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GRACE Ltd is pleased to announce the merge of its overall activities within the P.L.A.N. network of consultants.

Starting January 1st, 2012 all the operations held by Grace will be part of P.L.A.N. Europe Ltd, a firm established in Greece in 2010. P.L.A.N. Europe is specialized in providing consulting services on Space Applications including Earth Observation and Meteorology through an extended presence in about 15 countries in the EMEA region. The operations of the firm will integrate the existent Grace activities in Europe and North Africa.

Furthermore, Grace consultants will join P.L.A.N. Consulting Group (PCG), a high-level consultancy team of about 25 people covering the full spectrum of expertise in Space Technologies. With an impressive track record of major and numerous institutional and industrial references, PCG is an expert in capacity building on domains as: Space Policy design and regulatory issues, Space Agency organization and operations, Satellite missions, Space systems, Ground Reception Stations, Earth Observation Data.

For more information, please contact:
P.L.A.N. Europe Ltd
Mr. Dimitris Matsakis, Managing Director
pel@planinc.com

About GRACE

GRACE Ltd is a young and independent technology and consulting services firm established in Athens in July 2008, with the mission to promote and guide space industry development and direct the benefits of Space to the society and the environment in Greece and the greater Eastern Mediterranean region.
The company is a dynamic partner contributing to local capacity building and progress in the Space industry and its applications.

Source

GAF AG hosted GSE FM REDD Programme in collaboration with the Government of the Republic of Congo a REDD+ Side Event at the COP17 in Durban, December 2011

The GMES Service Element on Forest Monitoring (GSE FM) which has been led by GAF AG since 2003 has aimed at providing operational forest services to the forest user community by including them in the design and implementation of the services. One of the main evolving policy segments that the GSE FM supports is the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) post-Kyoto Protocol policy process “Reduction of Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation” (REDD).

The European Space Agency (ESA) supported GSE FM REDD programme in the Congo Basin region is being implemented by GAF AG and partners from 2009-2012. The main objective of the GSE FM REDD Extension in the Republic of Congo and Gabon is to set up pre-operational Earth-Observation (EO) based forest monitoring systems within the REDD framework. Due to the progress made to date on implementing the project activities and the contributions of the project to the national REDD+ process in the Republic of Congo, the Congolese Government in partnership with GAF AG has decided to host a specific REDD+ Side Event at the UNFCCC Conference of Parties (COP) 17 which will take place in Durban. S. Africa in December 2011.

The Republic of Congo REDD+ Day has the main objective to enhance and intensify the international visibility of the Republic of Congo’s REDD+ process. Key issues that will be presented include, the national REDD+ vision and activities that have been undertaken at national level for the institutionalization of a REDD+ framework as well as the development of technical methods to support the process. Methodological accomplishments from the GSE FM REDD, with emphasis on the application of EO data for the estimation of deforestation in the scope of the National Forest Cover Monitoring project will be presented.

The event will take place under the high patronage of the Minister of Sustainable Development, Forest Economy and Environment, H. E. M. Henri Djombo.

About GAF AG: (www.gaf.de)
GAF AG is an international consulting company with leading competence and expertise in applied remote sensing and spatial information systems. GAF has worked in the last 20 years in more than 100 countries throughout Europe, Africa, South-America and Asia. GAF AG offers a comprehensive portfolio of services ranging from supply of geo-data (e.g. satellite and aerial imagery, digital elevation models), and geo-services (e.g. image processing, thematic mapping, GIS/DBMS applications and software development). GAF AG has a proven track-record in performing technical assistance projects in the natural resources and environment sector.

To obtain more information, please contact:
GAF AG
Dr. Thomas Haeusler
Tel. +49 (0) 89 12 15 28 0
www.gaf.de and www.redd-services.info
email: forestry@gaf.de

(Nov2011) In the two years since DMCii added 22m multispectral imagery to its geospatial data portfolio, the detailed satellite views of the Earth’s surface have proved highly-valued tools for farmers facing increasing pressures – not least of which is rising fertiliser costs.

Acquired from the latest generation of DMC imaging satellites – UK-DMC2 and Deimos-1 – this new class of data is employed every season for precision agriculture across numerous countries including the US, Canada, the UK, France, Netherlands, Germany, Lithuania, Russia and Japan, and accounts for 50% of DMCii’s annual growth.

