. Then other companies or agencies processed and analysed it. Then yet more companies created and sold application products and services and decision support tools.

But now, major value-added service providers have been expanding “up-stream” (to use industrial jargon) and now own and operate their one satellites and provide their own raw data, and carry out their own processing and analyses, cutting out everyone else. Conversely, satellite builders and data providers are moving “down-stream”, providing value-added services. These developments have potentially serious consequences for smaller players in the EO business, like South Africa.

“It’s been ten years since South Africa’s EO Strategy was launched. I think we’ve come a long way,” Wessels said. “Our common vision is to use EO for societal benefits. But our objective now is to ensure that the South African EO community maintains market share in EO. It is truly becoming a Big Data challenge. EO is really a part of a wider data economy.”

“Our future vision is that South Africa’s EO and Space Engineering community leads the development of EO applications and services in Africa,” he affirmed. Space engineers design and build satellites. If they and the EO people do not stand together then South Africa could be sidelined by the global EO majors, even in Africa. And to compete, it is also very important to develop local staff. The EO sector needs a high proportion of postgraduates in its ranks.

Wessels listed the expectations of the CSIR’s own EO community. These are: an enabling environment created under the leadership of the Department of Science and Technology and the South African National Space Agency. The creation of opportunities for international collaboration, especially in Africa. Access to EO data and EO data infrastructure. Less competition in South Africa for small projects. More funding opportunities for EO research and development and application development. Coordination between satellite engineers and EO application developers. Collaboration with local industry. And technology transfer to local industry. In South Africa, the need was to build relationships, he stressed, not delineate territories.

Source

EARSC has moved into its new office at 26, Rue de la Loi, 1040 Brussels [Arts Loi metro station]. View on map

After 27 years of existence, EARSC has taken its own office for the very first time. We share the premises with two other companies one of which ‘Evenflow’ we work very closely and they support us in a number of our projects.

In addition, EARSC Secretariat team has enlarged. Emmanuel Pajot and Natassa Antoniou both joined EARSC in March! Emmanuel has 13 years’ experience in Remote Sensing studies applied to the Oil & Gas industry. He will act as Geoff’s deputy and will be the lead person in EARSC for the MAEOS and eoMALL implementation. Natassa has 6 years working experience in space policy and earth observation both in the public and private sector. She will act as Project Officer for market development.


From left to right: Natassa Antoniou, Emmanuel Pajot, Monica Miguel Lago, Ariane Dubost, Geoff Sawyer

We look forward to welcoming members to the new EARSC Office (on the corner above Arts-Loi metro station) and to further developments in the evolution of the Association in the next few months!

EARSC together with 3 member companies – Airbus D&S, GMV and e-GEOS participated in the S-NET 4th Sectorial Meeting “EO ✕ Data Platform” in Tokyo on 15 February 2017. The event showed growing interest in Japan for consolidating EO and IT. The following day, Japan Space Systems (JSS) organised the first EARSC-JSS Joint EO & IT Seminar to give an opportunity for the two industries to come together and exchange ideas from fresh perspectives.

S-NET 4th Sectorial Meeting “EO ✕ Data Platform” – 15 February 2017

The National Space Policy Secretariat of the Cabinet Office of Japan invited Geoff Sawyer, the Secretary-General of the European Association of Remote Sensing Companies (EARSC), and several EARSC member companies to Tokyo to present at the Space New Economy Creation Network (S-NET) 4th Sectorial Meeting “EO ✕ Data Platform”.

This marks the first step of the cooperation between Japan Space Systems (JSS) and EARSC, which signed a memorandum of understanding on Nov 23, 2016, with the EU-Japan Centre for Industrial Cooperation to act as an intermediary and offer support. The aim of the MoU is to cooperate in the utilisation of Earth -observation (EO) technology between Europe and Japan.

S-NET is a networking initiative coordinated by the National Space Policy Secretariat of the Japanese Cabinet Office, and its objective is to bring space and non-space companies together to promote and facilitate cross-disciplinary collaborations. In Dec 2016, S-NET commenced a series of sectorial meetings focussed on EO data utiliszation with each meeting covering a different field of EO. The latest seminar on Feb 15 was the fourth edition, and the theme was on the data platform for EO data, and collaboration with IT technologies. The meeting gathered more than 100 people from both industry and public sector.

