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A little water is needed to make wine, but how do you know when enough is enough? ESA’s GrapeLook service can give you the answer.


GrapeLook uses satellites to help decide how much to water vineyards, and when. The service uses technology that combines Earth observation data and field measurements. Moisture readings are sent in real time to a processing centre via a satellite link. To use the water most efficiently, growers need information on crop production and water consumption. GrapeLook uses satellite remote sensing to monitor how much water is released from the plants, how much biomass is grown and how efficiently the water is being used overall.

Once the information is processed, the maps are put online for the grape growers and water managers through a Google Maps-based website.

GrapeLook was tested this year with selected grape growers in South Africa. The growers connected regularly to the website to check the status of their vineyards.

The group also received forecasts on soil moisture and irrigation requirements for their farms.

Participants agreed that GrapeLook was useful for monitoring water stress, crop growth and identifying irrigation problems. It helped to identify more efficient practices and would help in reducing labor and other costs.

The system should increase the amount of grapes being harvested while raising the quality of the wine – all the while using less water.

“The trial period of this project showed that the farmers and water authorities were supportive of such a service,” explains Olivier Becu, ESA technical officer.

“While it may take a few years to strengthen trust and awareness with these user communities, the South African authorities are willing to support a freely available GrapeLook service for another season.”

Annemarie Klaasse, land and water use specialist at WaterWatch, explains: “The GrapeLook service shows how satellite technology benefits farmers.

“It not only helps farmers to reduce water usage, it also increases sustainability and production. Next steps are to expand the service to other crops and areas.”

The service was developed by WaterWatch (NL), supported by ESA’s Integrated Applications Programme and co-funded by the Department of Agriculture of Western Cape in South Africa, in collaboration with the University of KwaZulu-Natal and with support of the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry and the Dutch Embassy.

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Grapelook
Grapelook user page

For further details and information on abstract submission and registration please visit Earsel

Aims and scope

After the overview provided by the Rome meeting in 2008, the Gent workshop will be focused on strategical issues which involve not only the knowledge improvement but also the contribution of Remote Sensing for a sustainable management of cultural resources not only in Europe but also and mainly in emerging and developing countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America.

The cultural and practical interconnections between Environment, Culture and Territory are the framework of the third EARSeL Workshop in Gent. The scientific committee selected some priority themes related to:

  • fields of application such as the use of Remote Sensing for risk management and cultural and natural heritage, interconnection between environmental, climatic changes and dynamics of human frequentation, the aware fruition of material and immaterial witnesses of ancient civilizations;
  • methodologies such as development of ad hoc semiautomatic and automatic approach for extracting cultural information, integration and fusion of passive and active remotely sensed data, remote sensing and geospatial analysis for preventive archaeology, palaeoenvironmental investigation and risk management; and
  • cooperation strategies for the creation of a permanent platform for data and knowledge sharing.

Topics for the conference include but are not limited to:

  • From aerial photo to declassified satellite images: the study of landscape over time by means of historical data source
  • From visual data interpretation to semiautomatic and automatic procedures in an archaeological perspective
  • Remote Sensing, GIS and Geospatial analysis for the risk monitoring and management of cultural resources
  • Integration of space/air borne and ground remote sensing in Archaeogeophysics
  • The “LiDAR revolution” for site discovery and the reconstruction of historical landscapes
  • SAR and high resolution optical satellite imagery for palaeoenvironmental applications
  • Interactions between Environment and Human civilizations in the past: which approach by using Remote Sensing?
  • Geographic Information and Earth observation technologies for the protection and management of cultural resources in emerging countries of Asia and Latin America
  • Tools and ideas for creating a platform to share knowledge and data.

Methodological keywords

Cellular automata spatial modelling; change detection; classification; data fusion; data integration; data mining; edge detection; geomatics; geostatistics; geovisual analytics; image interpretation; image processing; linear and non linear statistical analysis; pansharpening; pattern recognition; segmentation; site catchment analysis ; space-temporal modelling; spatial autocorrelation; spatial extension of fuzzy set; spatial multicriteria decision analysis; spatial statistical models; viewshed analysis; visual exploratory data analysis.

Technologies and data sources

Airborne and spaceborne hypespectral data; LiDAR; multispectral very high and high resolution optical satellite imagery; open data source (Modis, Vegetation, etc..); SAR; thermal imaging; declassified intelligence satellite photographs.

Both papers and posters are welcomed to be presented at the workshop.

-Submission of abstracts: Feb 15, 2012
-Notification of acceptance: April 1, 2012
-Definitive Programme: May 1, 2012
-Early Registration deadline: June 1, 2012

(December 2011) The European Commission is to make public data available, irrespective of whether it is for commercial or non-commercial use, and it is calling national governments to follow this example. The term ‘public data’ covers all the information that public bodies in the European Union produce, collect or pay for. This could include geographical data, statistics, meteorological data, data from publicly funded research projects, and digitised books from libraries.

‘Open’ public data can be readily and easily consulted and re-used by anyone with access to a computer. In the European Commission’s view ‘readily accessible’ means much more than the mere absence of a restriction of access to the public. Access and re-use of data can be made difficult by public authorities – often unintentionally – because of a number of barriers like a lack of information that certain data actually exists and is available; a lack of clarity of which public authority holds the data; a lack of clarity about the terms of re-use; data which is made available only in formats that are difficult or expensive to use; complicated licensing procedures or prohibitive fees; exclusive re-use agreements with one commercial actor or re-use restricted to a government-owned company. Barriers such as these mean that public data cannot be called truly open data.

Data can be integrated into new products and services, which we use on a daily basis, such as car navigation systems, weather forecasts or other useful “apps” on smart phones. Opportunities for re-use have multiplied in recent years as technological developments have spurred advances in data production as well as data analysis, processing and exploitation.

Public sector bodies which have drastically cut their charges for re-use have seen the number of re-users increase by between 1,000% and 10,000%. For instance, in the case of Danish Enterprise and Construction Authority (DECA) the number of re-users went up by 10,000% leading to a re-use market growth of 1,000% over eight years. The additional tax revenue for the government is estimated to be four times the reduction in income from fees.