In precision agriculture, satellite data is used to gather precise knowledge of a farmer’s land, pinpointing variations in crop growth and condition. The farmer is shown just where fertiliser or crop protection chemicals need to be applied, and in what quantities. GPS-based instructions can be relayed directly to tractors and other automated farm equipment. The aim is to maximise crop yield and quality while minimising production costs and environmental impact.

“There is a general emphasis at the moment on producing more food for the ever-growing world population,” says Paul Stephens, DMCii Director of Marketing. “Monitoring from the high ground of space represents a cost-effective way to help farmers use land and resources more efficiently.”

For the last five years DMC satellite data has been utilised by specialist precision agriculture companies. The imagery comes geo-rectified, as is standard, for integration into users’ Geographical Information Systems (GIS) software. But because the DMC satellites are operated together as a constellation, they offer much more timely data than a single satellite, delivering rapid revisit opportunities every 1-2 days. Compare this to Landsat’s 16 day minimum revisit time which often means months between cloud-free images. The improved-quality 22m data produced by the two newest DMC satellites has opened up new service possibilities for value-adding companies, with more detail making the data suitable for much smaller field sizes. In addition, these higher resolution images now have 10-bit instead of 8-bit pixels, yielding greater sensitivity in the DMC’s three Landsat-compatible spectral bands of red, green and near-infrared.

“In the past, precision agriculture planned what to do in the current year based on last year’s growth patterns,” explains Paul Stephens. “This was down to a lack of availability of up-to-date satellite images. Now the DMC constellation can cover whole countries every 2-3 days which typically means cloud-free imagery every week or so for any given field. This opens the door to near real-time precision agriculture – applying inputs to crops according to their current growth patterns and condition.”

The DMC satellites are unique because they combine relatively high resolution with an extremely wide 650 km swath width. Enhanced onboard storage and downlink bandwidth on the 22m satellites stretch this along-track length up to more than 1200 km.

“The satellites deliver vast area coverage,” adds Paul Stephens. “So a precision farming company in France for example might receive a single image that shows almost the whole of the country. They can analyse hundreds of customers’ farms based on that image alone, as well as market services to other farms who have to sign up.”

The sensors on all satellites a rigorously calibrated so that customers can use the data from any satellite interchangeably and extract quantitative biophysical information about the crop.

2011 will see two new DMC satellites commence operations – Nigeriasat-2 and Nigeriasat-X – with 5m, 32m and 22m imaging resolutions, joining the rest of the internationally-owned, jointly-run DMC constellation.

About DMC International Imaging Ltd

DMC International Imaging Ltd (DMCii) is a UK based supplier of remote sensing data products and services for international Earth Observation (EO) markets. DMCii supplies programmed and archived optical satellite imagery provided by the multi-satellite Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC). DMCii’s data is used extensively in a wide variety of commercial and government applications including agriculture, forestry and environmental mapping.

In partnership with the UK Space Agency and the other Disaster Monitoring Constellation member nations (Algeria, China, Nigeria, Turkey and Spain), DMCii works with the International Charter ‘Space and Major Disasters’ to provide free satellite imagery for humanitarian use in the event of major international disasters such as tsunamis, hurricanes, fires and flooding.

DMCii was formed in October 2004 and is a subsidiary of Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL), the world leader in small satellite technology. SSTL designed and built the Disaster Monitoring Constellation with the support of the UK Space Agency and in conjunction with the other Disaster Monitoring Constellation Consortium member nations listed above.

DMC International Imaging Ltd is not affiliated in any way with Intergraph Corp., Z/I Imaging Corp., or their registered trademark DMC.

Notes to editor:
This press release can be downloaded from http://tinyurl.com/dmciipr
A print resolution JPEG image showing agriculture in The Great Fen, UK.
Image credit: UK-DMC2 Image © DMCii, 2010
Press contacts:
Robin Wolstenholme, bcm public relations, www.bcmpublicrelations.com
Tel: +44 (0)1306 882288 Email: r.wolstenholme@bcmpublicrelations.com
Paul Stephens, Sales & Marketing Director, DMC International Imaging Ltd.
Tel: +44 (0)1483 804299 Email: p.stephens@dmcii.com

Source

Critical Software will take part in the conference “Competitive Intelligence – A Strategic Solution”, to be held on January 17th, around 18h00, at the Military Academy (Auditorium 9), in Lisbon, Portugal.