The meeting started with the opening remarks from the centre’s Deputy Manager, Fabrizio Mura. Mr. Sawyer then presented the current status of the EU’s space policy including Copernicus Earth-observation program, and an overview of EARSC’s data platform project, EO Marketplace. This was then followed by presentations from EARSC member companies; Hugues Pavie from Airbus Defence & Space, Celestino Gomez from GMV and Massimo Comparini from e-GEOS, where each they presented their company’s EO services, and their thoughts on engaging with IT. JSS presented their Space Business Court, Japan’s first EO data and business support and networking platform, where a teaser site has been operating since Sept 2016. The English version of the platform was launched in Jan 2017 to enable space-related companies from overseas, particularly Europe, to establish presence in the Japanese market and explore possible collaboration opportunities with Japan. The seminar also had presentations from the Remote Sensing Society of Japan and the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science & Technology (AIST) on the latest developments in EO with Artificial Intelligence and Big Data Analytics.

The attendance at the meeting was a clear indication of the growing interest in Japan for consolidating EO and IT, with many non-space companies being present at the meeting. JSS and the National Space Policy Secretariat are going to work together to further accelerate this movement through the full launch of Space Business Court, which is scheduled for May 2017.

First EARSC-JSS Joint EO & IT Seminar – 16 February 2017

Since Dec 2016, JSS has been by hosting a series of information sessions on the consolidation of Earth-observation (EO) and IT technologies in order to foster inter-disciplinary dialogue and encourage greater collaboration between the two industries. The sessions have attracted keen interests from several prominent IT start-ups and venture companies in Japan, particularly those offering services and solutions using Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Big Data Analytics.

The EARSC-JSS Joint EO & IT seminar was organised to give an opportunity for the two industries to come together and exchange ideas from fresh perspectives. Furthermore, the workshop enabled EARSC and the three member companies – Airbus Defence & Space D&S, GMV and e-GEOS, to make new connections with Japan’s active IT community.

The workshop was attended by nearly 40 companies both from EO and IT services sector. Hisanobu Takayama from JSS presented Space Business Court, followed by presentations from EARSC and the its member companies. The second half of the workshop had presentations from several IT start-ups and venture companies in Japan, including XCompass, Torus and Creative Hope, as well as the market analysis of EO and IT by MM Research Institute, and furthermore on EO and IoT by NTT Data Research Laboratory.

The seminar invoked vivid discussions during and after the seminar at the networking reception. It was evident that the EO data is recognised as part of Big Data, and that the IT companies in Japan are exploring ways in which they can incorporate it into their respective services. However, the discussion also identified key issues including better access to and understanding of EO data by the IT industry, and the possible need to support the creation of data scientists with sound knowledge of EO data.

Link to EARSC presentation

Ottobrunn, 17/02/2017 – Airbus Defence and Space, the world’s second largest space company, has signed a contract with Space Administration at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) to develop and build all components of the German contribution to the German-French Earth observation mission MERLIN. MERLIN will measure the methane content of Earth’s atmosphere to improve our understanding of global warming

The German Aerospace Center and the French space agency Centre National d’Études Spatiales (CNES) are jointly developing this challenging mission on behalf of the French and German governments. With this step, Europe’s two largest space-faring nations have resolved to seek a deeper understanding of the mechanisms that influence Earth’s climate.

As the industrial prime contractor on the German side, Airbus in Ottobrunn, near Munich, was commissioned by DLR to develop the payload and the payload ground segment. As the industrial prime contractor for CNES, Airbus in Toulouse is responsible for the overall system, the satellite platform and integration of the instrument.

“By developing MERLIN through DLR and CNES, France and Germany are making an important contribution to better understanding the causes of climate change,” said Dr Michael Menking, Head of Earth Observation, Navigation and Science at Airbus Defence and Space.

Starting in 2021, MERLIN (MEthane Remote sensing LIdar missioN) will deploy a LIDAR (Light Detecting and Ranging) instrument to monitor the methane content in Earth’s atmosphere from an altitude of around 500 kilometres, and additionally make possible the first-ever global map of concentrations of this critical greenhouse gas.

Highly precise global measurement and mapping of methane concentrations in the atmosphere is only possible from space, as it requires continuous, large-area observation. Key areas such as tropical wetlands, rain forests and sub-Arctic regions are extremely difficult to survey without satellites.

To date, the methane concentration in the atmosphere has been measured from Earth observation satellites that use solely “passive” instruments. These utilise the sunlight scattered by the Earth’s surface to determine the content of trace gases (such as methane) in the atmosphere. They depend on daylight and only produce optimum results when skies are clear.

The MERLIN mission will be the first to use an “active” LIDAR instrument developed in Germany. It is equipped with an on-board light source (the laser) and can thus measure at night and even through thin cirrus clouds. The instrument emits two short light pulses at two slightly different wavelengths. As one wavelength is absorbed by the methane and the other is not, this difference between the two back-scattered signals can be measured and the methane concentration can be determined with unprecedented precision.

