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(Munich, 11/07/16) Planning to take your summer holiday in Santorini? Now, due to a study carried out by TotalView and the Municipality of Santorini based on using very high-resolution satellite imagery you can be rest assured you are sitting under the shade of a legally placed umbrella.

European Space Imaging has just published a case study showing how very high-resolution satellite imagery has aided Santorini to claim back its public space from illegally placed umbrellas. Very high-resolution imagery from WorldView-2 satellite has also assisted in the mapping the beaches and in the easy ongoing monitoring of umbrella locations to help ensure businesses pay fees for umbrellas located on the public beaches.

In Greece the beaches belong to the community and are public spaces requiring free access. Each summer specific spaces on the beaches are allocated to businesses to set up and rent beach umbrellas. But it is common to find more beach umbrellas placed in the allotted area than permitted – sometimes trespassing on the public beach.

The pilot study was initiated by TotalView, a Greek geo-spatial company, and GEOTHIRA S.A owned by the Municipality of Santorini, who were searching for a solution to simplify beach umbrellas permits and receive the correct fees for the beach space occupied. European Space Imaging collected high-resolution satellite imagery from DigitalGlobe’s WorldView-2 satellite over the region which became the basis of the study.

“The 50 cm and better resolution of the WorldView-2 imagery allow us to clearly identify and count beach umbrellas”, said Vana Giavi, TotalView. “It is possible to define exact geo-coordinates for the areas under permit and to monitor the beach use over the summer period to check that businesses fulfilled their contracts with the Municipality”.

Using WorldView-2 satellite imagery to get regular updates on the situation and to through creating beach maps outlining exactly where umbrellas should be located has helped businesses fulfill their permit contracts. The imagery is a neutral observer and can be provided as evidence when businesses fail to stay within their boundaries or increase the number of umbrellas to those outlined in their permit.

“The municipality doesn’t make money on the fines. This concept and process is meant to convince businesses to respect the permit contracts and the beach as a public asset.” says Manolis Koronios, Project Manager, GEOTHIRA S.A.

Positive results from the study are that businesses on Santorini are sticking to their allocated zones, increasing public beach areas. Also, now that clear maps have defined umbrella areas and the yearly mapping is automated, engineers working for the municipality can use their time and resources more efficiently in the municipality. The obvious success of using very high-resolution satellite imagery for this project has meant that other municipalities are showing interest in applying this case to their own beaches.

So when you are relishing the shade of that Santorini umbrella this summer you can also enjoy knowing that the umbrella is legal.

Read the case study


Santorini umbrella map July 2015 imaged by WorldView-2 satellite. © TotalView


Beach umbrellas on Santorini

About European Space Imaging
European Space Imaging (EUSI) is the ‘go to’ company in Europe if you are looking for very high-resolution satellite data. They always offer customers access to the highest resolution imagery available. Their current ’best’ offering is 30 cm data from the DigitalGlobe WorldView-3 satellite. EUSI also operate a multi-mission ground station to provide direct satellite tasking. This enables optimized image collection strategies, flexibility and real-time weather assessments for new collections. With a reputation for expert and personalized customer service EUSI has been providing tailored VHR imagery solutions from their Munich headquarters to meet the diverse project requirements of their customer base since 2002.

About TotalView
TotalView is a WorldView Global Alliance authorized reseller based in Athens, Greece. With a strong engineering background, the firm provides advanced image processing capabilities to agricultural and other organizations involved in commercial and academic projects. TotalView resells and offers value-added services related to a variety of satellite, aerial and UAV remote sensing platforms.

About GEOTHIRA
The GEOTHIRA is a corporation owned and operated by the Municipality of Santorini and its corporate objective is the management of municipal property assets.

To learn more please contact:
Penelope Richardson, Marketing Manager
European Space Imaging
Arnulfstrasse 199, Munich 80634
Tel: +49 (0) 89 1301420
Fax: +49 (0) 89 13014222
prichardson@euspaceimaging.com
www.euspaceimaging.com
Copyright © 2016 European Space Imaging, All rights reserved.

Coastal zones are among the most productive areas in the world, but at the same time, the excessive exploitation of natural resources puts enormous pressure on our coastal ecosystems, with great risks for the coastal and marine environment.

The protection of coasts and sea waters is one of the big pillars for the European Union, which made big efforts defining common rules in Europe (e.g. Marine Strategy Framework Directive; Water Framework Directive; Common Fisheries Policy) and making huge investments in programs such as Copernicus to monitor the status of the environment and give tools to decision makers.