The newly appointed Chairman of Critical Software, Gonçalo Quadros, will represent the company and focus his keynote speech on “Competitive Intelligence – The Role of Companies “.

“Someone once said ‘It is pardonable to be defeated, but never to be surprised.’ The only companies that don’t need competitive intelligence are those with no competition. In a world of hyper-competition (lower barriers to entry, global marketplace, customer focus, etc.), few companies can abstain from some form of competitive intelligence. Even if you don’t have competition, competitive intelligence will generate numerous benefits: early warning systems, more accurate forecasting, business development, market research, due diligence, among others”, states Gonçalo Quadros.

Competitive Intelligence tries to identify, analyze and deliver information on products, clients and competitors in order to support decision making and the organization’s strategic positioning. In a time of crisis, Competitive Intelligence is a central strategy for companies and other organizations that want to consolidate their value and strengthen their position in global markets.

CIIWAC aims at promoting the research, the debate and the dissemination of knowledge about Competitive Intelligence and the Information War, particularly with the view of making it applicable for economical and social development purposes.

Source

Brockmann Consult successfully completed the ESA Calvalus project

A demonstration system which performs efficient bulk processing of large amounts of satellite data. Calvalus aims at supporting Earth Observation cal/val activities and algorithm development by providing fast access to mission-wide satellite data and a highly configurable processing environment. The Calvalus system utilises Apache Hadoop and the ESA BEAM development platform and achieves its enhanced performance from the massive parallelisation and data-local execution of processing tasks.

Source Brockmann Consult

The ESA Calvalus Study
Objective
ESA’s Earth Observation (EO) missions provide a unique dataset of observational data of our environment. Calibration of the measured signal and validation of the derived products is an extremely important task for efficient exploitation of EO data and the basis for reliable scientific conclusions. In spite of this importance, the cal/val work is often hindered by insufficient means to access data, time consuming work to identify suitable in-situ data matching the EO data, incompatible software and limited possibilities for rapid prototyping and testing of ideas. In view of the future fleet of satellites and the fast-growing amount of data produced, a very efficient technological backbone is required to maintain the ability of ensuring data quality and algorithm performance.
The announcement of opportunities EO Cal/Val and User Services is a technology study of the ESA LET-SME 2009 call, investigating into an existing leading edge technology (LET) for their applicability in the EO domain. Specifically, LET-SME is a spin-in instrument encouraging the participation of SMEs to ESA technology. The LET-SME focuses on early stage development of Leading Edge Technologies, i.e. the ones likely to become the reference technologies for the near future, and have good chances of being infused into ESA projects and missions.
In accordance with the study’s statement of work, Calvalus is a system that has been proposed to fully support the idea of LET-SME, thus with a strong focus on a selected LET which is described in this report.

(Dec2011).“Nederland van Boven” (The Netherlands from Above) is a new series from VPRO-television showing how the country works, lives and develops.

The best way to see it working is from the sky. It investigates Netherlands’s past and shows how analyzing the country from an aerial perspective can help realizing the future.

Central story in one of the episodes (“knutselland”) tells about the need and the reason of capturing aerial imagery of the Netherlands. Surprisingly for the Dutch, they make use of the knowledge and experience of a company with its main office in Belgium to realize this masterpiece. Since Aerodata has realized nationwide coverages of The Netherlands since many years it was logical that the crew ended up talking to us.

Aerodata provided high resolution aerial imagery as a backdrop for animations and the television crew recently visited Aerodata’s main office. The crew attended an operational aerial survey flight in one of our aircraft and got a brief demonstration and explanation of the image processing process.

To watch the video (in Dutch), please click the following link (Meten en fotograferen)

Requirements and examples of products for analysis at a European and regional level. The video and slides available.

Has been held last november during ASITA 2011, the main Italian geospatial event, the first of a series of workshops dedicated to the dissemination of some of the Geoland2 activities. Promoted by Planetek Italia and ISPRA the event has also focused on related projects legacy over the Italian territory.