The lowering of charges brings in new types of users, particularly SMEs. For example SIRCOM (the Communication Service of the French Ministry for the Economy, Finance and Industry) has been collecting data on fuel prices in France regularly. It introduced a pricing and licensing model for re-use of this data in 2009 (re-use was unregulated before). NAVX, a venture capital company active in the field of location-based services, acquired a licence for commercial re-use right from the very start.

NAVX enriches public data in three ways as it filters out double entries and fuel stations that have gone bankrupt, it adds data for the fuel stations that are exempt from public reporting obligations, and it improves the precision of the geo-localisation. The enriched data is then used for the company’s own GPS and smart phone applications and sold to NAVX’s sub-licensees. NAVX focuses on both the B2C business of selling its applications directly to end-users and on the B2B2C business of providing its enriched location-based content to GPS manufacturers, geo-information companies and mobile operators. Building on its strong home market in France, NAVX has been able to expand further to cover at least eight different European countries.

The market size and growth of the geographic information sector shows the potential of public data as an engine for job creation. The German market for geo-information in 2007 was estimated at EUR1.4 billion, a 50 % increase since 20001. In the Netherlands, the geo-sector accounted for 15,000 full-time employees in 2008. Other areas such as meteorological data, legal information and business information also form the basis of steadily growing markets.

A recent study estimates the total market for public sector information in 2008 at EUR28 billion across the EU. The same study indicates that the overall economic gains from further opening up public sector information by allowing easy access are in the order of EUR40 billion a year for the EU27. However, the total direct and indirect economic gains from easier PSI re-use across the whole EU27 economy would be in the order of EUR140 billion annually.

The EU policy considers information prepared as part of a public sector organisations’ public task has been gathered at the taxpayers’ expense and for their ultimate benefit. As such, it is a public good and the taxpayer has a right to access and re-use that information.

However, it is also reasonable sometimes to expect the re-user, not the taxpayer, to cover the costs of making the information available for re-use. In some special cases some of the costs of gathering that information may therefore be recovered.

The revised Directive is likely to come into effect in 2013. Member States will then have eighteen months to implement it into their national legislation. There is, however, nothing to prevent any public body adopting before this date the types of improvements to access and use which the Directive introduces. Those Member States that have already adopted more open policies on this issue are already benefitting from the growth of new services in this area.

A number of countries, regions and municipalities have already created portal websites on accessible data. These include http://opendata.paris.fr.; www.dati.piemonte.it; www.data.gov.uk, www.data.gouv.fr; www.data.overheid.nl.

In 2012, the Commission will set up an Internet portal for its own data. It proposes that other EU institutions, bodies and agencies make their information accessible through this portal, making it the single access point to EU information.

In 2013, the Commission will establish a pan-European portal, bringing together data from different Member States as well as from the European institutions.

The Commission funds research and will use different instruments to test and promote the development of innovative solutions, and to ensure the widest possible uptake of open data.

Source

Each Member State has to transpose the INSPIRE (Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community) Directive into its national legislation and to develop the interoperable services allowing the management and sharing of spatial data. There will be also requirements on spatial planning to accept the implementation rules of INSPIRE Directive.

The project “SDI-EDU for regional and urban planning” (“SDI” as Spatial Data Infrastructure and “EDU” as Education) is going to support training of responsible people to set up and use some of these services according to the specific problems of the European regions on local and regional level. The SDI-EDU project will thus let the regions participate actively in the implementation of the INSPIRE Directive.

One of the main objectives of the project is to establish a geo-portal that will serve for vocational education of spatial planners. The spatial planners could find here information, educational material and documents which will provide them with the knowledge of the INSPIRE-related topics that will influence their daily work in a very close future. The educational content covers the basics and the most important topics regarding the INSPIRE Directive and also reflects the hot-topic specifics.

Further details can be found at

Source GMES.Info

The “Eduspace” website of the European Space Agency (ESA) has been recently updated and improved with new case studies, which are the cornerstone of the website.

This site has been for many years a window on the world for secondary students and teachers, providing a valuable source of ideas on how to introduce Earth observation techniques and applications from space into the classroom. Although it was developed for secondary school students, some material is also suited to university undergraduate level.

The new “Interactive Meteosat” section covers many different aspects of weather forecasting. It includes introductory pages on weather and climate, and a selection of images of Europe sent back from Meteosat. The case study also includes four worksheets with various exercises related to satellite pictures taken at different wavelengths. The final worksheet brings everything together by asking students to make their own measurement and their forecast. Another new section covers one of nature’s most spectacular and powerful creations: volcanoes. A notable addition is the introduction of a Greek version of the website, being now available in nine languages.

More information is available at:

http://www.esa.int/esaEO/SEMSOB6UXSG_index_0.htm

Researchers across the globe launched the 5-phase HIPPO (HIAPER Pole-to-Pole Observation) project to provide this perspective; having generated the first detailed mapping — both vertically and across latitudes — of the global distribution of greenhouse gases, black carbon and related chemical species in the atmosphere.

_Once international agreements demand it, effective, enforceable greenhouse gas reduction will require in-depth information on the fluxes and transports of these and other atmospheric constituents.
Researchers know that concentrations of aerosols like black carbon and gases like carbon dioxide, water vapor, ozone, and nitrous oxide vary across the globe and by season. Until recently, a fine-grained picture of the concentrations and understanding of the dynamics of these atmospheric components did not exist._

bq.“With HIPPO, we now have whole slices of the global atmosphere that, in many cases, appear differently than we expected,” said Steven Wofsy, HIPPO principal investigator and atmospheric scientist at Harvard University.

What HIPPO will tell us

Scientists expect that this detailed view will allow them to more realistically approximate the global atmosphere’s chemical distribution and improve understanding of how the land, ocean and atmosphere interact. In addition to feeding basic scientific understanding, HIPPO will provide a vital source of data useful for informing policy related to climate and climate change. Carbon dioxide levels, sources (areas where more carbon is released to the atmosphere than is taken up), and sinks (where carbon uptake is greater than release) are a significant focus for HIPPO scientists.

“In tracking carbon dioxide exchange, we’re particularly interested in the tropical forests, the northern forests and the ocean around Antarctica,” said Britton Stephens, an atmospheric scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research and HIPPO co-investigator. “HIPPO provides such a broad perspective, giving us an opportunity to see the different regional influences on carbon dioxide distributions around much of the globe.”

