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ECMWF has launched its new ten-year Strategy, which sets ambitious goals that push the limits of predictability in weather forecasting.

A key target is to extend the probabilistic skill of ECMWF’s high-impact weather forecasts by three to six days over the next decade.

This would enable skilful predictions of high-impact weather up to two weeks ahead.

Other goals include predicting large-scale patterns and regime transitions up to four weeks ahead, and global-scale anomalies up to a year ahead.

Other goals include predicting large-scale patterns and regime transitions up to four weeks ahead, and global-scale anomalies up to a year ahead.

ECMWF’s Director-General Florence Rabier said: “Our 2025 ambition raises the international bar. Given the greater likelihood of life-threatening climate change impacts on the Earth’s weather, we will harness rapidly advancing data availability and technology to stretch the accuracy and range of predictions further and faster.

“ECMWF is a shining example of the value of European and global cooperation in the scientific field, and one which has tangible benefits day in, day out for dozens of national economies and millions of people’s daily lives.”

The Strategy was approved unanimously by the representatives of ECMWF’s Member States meeting on 30 June and 1 July.

Two pillars

Turning the Strategy’s goals into reality will require a sustained collaborative effort in two areas in particular: ensemble forecasts and Earth system modelling.

Ensemble forecasts are probabilistic: they provide a range of likely scenarios and give an indication of the confidence forecasters can have in their predictions. Running them at high resolution can increase the skill of forecasts but is computationally demanding.

The Strategy specifies a target of a 5 km grid spacing for ensemble forecasts by 2025, down from 18 km today. This is at the limit of what can be done scientifically and in terms of the computing capacity ECMWF envisages having.

In the context of weather prediction, Earth system modelling means adequately representing the interactions between components of the Earth system that influence the weather. In addition to the atmosphere, these components include the oceans, sea ice and the continental land surfaces.

Earth system interactions will also have to be represented in data assimilation, the process of combining weather observations with model output to achieve the best possible description of the state of the Earth system at the start of a forecast run.

The Strategy makes it clear that ECMWF aims to remain at the forefront of efforts to develop innovative solutions for data assimilation.

Scalable computing

The Strategy sets out how ECMWF intends to meet the computational challenges created by the evolution towards Earth system modelling at high resolution.

It explains that all parts of the forecasting process need to be optimised to ensure that the Centre’s high-performance computing facility remains economically and environmentally sustainable.

To this end, numerical weather prediction and computational science will have to advance in concert towards scalable, energy-efficient algorithms and technology.

Research projects exploring future heterogeneous computer architectures have already been initiated and will remain important throughout the period covered by the Strategy.

Collaboration

ECMWF’s new Strategy has been developed in close collaboration with its Member States. Implementing it will also require working closely with Member and Co-operating States, national meteorological services and the wider scientific community worldwide.

The Strategy also highlights the importance of continued collaboration with partner organisations across the world, including space agencies such as EUMETSAT, to ensure ECMWF receives the weather observations it needs to achieve its goals.

Further information

Press Release ECMWF commits to pushing the limits of predictability in 2025 strategy

The full Strategy 2016–2025 and a more concise Roadmap to 2025 are available on the website’s Strategy page.

EUMETSAT and the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have signed a Technical Operating Arrangement (TOA) to support the exchange of data related to Copernicus, the Earth Observation Programme of the European Union.


“We are glad that EUMETSAT and NOAA have joined forces to implement on a technical level the arrangements concluded several months ago by the European Commission with our counterparts in the United States. We greatly value the long standing transatlantic partnership on Earth Observation data exchange which is defined by this arrangement. This marks a new key milestone for reinforcing benefits of Copernicus for citizens on both sides of the Atlantic,” said Philippe Brunet, Director for Space Policy, Copernicus and Defence at the European Commission.

NOAA appreciates the European Union’s continued support for Earth observation activities. The signing of this TOA reaffirms the partnership between NOAA and EUMETSAT, which is based on a full, free, and open data sharing policy. NOAA believes that Sentinel-3 marine data and products will serve as a great benefit to the global community.”

