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Down Stream Services were developed within the three years project period (2011–2013) for the effective identification of various forest damages like storm, forest fire, snow brake, insect damage detection and assessment and for an operational derivation of forest parameters. The EUFODOS consortium applied the Copernicus High Resolution Forest Core Layer, state-of-the-art optical and radar satellites and LIDAR technology.

Forests play a key role in the European economy and environment. This role incorporates ecological as well as economic functions which can be affected by the occurrence of insect infestations, storms or windfall events. Local or regional authorities thus require detailed information on the degradation status of their forests to be able to take appropriate countermeasures against forest damage and to ensure sustainable forest management.

For the effective identification of various forest damages and for an operational derivation of forest parameters COPERNICUS Down Stream Services were developed in EUFODOS during the time frame from 2011-2013.

Main Goals
To develop sustainable Forest Downstream Services for the effective assessment of forest damage and forest functional parameters based on COPERNICUS Land/Forest Core Products.

Partners

The services, strongly asked by regional forest authorities, were developed by a consortium of commercial service providers and research organisations from Austria, Bulgaria, Finland, Germany, and Italy in different European testcases located in 7 European countries in the temperate and boreal zone.

Users and user federation

EUFODOS involved an extensive user community. To secure that the service development is in line with the user requirements all EUFODOS users were engaged in a User Executive Body. The intensive cooperation between service providers and users within the EUFODOS project facilitated the roll-out of the services and the uptake of the services by the users.

Applications and products

EUFODOS focused on the development of services for surveying forest damage and investigating forest parameters which can be used for economic assessments or as a basis for targeted management of protective forests. These services comprise, for instance, a rush service on assessing storm damage, a more targeted non-rush service damage assessment on various damages like storm, forest fire, snow brake, insect damage detection and assessment and a change detection approach assessment. The latter can be applied on any area with any remote sensing data and was demonstrated in a region of almost 8,000 km² using SPOT data with 10m spatial resolution.

The EUFODOS consortium applied the Copernicus High Resolution Forest Core Layer, state-of-the-art optical and radar satellites and LIDAR technology. The advantages using these technologies proved to be applicable manifold, firstly they facilitate the procurement of data in very short time intervals and secondly the processing is realized in a cost efficient way. For instance, an assessment of storm damage can be delivered to users in the form of geo-referenced damage maps based on satellite data quickly and with low investment as compared to using conventional assessment methods.

The EUFODOS products can for instance be applied for:

  • Effective damage assessment and countermeasures
    
Identification of damaged areas – due to storm, snow break, fire or insect infestations (Fig. 1, 2 and 3) in order to enable proper countermeasures, compensation payments or reforestation planning.
  • Sustainable management of protective forests

    Targeted management of protective forests (Fig. 4) to maintain and enhance their protective function against natural hazards.
  • Sustainable management of commercial forests
    
Wood procurement planning (Fig. 5) and strategic investment planning for commercial forests.
  • Reporting

    Revision of forest maps and inventories, compilation of regular reports and annual statistics (e.g. changes in forested area), establishment of forest damage information systems.

Pan-European service

As an outcome of EUFODOS it is also envisaged to establish a Pan-European Forest Monitoring Service as a regular mapping service in order to provide information on forest damage such as storms and spread of insect infestations for European states in a uniform approach. Such a service may be considered as a complementary action to the initiative for investigating the framework for a European Forest Risk Facility.

Additional information about the EUFODOS project is available at www.eufodos.info
Contact: stefanie.linser@umweltbundesamt.at; eufodos@joanneum.at


Figure 1: Snowfall/Snowbreak damages (Source: RESAC, 2013).


Figure 2: Forest fire damages (Source: RESAC, 2013).


Figure 3: Defoliation in pine forest (Source: RapidEye, 2013).


Figure 4: Upper tree height (Source: Joanneum Research, 2013).


Figure 5: Forest stem volume (Source: VTT, 2012).

AeroGRID is now supplying wide area aerial imagery of Europe via a WMS feed to satellite image provider RapidEye AG. The high resolution imagery covers 21 European countries over nearly 4 million km².

WMS is the standard protocol for streaming georeferenced map imagery over the Internet to web based applications, GIS and CAD software. WMS feeds load the imagery that a user needs to see, so it is a very convenient and efficient way for clients to subscribe to AeroGRID’s growing library of high resolution imagery. Users can confidently base their projects on AeroGRID data, which always comes with guaranteed accuracy due to long-term partnerships with well-established aerial survey companies.

“Our business requires access to precise orthophotos with an accuracy of better than 3m, and AeroGRID’s WMS service provides us with this imagery in an easy and cost effective way,” said Massimilano Vitale, RapidEye’s Chief Operating Officer.

“This contract exemplifies our core strengths” commented Miles Taylor, AeroGRID’s General Manager. “We provide unequalled wide area coverage for our clients with unparalleled accuracy and are playing a leading role in the development and wider adoption of WMS amongst the GIS community.”

About AeroGRID: AeroGRID is a one-stop-shop for international archived aerial imagery providing speedy access to aerial photography from over 60 countries with off-the-shelf high resolution satellite orthophotos for many others. By marshalling an impressive network of partner’s survey aircraft and high resolution digital cameras AeroGRID is able to extend coverage around the world. AeroGRID’s WMS servers provide instant access to orthophotos for 14 million km² from 23 countries in Europe, America and Africa with more countries added every month.
www.aerogrid.net For further information please contact: Miles Taylor. T: + 33 671 156 116 E: info@aerogrid.net

About RapidEye: RapidEye is a leading provider of high-resolution satellite imagery. With a constellation of five Earth Observation satellites, RapidEye is able to image up to five million square kilometers of earth every day, and adds over one billion square kilometers of imagery to its archive every year. Online searching and viewing of its collection is quick and easy with EyeFind, RapidEye’s archive discovery tool (eyefind.rapideye.com).
RapidEye: Delivering the World – www.rapideye.com

(August 2013) The European Volcano Observatory Space Services, (EVOSS) is an European Union science initiative, funded by the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) and using the latest European earth observation data. EVOSS is a consortium of data providers, academic institutions and government bodies whose aim is to develop techniques allowing the monitoring of volcanic hazards on a global scale.