HIPPO, supported by the National Science Foundation, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NASA and a number of universities, collects detailed, high-accuracy measurements of atmospheric constituents. After launching its proof of concept in spring 2008, the first series of global flights began in January 2009 with subsequent flights occurring twice in 2010 and twice in 2011.

The HIPPO plane, a Gulfstream V flew researchers and precision instruments measuring about 150 gases and atmospheric constituents, from nearly pole to pole across the Pacific Ocean, flying at altitudes varying between 500 and 47,000 feet above sea level, depending on the daily project objective. The first campaign — typical of the ones to follow — began in Boulder, Colorado, explored the air over the Arctic, the moving lab headed next to Christchurch, New Zealand, before flying over the Southern Ocean, with subsequent layovers in Tahiti, Easter Island and Central America.

The big exhale: Carbon dioxide

With the last of the five missions recently completed, Stephens brings attention to what he calls the Northern Hemisphere’s “exhale.” HIPPO experimental design called for seasonal data collection to get a complete, year-round perspective on global atmospheric processes. In the first three missions, occurring during Northern Hemisphere’s fall, winter and early spring, the scientists noted significant changes in carbon dioxide (CO2) distribution and concentrations.

“By lining up the same slice of atmosphere in seasonal order over the course of the first three missions, it’s possible to see build-up of carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere over fall, winter and spring,” said Stephens. “A giant pool of CO2 grows in the Northern Hemisphere as photosynthesis slows and as fossil-fuel CO2 emissions and plant and soil respiration continue.”

Notably, in the most northerly regions of the Arctic, the researchers found rapid filling of the atmosphere with CO2 at high altitudes during winter and spring, likely moved by the warm conveyor belt, which challenges existing perceptions of atmospheric processes.

The last two HIPPO missions helped provide a clearer view on the all-season, big picture perspective on carbon dioxide dynamics. The fourth mission occurred in June and July of 2011 and the fifth during August and September; during these periods, Northern Hemisphere CO2 concentrations were at their lowest as vegetation growth and photosynthetic processes peaked. As expected, throughout this period the researchers saw a massive inhalation of CO2 across the Northern Hemisphere, as the growing plants breathed in the CO2.

Measuring CO2at the variety of altitudes and latitudes gives scientists much tighter constraints — and therefore greater understanding — on the total amount of CO2release (or uptake) for the hemisphere. Older estimates of hemispheric exchange, which relied on information collected at the surface, turn out to be off by about 30 percent, said Stephens: “Looking up through the boundary layer using imperfect atmospheric transport models has been like staring through foggy swim goggles — finally, HIPPO is giving us a clear view.”

Other important atmospheric components: Black carbon and nitrous oxide

Other measurements are generating excitement from the three completed campaigns, Wofsy said. HIPPO observations show a more widespread, uniform distribution of black carbon than anticipated, with greater than expected abundances occurring at high latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere.

Additionally, concentrations of nitrous oxide (N2O), the third most important long-lived anthropogenic greenhouse gas (the other two being CO2 and methane), are higher than expected in the mid- and upper-tropical troposphere than on the surface; without the instrumentation and measuring capabilities of HIPPO, scientists could not have known this. Details on some of the unexpected — and unpredictable — findings related to these atmospheric components are outlined below.

Black Carbon

Black carbon affects climate, doing so both directly (by absorbing solar radiation) and indirectly (by forming clouds that will either reflect or absorb radiation, depending on their characteristics and location). Black carbon deposited on snow or ice also enhances melt leading the Earth’s surface to absorb more sunlight. These dark aerosols have a variety of sources, coming from diesel fuel or coal combustion, burning plants in forest fires and various industrial processes.

Most black carbon remains in the atmosphere for only days to weeks, but it can still have a dramatic impact on global warming. HIPPO’s pole-to-pole measurements of black carbon may assist policy makers in developing strategies for reducing its climate change impact.

Among other things, the HIPPO measurements have provided new knowledge on the life cycle of a black carbon particle as it travels from source (emission) to sink (removal) in the atmosphere. Used together with global aerosol models, HIPPO’s pole-to-pole measurements of black carbon captured in different seasons can be used to refine our knowledge of how black carbon aerosols affect climate, said Ryan Spackman, an atmospheric chemist in NOAA’s Earth System Research Laboratory.

Prior to HIPPO, a limited number of airborne measurements of black carbon were conducted. Of the studies available, all lack HIPPO’s combination of vertical and latitudinal detail. Since global aerosol models vary widely in projected black carbon concentrations, HIPPO data will prove invaluable for many aspects of climate research. Because most black carbon emissions occur at the surface, typically the amount of black carbon in the atmosphere decreases with altitude. In the Southern Hemisphere, which has fewer pollution sources than the Northern Hemisphere, however, this is not the case.

“In our first flights near the southern Pole, we saw the amount of black carbon in the atmosphere increasing with altitude,” said Joshua Schwarz, a physicist working in NOAA’s Earth System Research Laboratory. “This indicates that the black carbon was transported to the region from far away, with rain-out occurring at lower altitudes. This conclusion offers insights on the interplay of transport and removal mechanisms that can help in validation of global model results.”

HIPPO covers a wide range of latitudes over a short time, reducing the likelihood that the scientists would miss transport of black carbon across the Pacific. This perspective helped them unravel the nuances of transport dynamics from removal processes, which strengthened the impact of their results.

In the first HIPPO mission, which occurred during Northern Hemisphere winter, the black carbon team analyzed pole-to-pole distributions of black carbon, in the process learning that global aerosol models often overestimate black carbon in the atmosphere. “For black carbon, these observations have helped us to more easily separate the impacts of errors in modeling removal and errors in modeling transport and emissions,” said Schwarz.

During the second and third HIPPO missions, which occurred in Northern Hemisphere fall and spring, the scientists observed large-scale black carbon pollution events associated with the intercontinental transport of vast amounts of pollution from Asia. Investigators observed elevated pollution at almost all altitudes in the Arctic, but especially at higher altitudes, where one might expect the air to be relatively clear and clean. The scientists discovered that pollutants can be easily transported to the Arctic as thin sheets of air in almost any season.

