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Category: Earth Observation News

The United Nations General Assembly has declared 2008 as the UN
International Year of Planet Earth, the biggest ever international
effort to promote the Earth sciences.

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The aims of the initiative include reducing health problems
through an improved understanding of the medical aspects of Earth
science, enhancing understanding of the occurrence of natural resources
in order to reduce political tension, improving understanding of the
evolution of life, increasing interest in Earth sciences within society
at large, and encouraging more young people to study Earth science at
university.
According to a statement by the
organisers, the International Year of Planet Earth ‘aims to raise 20
million USD from industry and governments and will spend half on
co-funding research, and half on outreach activities’.
Ted Nield, chairman of the outreach
programme committee, told CORDIS News that the 20 million USD figure
was ‘plucked out of the air’ when the idea was first conceived in 2001.
‘Now we would be hoping for more than 20 million, as inflation has
caught up with us since then,’ he said.
‘Of course, 10 million dollars is a lot
of money for outreach activities,’ stressed Dr Nield. ‘It‘s not such a
huge amount for science perhaps, but it will operate as a co-financing
scheme, so we‘re looking for proposals from researchers that have
already secured some funding. The system is modelled on the
international geoscience programme, which has proved very effective.’
Indeed, expressions of interest from researchers are already being
sought under ten separate research themes, chosen for their societal
relevance and outreach potential and set out in ten science
prospectuses. These are: groundwater, hazards, Earth and health,
climate change, resources, megacities, deep Earth, ocean, soil, and
Earth and life.
However, Dr Nield believes that whilst
the science component will be very important, the wider and more
fundamental objectives of the International Year of Planet Earth are
achieving the public outreach and political impact needed in order to
raise the global profile of Earth sciences. ‘Although I am saying this
as the chair of the outreach programme, you understand!’ he joked.
Dr Nield adds that the public outreach
element of the initiative will play the key role in attracting the
desired corporate investment, ‘because that‘s where companies will see
the benefit of investing their PR dollars’. He also believes that
achieving endorsement from the UN, as well as the backing of 97
countries representing 87 per cent of the world‘s population, will open
many doors. ‘We felt UN backing was important – and it has been a four
year task to achieve it – because we want to attract new money from
industry, and for this we thought we would need the endorsement of the
UN,’ Dr Nield told CORDIS News.
The initiative was originally launched
jointly by the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) and
UNESCO, and was promoted politically within the UN by the People‘s
Republic of Tanzania. Eduardo de Mulder, former president of IUGS and
project leader of the initiative, said: ‘The International Year of
Planet Earth aims to contribute to the improvement of everyday life,
especially in the less developed countries, by promoting the societal
potential of the world‘s Earth scientists.’
Professor de Mulder concluded: ‘Around
the shores of the Indian Ocean, some 230,000 people are dead because
the world‘s governments have not yet grasped the need to use
geoscientists’ knowledge and understanding of the Earth more
effectively. Yet that knowledge is readily available in the practical
experience and publications of some half a million Earth scientists all
over the world, a professional community that is ready and willing to
contribute to a safer, healthier and wealthier society if called upon
by politicians and decision makers.’
For more information click here
(Credits Cordis)

Today, EUMETSAT will take over control of the second of the new
generation of weather satellites, Meteosat Second Generation (MSG-2)
from the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) and immediately start
commissioning operations.

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ESOC was responsible for the Launch and Early Orbit Phase (LEOP)
after the launch of the satellite on 21 December and ensured that the
satellite arrived safely on station at 6.5° West longitude in
geostationary orbit at 36,000 km above the Earth.
From its Control Center in Darmstadt,
EUMETSAT will now activate the onboard instruments, SEVIRI and GERB,
and will verify that all electronic components are performing well. The
first MSG-2 signal was already received by the EUMETSAT commissioning
team on 28 December 2005 from the MSG ground station in Usingen.
During the commissioning period, which
will last until Summer 2006, the satellite and ground systems will be
carefully tested and tuned to prepare it for routine operations.
The first image from MSG-2 is foreseen for
end of January 2006 and dissemination of imagery to the meteorological
user communities for evaluation purposes is expected for spring.
The Meteosat Second Generation satellites
provide improved information and imagery for weather forecasting as
well as other applications such as hydrology, agriculture and
environmental studies. The data collected are routinely used for the
study of weather and climate change and have proven to be vital in the
context of severe weather situations were they help to reduce losses of
human life and property.
Please also view Mikael Rattenborg’s
interview (EUMETSAT Director Operations) on the following webpage:
http://www.eumetsat.int/

