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Integrated use of satellite information and services. Case studies and best practice. 10 – 11 March 2008 – Sinaia, Romania.

In recent years, natural or man-made risks for population, property and environment have become increasingly complex given factors such as demographics, urbanisation, industrial activity, climate change and the more recent menace of terrorist attacks on a global scale.

Local and Regional Authorities, thanks to their proximity to citizens and their knowledge of local terrain, are often in a best position to provide emergency planning and response. As underlined1 by the Committee of Regions (CoR), “local and regional governments constitute an important structural and organisational model framework for modern and effective civil protection in Europe”. Moreover, resource pooling, interregional coordination and mutual assistance within the EU and beyond for more efficient management of emergencies is required. This is reflected, for example, in the implementation of the EU Civil Protection Action Programme2 and the Civil Protection Financial Instrument.

At the same time, a range of innovative technological solutions and tools for dealing with these risks have become available, which, used in an integrated manner can help Regions improve their prevention and response action plans. Indeed, they can help to correctly identify and assess vulnerabilities, to efficiently mobilise resources and coordinate operations in case of emergencies. Quite often, the considerable impact of such disasters implies a need for substantial efforts in rebuilding essential infrastructure within the affected communities. Such solutions can also be used in the emergency aftercare and recovery process. Among them, satellite based information and services provide particularly efficient tools for regions.

The aim of this workshop is to provide a forum for regions to exchange know-how, best-practices, and lessons learned in integrating and using satellite information and services in their management systems for the mitigation, preparation and response to emergencies (floods, fires, earthquakes, landslides, oil spills, public health issues, industrial accidents, etc.). This will not only be an opportunity to disseminate information on strategies that work, but also one for local and regional authorities to identify how their respective capacities for emergency planning and response are complementary, to increase co-operation, and lay grounds for future interregional projects.

In addition to structural issues, non-structural ones (national and EU policies, financial and cooperation mechanisms, insurance issues, etc.), will be discussed in the presence of stakeholders, EU and national decision-makers as well as participants from the private sector.

Practical Details

-Target Audience: Local and Regional Authorities involved in emergency and risk management, experts, policy-makers, representatives of the private sector, institutions interested in regional policy.
-Format: End-user presentations by representatives of local and regional authorities, Round Tables
-Venue: Sinaia, Romania
-Working language: English
-Registration: Registration is already open. See separate Registration Form which is also available on Eurisy Website.

For further information, please contact Eurisy
94 bis Avenue de Suffren– 75015 Paris, France
Tel. + 33 (0) 1 47 34 00 79 – fax : + 33 (0) 1 47 34 01 59
romania2008@eurisy.org

China launched a remote sensing satellite

China on Monday 12 Nov. 2007 launched a remote sensing satellite to carry out land resource surveying, just weeks after it sent off its first lunar orbiter. The “Yaogan III” satellite will also be used for collecting data for crop yield estimate and disaster prevention, Xinhua news agency reported. It was launched on a Long March carrier rocket from the Taiyuan Satellite Launching Centre in the northern province of Shanxi.
Source: SpaceDaily/AFP

Acquisition of Multimap will help Microsoft deliver new, expanded services on the Web.

Microsoft Corp. has acquired Multimap, one of the United Kingdom’s top 100 technology companies and one of the leading online mapping services in the world. The acquisition gives Microsoft a powerful new location and mapping technology to complement existing offerings such as Virtual Earth, Live Search, Windows Live services, MSN and the aQuantive advertising platform, with future integration potential for a range of other Microsoft products and platforms. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“The addition of Multimap enhances Microsoft’s position as a leading provider of mapping and location platform services,” said Sharon Baylay, general manager of the Online Services Group at Microsoft. “This acquisition will play a significant role in the future growth of our search business and presents a huge opportunity to expand our platform business beyond the U.K. and globally. We are thrilled to welcome Multimap onboard.”

One of the best-known online mapping companies worldwide, Multimap provides a publicly available personal mapping service at www.multimap.com, as well as a range of integrated business services.

“Partnering with Microsoft gives us a world of new opportunities to build our mapping services into new technologies and applications,” said Jeff Kelisky, CEO of Multimap. “As one of the world’s foremost technology brands, Microsoft is in a position to bring even more value to the Multimap service and give people everywhere new, exciting and fun ways to get from point A to point B.”