With the aid of data on wind speeds and directions, scientists around the world will be able to convert these values into global methane flow maps and determine the actual regional effects of methane. A better understanding of the global methane cycle is urgently needed in order to reliably predict changes in climate and pursue effective climate protection.

Source Airbus

On February 8, 2017, Planet announced the integration of Landsat 8 and Copernicus Sentinel-2 data into their data pipeline and software platform.

As of February 8, researchers, developers, and commercial users can access four unique satellite imagery datasets through the Planet Platform:

  • PlanetScope : RGB and NIR bands (3.7 m spatial resolution), captured by Planet’s Dove constellation
  • RapidEye : RGB, NIR and red edge bands (6.5 m spatial resolution), captured by Planet’s RapidEye constellation
  • Sentinel-2 : 13 spectral bands – RGB and NIR bands (10 m); six red edge and shortwave infrared bands (20 m); three atmospheric correction bands (60m spatial resolution)
  • Landsat 8 : 11 spectral bands – Panchromatic band (15 m); eight visible, near-infrared, shortwave infrared, and atmospheric correction bands (20 m); two thermal infrared bands (100 m spatial resolution)

Ingesting this data was no easy task. Planet would like to extend a special thanks to USGS and ESA who have generously made Landsat 8 and Sentinel-2 data publicly available, and to AWS and Google as well, for hosting the imagery.

To explore each of these datasets you can sign up for a free Explorer account

On February 14, 2017, Planet successfully launched 88 Dove satellites—the largest satellite constellation ever to reach orbit. This is not just a launch (or a world record, for that matter,) for Planet this is a major milestone. With these satellites in orbit, Planet will reach its Mission 1: the ability to image all of Earth’s landmass every day.

The night of February 14 was the culmination of a huge effort over the past 5 years. In 2011 Planet set itself the audacious mission of imaging the entire Earth land area every day. They were convinced that armed with such data, humanity would be able to have a significant positive impact on many of the world’s greatest challenges. Planet calculated that it would take between 100-150 satellites to achieve this, and they started building them. After this launch, Planet operates 149 satellites in orbit. They have reached their milestone.

It has taken a minor Apollo project to get there! Behind the scenes Planet has miniaturized satellites; learned how to manufacture them at scale; constructed the world’s second largest private network of ground stations; custom built an automated mission control system; created a massive data pipeline able to process the vast amount of imagery collected; and developed a software platform that lets customers, researchers, governments and NGOs access imagery quickly. Each of these has been a significant undertaking in and of itself—and together it represents a major systems engineering project. This is not to mention the non-engineering efforts from raising capital, receiving regulatory licenses, booking launches, and building a base of hundreds of partners that use the data to solve their needs. Without a doubt, the single largest driver behind this record-breaking success is the unrelenting dedication of the Planet team.

Here are some additional facts and figures regarding this launch:

  • The 88 Dove satellites (collectively known as “Flock 3p”) rode aboard a PSLV rocket from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, India
  • This leads to two world records: a record for the most satellites ever launched on a single rocket; and a record for the largest private satellite constellation in history, totaling 149 satellites in all
  • This is Planet’s 15th launch of Dove satellites and second aboard India’s PSLV. The launch of Flock 3p comes off the successful launch of Flock 2p on the PSLV in June 2016
  • After deployment, all 88 satellites will be autonomously commissioned in batches. It is expected that Flock 3p will enter normal imaging operations in about three months
  • Each of the Flock 3p satellites—our 13th build—sports a 200 mbps downlink speed and can collect over 2 million km² per day

EOS has developed this satellite data processing and analytics web tool where researchers could be able to look at available Sentinal data series or Landsat -8 OLI data, analyze them based on available analytics tool (The most important one to mention is NDVI) and then download it if found useful. This web tool is especially very useful for the researchers who has a special interest in NDVI image analysis

Land Viewer cloud software for remote sensing analytics is the biggest surprise I had in a long time. After trying it you won’t be needing any other satellite data processing web tool.

Founded in 2015 by Max Polyakov, EOS Inc. (EOS stands for the Earth Observing System) developed one of the best satellite data processing and analytics platforms out there. EOS’s back-end solutions are used by some of the Fortune 500 companies and the mapping industry leaders.

The platform offers the fastest engine to search and process satellite and areal imagery I’ve ever seen. On the top, it features a massive set of filters and algorithms to analyze the data at any scale. Now, all these features are available for free to the general public. The company recently launched a new, impressive web-based tool where anyone can access, analyze and download satellite images for free.