EUMETSAT
The European Organisation for the Exploitation of
Meteorological Satellites, is an intergovernmental organisation that
establishes and maintains operational meteorological satellites for 18
European States (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany,
Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal,
Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the United Kingdom). EUMETSAT
has signed 12 Cooperating State Agreements. Those with Bulgaria,
Croatia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia,
Slovenia and the Czech Republic have entered into force whereas the
Agreement with Serbia and Montenegro and Iceland are to be ratified in
the near future.
EUMETSAT is currently operating Meteosat-6, -7 and -8 over Europe and Africa, and Meteosat-5 over the Indian Ocean.
The data, product and services from
EUMETSAT’s satellites make a significant contribution to weather
forecasting and to the monitoring of the global climate.
More info at press@eumetsat.int
(Credits Eumetsat)

The Warsaw Conference on “Integration of the new EU Member Countries
into the GMES Programme” was attended by around 160 experts from space
and user institutions, infrastructure and service industry, research
centers and academia. More than 40% of the audience was from outside
the space sector, and about half of the participants came from new
Member Countries.

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Conclusions
The Conference focused on active
participation of the New EU Members States (NMS) in the future
development and application of GMES. It is the second in a series of
GMES-related conferences following the Berlin event and preceding the
Toulouse and Budapest ones, concluding with the Graz Conference to be
held in April 2006.
The participants acknowledged with
satisfaction the outcome of the European Union Space Council (Nov 28
2005) and the ESA Council meeting at ministerial level (Dec 5/6 2005)
at which a GMES programme was presented to Member States. In
particular, the decision of the ESA Council to launch the first phase
of the optional GMES programme with an over subscribed budget was
welcomed by the participants who saw it as a strong encouragement of
their effort toward building and integrating operational services. The
formal invitation by the ESA Council meeting at ministerial level to
countries from new EU member states to join the programme as fully
participating states was received with great enthusiasm and underlined
the relevance of the Conference. However, the participants expressed
their wish to see a greater commitment of the EU Member States,
supporting the swift implementation of GMES through the European
Commission.
During the discussion, the participants
agreed that the involvement of user organisations, research
institutions and industry from the New EU Member States in GMES is
essential for ensuring the success of this programme in the enlarged
Europe. A number of stake holders from the NMS, most notably user
organizations and service industries, already participate in both the
ESA and EC GMES projects. Their involvement is presently limited to
land and ocean GMES projects, but must be extended to the GMES security
projects such as RISK-EOS, LIMES and PREVIEW. Participants were
convinced that industries in the New Member States have all the
required skills to participate as active players within GMES. In
particular, Industrial leaders already active in GMES welcomed the
participation of NMS industry in all roles within GMES, including space
and ground hardware, distribution/ processing / calibration, validation
and service provision. However, the potential of New Member States in
GMES is still not fully exploited, and there is a pressing need to
increase the involvement of New Member States actors in GMES.
For this purpose, a resources and
dedicated framework need to be made available and accessed within the
institutional set-up. The key GMES European-level stakeholders
including EC and the JRC, ESA, EUMETSAT, EUSC and EEA are all
developing new links and enlarging their respective membership and
cooperation with NMS national organizations. This clearly sets the
long-term institutional and programmatic framework for GMES.
Priority should be given to making full use of existing programmatic
and funding mechanisms to achieve this, including national funding from
the New Member States, activation of the ESA PECS (Plan for European
Cooperating States) mechanism, access to funds available through EC
Programmes, and involvement of NMS organizations in GMES.
Recommendations
The following specific recommendations emerged from the discussions that took place during the meeting:
1) The formal integration of the New EU
Member States to the GMES programme needs to be accelerated in order to
set-up the mechanisms facilitating collaboration at all levels. In
particular, ESA and officials from the New EU Member States are invited
to accelerate their efforts toward reaching agreements, either via the
PECS mechanism or the “Programme participation” mechanism of ESA.
2) The legal framework related to Earth
Observation applications, either at National or EU level, does not
support the development of services. The European Commission and
National Legislators are invited to undertake a careful screening of
existing legislation and required adaptations, following for example
the case of the water framework regulations.
3) In particular, the timely availability, the pricing and licensing
of data, services and products are critical for the deployment of GMES,
and need to be foreseen in the respective legal instruments.
4) Partnerships are seen as a key factor
for the development of the GMES Programme in general and the
integration of the new EU Member States in particular. It was
recognised that in addition to national and EU levels, the regional
(sub-national) level and cross borders (adjacent) coordination and
applications are essential and need to be supported. The GMES
institutional actors, in particular the EC and ESA, are invited to
foster the development of specific downstream services through
bilateral partnerships of new Member States’ and old Member States’
institutions.
(Credits Eurisy)