Multimap will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft, as part of the Virtual Earth and Search teams in the Online Services Group. The acquisition is the latest in a series of moves as Microsoft seeks to expand its online services to deliver software, services, and premium content and applications to consumers and businesses.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Marisa Olson (pr@microsoft.com)
Phone: 503.443.7000

Source DirectionsMag

“Briefing to European EO Service Industry on the planning of future ESA EO exploitation activities (2008 – 2012)”

The report summarising the main outcomes from the 4th October “Briefing to European EO Service Industry on the planning of future ESA EO exploitation activities (2008 – 2012)” is available here for download.

Briefing Summary Report

Further comments/feedback on the future EO exploitation activities (EOEP-3) presented are welcome.

Indian Space Research organization (ISRO), the country’s premier centre for research and development in the field of space science and technology, will soon launch a satellite called Carto-2A to assist Cartography applications including remote sensing, ground water development etc.

Hyderabad: Indian Space Research organization (ISRO), the country’s premier centre for research and development in the field of space science and technology, will soon launch a satellite called Carto-2A to assist Cartography applications including remote sensing, ground water development etc.

Speaking at the launch of India’s first students’ chapter of Astronautical Society of India, ISRO Deputy Director R K Rajangam said, “The satellite will reach the earth’s orbit by the end of January 2008 or the first week of February”.

Rajangam added, “Any object wanting to be seen from less than one metre will find an application in the Carto-2A satellite. This would be particularly useful in infrastructure development of urban areas etc. The satellite will be launched using the PSLV launch vehicle.”

ISRO has also moved a step ahead by planning to launch commercial satellites from Sriharikota. The first commercial satellite for Israel will be launched on January 2nd, 2008 from Sriharikota.

Speaking about the moon mission program – Chandrayan, Rajangam said, “It is an international project with seven countries, aimed at a moon impact probe. The probe will be jettisoned from an aircraft and will pick up the information. A high spectral camera which will image the moon surface will pick up the information not only of the surface but also look for minerals. The mission launch is fixed in the first week of April as announced earlier.”

ISRO is also building two satellites for International customers- EADS Astrium a consortium of a company in Europe and for a customer in UK. Both the satellites, which are at an advanced stage of completion, will be launched in 2008-09.

Source Indiaedunews

Scheduled to be launched in the first three months of 2008, the COSMO-SkyMed 2 satellite has been finally put in orbit on 9th December 2007 from the American Air Force Base of Vandenberg on the coast of California.

The COSMO-Skymed system, funded by the Italian Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Research, while the Italian Space Agency (ASI) operates it, is the first worldwide satellite observation system with dual character (civilian/military). Composed of four satellites, COSMO-Skymed 2 is the second one now in orbit. The first satellite has been successfully launched on 7th June 2007.

For Earth monitoring purpose, it is equipped with radar sensors of the SAR type able to collect information on the world’s weather and climate, including earthquakes and seismic analysis, landslides, droughts, agricultural mapping, environmental disaster monitoring and floods, by night and sunlight and with any weather condition. Among its strong points are its flexibility (it can operate in three different modalities, routine, crisis or emergency) and its short revisit time.

Being a contribution to the GMES system, COSMO-Skymed will put in orbit its third satellite in the course of the summer 2008.

More information

Source GMES.Info

Canada’s Radarsat-2 Earth observation satellite, which has been almost a decade in design and construction, launched successfully Friday aboard a Russian Soyuz-Fregat rocket from Russia’s Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, according to launch-services provider Starsem S.A. of France.

The 4,850-pound (2,200-kilogram) Radarsat-2 is expected to operate for seven years in a 495-mile (798-kilometer), sun-synchronous low Earth orbit and provide radar images with a ground resolution as sharp as 10 feet (three meters) and as wide as 328 feet (100 meters).

Despite being delayed by a host of technical and policy issues over the years, Radarsat-2 arrived in orbit in time to assure continuous radar Earth observation for Canadian authorities before Radarsat-1 is retired.

Radarsat-1, which provides images with a maximum sharpness of 10 meters, was launched in 1995 on what was designed as a five-year mission. It continues to operate today.

Radarsat-2 features an improved on-board memory and image-taking flexibility as well as a higher-resolution imaging mode. It is the product of a partnership between the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates (MDA) of Richmond, British Columbia CSA has said its total Radarsat-2 budget is 421.6 million Canadian dollars ($419 million), and that MDA has spent an additional 90 million Canadian dollars on the satellite.

The launch of Radarsat-2 brings to a close an unusually busy year for radar Earth observation. German and Italian high-resolution radar satellites also began service this year, for both government and commercial customers.