Geoland2 project aims at developing and demonstrating a range of reliable, affordable and cost efficient European geo-information services, supporting the implementation of European Directives and their National implementation, as well as European and International policies.

Invited Speakers:

  • GMES Initial Operation on Land Monitoring 2011-2013
    Ana Maria Ribeiro de Sousa – EEA European Environmental Agency
  • GMES as an opportunity for the development of Geomatics in Italy
    Valter Sambucini – ISPRA – Italian Representative at GMES Regulation USER FORUM
  • GMES downstream products at a regional level. The Land use map of Veneto Region
    Massimo Foccardi – Regione del Veneto – Unità di Progetto SIT e Cartografia
  • Geoland2 products for land monitoring and analysis: the Urban Atlas and the 5 thematic HR layers for the CORINE LAND COVER programme
    Daniela Iasillo – Planetek Italia – Geospatial Application Unit manager

At the following links:

It’s 2002 and, following the launch of the first Very High Resolution (VHR) earth observation satellites, European Space Imaging (EUSI) is established in Munich, Germany. The company was founded with two goals: To become the leading provider of imagery throughout Europe & North Africa and to provide the unique service of locally tasking VHR satellites over these regions. Ten years later and EUSI continues to lead the way.

EUSI is the only European satellite data provider to operate a multi-mission capable, dedicated VHR satellite ground station and in January 2010 signed a strategic partnership with DigitalGlobe – the world’s leading commercial high resolution imagery provider and owner of the most powerful commercial VHR satellite constellation.

Over the past decade EUSI has been involved in some of the largest pan European projects in both the commercial and governmental sectors. These include the Agricultural Controls with Remote Sensing program of the European Commission, where EUSI have been the highest contributing VHR data provider to the project since its activation. This is reflected in the recent 2011 campaign statistics which show EUSI collecting 67% of the total project area with a 100% success rate.

EUSI have built strong links with national mapping and security agencies across Europe and North Africa and continue to serve urgent mapping requirements with their rapid tasking capabilities and rush order deliveries.

Looking ahead, EUSI have recently signed a three-year contract with the European Space Agency (ESA) for the provision of VHR satellite imageryinto the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) program and look forward to supporting this exciting, European wide program.

Throughout the coming year a series of celebrations are planned to mark 10 years of leadership in Europe and the company plans to share their success and provide an update on latest developments at their annual User Conference held in Munich in early summer.


Oktoberfest, Munich. 21st September 2011. ©DigitalGlobe, provided by European Space Imaging

More information at www.euspaceimaging.com/

Gisat responded to the request of United Nations’ Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affars (UN OCHA) to provide mapping service for agriculture change assessment in the Sa’ada governorate in the northern Yemen.

Since early 2004, the militant rebels Al-Houthi are in armed conflict with the Yemeni army and government-backed tribal fighters in the governorate. Up to now, six rounds of armed conflicts took place whereas the 6th and latest one lasted from August 2009 until February 2010. Only 2006 could be considered as normal year without fighting with respect to the conflict time scale. In consequence, several inhabitants have been internally displaced from their homes. Continuous fighting and population displacement have had severe impacts on local economy and in particular to agriculture, which is the main source of livelihood in the governorate.

Humanitarian community requires information on development of agriculture production to plan the contingency and humanitarian relief actions. However, insecure situation, extent and remoteness of the governorate area make the field survey infeasible. Moreover, historical information on agriculture state was needed to assess its development.

13 of 15 Sa’ada districts (6,800 km2 in total) comprising more then 95% of governorate’s agriculture land have been mapped using high resolution multispectral imagery. Accurate extent of agriculture land in the governorate including classification into managed/fallow classes was extracted from the imagery together with the key infrastructure and natural features such as road network, settlements and hydrography. By means of automated image classification and computer assisted expert interpretation the status of seeding of fields was then identified for two time horizons: 2006 and 2010/2011. Based on satellite image classification results and auxiliary data such as digital elevation model (DEM) and district boundaries the agriculture change assessment and synthetic analysis had been carried out. GIS-ready vector layers facilitate further analysis and integration in GIS environment. The thematic outputs provide comprehensive, synoptic and coherent information in form of tables, graphs and maps. Thematic maps at scales spanning from 1:40,000 to 1:200,000, vector data and assessment report were provided to the user. They are helpful for understanding and interpretation of agriculture development in the governorate. Utilization of state-of-the-art EO based technology including automation of processing procedures in the framework of proven processing chains and methodologies ensures repeatability and operability of the service.