AMEC Earth & Environmental Inc. won the 2005 IT business achievement award of Environmental Business International.

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AMEC Earth & Environmental Inc. won the 2005 IT business
achievement award of Environmental Business International for
developing market leadership in the use of space-based Interferometric
Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) technology to locate and predict land
subsidence and earth fissure threats to dams, utilities, mines,
highways and other infrastructure. InSAR utilizes satellite data
acquired at two different times along orbits of a similar trajectory to
detect minute changes in the ground surface. Under a
technology-demonstration contract with the European Space Agency and
through the development of centers of excellence in Western Canada and
the Southwestern United States, AMEC has assisted clients worldwide.
AMECps InSAR projects include Palabora Mine in South Africa, McMicken
Dam near Phoenix, Ariz., a pipeline corridor in British Columbia,
Hayden Hill Mine in California, an underground utility pipeline network
in Arizona, and railways in Germany for Die Bahn and in the United
Kingdom for Network Rail, among others. AMEC also is using InSAR as
part of an early-warning system for landslides at Turtle Mountain in
Alberta, Canada. InSAR does not depend on the deployment of crews into
the field and therefore is highly valuable for acquiring information at
remote sites or areas considered unsafe for personnel to enter.
(Credits AMEC)
Related Links:

Since the 1990‘s, ESA‘s approach to observing the Earth from space has
been dedicated to furthering our understanding of how Earth processes
work, monitoring climate change indicators, testing new observational
techniques and making contributions to operational meteorology. It is
now time to take stock of what has been achieved, but more importantly
look to the future to ensure that ESA continues to provide the best
possible service to its users.

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To this end, a framework for a new Earth observation strategy has
been developed and follows on from the previous guideline strategy the
“Science & Research Elements of the Living Planet Programme” (ESA
SP-1227) established in 1998. The new strategy will be presented to the
science community at a meeting entitled ‘The Changing Earth, Scientific
Challenges for ESA’s Living Planet Programme Strategy Workshop’.
The aim of the workshop, which will be
held at ESA-ESRIN, in Frascati, Italy on 15-16 February 2006, is to
open the forum to the science community to provide their feedback on
research areas to focus on in the next phases of the Programme. This
approach is fundamental to the Living Planet Programme, which aims at
the development of Earth Observation Missions in close cooperation with
the scientific community.
Over the last 8 years, six Earth Explorer
mission concepts have been developed to provide us with a wealth of
invaluable data about the Earth, its climate and changing environment.
Despite the loss of the CryoSat mission in October last year, the Earth
Explorer missions are still on track to help satisfy our quest for
knowledge about the Earth. In addition to this research component, the
Living Planet Programme incorporates an Earth Watch element designed to
facilitate the delivery of data for use in operational services – such
as meteorological missions and new missions focusing on the environment
and civil security under GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and
Security).
Although the framework for the new Living
Planet strategy addresses the scientific challenges through the areas
of oceans, atmosphere, cryosphere and the Earth interior, it is
apparent that none of these areas can be dealt with in isolation. None
of the major Earth science disciplines, when studied at global scales
and over different timescales, can be separated from other disciplines.
Real understanding of the Earth system must come from connecting
different processes. In addition, understanding and monitoring the
impact that nature and human activity are having on the Earth system is
vital if we are to ever correctly predict the effect of a changing
climate.
The workshop will be a cornerstone in the
evolution of what is already a successful programme, and will help in
consolidating the strategy. It shall assure that the future of
observing the Earth from space is as meaningful and useful as possible,
providing the answers to the many questions we have about our
environment.
For more information about attending the workshop please click here
see:
www.congrex.nl/06C20