The TOA is based on the Copernicus Cooperation Arrangement on Sentinel data access and use signed between the European Commission and the United States on 16 October 2015, as well as the Delegation Agreement signed between the EC and EUMETSAT on 7 November 2014 which defines EUMETSAT’s role in implementing and coordinating technical actions with international partners on behalf of the European Commission.

Under the agreement, NOAA will be responsible for distributing the Copernicus data from EUMETSAT to NOAA and its user base, including the ocean user community, but will also extend to researchers and other users.

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TEHRAN, Oct. 02 (MNA) – ICT minister Mahmoud Vaezi said the final agreement for the construction and launch of the National Remote Sensing Satellite has been signed by the Russian satellite manufacturers.

Iranian Communications and Information Technology Minister, Mahmoud Vaezi, told Mehr News Agency that the country is working on its space projects on two parallel lines, one of which is related to the construction of student satellites inside the country; “we have held talks with universities for the construction of communications as well as remote sensing satellites in Iran, and a number of samples have already been constructed,” he said.

“By the end of the Iranian year (March 2017), we will be ready to launch one of these domestically-manufactured student satellites into space,” he added.

Vaezi stressed that the country is mainly focused on the construction of two operational satellites, adding “at the moment, the final agreement for the construction and launch of the National Remote Sensing Satellite has been signed by the Russian satellite manufacturers.”

“The construction of the two operational satellites is a long-term project and currently, we are in talks with four countries for our communications satellite,” he said.

“France, Russia, China and South Korea have expressed their interest in participating in the project,” Vaezi said. “We will come to a final decision with one of these four countries and execute the construction of National Communications Satellite Project as one of the objectives of the Sixth Development Plan.”

In his recent visit to Moscow, Mahmoud Vaezi met with several Russian government officials and industry executives on space and cyberspace issues, and struck a deal with the Russian side on cooperation with the construction of a remote sensing satellite. 

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(7 October 2016, By Nigar Abbasova at ww.azernews.az) Azerbaijan and Turkey, the two neighboring countries and strategic partners, enjoy opportunities to strengthen their cooperation in the sphere of satellite industry.

Turkish Minister of Transport, Maritime and Communications Ahmet Arslan told Trend that Turkey is ready to produce low-orbit (LEO) and gestational (GEO) satellites for Azerbaijan, as soon as the operating time of Azersky and Azerspace-1 spacecrafts expires.

Arslan said that the Center of Testing and Integration of Space-Based Systems (USET) operates under the state-owned Turkish Aerospace Industry (TAI). The centre, which is considered as the first satellite test facility of Turkey and one of the world’s outstanding facilities, allows to assemble and test various types of satellites.

“Work on the creation of the first indigenous satellite is currently underway in the centre. In this regard, USET experts can assemble communication satellites and spacecrafts for exploring the Earth for Azerbaijan,” he said.

Turkey’s first indigenous satellite Türksat 6A, manufactured in USET, is slated for completion by 2019. Türksat is one of the world’s top 20 satellite operators and its goal is to become one of the world’s top-10 countries with implementation of 10 satellites by 2023.

Moreover, the minister added that Turkey is also ready to provide Azerbaijan with resources of its Göktürk-2, which is Turkey’s first high-resolution remote sensing earth observation satellite.

He mentioned that it is also possible to exchange resources and expand the coverage of the Turkish satellite geolocation system on the territory of Azerbaijan.

Arslan also suggested cooperation between universities of the two countries on designing of CanSat mini satellites.

Azercosmos, Science Development Fund under the President of Azerbaijan and TÜBITAK UZAY (Space Technologies Research Institute) of Turkey signed a memorandum of mutual understanding on cooperation in the space industry in 2015.