The sustainable management of coastal and marine environment involves, both EU Member States, with their local and regional governments, which are required to monitor and report the state of the environment, and private organizations, which uses the marine resources for their business.

To help organizations in their monitoring activities and decision making, Planetek Italia has launched Rheticus®Marine, a geoinformation service specifically designed for the monitoring of coastal waters.
The service is available at www.rheticus.eu

By using satellite Open data – such as the ones from AQUA/MODIS and Sentinel-3 missions –, Rheticus®Marine is able to provide information compliant with the indicators required by the EU Water and Marine Strategy Directives.

The service is composed of geoinformation products designed to meet the environmental reporting requirements of local governments in compliance with the EU Directive on “Marine Strategy” and to support fishing activities by providing updated information on the potentially most productive fishing areas.
The service includes a periodic (up to daily) update with monthly, quarterly and annual summary reports.

Users of the service are:
National and local public administrations as regions, fishing companies, aquaculture and plants operating near the coast (desalination, waste water treatments, etc.).

What purpose does it serve

  • Coastal seawaters quality monitoring
  • Reporting activity compliant to the EU’s Marine Strategy
  • Monitoring of the level of (primary) productivity of seas
  • Algal blooms monitoring

Gisat has been contracted to implement CzechAgri study focusing on full country demonstration of integrated use of Sentinel 1&2 imagery for agricultural monitoring.

The CzechAgri study was jointly initiated in December 2015 by DG JRC, ESA and SZIF (The Czech State Agricultural Intervention Fund). It is set up as a proof-of-concept of what could be achieved in Europe by analyzing Sentinel imagery with the combined use of the national Land Parcel Identification System (LPIS) and a sub-sample of IACS declarations for calibration and validation. CzechAgri intends to be an R&D contribution to the preparation of future Copernicus service components in support of Agriculture as recently proposed to the Copernicus User Forum by DG GROW.

CzechAgri is run within the ESA Sentinel-2 for Agriculture project managed by the Université Catholique de Louvain. The aim of the study is to demonstrate the unprecedented capabilities of the Copernicus Sentinels by pilot agricultural crop mapping at national scale in 2015 and 2016. Combined time series of radar Sentinel 1 and optical Sentinel 2 imagery (complemented by Landsat 7&8 imagery) are processed and analyzed to provide full country crop map products covering the 2015 and 2016 crop vegetation season. The initial results at national scale have been presented at the 2016 European Space Agency Living Planet Symposium held in May in Prague. The results included the independent accuracy analysis and comparison of SAR and multispectral data performance.

Gisat provides wide range of geoinformation services based on Earth Observation technology. It focuses on operational application of satellite mapping to monitor various aspects of our environment and development of dedicated web based platforms for geoinformation analysis and assessment
Web // E-mail // Tel:+420 271741935 // Fax: +420 271741936

India: The state govt of Indian state, Maharashtra, is using GPS and satellite mapping technology to monitor the forest cover in the state. “The government will use GPS and satellite mapping technology to monitor the forest cover. We are keen to introduce such technologies with the help of companies and NGOs in the three next months,” state Forest Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar said on July 3.

On the ‘tree plantation’ drive organised by the state government on July 1 across Maharashtra, he said, “Planting two crore trees in a single day was not the target. But it was an earnest attempt to make the drive a people’s movement and I am overwhelmed by their response.” “In fact, people’s participation has proved to be a great motivation for the government as over 2.82 crore saplings were planted on that day, which was well above our expectations,” the minister said.

“In my experience, no government project is successful without active participation of common people,” Mungantiwar said, adding, “The ultimate aim of the tree plantation drive is to make Maharashtra green and a better place for future generations.” According to the minister, the state government is working to launch 27 schemes which include, Tree Bank, Eco Battalion from Armed forces, Green Battalion through NGOs.

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In an exclusive interview with GeoBuiz Derek Clarke says that Access to geospatial communication is a key to get user information.

Public Agency of the Year 2015 is a great honor for us. We have a portal through which we provide mapping services and geospatial information. Access to geospatial communication is a key point to get user information. We have regular programmes for refreshing imagery in South Africa. We have strong policy on lands reforms. We are trying to provide security tenure to all people in South Africa.

Every land has value. We need to look at formal valuation system as well as traditional value. Geospatial information is the key to any development project. Geospatial information helps in better decision making, planning and monitoring.