Another surprise waiting for the scientists was the seasonality of the plumes of black carbon-laden pollution at mid-latitudes (between Hawaii and Alaska). During springtime, the scientists identified pollution contributions from two predominant sources — human-made pollution from Asia and biomass burning from Southeast Asia.

“The black carbon mass loadings in pollution plumes in the remote Pacific were comparable with what we have observed in large American cities,” said Spackman. “Even more surprising, we discovered that this pollution extended over the entire depth of the troposphere — from near the surface of the ocean to 28,000 feet.”

Nitrous Oxide

On each HIPPO flight the scientists frequently saw higher levels of N2O at higher altitudes than at the surface. Not only is N2O a powerful greenhouse gas, it may be the most important stratospheric ozone-depleting substance in the atmosphere. Consequently, more than simply being scientifically intriguing, a better understanding of where it is found and in what concentrations is important information for both scientists and decision makers.

Primary N2O emissions come from soils and the ocean; a large human-generated component originates as a result of fertilizer use for agriculture. These anthropogenic emissions are a relatively new source, and have been increasing since the mid 1800s — from 260 parts per billion (ppb) to 320 ppb, said Eric Kort, who recently completed his Ph.D. with Wofsy at Harvard. While not the only driver of the N2O-related research on HIPPO, the rapid rise in human-generated N2O concentrations in the atmosphere adds urgency to the N2O investigation.

To the surprise of HIPPO investigators, they often found elevated concentrations of N2O high in the atmosphere — even over areas where ground-based monitors did not indicate presence of the gas at the surface. The higher-than-expected levels of N2O at altitude indicate more dynamics at work than previously appreciated, explains Kort.

Some analysis shows that large-scale convective activity (i.e., storms) and a lot of rainfall, which might result in increased microbial activity, might have a hand in achieving this reality. Convection wafts N2O up into the atmosphere, where the wind catches it, pushing the gas further upward and mixing it at higher altitudes.

“Lots of N2O is lofted from tropical regions,” said Kort. “HIPPO sensors show increased emissions in the tropics, but we don’t know if this occurs naturally, coming from tropical soil sources, or if other processes or perturbations, such as increased use of fertilizers upwind from the forests, causes this.”

Again, lacking direct observations, models of these dynamics historically have played a large role in gaining better predictions of likely N2O behavior. While some models accurately anticipated near-surface N2O abundances, none predicted the persistent elevated levels seen at altitude in the tropics.

Achieving better modeling results will be particularly important in the case of atmospheric N2O, which has increased year after year at a rate approaching 1 part per billion. As society moves toward using and producing biofuels, use of fertilizers will likely increase, which will, in turn, amplify N2O emissions. At some point, N2O could offset benefits from CO2 reduction. Because of this, and because of its importance as a greenhouse gas, scientists and policy makers want to have a well-honed awareness on the transport, fluxes and removal processes affecting N2O.

“Nitrous oxide emissions are certainly something we need to be concerned about in terms of future international regulatory treaties because such non-CO2 emissions will be important. Currently, our knowledge of these emissions is far more limited than is the case for CO2,” said Kort.

Improving global models

Matching up observed and modeled N2O data to better predict behavior of the atmospheric constituents is a significant reason HIPPO exists. The complexity, time and expense of missions like HIPPO make modeling an important way to extend use of the HIPPO data and develop models that better replicate observed atmospheric characteristics.

Alone, neither observations nor models can fully resolve real-world processes. But improved observations that then feed into models can provide revealing new insights on climate dynamics. The major model challenge from the perspective of CO2, said Stephens, is representations of atmospheric mixing. Often the models used have grid structures that are coarser than the fine-scale processes responsible for mixing.

“So, if mixing happens due to convective cells or transport up and over a cold air mass, for example, the transport models used to track CO2 in the atmosphere do not represent these dynamics well,” Stephens said.

Increase in model resolution may improve these issues somewhat, but it does not get around the need for robust observations that capture the characteristics of broad swaths of atmosphere, from the ground to high altitudes. HIPPO profiles extend through the troposphere, expanding existing observational data sets — and knowledge — beyond that allowed by current ground-based capabilities.

Using HIPPO data, researchers will be able to test the accuracy of existing atmospheric models to better identify those that most accurately represent observed processes. Moreover, these observations will aid the design of more innovative models and data-assimilation systems — models and systems able to take full advantage of HIPPO observations. Such improvements will push forward understanding of the processes responsible for uptake of human-emitted CO2 during and between field campaigns — and beyond.

Editor’s Note: This research was supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the federal agency charged with funding basic research and education across all fields of science and engineering. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. See the Behind the Scenes Archive.

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by Rachel Hauser, National Center for Atmospheric Research

EADS Astrium entered uncharted territory this month in accepting financial backing from the European Space Agency (ESA) to build a new high-speed data relay service for Europe while simultaneously creating a market for it.

Astrium has taken privatization of satellite communications and remote-sensing services further than anyone else in the business, showing a willingness to spend hundreds of millions of its own euros with little or no government backing.

But David Chegnion, vice president of business development for Astrium Services, says the public-private partnership agreement inked Oct. 4 with ESA to build, test, launch and operate the new European Data Relay Satellite (EDRS) system is different.

“We are pioneering a new service and a new market,” Chegnion says.

Under the terms of the agreement, ESA is to provide Astrium €275 million ($374 million) toward establishing an EDRS system. Development of the service’s two payloads—EDRS-A, which will piggyback on the Eutelsat 9B commercial communications satellite; and EDRS-C, to fly on a yet-to-be-built bird—is estimated at nearly €400 million. Operational transmissions are scheduled to begin in 2014, ending reliance on non-European ground stations for the reception of data from Earth-observation satellites, a potential threat to European independence. Current transmissions of Earth-observation data are limited to the times when satellites fly over ground stations.

Although Astrium has no customers yet for EDRS, Chegnion is quick to point out that ESA and its industrial partners have an anchor tenant for data relay services in the European Commission’s Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) project, which is expected to launch its first two satellites in the next couple of years.

Funding for GMES maintenance and network operations, however, is still being hashed out within the EC, which in July signaled its intent to eliminate GMES from the forthcoming multi-year funding plan that begins in 2014. If implemented, GMES would be left to rely on voluntary funding contributions from individual EU member states to pay annual operations and maintenance costs estimated in excess of €800 million.