The document envisages exchange experience in the sphere of space technologies, conduction of joint research, use benefits of satellite telecommunication systems, as well as study of the Earth’s surface and the construction of new generation telecommunication systems.

Azerbaijan entered the space club with the launch of its first satellite Azerspace-1 in February 2013. By now, the country has three satellites, a telecommunication and two low orbit satellites, and it plans to launch a second telecommunication satellite in 2017.

Azerspace-1, the first-ever satellite of Azerbaijan, as well as AzerSky high-resolution low-orbit Earth observation satellite are at disposal of Azercosmos, the only satellite operator in the Caucasus.

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Satellite tracking technology aids analysts to prevent illegal fishing by By Tony Long The Pew Charitable Trusts

Apprehending criminal fishers often requires identifying where they are, where they have been, and where they are going. The challenge is seemingly insurmountable given the sheer size of seas. The good news is that technological advancements are shifting the balance toward those fighting to end illegal fishing.

Illegal Fishing Hurts People—and the Environment

Illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing is a global threat that robs legitimate fishers and governments of revenue, undermines scientific assessments of fisheries, threatens the stability of coastal communities that rely on fish for food and jobs, and destroys marine ecosystems. The crime accounts for up to $23.5 billion (U.S.) worth of seafood annually, totaling up to 26 million tons—or one in five wild-caught fish taken from our seas. So it’s no surprise that ending IUU fishing has become a key focus for the international maritime community.

The Pew Charitable Trusts believes many pieces must fall into place to effectively end IUU fishing worldwide. Measures include requiring that all large fishing vessels are uniquely identified with International Maritime Organization numbers(1); mandating the tracking of vessels in order to drive transparency and accountability; recruiting the seafood industry and retail customers to demand that the fish they buy and sell is caught legally; and facilitating the adoption and implementation of the Port State Measures Agreement. Pew also wants to encourage capable leadership by governments throughout the world to draft change through initiatives such as Interpol’s highly successful Project Scale, which helps countries build their capacity to enforce fisheries laws and securely exchange information on transnational criminal cases.

Breakthrough technology is now available to help achieve crime-fighting objectives.

Satellite Monitoring Provides Advantage in Ending Illegal Fishing

To find suspected illegal fishers, national authorities have long relied on conventional maritime patrols, which are costly, inefficient, often dangerous, and largely ineffective. After Pew and our partners weighed options for a better way to end illegal fishing, we turned to the skies.

In January 2015, Pew teamed with Satellite Applications Catapult to launch Eyes on the Seas, a state-of-the-art technology platform that cross-references satellite tracking data with details about a boat’s history, licenses, ownership, and more, reducing to mere seconds the analytical work that can take a human days to complete.

Eyes on the Seas goes well beyond simply using satellites to track vessel movement.

Each user, such as a government agency or fishery management body, can tailor the system. For example, users can specify which area of the ocean to monitor and whether to include vessel data from all boats or only certain ones.

The platform recognizes the telltale patterns of fishing and generates alerts, in near-real time, when suspicious activity is detected, such as vessels fishing inside a marine reserve or a known illegal operator fishing in an area where it is banned.

Using Eyes on the Seas, analysts can quickly move reliable information on suspected illegal activity to port officials and maritime enforcement authorities, who in turn can act to stop a crime in progress or prepare to confront the suspects when they come into port to offload fish.

Illegal fishers often steal from the waters of resource-poor countries. Eyes on the Seas was therefore designed as a cost-effective tool for any country seeking to end illegal fishing in its waters.

While no system is foolproof, Eyes on the Seas was designed specifically to lower the risk that it could be fooled by fraudulent data. For one, the system determines vessel location via a global tracking method called the automatic identification system (AIS), which transmits a boat’s position, identity and speed to other ships, and has been used primarily to avoid collisions.

AIS is effective when used properly but can easily be turned off or manipulated to emit false data. Eyes on the Seas can get around this problem by overlaying data from multiple sources, such as vessel monitoring systems—through which fishing vessels transmit location and other data to governments and other monitoring bodies—as well as satellite imagery like synthetic aperture radar, which can detect the presence of vessels at any point in time, regardless of weather conditions.