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Greg Scott, Inter-Regional Advisor, UN-GGIM Secretariat explains about importance of Geospatial data is for meeting the SDGs.

The Geospatial Ambassador of the year 2015 is a reflection of my efforts.Geospatial data is very important for meeting the SDGs. Earth Observations statistics and other new data support the sustainable development process. We need to integrate information systems at a national level that flow up into a regional and global level. The framework is a national bottom-up approach. In developing countries the use of data construct framework depends on institutional and architectural arrangements. We are moving to rich data paradigm. Turning data into valuable information to support decision making requires change.

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Two other NEREUS Regions (Basilicata and Wallonia) are also among the finalists

Smart specialization marked an important threshold in Lombardy Region’s approach to industrial policy, including aerospace. The Region has been testing new ways of supporting specific sectorial areas, such as the use of space technologies to transform traditional and mature industries into emerging ones. This change of pace has been recognized at European level: after being included in the Committee of the Region’s Guide on Regional Innovation Ecosystems, Lombardy Region has been selected as finalist of the 2016 RegioStars Award, the yearly competition honoring Europe’s most inspiring and innovating regional projects supported by EU Cohesion Policy Funds.

Lombardy Region’s Open Innovation Platform is one of the 23 finalists of the RegioStars Award. Selected among 104 projects, this collaborative tool brings together a large representation of regional innovation stakeholders: public and private economic players, universities and research institutes use this digital and physical space for dialogue to promptly respond to strategic challenges in 8 fields, inclduing aerospace.

Two other NEREUS Regions have also been selected as finalists: Basilicata (with a project on food, furtniture and fashion regional clusters) and Wallonia (with its Urban Redistirbution Centre)

Winners will be announced on Tuesday 11 October in Brussels, during the RegioStars Award
Ceremony which will take place during the European Week of Regions and Cities
We wish the best of luck to the three selected NEREUS Regions!

On July 5th, SI Imaging Services (SIIS) initiated commercial services of KOMPSAT-3A imagery — the satellite is part of the Korean Multipurpose Satellite Program developed and operated by the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) for Earth Observation (EO) purpose.

This EO satellite offers clear imagery with a resolution of less than 0.5 meter. KOMPSAT-3A, also known as Arirang-3A, was launched into orbit in March of last year. After more than a year of successful test operation, SIIS started the commercial services, which makes South Korea the world’s second country to enter the less-than-0.5-meter-resolution satellite imagery market after the United States.

KOMPSAT-3A is the sister of KOMPSAT-3, using the same satellite bus and payload. The satellite’s local access time is unique in the afternoon, 13:30 (1:30 p.m.), which is identical with KOMPSAT-3. However, as KOMPSAT-3A was put into lower orbit than KOMPSAT-3, a clearer and sharper view is obtained. This same imaging time and a similar payload with KOMPSAT-3 will amplify the satellite’s capacity and help to even out the difference of the color. With KOMPSAT-3A imagery available today, there are now new and more options to consider for their needs.

SIIS is the exclusive worldwide marketing and sales representative of the KOMPSAT constellation which includes KOMPSAT-2, KOMPSAT-3, KOMPSAT-3A, and KOMPSAT-5 and provides this satellite imagery worldwide through more than 80 sales partners.

Korean Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) is the Korean institute dedicated to aerospace research and is in charge of the Korean space program. KARI has developed and operated their optical remote sensing satellites.

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June brings the EARSC annual general meeting which is the opportunity to meet and talk with many members of the Association.

Our chairman stepped down and Chetan Pradhan of CGI was elected as the new chair. I wish to express my personal thanks to Han Wensink for all the support he has given to me and to the Association over the last 7 years and wish him all the best with his many new ventures. Han will remain as a director and has the goal to extend and increase participation of SME’s. Giovanni Sylos from Planetek was elected as the new vice-chairman and two new directors – Andre Jadot of Eurosense and Massimo Comparini of E-Geos – were elected to the board

One of the highlights, as for the last two years, was the presentation of this years’ award to the EARSC EO Company of the year. Deimos Imaging are the third winner of this now well-appreciated recognition for a European company which has made a significant contribution to the development of the business in the previous 12 months.