Beyond GMES, Chegnion sees a market for EDRS among national militaries in Europe in need of Earth-observation services. “We are targeting the next generation of national military satellites or commercial Earth-observation satellites,” Chegnion says. “That could include meteorological satellites or commercial Earth-observation satellites.”

Rudi Schmidt, head of ESA’s satellite telecommunications department, says the time is right to pursue a public-private partnership for EDRS.

“The advantage we have is the combination of technology that is ready and GMES [as an anchor tenant],” Schmidt says. EDRS is the fourth public-private partnership the agency has negotiated over the past several years, he notes, adding, “Admittedly, this is the most complicated one.”

Previous partnerships include development of the Hylas-1 telecommunications satellite, under which ESA subsidized construction of an advanced telecom payload built by Astrium Satellites and launched on Hylas-1 last year by start-up satellite operator Avanti Communications of London. Avanti, a publicly traded company, is slated to launch its second Hylas spacecraft next year with no ESA involvement.

Another public-private venture aimed at helping European satellite manufacturers compete with established U.S. giants like Boeing and Space Systems/Loral is Alphasat, a satellite in development for mobile satellite services operator Inmarsat. Featuring a payload financed by ESA, it is slated to launch in late 2012 or early 2013.

The agency’s third foray into public-private partnerships involved Germany’s Small GEO platform, an ESA-subsidized development that gives German Space Agency DLR its own prime contractor in the small telecom satellite market. OHB Technology, based in Bremen, Germany, is building the Small GEO platform and has contracted with Spanish communications satellite operator Hispasat to launch the Hispasat AG1 in 2013. OHB is also expected to sign a contract soon with Astrium Satellites to build the EDRS-C spacecraft. Separately, OHB is negotiating with DLR to construct Heinrich Hertz, a telecommunications research satellite that would feature advanced Ka-band broadcast technologies.

It is too soon to gauge whether ESA’s use of public-private investment schemes is panning out. But Schmidt and Chegnion are confident EDRS as envisioned will succeed.

“It’s inconceivable that we will build and launch the satellites and nobody will operate them,” Schmidt says. “I think this will not happen in the end.”

But if it does, Chegnion says Astrium will work with ESA to find a solution.

“We do not see it as a possibility that the European Union would not need this service, so we are committed with ESA to develop EDRS,” he says. “In the unlikely event that the program with the European Commission and GMES does not happen, we will address that jointly with ESA.”

Source

TechNavio’s analysts forecast the Geographical Information System market in Europe to grow at a CAGR of 9.5 percent over the period 2010–2014. One of the key factors contributing to this market growth is the initiative to create a borderless Europe. The Geographical Information System market in Europe has also been witnessing an increasing utilization of GIS for transportation management (road, rail, and air traffic).

However, GIS vendors are finding it difficult to adhere to the legal limitations of each country, which could pose a challenge to the growth of this market.

Key vendors dominating this market space include Environmental Systems Research Institute Inc., Hexagon AB, GE Energy, Autodesk Inc., and Bentley Systems Inc.

TechNavio’s Geographical Information System Market in Europe 2010–2014 report has been prepared based on an in-depth analysis of the market with inputs from industry experts. The report focuses on the GIS market in Europe and covers the market for traditional GIS software and services in the European region. This report does not cover the market for geospatial data, geo-enabled engineering, GPS, photogrammetry, and remote sensing. However, the report does include a discussion on the key vendors operating in this market.

Key questions answered in this report:

  • What will the market size be in 2014 and at what rate will it grow?
  • What key trends is this market subject to?
  • What is driving this market?
  • What are the challenges to market growth?
  • Who are the key vendors in this market space?
  • What are the opportunities and threats faced by each of these key vendors?
  • What are the strengths and weaknesses of each of these key vendors?

01. Executive Summary
02. Introduction
03. Market Coverage
04. Market Landscape
05. Vendor Landscape
06. Buying Criteria
07. Market Growth Drivers
08. Drivers and their Impact
09. Market Challenges
10. Market Trends
11. Key Vendor Analysis
11.1 Environmental Systems Research Institute Inc.
11.2 Hexagon AB
11.3 GE Energy
11.4 Autodesk Inc.
11.5 Bentley Systems Inc.
12. Other Reports in this Series

List of Exhibits:

Exhibit 1: Geographic Information System Market in Europe 2010–2014 (US$ million)
Exhibit 2: Geographic Information System Market in Europe by End–user Segmentation–2010
Exhibit 3: Geographical Information System Market in Europe by Vendor Segmentation–2010
Exhibit 4: Acquisitions by Hexagon AB in GIS Market
Exhibit 5: Acquisition by GE Energy in GIS market

To order this report:
Navigation Systems Industry
Geographical Information System Market in Europe 2010-2014
Navigation Systems Business News
More Market Research Report
Check our Industry Analysis and Insights

Nicolas Bombourg
Reportlinker
Email: nbo@reportlinker.com
US:(805)652-2626
Intl: +1 805-652-2626

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By Fabio Dell’Acqua, Elizabeth A. Wentz, Soe W. Myint, Maik Netzband, source earthzine


Introduction

From April 1-3, 2011, two parallel, international workshops were held in Scottsdale, Arizona, devoted to Urban Remote Sensing (URS) and Forecasting Urban Growth (FORE). The URS workshop, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to Arizona State University, was devoted to understanding the drivers and consequences of global urbanization using emerging remote sensing technologies. The organizers were Elizabeth Wentz and Soe Myint, both at the Arizona State University, and Maik Netzband from Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany (Figure 1).

Given the focus on urban areas and their dynamics, it was natural to co-locate the URS workshop with a complementary workshop, sponsored by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and organized through Urbanization and Global Environmental Change (UGEC), on forecasting urban land use change. Karen Seto and Michail Fragkias led the FORE effort.

Further details on the two workshops and bios of each participant can be found online at the joint webpage.

1. Rationale

The rationale for focusing explicitly on remote sensing activities on urban areas stems from recent massive population changes in worldwide demographics. In the past, humans occupied predominantly rural areas subsiding on local economic opportunities.

