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eLEAF, a Netherlands-based high-tech company that supplies reliable, quantitative data on water and vegetation in order to support sustainable water use, increase food production, and protect environmental systems have recently called upon DMCii satellite imagery to provide satellite images of four pilot areas located in West- Noubaria (Egypt) Arata Chufa irrigation scheme, Oromiya (Ethiopia), the spate irrigation area of the Gash Delta (Sudan) and Office du Niger (Mali) to help improve the livelihoods and income of millions of farmers.

Water scarcity and food security are topics of utmost importance amongst the ever-expanding population of Africa. Due to a general lack of water resources availability and/or development in the semi-arid and arid zones, water is generally the limiting factor for agricultural production.

Ground data and models gathered by eLEAF and supported by DMCii satellite images provides farmers with timely and detailed field and crop information throughout the growing season. This supports the farmers in improving their crop production at the same time as their economic returns/income. Farmers are given the option to make informed decisions regarding the management of their land and water resources. This in turn enhances farmers’ negotiation capacity with water and farm related service providers.

DMCii uses a constellation approach to ensure cloud free imagery can provided on a regular and timely basis over large areas at least 160km wide. DMCii are the only satellite imaging company who can provide this important data at regular intervals, making them invaluable to the project.

So far, feedback from the farmers and local partners (agricultural staff) in the pilot areas in the four African countries is encouraging. eLEAF data provides valuable insights in a wide variety of crop specific information and is not restricted by political borders.

Source DMCii

Gisat has been selected by Nordregio for development of the MapEx Web Mapping Platform. The project will result in the implementation of a dynamic online web-mapping platform for Nordregio’s web.

The platform will provide an engaging user experience to end users, thereby making Nordregio spatial data, analyses and research results more accessible and policy relevant.

Nordregio is a leading international Nordic research institute in the broad field of regional studies. The institute undertakes strategic research with the aim of producing informed and relevant material for decision-makers at the international, national and regional levels. As one of its core competencies, Nordregio also contributes to knowledge on regional development dynamics in the Nordic, European, Baltic Sea Region and Arctic contexts through the mapping of spatial and territorial data and undertaking of spatial analysis using statistics and GIS.

Gisat’s assignment follows the company’s previous successful web implementation cases utilizing internal “WebTool” framework, e.g. for World Bank or ESPON. Gisat, a vibrant geoinformation insight provider, delivers both integrated information content and innovative web-based exploration and analysis systems tailored for specific user domains.

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

SAFETREE project is based on an innovative approach for operational monitoring and assessment of the forest fire risk.

Forest fires represent one of the hazards in the Czech Republic that is being paid increasing attention. Even though the areas affected by forest fires are not as large as in Mediterranean Europe, the economic and environmental impact and natural loss is high. The phenomenon occurs constantly every year with fluctuating but increasing intensity.

Czech Ministry of Agriculture is the responsible body mandated to define measures for forest fire threat monitoring for forest owners. The Ministry ensures the operation of national aviation fire service and coordinates the activities with all relevant stakeholders. Airborne patrol is the main tool to monitor forests in case of fires threats as part of pre-event emergency activity. So far the forest fire risk assessment and airborne patrol planning are mostly based on local knowledge and meteorological data.

The aim of the SAFETREE (Satellite Support to Forest Fires Airborne Patrol) project is to design, develop and verify a concept of the operational forest monitoring service dedicated to support forest fire risk assessment in the Czech Republic. Time series of satellite imagery allow monitoring of various aspects of forest vegetation with high spatial and temporal resolution. Integration of selected indicators into forest fire risk assessment will improve the planning and increase the efficiency of the airborne patrol. Proposed prototype of the monitoring system will allow identification of hot-spots with highest forest fire threat and will deliver flight navigation data that shall be directly integrated into the flight plans of the airborne patrol operators.