This year also saw a new award going for the European EO Product of the year. The challenge was for the most innovative new product integrating any source of open data. The winner was Jeobrowser for Rocket: The Earth in your Pocket. For more information on both winners please see our web-site

We have just published the 3rd and final case in the series looking at the economic value generated by EO products. After Winter Navigation in the Baltic and Forestry Management in Sweden, Pipeline Infrastructure Monitoring in the Netherlands again show significant value being generated by the use of satellite imagery.

In this case, ground deformation is being measured using SAR interferometry. This allows pipeline management companies to learn where there is a risk of gas connections breaking where they enter the house. Consequently, they can manage their network more efficiently and make better use of their investment in maintenance to reduce risk. The application is quite recent and has not yet been extended to the whole of the Netherlands. Once it will be, we estimate a total benefit of between €15m and €18m will be achieved.

The study has shown some extraordinary results; much higher value than I expected to find at the outset. Each of the cases has left some questions open and it is likely that the value is under-estimated. I hope to continue this work to look at further cases but also to revisit these 3 to squeeze even more out of them! We have also published a video on all 3 cases which we hope can help all those interested in the use of satellite imagery to help make the case for investment. You can find the video here

Satellites benefiting citizens from EARSC on Vimeo.

Another completed activity was to support our colleagues in the African Association for Remote Sensing to gather information on the industry across the African continent. Please find the report on our web-site. It is the first such inventory, which should be repeated next year, and in future years giving a view of African industry. The survey uses the same basic methodology as our survey of the European industry which should allow for some interesting comparisons in the future.

At least for those of us in northern Europe, summer has arrived and I am certainly looking forward to a break. We have had a very intensive period of activity which looks set to continue for the rest of the year. I am starting to look for someone to join our small team and help relieve some of the strain!

To all of you for whom summer is also starting, have a great break and come back refreshed for the 2nd half of the year.

Geoff Sawyer

ESA and China have Launched the fourth phase of the collaborative Dragon programme in Wuhan City, on the Yangtze River, which recently experienced major floods witnessed by Europe’s Sentinel-1 Satellite.

ESA and representatives of China’s Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) met in Wuhan to sign the cooperation agreement, which begins the fourth phase of the collaborative Dragon programme.

As a joint undertaking between ESA and the National Remote Sensing Centre of China (NRSCC), under MOST, the programme promotes the use of ESA, Third Party MISSion, Copernicus Sentinels and Chinese Earth observation satellite data within Europe and China, for science and applications.

The annual Dragon symposium held this week at the University of Wuhan saw over 350 participants concluding the third phase of this programme, and launching the fourth period.

After 12 years of cooperation, MOST Vice Minister Yin Hejun stated that, “Through the implementation of Dragon, China and Europe have explored a new international scientific and technological cooperation mechanism, which has achieved impressive results.”

ESA’s Director General, Jan Woerner, confirmed, “The Dragon programme is an example of international cooperation bringing out the best science from European and Chinese researchers, using both European and Chinese Earth observation data sources.”

In the new phase, European and Chinese teams will work together over the next four years to produce new science and results. Several of the new missions’ data will allow improved temporal, spatial and spectral coverage over the selected Dragon-4 test sites.

This will be achieved with more satellites being launched in the coming years, such as the Chinese FY, GF and TanSat missions, as well as European Sentinel and Earth Explorer satellites. Some 650 scientists from 234 European and Chinese research institutes will be involved in Dragon-4.

As a recent example of the collaboration between Europe and China, scientists have identified an overall drop in water level in the Poyang Lake over the last decade, but the recent El Niño weather phenomenon has caused precipitation levels to increase and the lake’s water levels to rise.

The Poyang Lake in Jiangxi province is the largest freshwater lake in the country. It is an important habitat for migrating wildfowl such as the rare Siberian cranes, many of which spend the winter there. The basin is also one of China’s most important rice-producing regions, although local inhabitants must contend with massive seasonal changes in water level.

In the above animation, radar images from Europe’s Sentinel-1 satellite mission show the evolution of the lake from July 2015 through May of this year.

Dr. Hervé Yesou, Dragon-4 lead investigator, commented, “Seasonal fluctuations are evident, with low water extent in winter, which then changes gradually with the rainy season as individual lakes reconnect to become a large water body.”

Thanks to systematic acquisition of Sentinel-1 data, a new radar image was acquired on 5 July, showing the water presence in the landscape, from Poyang Lake’s shores to the Yangtze River’s banks. Comparison of July 2015 and July 2016 images clearly shows that this year water is overflowing everywhere, including the Wuhan City area

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