When all of this information is cross-referenced with national licenses, fishing vessel databases, and oceanographic and historical data, the ability to detect potential illegal fishing operations goes far beyond what is possible with conventional monitoring systems.

More info at EARTHZINE

(13 September 2016) ESA and Enterprise Estonia have signed an arrangement that gives one of ESA’s newest Member States access to data from the Copernicus Sentinel satellites.

With four Copernicus satellites – Sentinel-1A, Sentinel-1B, Sentinel-2A and Sentinel-3A – now in orbit, a wealth of complementary imagery and data is being delivered for the Copernicus services.

Led by the EC, the Copernicus programme was put in place to manage the environment and respond to the challenges of a changing world.

As part of the programme, ESA is responsible for the ‘space component’, which not only includes the Sentinel satellites, but also the network of receiving stations and processing centres through which data are made available for the range of Copernicus services.

Estonia is a new ESA Member State, formally joining the Agency in September 2015.

While data from the Sentinel satellites and missions contributing to the Copernicus programme are freely accessible for the Copernicus services, as well as to scientific and other users, the Collaborative Ground Segment Agreement signed today will facilitate Sentinel data exploitation in Estonia.
Estonia signs up for Sentinel data

The agreement was signed by Josef Aschbacher, ESA’s Director of Earth Observation Programmes, and Madis Võõras, Head of the Space Office Enterprise Estonia.

It not only guarantees that Estonia has access to data, but also ensures that ESA provides technical advice on setting up data acquisition and dissemination, and makes data processing and archiving software available to national initiatives.

Josef Aschbacher said, “We are thrilled to welcome Estonia to our expanding collaborative agreement and this is another important step for Copernicus.

“We are looking forward to seeing the benefits this will bring to a country that is already strong in Earth observation science, applications and data processing.”

Madis Võõras added, “Today marks an important milestone for Estonia. We have many areas of interest, such as agriculture, forestry and maritime surveillance, to name but a few, which will greatly benefit from this cooperation.”

Estonia is the 12th state to sign the agreement following Greece, Norway, Italy, Finland, Germany, France, UK, Sweden and Canada.

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(Sept 2016) EUMETSAT’s Director-General, Alain Ratier, and Dr. Gerd Gruppe, Director of Space Administration at Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR), signed a cooperation agreement for the development of the METimage instrument to be flown on three successive Metop-SG A satellites of the EUMETSAT Polar System Second Generation (EPS-SG) in the 2021-2042 timeframe.

The agreement ensures the inclusion of the visible infrared imaging radiometer, METimage, as part of the payload of the Metop-SG A1, A2 and A3 satellites. The METimage advanced radiometer will provide moderate-resolution optical imaging of clouds, aerosols, and surface variables, in 20 spectral channels, benefitting applications such as Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP), Nowcasting at high latitudes, Oceanography, Climate monitoring, Hydrology and land monitoring.

Under the agreement, DLR will develop the first METimage flight model and data processing algorithms, procure recurrent instruments on behalf of EUMETSAT and provide support to operations.

EUMETSAT will fund 30% of the development costs for the METimage system and the full costs of recurrent instruments. Also, EUMETSAT will operate the METimage instruments as part of EPS SG throughout its entire lifetime and cover the related costs.

EUMETSAT’s Director-General, Alain Ratier said, “The EPS-SG system requires a suite of advanced imaging and sounding instruments to be, as EPS today, the most important source of satellite observations for numerical weather forecasts. This includes METimage and I am very pleased that we have now secured the development of this essential instrument with the signature of this agreement with DLR”

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(©WhiteHouse.gov). Even as the United States and the international community act to curb the carbon pollution that is driving climate change, citizens and communities need to prepare for the current and future impacts of a changing climate and work with partners around the world to do the same. That is why, over the last seven and a half years, the Obama Administration has worked to advance the development and provision of data, information, tools, and technical assistance to support climate preparedness and resilience efforts both domestically and internationally.