Due to the unpredictable nature of active volcanic areas, repeat ground-based monitoring has special challenges concerning accessibility and terrain instability. The EVOSS project demonstrates how real-time operational monitoring can be enhanced by satellite remote sensing.

On behalf of EVOSS, TRE has recently processed radar imagery from the Cosmo-SkyMED satellite constellation over four volcanoes in Africa and Antille. Analysis of images was made to determine ground topography changes and generated a better-than-one metre precision elevation model.

To know more about the project, click the article here

SERTIT’s Rapid Mapping Service’s Portal has been transformed! Discover our new webpage

Download the Rapid Mapping Service presentation. The products elaborated for the rapid mapping activity are realised to the best of our ability, within a very short time frame, optimising the material available. No liability concerning the content or the use thereof is assumed by the producer.

  • First issue of the redesigned Earth from Space magazine is published
    Earth from Space from Space” – is a popular science magazine – is a popular science magazine” that introduces readers to the wide range of issues related to remote sensing data reception, further processing and application practices. In 2009-2013, 16 issues of the magazine were published – thematic collections on the areas of satellite imagery applications: forestry, construction, transportation, environment, education, web technologies, etc. In 2013 the edition has been completely renovated. This effected both design and content of magazine’s issues. Now the magazine has become bilingual, presenting scientific, popular, artistic materials adopted for non-professional audience. The founder and publisher of the magazine is ScanEx Research & Development Center.
  • Satellite monitoring for the detection of illegal vessels in the Komandorsky nature reserve
    Starting from 2012 ScanEx RDC specialists have been working to identify illegal shipping within marine protected natural areas. Several test areas in the Arctic Region and the Far East have been chosen to evaluate the effectiveness of satellite data for monitoring the navigation situation within the reserve. One of the test zones was the “Komandorsky” State Nature Biosphere Reserve.
  • Open landscape” partnership program: hitting the road
    ScanEx, announced today the launch of the innovation partnership program “Open Landscape”. The program will officially start on October 1, 2013. Founding members of the “Open Landscape” program include: ScanEx Research and Development Center and NGO “Transparent World” together with the World Bank, the World Resources Institute,members of the Global Forest Watch 2.0 and the Global Tiger Initiative. The program is supported by DigitalGlobe, NASA, and other satellite imagery data providers.

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Information Day on HORIZON2020 Space will take place in Sofia on 16th of Oct 2013 in Sheraton Hotel.

The agenda includes presentation of the vision of MES for the participation of Bulgaria in HORIZON2020; rules for participation in HORIZON2020; presentation of the priority Space in the programme, as well as details for the first two Space calls; presentation of Space Key players.

Short presentations of the participants will show their capacity and project ideas related to the first Space calls.

Together with the Bulgarian participants the event will include also representatives from EC, as well as organizations from other European countries.

The event is part of the The Countdown on Horizon 2020 Space Tour, organized by the National Contact Points priority Space with the support of the EC and expert support of the Bulgarian Information Office for GMES/Copernicus (for the Sofia event).

Registration for the event could be done on

Agenda for the Sofia event is available on

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The role of SMEs (small medium enterprises) can be more and more relevant in facilitating EU Member States fulfillments required by the EU INSPIRE Directive.

This is the premise wich lead the creation of the smeSpire community, whose main purpose is to encourage and enable the participation of SMEs in the mechanisms of harmonising and making large scale environmental content available.

Among SmeSpire’s initiatives is the web portal which helps in promoting the best practices in this field at a European level. In this context Planetek Italia presented, and now are available on-line, two of its best practices:

Have a look at the complete list of best practices and read also Award for Excellence and Innovation in INSPIRE 2013 to Planetek Italia
Sito web smeSpire

See more at

On September 12, 2013 OHB System AG hosted the third day of the Polish-German Space Industry Symposium in Bremen. Marco Fuchs, CEO of OHB AG and OHB System AG, and Dr. Gerd Gruppe, a member of the Executive Board of the German Aerospace Center DLR, welcomed the Polish Delegation under the lead of Mrs. Otylia Trzaskalska-Stroinska, Director of the Department for Innovation and Indsutry, Ministry of Economy of Poland.



Coordinated by the DLR and the Polish Space Industry Association, discussions of potential and future partnerships were held. The companies presented their capabilities and visions and agreed to continue the talks in further bilateral meetings to intensify and extend the joint activities. The results of the Symposium will also be passed on by the agencies to additional companies and institutions in both countries to widen the perspective. Marco Fuchs said that he greatly appreciated the possibilities for joint activities with the industry of the new ESA member state Poland. Dr. Gerd Gruppe added that the technological expertise demonstrated was well suited to offering benefits the European citizens, something which was driving the need for space-based solutions.

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KSAT has now enabled the capacity to process the Visible and Infrared Imager (VIIRS) onboard the NPP meteorological satellite.

This capacity is a results of an understanding between Eumetsat and KSAT to use the downlinks to the Svalbard station for research, education and demonstration purposes. This true color image shows one of the first examples generated by KSAT. The data was acquired 9. September 2013 and cover parts of the Barents Sea. ©KSAT