Today, more employment opportunities exist in high density, large population centers, which leads to the relocation of people to these centers of activity. The ecological footprints of these cities — as well as the impact that the cities make themselves locally — require intensive observation, monitoring, and forecasting. Intensive examination of cities requires comprehensive understanding of the physical, political, social, and economic dynamics. One aspect that remote sensing technologies offer is that they can efficiently and objectively quantify the physical characteristics and growth of cities1234. The physical characteristics can be anything from temperature [5]6, soil moisture [7], vegetation [8]9and impervious surfaces [10]11, to albedo, evapotranspiration, pool, other water bodies12, infrastructure, and building density13. City growth involves the conversion of land categories from rural uses such as agriculture or undeveloped land to urban uses such as industrial, residential, commercial and supporting infrastructure ( roads and utilities). These land-use and land-cover changes represent one of the most significant alterations that humankind has made to the surface of the Earth. Each land transformation impacts, to varying degrees, the local climatology, quality of air and water, energy, hydrology, geology, and biota that predate human settlement. The importance of remote sensing, both optical [14] and radar [15] in this context, has been referenced at many scientific conferences including JURSE16.

2. Organization and major themes

The goal of the workshop was to share ideas on the needs, problems, expectations, consequences, and opportunities we face on the challenge of global urbanization. We aimed to identify the appropriate and necessary steps to move forward with this challenge. We had a combination of pre-workshop, during-workshop, and post-workshop activities.

Prior to the workshop, three participants were invited to write in-depth papers on three policy-based themes prior to the workshop: Data, scale, and applications. The goal with these white papers was to develop a common reference to improve group interaction. These themes were coincident with those in the workshop on FORE (three FORE participants also wrote theme papers). These background papers presented overviews of the current state of knowledge and served, whenever applicable, as the starting point for discussions. The remaining workshop participants received pre-workshop memos and were asked to submit comments and questions. The three white papers and participants memos were compiled and disseminated to all participants the week before the workshop commenced.

The starting points for discussions during the workshop were based on six themes:

  • Theme 1: track urban area growth and change: speed, density, direction, structures, impervious surfaces, land consumed;
  • Theme 2: assess the spatial arrangement of green/open space within cities and at the periphery: amount, distribution, connectivity;
  • Theme 3: monitor changes in peri-urban regions: farmland conversions, wetland infringement, biodiversity threats;
  • Theme 4: track land-cover and land-use changes that influence urban climatology and atmospheric deposition: impervious surfaces, vegetation cover, particulate matter, carbon release, haze, smoke;
  • Theme 5: monitor urban growth as it intersects with areas of potential environmental hazards: earthquake, subsidence, mudslides, floods, tsunami;
  • Theme 6: map environmental parameters (microclimate, heat island, access to open space, percent of impervious surface, percent of green space), assess the geographic differences within the region, and identify correlations with social, economic, and ethnic divisions.

The themes were examined from two different perspectives. This happened because roughly half of the participants were academic researchers engaged either in the use of new remote sensing technologies or in their application to solve problems associated with rapid urbanization, or even in formulating better management options for a sustainable built environment. The remaining workshop participants were local government planners, managers, and decision-makers who, on a daily basis, are confronted with problems and seek smart growth options where remote sensing technology may serve as a tool.

For example, a planner or local decision-maker may ask is if a tree planting and replacement program has been effective at reducing the urban heat island effect. Remotely sensed images taken before the program was established through to the present can help answer this question and justify the continuation of the program to budget planners and the general public.

3. Workshop outcomes

Similar to the pre-workshop documents, the discussions were also organized around three themes: Application, scale & date.

3.1 Application

Application refers to the use of remotely sensed imagery and software to solve a particular problem in cities. This topic emerged as a strong mismatch between stakeholder requests and remote sensing experts (RSEs). There were questions on both sides on what hinders a wider use of remotely sensed imagery in city planning or management. Parts of the problem we identified are:

Software for handling remote sensing data is often expensive and difficult to use for the non-expert;

  • Data are in ‘silos’ requiring knowledge on where to go and how to acquire them;
  • There is the impression that Google-Earth-like systems ‘solve’ the problems of software and data;
  • There is little understanding beyond experts on what interpretation of non-visible spectral bands offers (e.g., NDVI); the visible spectrum seen in Google-Earth-like images simply offers zero-level interpretation ( “peeking into your neighborhood backyards”);
  • Remote sensing data needs robust preparation to be effectively used, especially if we are talking about extracting quantitative information.

Two possible approaches were suggested, one that we might call “democratization of data,” and the other consisting of a tighter, probably also forced to some extent, interaction between RSEs and stakeholders. “Democratization of data” can be referred to as transforming data and information into a form, and providing tools, that make it easy for non-experts to use them and access answers to questions they need to address.

This “democratization” of data and tools would potentially trigger interest and thus education of the potential users, similarly to the way Google Earth functions and the awareness about performances of very high-resolution optical satellites.

Figure showing that Scales depend on a number of aspects, and scales of any two processes may largely overlap.

Scales depend on a number of aspects, and scales of any two processes may largely overlap.

3.2 Scale

Scale turned out to be a very complex issue to address. Even the very concept of scale was questioned by arguing that a hierarchy of scales is not a correct representation of the urban reality and a system of interlaced and overlapping scales should be used instead. Some scales represented are physical and some are socially or politically based. For example, scales of a physical model on groundwater recharge and scales of decision-making processes generally do not overlap, although they have to fit with each other for a correct planning to be carried out; remotely sensed data works on other, different scales, which add even more complexity.

Consequently, a dedicated ontology should be developed. Other interesting themes that emerged included:

  • There is a common misperception that “finer is more accurate” in terms of spatial resolution; this is not the case because a higher resolution dataset simply implies more pixels and more detailed land cover features being observed in the imagery that can potentially lead to poor accuracy;
  • More subtly, a wrong perception that finer and finer resolution in remote sensing data will eventually lead to potential identification of every details about the observed urban areas without realization that there will be numerous different land cover classes and features sharing the same spectral responses;
  • With regards to fine resolution data, what remains missing is the contextual and perhaps social view of what is being observed (“Socialization of the Pixel”);
  • Another important issue to be considered for a fine resolution data is that it takes longer processing time or makes it impossible to perform a classification, especially when using an algorithm that requires extensive computation such as an object-based classifier;
  • Linked to the above, convincing stakeholders of the usefulness of mid- and low-resolution remote sensing data for processes at the appropriate scale; this is vital because it provides cost-efficiency, processing efficiency, and larger area coverage.

