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October 5, 2016 – Airbus Defence and Space announced that customers can now be served with WorldDEM data for any point on Earth. WorldDEM is a disruptive Digital Elevation Model (DEM), whose accuracy and quality surpass that of any global satellite-based elevation model available today.

Setting a new standard, WorldDEM is the first global homogeneous, single-source, high-precision DEM.

Following the comprehensive global acquisition campaign and subsequent processing effort, WorldDEM data now is available for the entire World, including Antarctica and Arctic regions as well as Pacific islands. Thus WorldDEM is the first truly global elevation dataset that covers regions beyond 60° North and South without any missing areas, even in the heavily clouded Equatorial belt.WorldDEM coverage

“Customers across a wide range of domains have already benefitted from this game-changing dataset, and appreciate the easy global accessibility of data and the outstanding data quality” said Bernhard Brenner, Head of the Intelligence Cluster at Airbus Defence and Space. “The WorldDEM dataset provides an ideal visualisation tool indispensable for surveillance, reconnaissance and mission planning. It also facilitates the interpretation of landscapes with exceptional detail, which is essential for military operations preparation.”

WorldDEM Spain © DLR e.V. 2016 and © Airbus DS Geo GmbH 2016Commercial companies and institutions are also using the dataset for applications such as planning and implementation of civil engineering projects, exploration of natural resources in remote areas or environmental studies. Another main beneficiary of this global dataset is the aviation sector for which WorldDEM provides more accurate terrain information, thus improving collision avoidance systems, ground proximity warning and flight management systems.

The WorldDEM product range is based on the global TanDEM-X DEM as generated by the TanDEM-X mission, which is performed jointly with the German Aerospace Center (DLR). The DLR is responsible for the scientific exploitation of all TanDEM-X data, the mission planning and execution, the control of both satellites and the processing of all satellite data. Airbus Defence and Space holds the exclusive commercial marketing rights for the data and is responsible for the adaptation of the elevation model to the needs of commercial users worldwide.

About Airbus Defence and Space

Airbus Defence and Space, a division of Airbus Group, is Europe’s number one defence and space enterprise and the second largest space business worldwide. Its activities include space, military aircraft and related systems and services. It employs more than 38,000 people and in 2015 generated revenues of over 13 billion Euros.

By Anthony Wallace on 11 October, 2016 in 3D & BIM, Company & Industry, GIS & Data, Surveying

In 1998, then vice-president of the United States Al Gore called on the need for a ‘Digital Earth’ – a virtual representation of the Earth that is georeferenced and connected to the world’s digital knowledge archives.

Fast forward almost 20 years to 2016, and advancement in spatial technologies have boldly advanced upon that definition. In recent decades the concept has evolved thanks to the development and adoption of technologies such as earth observation, geo-information systems, global positioning systems, communication networks, sensor webs, electromagnetic identifiers, virtual reality and grid computation.

Dr Zaffar Sadiq Mohamed-Ghouse, chair of the upcoming International Society for Digital Earth’s ISDE10 Symposium and Locate17, sees that Digital Earth is a global strategic contributor to scientific and technological developments. Moving ahead, he also believes it to be a catalyst in finding solutions to the world’s biggest international scientific, environmental and societal issues.

Digital Earth… a catalyst in finding solutions to international scientific, environmental and societal issues.”
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Dr Zaffar Sadiq Mohamed-Ghouse

“Everyday life will be immersed in the internet of things,” Dr Mohamed-Ghouse says of the future. “From driverless vehicles to wearable devices, immersive reality and semantically web-enabled ‘thinking’ systems, new technology will anticipate our needs.”

According to Dr Mohamed-Ghouse, Digital Earth’s role in this digital future will be fundamental to overcoming our biggest environmental and societal challenges.

“Digital Earth should play a strategic and sustainable role in addressing such challenges to human society as natural resource depletion, food and water insecurity, energy shortages, environmental degradation, natural disasters response, population explosion, and, in particular, global climate change,” he says.