SAFETREE project is supported by the ESA ARTES Integrated Applications Programme (IAPARTES element 20). The project team is coordinated by Gisat and includes one additional partner – Sprinx Systems.

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

VITO, together with a consortium of European research institutes, SMEs, and key international partners in agricultural monitoring, started an EC FP7 funded project on global agricultural monitoring to support GEO and GEOGLAM. Remote sensing, along with in situ observations and expert knowledge is used to improve current monitoring systems including an assessment of the long-term effects of agricultural practices on the environment.

Executive Summary

In 2007-2008 the global food crisis pushed millions of people into hunger and extreme poverty. This crisis had multiple causes but above all demonstrated the possible effect of local shocks on price volatility of global agricultural markets. As a result of that, the G20 established the AMIS and GEOGLAM initiatives. AMIS, the Agricultural Market Information System which is coordinated by FAO, collects and provides information on agricultural markets on the G20+7 main economy and producers of wheat, maize, rice and soybean. GEOGLAM (Global Agriculture Monitoring), managed by the Group on Earth Observations (GEO), uses remote sensing technologies to increase reliability and timeliness on agricultural production as an input to AMIS.

SIGMA is one of the major contributions of the European Commission to GEO and specifically to GEOGLAM and it is financed through the EC framework research programme (FP7). GEOGLAM has 6 major components focused on different aspects of a “Global Systems of Systems” for Agriculture as envisaged by GEO.
SIGMA is focused on innovation with the main aim to produce datasets and methods that result in improvement of current early warning systems at global, regional and local level. In the first place it contributes to the JECAM (Joint Experiment on Crop Area Monitoring) initiative which is the GEOGLAM R&D component.
Practical project outputs, such as an improved crop mask, maps identifying areas with the potential for agricultural intensification, consistent remote sensing datasets and methods that allow to identify crop land changes, are meant to be directly usable within the GEOGLAM community.

The project is further focused on the development of a specific methodology to better assess the effects of agriculture on the environment, which is commonly not addressed in agricultural monitoring systems. Lastly, SIGMA provides a platform to enable experts world-wide to meet and exchange experience from different areas in the world. As such, and along with dedicated capacity building activities, we hope that SIGMA will also make a significant contribution to information transparency and capacity at global level and national level. The SIGMA partnership consists of 22 key expert institutes in agricultural monitoring from 17 different countries, it is led by VITO (Belgium). The partnership includes a number of European SME’s which enables the better engagement of European EO companies in global agricultural monitoring.

The partners of SIGMA are: FAO (UN organization), JRC (European Commission), Alterra (Netherlands), EFTAS (Germany), CIRAD (France), GeoVille (Austria), ITC (Netherlands), GeoSAS (Ethiopia), IIASA (Austria), RCMRD (Kenya), DEIMOS (Spain), UCL (Belgium) – SARMAP (Switzerland), INTA (Argentina), SRI (Ukraine), GISAT ( Czech Republic), IKI RAN (Russia), SarVision (Netherlands), AGRHYMET (Niger), NMSC (China), RADI (China).

Background project

Global population has grown from about 2.5 billion in 1950 to more than 7 billion in 2012 and is projected to reach more than 9 billion by 2050. To achieve food for all, global food production will need to grow by 70% and up to 100% in developing countries. As a result, human activity and impact on the Earth’s natural resources will increase and continue to lead to competition for land and natural resources. Expansion of urban centres, intensification of agriculture, unsustainable land practices and deforestation among others may lead to short term gains but probably they will have severe effects on the longer term. Increasing food production can only take place through intensification of current agricultural practices or expansion of area under cultivation. Sustainable land management practices along with efficient use of inputs and resources are crucial to guarantee food production on the longer term. FAO’s State of the Land and Water Report (2011) states that the largest contribution to increase agricultural output will most likely come from intensification of production on existing agricultural land. This will require widespread adoption of sustainable land management practices and more efficient use of irrigation water through enhanced flexibility, reliability and timing of irrigation water delivery. In order to achieve this, a thorough understanding of agricultural systems is essential.