3.3 Data

Data was the least controversial topic we encountered. The experts in the workshop were well aware of the abundantly available data. The use and selection of data generally depends on availability of budget, level of scale or spatial resolution required to generate land-use and land-cover classes or indices, spectral bands required to achieve the objectives, and expert knowledge of or familiarity with the type of remotely sensed data. Given our extensive knowledge, the conversation turned to:

  • How to exploit the abundance of remote sensing data without being overwhelmed by the effort of locating the correct repository and finding the right dataset (e.g., data silos);
  • How to translate remote sensing data into geospatial information at different scales (links to previous topics).

Various guidelines were proposed:

  • Improving access and processing tools;
  • Improving data comparability and compatibility;
  • In general “democratizing data”, i.e. making it more easily accessible and processable.

3.4 Case studies, Outreach, Scenarios, Typologies

The second day of the workshop involved a deeper interaction between the two workshops, as a series of cross-cutting issues were discussed.

Case studies were discussed as a means to test and showcase models and techniques, and possible applications.

A strong need for outreach was recognized. Not many potentially relevant stakeholders and policy makers are convinced that remote sensing data can be useful for their work, and this is one of the biggest hindrances to routine use of remote sensing in urban planning and management for a sustainable future.

Urbanization scenarios are important for stakeholders to make the correct decisions, and the construction of scenarios should be started with the stakeholders’ engagement.

Defining city typologies is necessary to compare them across case studies. It is interesting to wonder what are the typologies that can be defined based only on remotely sensed data. Elements of the classification do not necessarily have a “snapshot” character. Rather, changes in time also are considered.

4. Take-home Points

The workshop represents just one step of a continuing effort to understand a complex and diversified environment such as urban areas, and especially what remote sensing techniques and technologies can do to improve their growth, policy formulation, planning, and management. The workshop participants are currently engaged in several communication activities, including outreach, software development, organized sessions at meetings, and publications. We are creating a pilot website (J-Earth) to facilitate access to remotely sensed data and tools. In addition, manuscripts are being written for publication in a variety of peer-reviewed and outreach outlets. These summarize the workshop but more importantly, they identify what we believe are next steps and opportunities for the broader research community.

The overall impression is that, notwithstanding a great deal of work carried out in the past to bridge the gap between available technology and requests for information provision, there is still much to do. There seems to be a continuing mismatch between what remote sensing can offer and what stakeholders ask for; this is certainly, partly due to a lack of mutual understanding, given the different points of view and even different languages spoken by the two communities. Unrealistic expectations (including the cost of services) on one side and naïve offerings on the other side seems to be quite commonplace. This calls for more bridging actions in the future, such as this joint workshop.

References

[1] Wentz, Elizabeth A., David Nelson, Atiqur Rahman, William L. Stefanov, Shoursaseni Sen Roy 2008. Expert system classification of urban land use/cover for Delhi, India International Journal of Remote Sensing 29 (15): 4405-4427.

[2] Keys, Eric, Elizabeth A. Wentz, Charles Redman 2007. The spatial structure of land use from 1970-2000 in the Phoenix, Arizona metropolitan area. Professional Geographer 59(1): 131-147.

[3] Myint, S.W., Wang, L. 2006. Multi-criteria Decision Approach for Land Use Land Cover Change Using Markov Chain Analysis and Cellular Automata Approach. Canadian Journal of Remote Sensing 32(6):390-404.

[4] Myint, S.W., Jain, J., Lukinbeal, C., Lara-Valencia, F., 2010. Simulating urban growth on the U.S.-Mexico border: Nogales, Arizona and Nogales, Sonora, Canadian Journal of Remote Sensing , 36(3): 166-184.

[5] Weng, Q. : A remote sensing-GIS evaluation of urban expansion and its impact on surface temperature in the Zhujiang Delta, China. International Journal of Remote Sensing, vol. 22, issue 10, pp. 1999-2014, 2001.

[6] Myint, S.W., Brazel, A., Okin, G., Buyantuyev, A.. 2010. An interactive function of impervious and vegetation covers in relation to the urban heat island effect in a rapidly urbanizing desert city, GIScience and Remote Sensing 47: (3) 301-320.

[7] J.A Voogt, T.R Oke, Thermal remote sensing of urban climates, Remote Sensing of Environment, Volume 86, Issue 3, 15 August 2003, Pages 370-384, ISSN 0034-4257, 10.1016/S0034-4257(03)00079-8.

[8] Myint, S.W., 2006. Urban vegetation mapping using sub-pixel analysis and expert system rules: A critical approach, International Journal of Remote Sensing 27(12-14):2645-2665.

[9] Myint, S. W., Jyoti, J., Guhathakurta, S. 2010 Patterns and rates of land use change: a case study of Ambos Nogales (Arizona and Sonora), Journal of Latin American Geography 9(3): 246-274.

[10] Ridd, M.K.: Exploring a V-I-S (vegetaton-impervious surface-soil) model for urban ecosystem analysis through remote sensing: comparative anatomy for cities. International journal of remote sensing, 1995, vol. 16, no12, pp. 2165-2185 (2 p.1/2).

[11] Myint, S.W., and G.S. Okin, 2009. Modelling land-cover types using multiple endmember spectral mixture analysis in a desert city, International Journal of Remote Sensing, 30(9):2237 – 2257.

[12] Myint, S.W., Gober, P., Brazel, A, Grossman-Clarke, S., and Weng, Q., 2011. Per-pixel versus object-based classification of urban land cover extraction using high spatial resolution imagery, Remote Sensing of Environment 115(2011): 1145-1161.