One of the most relatable example of Digital Earth can be found in Google Earth. It’s ability to compile multiple datasets anywhere on Earth, allows almost anybody to analyse complex geographic data at whatever scale they choose.

However, it is Australia’s role in digital earth that is Dr Mohamed-Ghouse’s focus as a director at the Cooperative Research Centre for Spatial Information (CRCSI). Closer to home, Digital Earth is realised by the NSW Globe, QLD Globe and Locate WA, which are leading the way interstate by compiling datasets as diverse as property values, shipwrecks and Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander boundaries. At federal level, the National Map brings together much of this data alongside additional continent-wide datasets.

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“Applying Digital Earth Technologies such as this will allow Australia to innovate and respond to challenges including food, water and energy security, disaster management and natural resource management,” said Dr Mohamed-Ghouse.

“Australia has strong research and industry sectors and a growing awareness by government, business and community of the use of the power of location underpinned by the Digital Earth information infrastructures for better decision making.”

Digital Earth will be a major focusses of next year’s ISDE symposium, this time held alongside Australia’s peak spatial conference, Locate 2017, between 3-6 April 2017 in Sydney at the newly reopened International Conference Centre.

Being an international forum, Dr Mohamed-Ghouse anticipates that some of the world’s strongest advancements in Digital Earth will come to a head in Sydney in 2017. While Australian-led research has lots to offer, Dr Mohamed-Ghouse also sheds light on some of our world-leading neighbours that are expected to participate.
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National Map depicting known shipwreck locations, based on Locate WA data.

“Singapore has a national strategy for moving to the 3D and virtual world, and China is strongly committed to Digital Earth at the government level,” he said. “USA, Europe and Canada, Japan, India and China and several other countries are developing advanced earth observations systems which are being coordinated by the Committee of Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS), which is currently being chaired by Australia.

Australia, he notes, is doing considering well when it comes to Digital Earth, thanks to a commitment to open data and because of the federal and state online Spatial Data Infrastructure and more recently the globes being implemented by state government agencies.

However Dr Mohamed-Ghouse also notes that Australia needs to continue to embrace a digital economy with a strong knowledge base of scientists and geo-professionals to invent and apply the next generation of technologies.

“Australia really needs to have a strong indigenous capability so that we can be industry creators, not followers,” he said.

“We want to be price setters not price takers.”

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Over the last four years, Proteus Geo has worked in partnership with DHI to provide a vast range of customers with bathymetry data, derived from satellites.

This new and affordable service has allowed engineers, defence forces and environmentalists (amongst many other users) to remotely learn about the sea and lake beds under shallow water, where access has previously been difficult and expensive.

ESA has now awarded Proteus Geo and DHI with substantial financial backing to improve the efficiency of the data processing chain and encourage the wider use of this source of vital information.

Starting now, the companies will use high-accuracy, high-resolution satellite imagery captured by DigitalGlobe’s satellite constellation to create a dataset that will show the depth of water in over 100,000 km2 of both salt and fresh water coastlines.

Alongside the creation of the data, Proteus Geo will also develop an on-line portal that will allow simple and fast access for customers from all over the world.

Richard Flemmings, Director of Proteus Geo explains the advantages of providing affordable, off-the-shelf bathymetry data to anyone who needs it; “There is currently a lack of bathymetry data around the world due to the high costs, lead-time, and health and safety issues involved in collecting this data using boats and aircraft.This project and service will be a practical step to break down the barriers to easily accessing the data in a standardised format.”

“High-resolution imaging satellites are ideal for this purpose, as the data can be created quickly and consistently over large areas and leveraged for many applications. This exciting project presents a paradigm shift away from bathymetry data being delivered on a project-by-project basis, to data being available off-the-shelf through an instant online portal.”