The service is called Land Viewer and offers free, on-the-fly, real-time imagery processing and analytics packed with features. It’s cool and insanely fast. It gives you access to imagery from Landsat 8 and Sentinel 2 satellites with more to come soon.

more info

On March 10, 2017, Planet released Planet Explorer Beta, an online tool that lets users browse geospatial data through time and see change across the globe. In short, Planet has introduced a time axis to maps.

Planet operates 149 satellites—the largest fleet in human history—giving us the capacity to collect a new image of everywhere on Earth’s land area every day. Most satellite imagery online today is years old. Planet’s imagery is different—it’s being constantly updated. With Planet Explorer Beta users can for the first time browse and see change month by month across the whole planet: every port, every farm, every forest, every city.

Here is what Explorer Beta looks like:

Navigate the globe through space and time

The goal of Planet Explorer is to enable users, both commercial and humanitarian, to browse the imagery we have and understand how it can meet their needs. We hope this will lead to more commercial partnerships and ensure humanitarian benefits are enabled. We also hope it will change the way people think about satellite imagery.

What is surprising is that in nearly every image we collect, when we compare it to a previous image, we see some level of change: a reservoir level drains, a tree is cut down, a field is harvested. People think of the Earth as static because we’ve been trained on static maps. In reality, Earth has never been static; it’s always changing and imagery of our planet should reflect that.

Explorer Beta is available publicly and, with no login, users can see regional and global change month-by-month or quarterly as they browse our global Timelapse Basemaps. Each basemap is made from over 2 million satellite images automatically processed and stitched together. At 3-5 meter per pixel, users can see a tree, a road or a ship, but not people or license plates; the goal is to see broad-scale change.

This is a Beta release so it’s not perfect. Planet’s mosaicking technology is cutting edge, but it’s also evolving: users will notice color anomalies and tiling in some of the satellite imagery, and some places where there is no data during a given timeframe. The data available via this browser is for personal, non-commercial uses only — we encourage commercial uses but for that a paid account is required. The browser is optimized for the big screen now–so don’t get out your mobile phones just yet.

And there’s more…once logged in with a free account, users can browse our full set of imagery worldwide. Planet has an average of more than 100 images for any location on Earth’s land surface. Users can browse these deep stacks of images, and see new imagery as it comes down daily. There’s also a tool to compare images from different days to see changes.


With a free account, browse daily imagery and see granular change with the compare tool

At Planet, we believe imagery of Earth should be accessible to everyone, and that every small company, NGO and person, can benefit from access to data about our planet—not just large companies and governments. With zillions of potential use cases, and our open API, our developer community is growing and we look forward to the innovative applications that they come up with next.

We invite you to visit planet.com/explorer and navigate the Earth in space and time!

(Munich, 17 March 2017) GAF has presented the results of the project “European-wide Mobility, Safety and Efficiency Management for Logistics Enterprises” at the ESA Council in Paris.

The solution aims at increasing the energy efficiency of logistics and transport service providers. The project has been conducted by GAF together with the partners T-Systems and DB Schenker and is co-funded by ESA as a demonstration project in the frame of the ARTES IAP programme.

The GNSS-based solution enables near real-time monitoring of fuel consumption and CO2 emissions during trip. For the truck driver, a mobile app gives immediate feedback of the current driving behaviour, allowing him to achieve and maintain an eco-friendly driving style. The logistics service provider has direct access to monitoring services in terms of fuel consumption and CO2 emissions, but also for tracking and tracing capabilities that enable monitoring the position of every truck in the fleet at any time.

To enhance the accuracy of the results, GAF has provided a high-quality digital elevation model (DEM) based on satellite earth observation images in order to obtain an even more accurate calculation of CO2 emissions and fuel consumption.During the demonstration phase, DB Schenker conducted test trips on a distance in total of about 166,000 km. A considerable fuel and CO2 reduction of up to 11% has been observed. The integration of elevation information from satellite data improved the result again significantly.

More information about the project can be found at the ESA IAP Project Web Page

About GAF AG

GAF AG is a leading solutions-provider with an international reputation for the skilled provision of data, products and services in the fields of geo-information, spatial IT and consulting for private and public clients. Over the past 30 years, the company has been active in more than 1,000 projects in over 100 countries throughout Europe, Africa, Latin America and Asia. In addition, GAF is one of the most experienced service providers in the EU/ESA Copernicus Programme. GAF’s direct involvement with Copernicus, formerly GMES, started in 1998, at the same time as the Baveno manifesto was declared. The company is part of the Telespazio Group, which belongs to Leonardo and Thales, two European technology leaders.

To obtain more information, please contact:
GAF AG
Daniela Miller
Arnulfstr.199, 80634 Munich
Tel. +49 89 12 15 28-0. Fax. +49 89 12 15 28-79
info@gaf.de | www.gaf.de