Five international partnerships have recently been awarded funding
through ESA’s TIGER Innovators project to develop new ways of applying
Earth Observation data as a tool for water resource management in
Africa.

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ESA launched the TIGER Initiative in 2002 following the World
Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg. Focusing on the use
of space technology in water resource management in Africa, the primary
objective of TIGER is to help African countries overcome problems faced
in the collection, analysis and dissemination of water related
geo-information by exploiting the advantages of Earth Observation
technology. More than 200 African water basin authorities, universities
and other organisations have become involved in TIGER projects across
the continent.
Existing activities have now been bolstered by a new type of project
called TIGER Innovators. These are aimed at developing innovative,
low-cost solutions to support African water authorities in the
conservation and monitoring of scarce water resources.
Utilising the latest Earth Observation technology and Geographical
Information Systems these North-South partnerships involving
European/Canadian and African organisations are intended to tackle a
range of different water-related issues across the African continent.
The five TIGER Innovators projects have been funded by the Data User
Element (DUE) of the Earth Observation Envelope Programme of ESA
(EOEP-2 DUE) with an overall budget of 500 000 Euro.
SHARE
SHARE (Soil Moisture for
Hydrometeorological Applications in the SADC Region) will provide an
effective soil moisture monitoring service for the entire Southern
African Development Community (SADC). The project team combines
expertise in soil moisture remote sensing from Vienna University of
Technology with specialists in hydro-meteorological applications from
University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa.
Despite holding only a small percentage
of the total global water budget, soil moisture plays an important role
in the global water cycle. Data obtained from ESA’s ERS-2 Scatterometer
and Envisat‘s ASAR sensors will form the basis of a new soil moisture
information system.
The ERS-2 Scatterometer uses three
antennas to illuminate the Earth‘s surface in three different
directions and derive low-resolution active microwave data. The
incidence angle of each signal bounced back to the instrument is
dependent upon the relative moisture content of the soil and the
vegetation, the vegetation type and surface roughness. An increase in
angle signifies an increase in soil moisture content, surface
roughness, and vegetation biomass. Whereas the Scatterometer provides
coarse-resolution data, ASAR can achieve a higher resolution, thereby
enhancing the overall accuracy of the data.
The improved resolution of the system
will provide the team with quick and detailed information, accurate to
within 1 km. “With this service, SHARE will address today’s most severe
obstacle in water resource management which is the lack of availability
of reliable soil moisture information on a dynamic basis at a frequency
of a week and less,” said Dr. Klaus Scipal of Vienna University of
Technology.
A major benefit of the project will be
the availability of soil moisture data for use and distribution amongst
water authorities in the region.
“The long-term vision of SHARE is to
supply soil moisture information for the entire African continent, run
by African partners, posted on the web, freely accessible to all,” Dr.
Scipal said. The primary users of these products will be the South
African Weather Service and the South African Agricultural Research
Council.
IWAREMA Zambia
This project is aimed at developing a basic
information system for monitoring the Zambezi river catchment area.
Geographic Information Management in Belgium will be working together
with the University of Zambia, the Zambian water authorities and
workers at the SADC Regional Remote Sensing Unit to alleviate water
shortage problems in this area of Zambia.
Using data from ESA’s multispectral MERIS
sensor on Envisat as well as Landsat imagery, IWAREMA (Integrated Water
Resource management for Zambia) Zambia will provide local researchers
and politicians with the necessary tools for effective water resource
management. Satellite imagery will be used to generate a variety of
maps depicting existing water resources, suitable dam locations and