The project is being supported by ESA’s ARTES 20 programme (Advances Research in Telecommunications Systems) which responds to users’ needs using a combination of different space assets such as Earth Observation, navigation and telecommunications.

For more information on the project pelase contact Richard Flemmings info@proteusgeo.com

Proteus Geo (www.proteusgeo.com) is a company dedicated to furthering everyone’s understanding of the world around them by providing information created from satellite imagery.

DHI (www.dhigroup.com) staff combine knowledge and experience of working to solve problems for their clients in water environments all over the world.

European Space Agency (www.esa.com and https://artes-apps.esa.int/) mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capaiblity and ensure that that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the continent’s citizens.

Bathymetry data provides the depth of water in oceans, seas and lakes and hence creates a map of the ground underneath the waves.

New combination of optical and radar satellite technology in operation with Ferrero and Nestlé as pilot customers

Airbus Defence and Space, The Forest Trust (TFT) and SarVision have jointly developed a service enabling companies to provide evidence of how they are implementing their No Deforestation commitments. The service is called Starling and uses a combination of high-resolution optical satellite and radar imagery to provide unbiased monitoring of forest cover change. After 14 months of development Starling is now in operation with Ferrero and Nestlé as pilot customers and will be available to the market early 2017.It will be the first time a technology of this kind is made available to companies, from producers to global brands, to help them make the right decisions and meet the promises set out in their forest conservation policies.

“We believe Starling is revolutionary,” said Bastien Sachet, Chief Executive of global environmental and social non-profit TFT. “Not only does this service provide a level of accuracy never before seen, thanks to a combination of 1.5m SPOT images and cloud-independent radar data, it also goes beyond the traditional concept of ‘auditing’”.

Until now, brands and producers could only rely on auditing houses to verify Zero Deforestation commitments. However, auditors can’t get the overall view of the situation: they can’t access all forest areas, and are only spending a limited number of days in the field. Imagery from space offers a powerful alternative, bringing extensive, impartial and cost-effective information in real time, including the ability to easily differentiate replanting from deforestation. It allows companies to manage their operations, make fully informed decisions and demonstrate to buyers and consumers that they are true to their commitment. Starling will be available to the market starting January 2017. In the meantime the service is being piloted with early adopters.

“Most companies strive to do the right thing, and the aim of Starling is to give them the true capacity to do so,” said Bernhard Brenner, Head of Intelligence Business Cluster at Airbus Defence and Space. “Our constellation of satellites offers them a reliable tool to track and verify their actions and better protect the world’s resources.”

The partnership between Airbus Defence and Space, TFT and radar remote sensing specialists SarVision began in 2015. Airbus Defence and Space is responsible for activating its satellites, pre-processing the imagery and distributing the service worldwide. TFT’s experience in land use planning and forestry and SarVision’s expertise in radar imagery analysis complement the design of the solution. Complex, expert satellite data is turned into information that can be directly used and understood by agro-industries.

Ferrero and Nestlé are piloting Starling to verify the responsible sourcing commitments they made for their palm oil supply chains.

Find out more about Starling at www.intelligence-airbusds.com/starling

Many urban residents these days will find it hard to imagine a life without mobile apps that help us locate a restaurant, hail a cab, or find a subway station—usually in a matter of seconds. If geospatial technology and data already make our everyday lives this easier, imagine what they can do for our cities: for example, geospatial data on land-use change and built-up land expansion can provide for more responsive urban planning, while information on traffic conditions, road networks, and solid waste sites can help optimize management and enhance the quality of urban living.

The “urban geo-data gap”

However, information and data that provide the latest big picture on urban land and services often fail to keep up with rapid population growth and land expansion. This is especially the case for cities in developing countries—home to the fastest growing urban and vulnerable populations.

To address this gap, the World Bank partnered with the Global Environment Facility (GEF) in establishing the Global Platform for Sustainable Cities (GPSC). The platform brings cutting-edge technology and knowledge to cities and helps translate this knowledge into practice and investment to promote integrated urban planning in about 30 partner cities across 11 countries, with broader, global efforts planned for the future.