Today, to continue these efforts, the Administration is launching the Partnership for Resilience and Preparedness, a public-private collaboration among Federal agencies, non-governmental organizations, private-sector companies, and civil-society organizations. The partnership will identify priority-information needs, reduce barriers to data access and usability, and develop an open-source platform to enable sharing and learning on the availability and use of data and information for climate resilience. PREP emerged out of the work of the Climate Data Initiative (CDI), when a diverse group of organizations and private companies working with the CDI data decided to focus on the power of collaboration to address gaps they saw in the CDI and enhance access to climate data and information worldwide. It is being pursued in coordination with the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data that was launched last year.

To further strengthen global collaboration to enhance access to actionable information for climate resilience, the Administration, along with 13 other nations and organizations from the private sector and civil society, is releasing today a Joint Declaration on Harnessing the Data Revolution for Climate Resilience. The Joint Declaration is being released by the governments of Bangladesh, Belgium, Canada, Colombia, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Kenya, the Marshall Islands, Mexico, Peru, the Republic of Korea, the United Kingdom, and the United States, as well as by Amazon Web Services, IBM, Economic Commission for Latin America and Caribbean, Future Earth, the Group on Earth Observations, Google, Microsoft, World Bank, and World Resources Institute. The Joint Declaration calls for concrete actions in order to increase international climate resilience through improving accessibility and usability of data.

PREP and the Joint Declaration respond to the commitments the Administration made as part of its Third Open Government National Action Plan to work to expand the availability and accessibility of climate-relevant data worldwide, leverage open data to stimulate innovation and private-sector entrepreneurship in the application of climate-relevant data, and seek international opportunities to help meet critical data needs.

About the Partnership for Resilience and Preparedness

The Partnership for Resilience and Preparedness (PREP) seeks to empower a data-driven approach to building climate resilience by:

  • Engaging communities and facilitating ongoing conversations among producers and users of data, information, and tools to support climate resilience;
  • Identifying and reducing the barriers to access, contribute, and use data and information products for climate resilience; and
  • Developing an open-source platform to enhance access to and usability of climate-relevant data and information.

The partnership will be jointly coordinated by the U.S. Global Change Research Program and World Resources Institute. It will build on and contribute to the many other programs that the U.S. Government already supports to strengthen climate resilience globally, including the Climate Services for Resilient Development partnership, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) International Research and Applications Project (IRAP), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID) SERVIR program, the Global Resilience Partnership (GRP), and the Global Framework for Climate Services

PREP Platform Prototype

Today, PREP is releasing a beta platform as a first step in an iterative process to work with communities around the world to enhance data accessibility to support communities’ climate-resilience needs. The platform was developed on the open-source infrastructure of Resource Watch by a team of science, technology, and climate-resilience specialists from Federal agencies, the private sector, and international-civil-society organizations, working initially with Sonoma County, California; the Climate Impacts Group at the University of Washington; the city of Porto Alerge, Brazil; and the city of Durban, South Africa.

In the coming year, PREP will enter a pilot phase of the PREP platform using online and offline forums to identify the climate-relevant data and information needs of a wide range of users. The platform, currently in beta form, will allow communities to self-select and visualize an initial set of Federal datasets from climate.data.gov and other relevant data; capabilities to be added over the coming months will include the ability to self-select relevant information into a customizable dashboard. In addition, PREP will seek to work in-depth with at least a dozen communities by the end of 2017 to test the platform and address user needs.