land cover as well as forming the basis of information bulletins for
local policy-makers.
The local team consists of workers from
the Ministry of Energy and Water Development through the Department of
Water Affairs, the University of Zambia and specific departments of
other responsible Ministries.
Lake Water Quality in Egypt
This project is aimed at designing,
developing and implementing a system for monitoring the water quality
of Lake Manzalah in Egypt. Leading the project will be members of the
engineering company C-CORE, based in Canada, in collaboration with
Egyptian water authorities and consultants from the Finnish Environment
Institute and Canada.
An essential source of freshwater in the
region, the demand on Lake Manzalah has been strained over recent years
owing to increased competition from domestic, industrial and
agricultural users. Accurate and reliable data on the condition of the
lake will be extracted using satellite imagery to monitor key
indicators of water quality such as turbidity, algal blooms and the
presence of invasive plant species.
“Responding to urgent user requirements,
the Earth Observation-based water quality products will represent an
up-scaling in space and time of the conventional field measurements and
will capture the spatiotemporal variability of critical lake water
parameters more accurately then the current monitoring programme,”
reports Mr. Puestow, of C-CORE.
As well as determining how and where the
pollution occurred, this data will be utilised by Egyptian water
authorities in their efforts to prevent further pollution of this
valuable resource.
WADE
WADE (Water resources Assessment using SAR
in Desert and arid lands in West African Ecosystems) will map
sub-surface, man-made water structures and surface water as a means of
combating the effects of desertification. In collaboration with a
consortium of desertification experts known as AGRHYMET, workers at
Advanced Computer Systems (ACS spa) in Rome will use Synthetic Aperture
Radar (SAR) imagery to explore underground and superficial water
resources.
The advantage of using SAR technology
over other tools is that it is both relatively cheap and is capable of
covering a wide surface area.
“The availability of an advanced
technological tool for water resources detection and mapping can
represent a significant improvement for sustainable water management,”
said Gaetano Pace, Project Manager at ACS Spa.
The team will be working closely with
AGRHYMET to map buried water-related artefacts such as wells, foggaras
(a type of ancient irrigation system) and channels in a selected area.
Both the technology and the necessary skills will ultimately be
transferred to local authorities.
Potentially covering an area of hundreds
of square kilometres, this new technology will enable local workers to
pinpoint human-made water features to within 20-30 metres. This
information will help local water authorities and institutions to draw
up effective plans to conserve resources in the region and understand
seasonal natural water dynamics.
Lake Victoria
Bordering the countries of Uganda, Kenya
and Tanzania, Lake Victoria is the largest source of fresh water in
Africa. The economic value of the Lake is well established, as is the
sensitive nature of its environmental condition. For these reasons, all
three countries are committed to monitoring the threats and gaining an
accurate inventory of the contents of this vast and essential resource.
In collaboration with Nairobi’s Regional
Centre for Mapping of Resources for Development, workers at Vexcel in
The Netherlands will use data derived from Earth Observation satellites
to form an information system that monitors both the quality and quantity of water.
“Goals are to develop dedicated products
and services and to build capacity at the three institutes to ensure
that expertise is made available to implement these data structurally,”
reports Léon Schouten, Project Manager at Vexcel.
Beneficiaries of the scheme will include
the Fisheries Resources Research Institute in Uganda, Kenya Marine and
Fisheries Research Institute and the Tanzania Fisheries Research
Institute. Lake Victoria Fisheries Organization and other water
management authorities will also receive valuable information and
training through this project.
(Credits ESA)

“Space technology for sustainable development and disaster management: opportunities within the United Nations system”