In late September, GPSC brought together urban planners, policy makers, GIS experts, as well as scientist and development organizations for a meeting at the European Space Agency (ESA)’s Center for Earth Observation in Frascati, Italy. The mixed expertise and ESA’s demonstration of satellite technology for earth observation provided the opportunity for participants to see the power of geospatial technology in mapping and supporting some of the key urban services.

Better urban planning, enabled by geospatial tech

A telling example of geospatial technology application is the Spatial Development Framework 2040 for Johannesburg, presented at the meeting by the city’s lead urban planner. Johannesburg has used geospatial data for analyzing inequality and poverty, job-housing mismatch, spatial disconnection, low walkability, and land-use defects. This data then informed city planning and helped officials prepare development scenario options for the future.

According to Herman Pienaar, Director of City Transformation and Spatial Planning in Johannesburg, the management of social, economic, and environmental challenges as a result of rapid urbanization is one of the major issues facing Johannesburg and other cities in South Africa. “Satellite technology and geospatial information help track our urban footprint and understand the impact of our interventions,” he told us at the meeting.

GPSC supports other cities in transferring and applying this knowledge into their own contexts. For example, in Dakar, Senegal, we are now working to enable the city to “leapfrog” by utilizing geospatial technology to better understand its expansion as well as the vulnerabilities caused by climate change.

At the World Bank, we are also collaborating with the ESA to raise awareness about the significant potential of satellite-based information for planning and building more sustainable cities in Brazil, India, Vietnam and other countries. The long-term goal is to make Earth Observation data a systematic and preferred source of information for all phases of urban development projects, according to Maurice Borgeaud, Head of the Science, Applications and Future Technologies Department in ESA’s Directorate of Earth Observation Programs.

And yet, availability of geospatial data is only the first step. A much more challenging task is the integration of the data analysis from multiple sectors into one coherent urban planning process. As part of GPSC, we are currently developing a guidance document—“Urban Sustainability Framework”—to support cities in this effort. The framework, which we expect to release early 2017, will integrate geospatial data, multidimensional indicators, Sustainable Development Goals, and modeling tools to help city governments define their vision and identify priority action areas and investment strategies.

Are you an urban planner attending or following the Habitat III conference next week? Tell us in a comment what difficulties you have faced in terms of geospatial data availability? Could you suggest other applications of this data in the urban planning process?

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The 2016 GOFC-GOLD Data Initiative – Advanced Training in Earth Observations kicked off October 10, 2016 at the Sirindhorn Center for Geo-Informatics (SCGI), Space Krenovation Park (SKP), GISTDA, in Sriracha, Thailand. This training is organized by START, in collaboration with the Thailand Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency (GISTDA) and the Department of Earth and Environment, Boston University. It is funded by NASA, as part of a 3-year cooperative agreement between NASA and START on Global Observation of Forest Cover and Land Dynamics (GOFC-GOLD).

Mr. Boonchoob Boongthong, Director of Satellite Operation Office, GISTDA, officially opened the training with a welcome message from GISTDA. Dr. Garik Gutman from NASA provided general introduction of Earth observations programming in Asia, especially GOFC-GOLD and NASA’s Land-Cover and Land-Use Change (LCLUC) Programs. Dr. David Ganz, Chief of Party for SERVIR – Mekong at the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC) also presented on SERVIR related programming in Asia. Senay Habtezion (START) and Dr. Tanita Suepa (GISTDA) introduced the training program, setting the stage for the advanced training, which started in the second half of the morning session.

2016-data-initiative3The 2016 Data Initiative is the fifth training in Earth observation and applications and the first ever to be held outside of the United States. Thirty fellows representing 10 countries in Asia are participating in this training, which will be led by Prof. Pontus Olofsson (Boston University) along with Prof. Le Van Trung (Vietnam University Institute of Technology) and seasoned trainers from GISTDA.