FEDERAL CONTRIBUTIONS

  • U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP): The USGCRP is a Federal program that coordinates and integrates 13 Federal agencies to advance climate science, improve the understanding of how global change is impacting society, and provide the scientific basis to inform and enable timely decisions. In its interagency capacity, USGCRP will coordinate the U.S. Government’s involvement in PREP by providing technical support to the Federal data provision effort, providing administrative support to organize the Federal team, and providing the interface between the Federal and non-Federal teams.
  • Department of the Interior (DOI): DOI will contribute relevant data and services from the Federal Geospatial Platform (GeoPlatform) and facilitate the delivery of Federal information on climate resilience. DOI will also enhance users’ ability to search and use climate data through open-application programing interfaces (APIs) delivered through the GeoPlatform and used by PREP.
  • National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA): In support of PREP, NASA is developing discovery, access, cataloging, and visualization services on NASA observation and model data and extending curation services for Federal climate-related data, developed through the Climate Data Initiative. NASA will also support the PREP effort by: (1) continuing improvements to services supporting the PREP platform through promoting open standards, application-program interfaces, and persistent data citation; (2) exploring and testing new architectures, such as cloud services, to enhance the flexibility, performance, and extensibility of the PREP platform; (3) coordinating outreach to climate-risk assessment and resilience-planning professionals to better understand their needs from local to global scales; and (4) engaging professionals in the development and testing of the PREP platform and dashboards through sponsored data challenges.
  • National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA): The Department of Commerce’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)’s Big Data Project is teaming up with selected commercial-cloud and information services providers to distribute NOAA’s data via their platforms and associated analytical services. Both Amazon Web Service (AWS) and Google are currently delivering NOAA information via the Big Data Project and are integrating those NOAA data with data contributions from other U.S. Federal agencies to meet the PREP goals. NOAA will actively engage in PREP data accessibility and public-engagement activities to continue to help decision makers find and use tools and data they most need.