Issue & needs

Food production needs to be assured for future generations through sustainable cultivation practices. Sustainable intensification of agriculture requires, among others, production systems which ensure environmental health in the long term. Both the OECD (2008) and the EC (COM 508) have defined a set of environmental indicators for agriculture which concern policy, land use, water, air, biodiversity, farm management and agricultural inputs. These indicators cover broad domains and covering them all at a global scale would be simply unfeasible. As such, and given the priorities of the call, the research will be focused on indicators which can be addressed through the combination of remote sensing and in situ observations, and which can actively contribute to a “global” agricultural monitoring system in particular in relation to: Agricultural Expansion, with an assessment of crop land dynamics, and agricultural Intensification, with an assessment of potential and actual shifts in cultivation practises.

Proposed solution

Current remote sensing based agricultural monitoring systems focus mostly on “short term” assessments of agriculture in terms of productivity forecasts and estimates and do not take into account (or only to a limited extent) the environmental considerations, which inevitably reduces agricultural productivity and impacts agricultural sustainability in the long term.
Therefore, SIGMA’s main challenge is to develop innovative methods and indicators to monitor and assess progress towards “sustainable agriculture”, focussed on the assessment of longer term impact of agricultural dynamics on the environment and vice versa.

In short, SIGMA intends to develop methods and products that will enable us to answer the following sustainability questions:

  • How and where do changes in crop land distribution affect other ecosystems?
  • How and where do changes in cropping systems and cultivation practices affect environmental and sustainability options?
  • How can we ensure integration of developed methods in global monitoring systems?

Industry perspective

There are three main activities in SIGMA. Firstly the project partners will identify and map crop land in terms of change (shrinking and expansion), which will provide an insight in potential for agricultural expansion. Secondly, potential for agricultural intensification will be studied, identifying crop yield gaps (difference between actual and potential yield) and changes in agricultural systems (single to multiple cropping, irrigated versus not irrigated). Methods to characterize environmental effects of both expansion and intensification will be studied in a third activity. These key components are further supported through capacity building, to engage and train a wider community, data coordination, management and outreach activities. Global and regional data sets (based on low resolution data and models) are used to analyze crop land change and some well-known land degradation issues. This global approach is then ‘verified’ at regional level and number of sites at specific locations, potentially providing insight into the validity of such global and regional approaches. Specific developments at local scale can further lead to significant improvements in methodology.

Industry plays an important role in the project, taking care of advanced image processing and the development of specific tools and analysis protocols that allow to facilitate the work of agricultural analysts.

Cost justification

The project has been Kicked-off in November 2013, when experts from the consortium gathered at VITO in Belgium. Subsequent to that an international food security meeting, under the auspices of the EC, GEOGLAM and the Secure World Foundation was held, discussion progress made in developing a “system of systems” for agricultural monitoring. The current activities focus on acquiring the necessary remote sensing and field datasets for further analysis.

SIGMA will significantly contribute to the needed sustainable expansion / intensification of global agriculture. Through the products that will be develop in the SIGMA project, methodologies and models will give agricultural experts a faster a more accurate access to the global production of agricultural commodities and their environmental impacts.

Return of investment

The project has only recently started so full outcomes are not yet available. Currently remote sensing data over the different test sites is being gathered and methodologies are being tested and fine-tuned.

Geoglam-sigma

(4 March 2014) BlackBridge has taken over the operations of the RapidEye Science Archive pursuant to an agreement with the German Aerospace Center (DLR).

The project is funded by the German Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi). RESA was initially operated by DLR’s Remote Sensing Data Center, aiming at supporting scientific research projects within Germany by providing RapidEye imagery free of charge. Since 2009, the RESA program has allowed Germany-based scientists to benefit from BlackBridge’s RapidEye archive, which currently holds more than 5 billion km2 of five-meter imagery.