[13] Dell’Acqua, F.; Gamba, P.; , “Texture-based characterization of urban environments on satellite SAR images,” Geoscience and Remote Sensing, IEEE Transactions on , vol.41, no.1, pp. 153- 159, Jan 2003. DOI: 10.1109/TGRS.2002.807754

[14] Dell’Acqua, F.; Gamba, P.; Ferrari, A.; Palmason, J.A.; Benediktsson, J.A.; Arnason, K.; , “Exploiting spectral and spatial information in hyperspectral urban data with high resolution,” Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters, IEEE , vol.1, no.4, pp. 322- 326, Oct. 2004. doi: 10.1109/LGRS.2004.837009

[15] Gamba, P.; Dell’Acqua, F.; Lisini, G.; , “Change Detection of Multitemporal SAR Data in Urban Areas Combining Feature-Based and Pixel-Based Techniques,” Geoscience and Remote Sensing, IEEE Transactions on , vol.44, no.10, pp.2820-2827, Oct. 2006. DOI: 10.1109/TGRS.2006.879498

[16] Stilla, U.; Gamba, P.; Juergens, C.; Maktav, D.; , “Preface,” Urban Remote Sensing Event (JURSE), 2011 Joint , vol., no., pp.V-VI, 11-13 April 2011 DOI: 10.1109/JURSE.2011.5764702

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(Issue #16, 11 October 2011)


IMPLEMENTING GEOSS

G20 calls for GEO Global Agricultural Monitoring initiative (GEO-GLAM)
First proposed by the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) and various research centers in G20 countries, the Global Agricultural Monitoring initiative was launched at the Paris meeting of G20 Agriculture Ministers in June 2011. The initiative forms part of the G20 Action Plan on Food Price Volatility, which also includes the Agricultural Market Information System (AMIS) initiative led by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Continued…

How ACRE recovers historical weather data
The International Atmospheric Circulation Reconstructions over the Earth (ACRE) Initiative both undertakes and facilitates the recovery of historical observations of the weather over the terrestrial and marine areas of the Earth’s surface. These observations are vital for underpinning three-dimensional (3D) global weather reconstructions (reanalyses) spanning the last 200-250 years. Continued…

The GEOSS workshop series turns its focus to societal benefits
GEOSS Workshop XLIII on “Sharing Climate Information and Knowledge” was held on 23 September at NCAR Center Green in Boulder, Colorado, USA, concluding a week of related meetings organized by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) and partner organizations. Continued…

ISPRS symposium explores advances in environmental monitoring for health
The International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS) Technical Commission VIII Working Group 2 (Health) organized an international symposium on “Advances for Geospatial Technologies for Health” in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA on 12-13 September 2011. Continued…

GEO UPDATE

Colombia becomes 88th GEO Member
The Government of Colombia joined GEO on 29 August. It will be represented by the Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies and by the Geographical Institute Augustin Codazzi.

Preparations advance for GEO-VIII Plenary in Istanbul
The agenda and other documents for November’s meeting of the GEO Plenary have been distributed to GEO Principals. Information on logistical arrangements has been posted on the GEO-VIII website

GEO Committees hold September meetings
The four GEO Committees met individually as well as in a joint session during the week of 12 September in Salzburg, Austria. The meetings were hosted by the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) at the Mozarteum University of Salzburg, Austria. The following articles provide brief summaries of each meeting; the meeting reports will be posted on the GEO website when available.

CBC addresses transition to new Work Plan
At its September meeting in Salzburg, the Capacity Building Committee (CBC) assessed the progress being made on the Tasks that it supports, reviewed the Work Plan Progress Report covering the period since the Beijing Plenary, and discussed the draft 2012-2015 Work Plan that will be submitted to the GEO­-VIII Plenary in November. Continued…

STC addresses Tasks, performance indicators, management transition
The GEO Science and Technology Committee (STC) met on 12-13 September for the 17th time since it was established in 2006. The meeting reviewed updates on the STC-led Tasks ST-09-01 on “Catalyzing Research and Development (R&D) Resources for GEOSS” and ST-09-02 on “Promoting Awareness and Benefits of GEO in the Science and Technology Community.” Continued…

UIC focuses on the importance of user engagement
The 19th meeting of the GEO User Interface Committee (UIC) discussed the importance of ensuring that the issue of user engagement is fully addressed by the new Work Plan’s Implementations Boards on Institutions and Development and on the Societal Benefits. Continued…

ADC sprints to Plenary
The 17th meeting of the Architecture and Data Committee (ADC) addressed preparations for the GEO-VIII Plenary, including the planned demonstration of the GEOSS Common Infrastructure (GCI) and responses to the Monitoring and Evaluation Report and the 2012-2015 Work Plan. Continued…

ANNOUNCEMENTS

GEOSS Asia-Pacific Symposium to be held in India on 23-25 January 2012
The Fifth GEOSS Asia-Pacific Symposium, which was postponed earlier this year due to the natural disasters that struck Japan, has been rescheduled for January in Ahmedabad, India. The theme will be “GEOSS Initiative towards Green Growth in the Asia-Pacific Region,” and the technical sessions will cover the Asian Water Cycle Initiative, the Asia-Pacific Biodiversity Observation Network, Forest Carbon Tracking, and Ocean Observation and Climate, and Agriculture and Food Security. The Symposium website will be available shortly.

Abu Dhabi to host Eye on Earth Summit from 12 to 15 December 2011
The Eye on Earth Summit will bring together senior policymakers and global thought leaders with the world’s leading environmentalists and specialists in data gathering, management and sharing. Continued…

Second Asia/Oceania Meteorological Satellite Users’ Conference
This GEO-sponsored conference is being organized by the Japan Meteorological Agency from 6-9 December in Tokyo. Its goals are to share experiences on application techniques among satellite data users, advance satellite observation technologies and promote synergetic development related to meteorological satellites. For more information please visit the conference website

4th International Conference on GEographic Object Based Image Analysis
GEOBIA 2012 will be held 7-9 May 2012 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and is been jointly organized by the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio) and by the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research (INPE). Further details can be found on the conference website

Symposium on leveraging satellite applications for global change
UNITAR and WMO will host a Symposium on “Leveraging Satellite Applications for Global Challenges” in Geneva on 11-12 October 2011. In addition to providing the first Geneva-based briefing on the International Charter for Space and Major Disasters, the Symposium will explore lessons learned regarding the use of satellite imagery for case studies on natural disasters (Pakistan flooding) and human security (South Sudan). Further information is available here

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