NON-FEDERAL CONTRIBUTIONS

  • Amazon Web Services (AWS): AWS commits to making new datasets available on the AWS Cloud at no cost, including datasets for global elevation, USDA’s National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP), and archival Landsat data. AWS will continue to provide cloud services for hosting datasets that PREP identifies as priorities for climate resilience. Additionally, the AWS Cloud Credits for Research program will open a call for proposals this year to develop new tools and applications in support of climate resilience and preparedness activities within PREP. AWS’s activities in PREP will be carried out as part of the new Earth on AWS Consortium, which is made up of enterprises, startups, research institutions, and universities that use AWS to analyze Earth-observation data.
  • CARTO: CARTO’s open-source platform infrastructure powers aspects of the PREP platform’s key data-analysis and visualization capabilities. CARTO commits to continue to work with PREP to facilitate strategic-technology integrations into decision making for climate-risk management. CARTO will also provide in-kind infrastructure and engineering support for the full development of the PREP platform.
  • Descartes Labs: Descartes Labs contributed to the construction of the beta PREP platform and commits to support PREP by: (1) advising on cloud storage, processing, and hosting issues; (2) processing and making available relevant public datasets; and (3) providing relevant Descartes Labs maps of global agriculture and land-use through the PREP platform.
  • Earth Knowledge: Earth Knowledge (EK) worked with Sonoma County to co-design the development of a beta PREP dashboard. Over the next year, EK commits to continue to work with Sonoma County and five additional communities to identify information needs and support the further development of community dashboards. EK will also provide access from the PREP platform to their big-data platform to provide customized data integration, analytics, and business-intelligence software solutions for operational decision making in the areas of global-change impacts to agriculture, water and land management, and health.
  • Esri: Esri actively supported PREP data providers, contributing data-web services and creating a public, open-data site to enable easy discovery, preview, and download of data for analysis. Esri will work with PREP partners to make climate-projection data interactively explorable through open formats and open-source apps. Esri will also make Story Map tools available free to allow anyone to create and share their own data-driven narratives.
  • Federation of Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP):ESIP commits to: (1) host workshops to provide a forum for exploring the challenges and opportunities users face using climate-relevant data, especially Earth observations; (2) facilitate a process for documenting the lessons learned and best practices on how to make climate-relevant data more interoperable and useful; and (3) use ESIP infrastructure to incubate proof-of-concept solutions for improving access and evaluating multiple options.
  • Forum One: Over the next year, Forum One will lead an effort, through online collaboration and surveys, to define and document the information and tool needs of communities around the world who are working to manage the risks of climate variability and change.
  • Future Earth: Future Earth will: (1) connect with up to 10 communities around the world to inform co-design of the next phase of the PREP platform so that it meets their needs; (2) connect PREP with well-aligned, international efforts within and beyond Future Earth’s Knowledge Action Networks; and (3) produce a report that characterizes the information and data needs of the communities in order to design the PREP platform to strengthen regional capacities to integrate climate information into existing sustainable-development platforms.
  • Google: Google commits to host climate-relevant data in Google BigQuery and Google Earth Engine, with 1PB of datasets to be hosted for free by the end of 2016. Google further commits to work with PREP to help organize priority, climate-relevant data in the cloud, making the data universally accessible and making it easy to perform small- to large-scale analytics. PREP users will be able to run up to 1TB of queries per month for free without the need to host the data or manage any infrastructure. Researchers, NGOs, and other non-commercial users will also be able to explore and analyze the data in Earth Engine free of charge. Google will also work with other data providers and consumers to develop best practices for data sharing within the climate resilience and preparedness community.
  • Microsoft: Microsoft will work with PREP to help test and demonstrate new tools, services, and business models that enable smart urban infrastructure and environmental management. Microsoft will: (1) convene workshops with a diverse community of participants to identify data gaps, barriers to accessibility and actionable insights, and other challenges; (2) develop cloud-based solutions that support data collection, sharing, and analysis to inform local- and regional-planning efforts for both long-term and short-term resilience decision-making; (3) contribute to research and best practices for data management, access, and security that enable data-driven approaches to build climate resilience; (4) provide cloud-computing resources through the Azure for Research program to help researchers and scientists accelerate projects related to urban resilience and environmental management.
  • Sonoma County, CA: Sonoma County, through the Sonoma County Water Agency and its collaborators, including the North Bay Climate Adaptation Initiative, Regional Climate Protection Authority, and the United States Geological Survey, worked together to co-develop the beta Sonoma County PREP Climate Risk Dashboard. Sonoma County will work with PREP to identify and communicate the information and data access needs of local communities. This includes collaborating with similar international communities in countries such as Colombia.
  • The Group on Earth Observations (GEO): GEO will contribute to the partnership through the efforts of its 100+ member countries and 100+ participating organizations to build a Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS). GEO commits to engage providers and users of these data resources through targeted workshops and its annual international plenary to ensure a sustained dialogue around the information needs of those seeking to integrate climate products and services into adaptation processes and decisions. GEO will also support PREP by linking the cross-cutting aspects of climate to several important areas including biodiversity and ecosystem sustainability, disaster resilience, food security and sustainable agriculture, and water resources management.
  • Vizzuality: Vizzuality led the design and development of the underlying infrastructure of the PREP platform. Vizzuality will continue to blend user-focused design with open-source technology to develop the PREP platform from beta to full functionality.
  • The Weather Company, an IBM Business: The Weather Company commits to providing free and open access to relevant data sets, including a new, historical dataset from its Weather Underground personal-weather-station network, providing observations from 200,000+ locations around the globe. In addition, The Weather Company will donate access to data on current conditions and historical observations, which can be analyzed and overlaid with other data to help advance risk assessment and potential planning.
  • World Resources Institute (WRI): WRI will coordinate the non-governmental actions for the partnership. WRI managed the development of the beta PREP platform, which was built on Resource Watch, a collaborative, open-source data system that unites technology, transparency, and human networks to drive sustainable management of the planet’s resources. WRI commits to expanding the partnership, refining the platform based on user feedback, promoting global adoption of the platform, and ensuring the long-term financial sustainability of the platform and the Resource Watch open-data architecture that supports it. WRI will also contribute expertise on resilience and adaptation planning to help communities working with PREP to strengthen their decision making.