The complete RESA data archive currently consists of approximately 20 million km2 of RapidEye imagery and is available to all registered RESA users through a cloud-based solution developed by BlackBridge.

BlackBridge’s project manager, Dr. Rene Griesbach strongly believes in the benefits of the RESA program: “This is the continuation of a successful DLR program that has proved to be very beneficial for the German remote sensing community. Now we are really pleased to announce that BlackBridge will continue supporting the RESA program by providing RapidEye imagery to the scientific community as in the past, as well as by running the operations.”

The RESA annual user workshop will take place March 5-6, 2014 at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Bonn.

About BlackBridge

BlackBridge is focused on providing end to end solutions across the geospatial value chain. This includes satellite operations, data center and geocloud solutions, and worldwide satellite imagery distribution through over 100 BlackBridge partners, combined with the creation of value added products and services.

(source: BlackBridge)

[SatNews] Data distributors and services providers have established themselves as a key component of the EO value-chain and an important partner of the EO satellite operators in order to disseminate data to the largest number of end-users possible.

This is particularly apparent in accessing key fast growing regional markets and being able to do business with government and private end-users locally. According to Euroconsult’s new research report, Earth Observation: Data Distribution, an estimated 12 to 17 percent of the $1.5 billion* commercial data market flows through the distributors. It is considered that all major vertical market sectors are procuring from the data distributors to varying degrees.

“While this percentage may seem low, it should be recalled that the majority of the total market is to defense end-users [65 percent] who prefer a more direct approach to receive imagery, such as through direct receiving stations. Business for the data distributor reflects this, with a far greater emphasis on enterprise markets,” said Philippe Campenon, Deputy Director, Space and Earth Observation at Euroconsult.

Revenue through data services from the distributors is first from civil governments, totaling 47 percent of distributor data business. This highlights the need to be local in accessing civil contracts, an important consideration given the growing demand globally for EO solutions. Data provision to the private sector through distribution is also disproportionality higher than the total data market, representing 37 percent of the distributors business. The relatively small figure of 16 percent data revenues associated to defense users demonstrates the more direct approach preferred by this user community. Most operating companies with very high resolution satellites offer direct receiving stations solutions to defense end-users in order to meet their requirements of secure, continuous data supply with degrees of autonomy in satellite tasking and data acquisition, and short delivery time.

In order to reach out to all user sectors it is therefore considered a necessity to have a diverse approach in mechanisms for data distribution. This is reflecting in the type of distribution offering. In total, there are more than 550 active data distribution agreements signed globally with local companies. These contracts are classified in five categories within the report, addressing the rationale, contract conditions and key metrics for the following:

  • Data Resellers
  • Value-Added Resellers (VARs)
  • Exclusive Distributors (or Channel Partners)
  • Business Partners
  • Direct Receiving Station Partners

Exclusive Interview Results On Distributors’ Sales + Growth Strategies
Interviews were conducted with 15 data distributors with a mean presence in the sector of 19 years. Companies ranged from data distribution being their primary business to organizations active in other parts of the EO value-chain. The following topics are reviewed in detail:

  • Motivation for setting up a data distribution business line
  • The distributors’ offer to the satellite operators
  • The relationship between satellites operators and the distributors
  • Data distributor customer mix
  • Importance of key client requirements
  • Technology as a market driver/inhibitor
  • Ranking the vertical markets driving data sales and services

For details regarding this report, please access this direct link
*Euroconsult: Satellite-based Earth Observation, Market Prospects, 6th edition
Source

Airbus Defence and Space, the world’s second largest space company, will be the European Space Agency’s (ESA’s) prime contractor for the development and construction of the high-precision Sentinel-5 instrument worth €144 million.

The instrument will monitor the composition of the Earth’s atmosphere globally on a daily basis by taking measurements of trace gases and aerosols that have an impact on the climate and air quality.