MDA is Radarsat-2 prime contractor, with Thales Alenia Space of France and Italy providing the satellite platform. An MDA unit supplied the radar sensor.

The launch was managed by Starsem of Paris, a French-Russian joint venture that markets Soyuz rockets commercially

By Peter B. De Selding

Source

The letter exchange took place on the occasion of the 63 Eumetsat (European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites) Council meeting, Darmstadt, Germany, 6 and 7 December.

The Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) will be a European operational geostationary meteorological satellite system and is set to revolutionise weather forecasting and environmental monitoring.

The understanding notes the preparation status of the MTG programme, which is currently in Phase A and sets out to define the agreed next steps. It also defines the exact co-operation measures required from both organisations for Phase A and the ensuing Phase B as well as the principles for co-operation in the future phases.

ESA’s Director of Earth Observation Programmes, Dr Volker Liebig (right), and EUMETSAT Director General, Dr Lars Prahm, at the 63 EUMETSAT (European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites) Council meeting. (courtesy: Eumetsat)

An agreement regulating the respective roles, responsibilities and financial commitments of the two organisations concerning future phases will be developed next year, and will be presented to the ESA and Eumetsat (European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites) Councils for approval in the second half of 2008.

The letter also lists the principles that would provide the overall context of the respective roles ESA and Eumetsat will assume in the planning and execution of the programmes.

These principles identify ESA as the development agency for both the basic space segment technologies and the first twin satellites of MTG; for the satellites that follow, ESA will serve as the procurement agency on behalf of Eumetsat.

Eumetsat, in turn, will specify and consolidate end user requirements, requirements for the overall mission, space to ground and the ground segment itself.

Eumetsat will also be responsible for the overall mission and system engineering and the ground segment design. In addition, it will develop the ground segment and fund the procurement of the recurrent satellites, launch services and LEOP phases, which involve moving the satellite from its initial position after separation from the launcher to its final orbit position, as well as execute the commissioning of the MTG system and run its operations.

(source: ESA)

Kosmotras started today the preparation for the [THEOS] launch scheduled for the first quarter of 2008

“Kosmotras started today the preparation for the [THEOS] launch scheduled for the first quarter of 2008,” said Vladimir Mikhailov, first deputy general director of the company, adding that the satellite had been delivered from Toulouse in France to the launch site.

THEOS will provide Thailand with worldwide geo-referenced image products and image-processing capabilities for applications in cartography, land use, agricultural monitoring, forestry management, coastal zone monitoring and flood risk management.

Kosmotras, established in 1997, converts RS-20 (SS-18 Satan) intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM), scrapped by Russia’s Strategic Missile Forces, into Dnepr launch vehicles.

The Thai satellite will be the third to be launched by the company from the Yasny launch pad in the Urals. Kosmotras launched the Genesis I and Genesis II pathfinder spacecraft from the same location in July 2006 and June 2007, respectively, under a contract with U.S.-based company Bigelow Aerospace.

Source: RIA Novosti

Earth observation offers a new approach to sustainability

From space, it is possible to do more than just see the Earth. With the right technology, the planets changes can be better understood, and its industrial developments potentially better managed.

Over the last two years, along with Hatfield Consultants and the European Space Agency (ESA), the Athabasca Oil Sands Project (AOSP) has been working on a pilot to see how Earth observation data can support its sustainable development and aid in future mine reclamation.Accumulating satellite data is not new for the AOSP, but using the information for such detailed monitoring is.

Before, we were collecting satellite imagery knowing that we were going to need it, but we werent processing it. We used it for mapping purposes, says Darrell Martindale, manager of environment and regulatory compliance with Albian Sands Energy. When you buy satellite images, youre just buying electronic signals. You can use it as a map or an image, but there is so much more you can do with that information. The ESA project allowed us to explore other uses for the data. Were not just making pretty pictures.

Martindale explains that satellite imagery can be used to conduct important monitoring such as identifying plant types and the extent of certain ecosystems, as well as observing changes to water quality in the local watershed.
The ESA says that Earth observation images show the world through a wide enough frame so that complete large-scale phenomena can be observed to an accuracy and entirety it would take an army of groundlevel observers to match.

Martindale says the satellite program is a nice complement to the significant on-the-ground observation the AOSP already conducts.

We get the data in other ways, but were looking for better ways to use it. The satellite images back up our own environmental monitoring.