The service has been appreciated by UN OCHA experts as it clearly showed the benefits of utilization of EO data and EO-based products for agriculture change assessment application. Utilization of the mapping products will return in practical consequences of the fact that activities of humanitarian community could be supported by accurate and up-to-date information.

The service has been provided in the frame of the SAFER (FP7 EU-funded project responsible for the development of the pre-operational GMES emergency management service). Mappings in non-rush mode (emergency support services) serve to support preparedness and prevention as well as recovery activities and long-term development projects of humanitarian community.

More information at Gisat

GRAS is involved in mapping of water quality of Danish lakes using WorldView-2, Landsat and MERIS.

Project Background

With the implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive there is a need for better knowledge on water quality in all larger lakes in Denmark by 2015. Currently, the national monitoring programme in Denmark (NOVANA) is based on traditional in-situ sampling and an extension of this monitoring programme would be a very expensive and time consuming task.

Activities related to monitoring of the marine environment by use of satellite (for examples see http://www.grasdk.com/Solutions/MarineApplications) have proven to be a cost-efficient addition to the in-situ based monitoring programme. Monitoring of water quality through remote sensing is one of the core competences at GRAS and the thorough knowledge gained in this field will be applied in this project to investigate the potential of very high resolution satellite images for water quality monitoring. In order to test the possibilities of transferring the methods and experiences from the marine monitoring activities in Denmark to the monitoring of lakes a research project funded by the EcoInnovation sector of the Danish Ministry of Environment was initiated in 2010 with the aim of optimizing monitoring of the freshwater lakes in Denmark and demonstrate the capabilities of satellite based methods. The project focuses on chlorophyll mapping using time series of both the newest very high resolution satellite data (2m resolution) and the traditional medium resolution satellite data (300 m resolution). Furthermore, an important component is to prepare for the coming Sentinel-2 data flow which will significantly improve the large scale monitoring potential from use of satellite data in national monitoring obligations to comply with the Water Framework Directive.

During the project it will furthermore be investigated how the integration of satellite data into ecological lake models can be improved and extended and thereby complement the existing monitoring programme of freshwater areas in Denmark.

Preliminary results – WorldView-2

During the summer period of 2011two ‘twin’ acquisitions of WorldView-2 8-band images were realised (time difference between the images in each twin acquisition was 4 and 2 days). Simultaneous field campaignswere made in between each twin acquisition in order to be able to calibrate the satellite data to chlorophyll concentrations.

Following a thorough pre-processing of the data (calibration and atmospheric correction) a multiple regression analysis was performed to identify the best possible variable(s) for the chlorophyll conversion.


Example of Chl-A mapping based on 8-band WorldView2 data

The results are very promising and clearly demonstrate the value of adding satellite based information to the current monitoring programme. The spatial variation for the individual lakes displayed in the satellite data highlights the uncertainty in point-based measurements – they are not necessarily representative for an entire lake. On the other hand, the in-situ data is needed to secure a good calibration of the satellite data to chlorophyll concentrations and for validation purposes.

Future perspectives

The spatial resolution of the coming Sentinel-2 data combined with its temporal and spectral resolution will make the data an important source of information for monitoring purposes on regional scale. The open and free of charge Sentinel Data Policy will limit the price of incorporating the data into the existing traditional monitoring programme compared to using commercially available VHR data.

Preparatory activities for Sentinel-2 based monitoring are therefore an important part of the project. These activities will enable a faster and better inclusion of the data into services shortly after the data becomes available.

Partners

The DK Lake Monitoring Project is a partnership between GRAS, DHI Water and Environment and the National Environmental Research Institute (NERI) – Department of Freshwater Ecology. GRAS’ competences in satellite based monitoring of the environment in general and the marine environment in particular is a central part of the project that runs from 2010 – 2012.

Satellite data being used in the study includes Landsat, WorldView-2 and MERIS Full Resolution data.

Further information at www.grasdk.com