“It is only with satellites and their instruments that we can observe the environment globally and continuously. ESA has entrusted us to take the Copernicus programme forward by constructing the next key instrument, the high-precision Sentinel-5 spectrometer, at our optical space centre in Ottobrunn, near Munich – Germany,” said Michael Menking, Head of Earth observation, navigation and science programmes at Space Systems. “To date, we are already constructing three Sentinel satellites and various other Sentinel instruments for the Copernicus programme that support a modern, efficient infrastructure for Earth observation and geo-information services. This demonstrates how our high-tech expertise serves global environmental monitoring as well as global security.”

Sentinel-5 will be installed on a MetOP Second Generation (MetOP-SG) satellite and fly in a roughly 800 kilometre polar orbit around the Earth. The high-tech instrument is expected to be delivered in 2019, while the launch of the satellite is scheduled for 2021. With a swath width of around 2,670 kilometres, the Sentinel-5 will provide daily global coverage of the Earth’s atmosphere with an unprecedented spatial resolution of 7×7 km2 at nadir, allowing atmospheric and climate scientists to accurately detect and analyse emission sources. This includes determining the concentration of trace gases as significant components in the atmosphere, such as ozone, nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide, methane, formaldehyde, carbon monoxide and aerosols.

At the heart of Sentinel-5 is an ultraviolet, visible, near-infrared and shortwave infrared (UVNS) imaging spectrometer. This large spectral bandwidth is an absolute necessity for measuring the types of molecules named above. The mass-optimised instrument, weighing around 270 kilogrammes and with a service life of more than seven years, consists of the optical module – comprising a reflecting telescope, a beam-splitter optical assembly, two ultraviolet/visible (UV-Vis) and one near-infrared (NIR) spectrometer optics as well as two shortwave infrared (SWIR) systems and a calibration subsystem – and two control electronics assemblies. Airbus Defence and Space is putting together a team of around 24 European suppliers for the development and construction of Sentinel-5.

Airbus Defence and Space has already constructed a large number of optical instruments that successfully operate on scientific, Earth observation and meteorological satellites. The company gained valuable experience from developing ERS-1 and Envisat, key European low-Earth orbit environmental satellites; the Sciamachy instrument for mapping the ozone layer and the development of the ozone hole; the Sentinel-4, a dispersive imaging spectrometer operating from geostationary orbit, as well as the Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec), the major European contribution to the NASA James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

Climate change, air quality and the stratospheric ozone layer are important social issues. Trace gas emissions and aerosols change the chemical composition of the atmosphere, which could have a lasting detrimental effect on the Earth’s living conditions: trace or greenhouse gases heat up the Earth and cause climate zones to shift and sea levels to rise. Combustion products such as nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbons cause air pollution from ozone and aerosols, and chlorofluorocarbons and halons have reduced the stratospheric ozone layer. Sentinel-5 observes the Earth’s atmosphere so that the human impact on the climate, air quality and stratospheric ozone can be monitored more closely and differentiated from natural emissions. Furthermore, it will make predicting the condition of the atmosphere easier, ranging from near-realtime, next-day air pollution forecasts to climate forecasts for the coming decades.

About Copernicus
Copernicus is the most ambitious Earth observation programme to date. It will provide accurate, timely and easily accessible information to improve the management of the environment, understand and mitigate the effects of climate change and ensure civil security. Copernicus is the new name for the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security programme, previously known as GMES. This initiative is headed by the European Commission (EC) in partnership with the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Environment Agency (EEA). ESA is responsible for the coordination of the space component of the programme, coordinates the delivery of data from more than 30 contributing satellites and operates – in tandem with Eumetsat – the Sentinels while the EEA is responsible for data from airborne and ground sensors. The EC, acting on behalf of the European Union, is responsible for the overall initiative, setting requirements and managing the services.