©WhiteHouse.gov

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The WB seek to identify and recognize high potential solutions developed by individuals and organizations in these critical areas of sustainable development. These issues are high priorities in service of the World Bank Group’s goals of ending extreme poverty and promoting shared prosperity and are also identified priorities of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.


World Bank Big Data Innovation

Academics, entrepreneurs, innovators, businesses, universities and nonprofits have a larger role to play than ever before in addressing global climate issues through the creation and implementation of solutions. The shift to climate-resilient economies can occur only if the millions of decisions which are made across the globe on a daily basis are taking climate change factors and effects into account. We need your help in identifying and developing big data solutions which can help better understand the impacts of climate change, address its connected issues and positively influence decisions.

Why big data?

In today’s world of mobile technology, social networks, pervasive satellite and sensor information, and machine-to-machine transactions, more data has been generated in the past two years alone in the form of big data than in all of the previous years combined. Data is becoming the lifeblood of many economies, and data-informed decision-making is more important than ever before. However, the ability to use data in development policy and decision-making processes has not seen the same progress. That is where you come in. Help us find solutions and analytical methodologies to use big data effectively so we can help inform climate-sensitive decisions across the globe.

“Recent work from the World Bank Group suggests that poverty eradication is possible even as countries deal with the impacts of climate change and implement policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. … While there are many uncertainties about the impacts of climate change, it is possible to inform decision-making given adequate tools.”
– Stéphane Hallegatte, Senior Economist, World Bank Group Climate Change Unit

Join us as we launch a global call to find big data solutions that address issues pertaining to two critical challenge areas:
1) Food: food security and nutrition 2) Landscapes: forestry and watersheds
 
Who can participate?
This Innovation Challenge is open to individuals, students and entrepreneurs as well as start-ups, university labs, private companies, nonprofits and public sector agencies legally established in member countries of the World Bank Group (see: http://www.worldbank.org/countries).

Applications open

Explore the challenges

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1 July 2016 – Two United Nations agencies have signed an agreement to protect cultural and natural heritage sites by using the latest geo-spatial technologies, including a satellite imaging system.

The strategic partnership between the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the Operational Satellite Applications Programme (UNOSAT) under the UN Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) will enable their collaboration during conflict situations and in the aftermath of natural disasters.

UNOSAT is a technology-intensive programme delivering imagery analysis and satellite solutions to relief and development organisations within and outside the UN system. Satellite imagery is often the only source of objective information for areas affected by conflict or by natural disasters.

“UNOSAT and UNESCO have complementary capacities that can considerably enhance UNESCO’s ability to protect heritage in emergency situations,” said UNESCO’s Assistant Director-General for Culture, Alfredo Pérez de Armiñán, referring to ongoing cooperation to document the state of heritage sites in Iraq and other conflict-affected countries.

“UNOSAT’s track record of innovative solutions now has a significant impact on the way the UN operates,” said UNOSAT’s Manager, Einar Bjorgo. “While it is fascinating to note how new technologies are applied to protect ancient cultural heritage, our partnership with UNESCO helps us take specific action on the ground.”

The entities will share their respective expertise, and collaborate on prevention and capacity development. This helps the international community to understand the situation on the ground and plan emergency measures. For example, a recently-published report on cultural heritage sites in Syria by UNITAR-UNOSAT, revealed the extent of damage to cultural heritage, confirming information obtained through unofficial sources.

Other geo-spatial technologies that may be harnessed include the use of crowd-sourcing app UN-ASIGN, successfully applied following the recent Nepal earthquake, and the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) both for general recording purposes and for detailed damage assessments of buildings and other infrastructure. The entire range of geo-spatial information gathering tools is combined using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and advanced web-mapping solutions.

UNESCO and UNITAR-UNOSAT will jointly explore new and innovative solutions that can further contribute to improved management and protection of cultural heritage sites.

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