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VIENNA, 17 January (UN Information Service)
An
open informal session on “Space technology for sustainable development
and disaster management: opportunities within the United Nations
system”, was chaired on the afternoon of 20 January at the headquarters
of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO) in Paris. The session took place immediately after the 26th
annual session of the United Nations Inter-Agency Meeting on Outer
Space Activities, from 18 to 20 January.
The purpose of this informal open session
was to exchange views and information between Member States and
observers of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer
Space (COPUOS) and United Nations entities, on activities and
initiatives of the UN system in sustainable development and disaster
management that involve space technology.
Member States had the opportunity to
familiarize themselves with initiatives such as the International
Charter “Space and Major Disasters”, as well as the UNESCO Space
Education Programme and the Open Initiative on the Use of Space
Technology in Support of the World Heritage Convention.
The UN Inter-Agency Meeting on Outer
Space Activities convenes annually, since 1975, to discuss current and
future activities, emergent space technologies of interest and other
related matters. The Meeting reports on its deliberations to COPUOS.
The Meeting also compiles, on behalf of the UN Secretary-General, a
report on the coordinated space-related activities of the UN system,
which serves as a strategic tool for UN entities to further enhance
inter-agency cooperation and avoid duplication of efforts related to
the use of various space applications.
Open informal sessions for the Member
States and observers of COPUOS have been held by the Inter-Agency
Meeting since 2004 to provide a constructive mechanism for an active
dialogue between the entities of the UN system and Member States of
COPUOS. Representatives from the following countries and UN entities
are expected to participate in the open informal session: Australia,
Belgium, Czech Republic, Colombia, France, Germany, Mexico, Nigeria,
Syria, Ukraine, United States, United Nations Department of
Peacekeeping Operations, United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs,
United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, Secretariat for the
International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, World Food Programme,
UNOSAT, UNESCO and the World Meteorological Organization.
The United Nations Office for Outer Space
Affairs (OOSA) implements the decisions of the General Assembly and of
the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space and its two
Subcommittees, the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee and the Legal
Subcommittee. The Office is responsible for promoting international
cooperation in the peaceful uses of outer space, and assisting
developing countries in using space science and technology. Located in
Vienna, Austria, OOSA maintains a website at http://www.unoosa.org
For information contact:
Qais Sultan
Associate Programme Officer
Telephone: +43 1 26060-4962
E-mail: qais.sultan@unvienna.org
United Nations Information Service
Vienna (UNIS)
P.O.Box 500, A-1400 Vienna, Austria
Tel.: +43 1 260 60 – 3430;
Fax: +43 1 260 60 7 5899
Email: UNIS@unvienna.org
For more information click here

Following one of the recommendations contained in the Communication on”
European Space Policy: Preliminary Elements” of 23 May 2005 and in
compliance with orientations of the second Space Council, the Unit in
charge of Space Policy within Directorate General Enterprise and
Industry has organised a consultation of a panel of industrialists.

Published on
The panel of industry representatives was including participants
from all types of companies: large system integrators, SMEs, operators,
service companies, added value services providers, …)
The
discussion was based on the elements listed in the Communication for
which five position papers had been prepared. These papers were
covering the following topics:
On the regulatory issues, the participants
agreed that better European regulations in fields like spectrum
allocations or delivering of licences for space-based telecommunication
systems might be necessary.
Concerning the standardisation,
recognising that many activities were already undertaken by industry,
the Commission has prepared a draft mandate which will be placed with
standardisation authorities like CEN, CENELEC and ETSI. The
participants agreed that the Commission might take measures to
streamline the standardisation process which is still felt too long and
resource consuming, and therefore not accessible to all companies,
particularly SMEs.
On the procurement policy and use of
industrial return in the ESA context, while recognising that the
current process has enabled the development of a competitive European
space industry, the Commission indicated that it would initiate an
impact study.
More info at:
Space Council
(Credits Europa)

The EC has conducted the first in a series of 3 user workshops to
define initial Europe-wide pilot services within the GMES (Global
Monitoring for Environment and Security) initiative.