About Airbus Defence and Space
Airbus Defence and Space is a division of Airbus Group formed by combining the business activities of Cassidian, Astrium and Airbus Military. The new division is Europe’s number one defence and space enterprise, the second largest space business worldwide and among the top ten global defence enterprises. It employs some 40,000 employees generating revenues of approximately €14 billion per year.
Source

(February 21, 2014 Berlin, Germany) BlackBridge is pleased to announce that it has recently purchased 50% of Brazil’s leading geospatial company Santiago & Cintra Consultoria (SCC).

This transaction demonstrates BlackBridge’s commitment to the Brazilian market. Together, BlackBridge and SCC will expand their existing offerings and grow their mutual customer base by taking advantage of their combined assets, know-how, and strong position in the marketplace. This allows both companies to focus on a tailored approach to serving the Brazilian market. With this strategic transaction, BlackBridge has created an innovative new model with the size, scale, and brand recognition needed to focus on the strategic development of products and solutions for this market.

“This operation will definitely have a positive impact in the growth of our organization,” said Ryan Johnson, President and CEO of BlackBridge. “Brazil is an important market for us for several reasons: the country has a large territory, a very strong agriculture industry, and it has invested in important environmental programs, which are of particular interest to BlackBridge. In addition to this, SCC has been an excellent partner of our company for many years.”

Iara Musse Felix, CEO of SCC, is also enthusiastic about this transaction. “BlackBridge has a unique product, and we have been very successful in developing solutions using RapidEye imagery. We have resold over 30 million km2 of 5-meter imagery over the Brazilian territory. There are many companies and government institutions that use RapidEye images every day, and we will now work together to also provide them new products and solutions.”

About BlackBridge
BlackBridge is focused on providing end to end solutions across the geospatial value chain. This includes satellite operations, ground station services, data center and geocloud solutions, and worldwide satellite imagery distribution through over 100 BlackBridge partners, combined with the creation of value added products and services.

About Santiago & Cintra Consultoria
Santiago & Cintra Consultoria is a Brazilian consulting company specialized on geospatial solutions. It is the largest supplier of satellite imagery in Brazil and has developed unique Web-GIS based solutions, serving a wide range of markets, such as environment, agriculture, government, forestry, mining, defense, Oil & Gas, education, or telecommunications.
http://www.sccon.com.br

Contact
BlackBridge AG
Kurfürstendamm 22
10719 Berlin
Germany
press@blackbridge.com

(February 27, 2014 Berlin, Germany) Upon successful completion of the 2013 North American agricultural monitoring program, BlackBridge officially launches its agriculture solutions on a global level. New programs are already being implemented for subscribers in the UK and South America, and new regions will follow later this year, including North America, where the program will start running in May.

This new imagery service leverages the exceptional collection capacity of the RapidEye constellation, providing access to an enormous pool of multitemporal, orthorectified five-meter, imagery collected throughout the season. Agro-consulting firms, amongst other customers, will benefit from this unique information source for extracting accurate and timely information on crop variables.

The other key feature of these programs is the cloud-based technology that supports it by allowing subscribers to have fast and easy access to the imagery collected everyday shortly after acquisition using an internet connection. Access to archived imagery from past seasons is also an option to program subscribers.

“These programs are the result of BlackBridge responding to the needs of the agricultural market,” explains Karsten Frotscher, product manager. “The concept for these programs and the technological solution behind them have been developed in response to customer requests for more imagery and timely access to it. We have addressed this demand with programs that offer a cost-effective solution to accessing imagery acquired over large agricultural areas. We are really excited about it, as we truly believe this is the type of program the market has been longing to see for many years.”

To find out more about BlackBridge Monitoring Programs for Agriculture, please visit

About BlackBridge
BlackBridge is focused on providing end to end solutions across the geospatial value chain. This includes satellite operations, ground station services, data center and geocloud solutions, and worldwide satellite imagery distribution through over 100 BlackBridge partners, combined with the creation of value added products and services.
Contact
BlackBridge AG
Kurfürstendamm 22
10719 Berlin
Germany
press@blackbridge.com