The training will run through the 14th of October and will combine hands-on lab work, lectures, group-exercises and technical visits to Thailand ground receiving Station (satellite signal receiving facility) and the Space Inspirium at GISTDA.

For more information about the GOFC-GOLD program please visit http://start.org/programs/gofc-gold or contact Senay Habtezion at shabtezion@start.org

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Between February and June 2016, Eurisy coordinated an interview based qualitative research as part of the project’s mission to set-up a Regional Data Hub uniting the Balkan, Middle-East and North Africa regions.

The report that follows will aim to provide an insight into the market segment situated at the end of the data value added chain. More than 90 local, national or regional stakeholders responded to the call, covering four thematic areas (climate change, access to raw materials, energy and food security). The results will be available on the project website shortly!

Regional stakeholders are also invited to join project partners in dedicated events:

Project Workshop, 16-17 November 2016, Limassol, Cyprus

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Eurisy’s “Satellites going local” 5th edition – a collection of good practices in preparation

The latest instalment of this handbook will cover user testimonials and business cases from agriculture, environment, risk management, logistics and tourism, to name a few. They are intended to demonstrate, in a down-to-earth manner, how digital products and services that rely on satellite technology benefit professionals in all areas of activity. Coming soon at a conference near you and on eurisy.org

Satellites to be Built & Launched by 2025, in its 19th edition, provides an exhaustive analysis of the worldwide satellite demand merging customers, applications & orbits.

According to Euroconsult’s 2016 forecast of the space market, 145 satellites with launch mass over 50kg will be launched on average each year by 2025 for government agencies and commercial organizations worldwide. When including satellites smaller than 50kg and the two mega constellations of OneWeb and SpaceX, the total for the decade would grow precipitously to 9,000 units (vs. 1,480 launched in the past ten years).

The 1,450 satellites over 50kg to be launched over 2016-2025 should represent a market of $250 billion for the space industry to build and launch. A price decrease is visible in this core market of the industry, driven by 11 commercial constellations using 370 small satellites to be deployed into low or medium Earth orbits for communication or Earth observation.

New in the 2016 Edition

  • Retrospective analysis of Euroconsult’s forecast matching with satellite reality over the past 16 years
  • Market share of the satellites of the report relative to the cubesat and mega-comsat constellation
  • New data series in Excel files
  • New format & layout

Key Trends, Drivers & Forecasts

  • Exclusive 10-year forecasts including breakdown by customer & by orbit, with number & mass of satellites to be manufactured & launched, plus market value (manufacturing & launch services)
  • Review of strategic issues from both supply (industry) & demand (customers) perspectives
  • Detailed demand database for commercial (order book) and government satellites (forecasts) including: application, launch date, launch mass, satellite platform, manufacturer, launch provider

For each satellite, the following information is provided

  • Name of the satellite
  • Year of launch
  • Name and country of the operator
  • Application of the satellite
  • Orbit of the satellite
  • Satellite manufacturer
  • Satellite bus
  • Design lifetime of the satellite
  • Launch mass of the satellite
  • Launch service provider
  • Launch vehicle

Read Press Release==

Download report brochure==

EARSC has launched a dedicated web portal showcasing the results of the Copernicus Sentinels. Products Economic Benefit study

Three concrete cases have been analysed in the frame of the study Assessing the detailed economic benefits derived from Copernicus Earth Observation (EO) data within selected value chains, undertaken by EARSC under an assignment from the European Space Agency (ESA).

The results are captured in separate, dedicated reports which are written to benefit policy makers, in Europe as well as in ESA/EU Member States, who are concerned with (EO) space programmes. However, each single report should also be of interest for the private industries, public authorities and policy makers involved at any level in any of the specific applications described therein. 

The site is available at the following link