Published on

The EC has conducted the first in a series of 3 user workshops to define initial Europe-wide pilot services within the GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security) initiative. The Councilof the Member States has requested that a first set of widely accepted services be operational by 2008. The event on Land Monitoring, which took place in Brussels on 20 and 21 October, attracted the fullest possible range of participation with 100 representative contributors from 22 European countries and from European services themselves. User domains included environment,urban planning, mapping and surveying, agriculture, car navigation, security and others involving both, public and private service provision agencies.

Chairman Prof. Dietmar Grünreich, president of the German Federal Agency of Cartography and Geodesy (BKG) and past president of the EurogeographicsAssociation opened the event by expressing expectations that the Land Monitoring service would bring three dimensions to meet: The first one extends between environmental and topographic standards of land inventory, the second from small (continental Europe) to large (local) scale, and the thirdone from providing access to both, original satellite images aswell as a cross-border coherent, value-added land-cover / land-use information for the various European user communities.

Participants welcomed the initiative taken by the European Unionand agreed with the two prime elements of the core service, an Earth Observation and a Land Information component. As to the first there were high expectations raised with regard to the integration of new and continuously available satellite images as well as in-situ data (the importance of the EU INSPIRE initiative was frequently stressed in this context). For the second there is rich experience available throughout Europe from the CORINE Land- Cover inventories carried out around 1990 and 2000, but requirements addressed an increase in the level of detail and accuracy as well as the updating speed, and a local complement was supportedin addition (urban areas and other “hot spots”of interest or sensitivity). Towards this end, topographic reference data (digital terrain models and object-structured landscape models) and satellite images (multispectraland radar) have to be brought together.

To enhance these requirements practical examples of customised downstream services were presented which could profit from the core service. These included environment, resources and investment management, city planning, car navigation etc. While sponsored out of ESA, EC and Member States budgets as GMES precursor projects, some of them showed already manifest user commitment in addition, such as in the development of a new planning tool for the province of Treviso/Italy becoming of relevance in meeting new legal regulations for territorial and city management.

Users emphasised the necessity to broaden further the GMES user base (from 170 to 3000 as was requested in one project) and opted, during the implementation of the pilot service, for closeinteraction between EU and Member States. The latter will, withtheir existing in-situ data and technical contributions to the work, ensure quality and efficiency. A conclusion document from the workshop, the draft of which had undergone a prior open email discussion, will be amended with the inputs received and a representative user group will follow up the implementation steps.

Press Release- WS, ENTR-H3, 26-10-05

The International Charter on ‘Space and Major Disasters’, a cooperation
initiative created between the European Space Agency (ESA), the
National Centre on Space Studies of France (CNES) and the Canadian
Space Agency (CSA) has completed five years.

Published on
To mark the completion of five years, Indian Space Research
Organisation (ISRO) has conducted a Special Session with ISRO Chairman
Dr G Madhavan Nair presiding over. ISRO Secretary DOS Mr Jean-Luc
Bessis of CNES has delivered Keynote address on ‘Disaster Management.
Charter functionaries from CNES, CONAE, CSA, ESA, ISRO, JAXA,
NOAA, UN, USGS and DMC have also participated in the two-day proceedings.
The participants have deliberated on the
impact of the Charter, its performance, capabilities of Remote Sensing
for disaster Management, the response to recent disasters etc.
The Charter has been providing access to
value added earth observation satellite data from all parties to
countries whose populations are exposed to risk or have been affected
by a natural or technological disaster. Since November 2000, the
Charter has been activated more than 80 times to assist in emergencies
such as floods, fires, landslides, typhoons, violence eruptions, oil
spills, tsunamis, hurricanes, earthquakes and civil accidents which
have occurred all around the globe.
With a
low response time of 38-48 hours and by facilitating high reliability
data, the Charter has proved the effectiveness of space information for
emergency management.
During December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami
disaster in India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Thailand no less than 200
sensor images received from satellites owned or operated by the Charter
members were distributed. The Charter also provided space information
in the Hurricane Katrina during which levees were breached and flood
waters submerged the City of New Orleans on August 29-2005.