Another plus for the AOSP is that the images from the ESA came for free, as part of an initiative designed to integrate satellite imagery into corporate sustainability reporting. The oilsands project is part of a series of about 70 activities the ESA has been conducting in the last seven years in a program called Earth observation market development.

Our aim is to get information from satellites to be used by industries [big and small companies] in their business operations, and accepted as being of value, says Stephen Coulson, head of industry section, directorate of Earth observation programs for ESA. Its not a straightforward task; there are high expectations, and theres been a lot of overselling in the past. The ESA is planning on building families of satellites designed specifically to deliver a whole range of operational services for [monitoring] things such as the pollution of our water, the state of our forests, cities, and countryside, and the quality of the air we breathe. The first satellites should be available in around five years from now.

Martindale says the ESA is quite admirable in this initiative.

Using [Earth observation data] for sustainable development is a novel approach, he says, adding that in order to participate in the project, the work had to be showcased in a multinational companys annual sustainable development report. It is featured in Shell Canadas latest sustainability publication.

The project

Hatfield, and then Shell Canada/Albian Sands got involved in this project in 2005. Hatfield project manager and partner Wade Gibbons says the company has been working in the oilsands industryspecifically with the Regional Aquatic Monitoring Program (RAMP)for some time. When it heard about the opportunity with the ESA, it approached the owners and operators of the AOSP.

Because Shell Canada, Albian Sands, and ultimately Royal Dutch Shell are business leaders in corporate sustainability, we thought it would be a good fit, he says.

It appears they were right. In 2006, Hatfield acquired images of the AOSP from the French Spot 5 satellite, proceeding to compare the imagery to other satellite data that had been acquired the year before.

Hatfield says the goal was to assess the mine activity area, habitat fragmentation in the lease area, watershed, and region, and the potential for integrating First Nations traditional knowledge with the satellite imagery.

The processed images showed a 9.3 per cent increase in Shells land use from 2005 to 2006. This represents 2.45 per cent of the entire Muskeg River watershed, and 8.2 per cent of land used in all Athabasca oilsands activities, Shell Canada reports. In Shells [AOSP] project expansion, the amount of land use is expected to increase year over year before remediation and reclamation begins. The imagery acquired in 2006 can serve as a baseline, with repeat observations and analysis providing a record of Shells mine development and reclamation, documenting a commitment to progressive mining.

This is not the first time Hatfield has been involved in an Earth observation project. Gibbons says the company has worked with satellite imagery for close to a decade, on projects including flood monitoring in the Mekong Basin, which includes parts of China, Myanmar, Burma, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam. It has also worked with the Canadian Space Agency on similar Earth observation activities in Canada, Asia, and Africa.

Engaging stakeholders

Shell Canada says an important aspect of its involvement in the satellite monitoring pilot program is to allow stakeholders to monitor future reclamation on its oilsands leases specifically the Fort McKay First Nation, the AOSPs closest neighbours. Albian Sands Martindale says that sharing the satellite data with Fort McKay became a seed for the First Nation to begin to use Earth observation, and geographic information systems (GIS) to manage their land base.

Hatfield is working with [Fort McKay] to capture information to build a GIS, Martindale says, adding that means integrating information like the location of trap lines, hunting sites, and migration routes into the system. That way, when industry approaches the band with a proposed development on its land, it can quickly see and explain the impacts it could have on traditional uses. This could help solve issues such as moving a road a couple hundred metres to avoid a significant archeological site.

[Earth observation] is a tool they will be able to use to manage their resources. Martindale says, and is quick to add that Albian is not pressuring the First Nation to use the satellite data. They will take it over themselvesthis is just a kickstart with the imagery.

Meeting standards

In order to ensure the credibility of the earth observation program, the results were audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Auditing is not mandatory, but is an important component of sustainable development reporting, the Hatfield report states. The assurance of information provides confidence in the validity of the results.

Hatfield says the pilot was designed to enable Shell to report on three Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) environmental performance indicators:

  • location and size of land owned, leased, managed in or adjacent to areas of high biodiversity value;
  • description of significant impacts of mining activities on biodiversity; and habitats protected or restored.

The GRI is a voluntary, internationally accepted reporting framework designed to raise the standard of sustainability reporting, Shell says. The company has been reporting using GRI guidelines since 2004.

The future

As the AOSP expands, Martindale says it will continue to collect satellite imagery to monitor development, but it wont necessarily come through the ESA. As well, the Earth observation is just one part of this aspect of the business.

“We are building our own GIS.”

Deborah Jaremko
Source: Oilsands Review