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The Flash Eurobarometer (Flash No 355) on space activities of the European Union was conducted in July 2012 in order to examine our citizens’ awareness, expectations and wishes regarding space based services and their opinion on the role of the EU in the development of space activities.

Our economies and our daily life increasingly depend on space based systems and infrastructures. Be it for weather forecasting, telecommunications, television, financial transactions, our transport systems as well as for our security. Satellites have already a direct impact on our lives and surely this trend will increase more and more in the decades to come.

This is why the EU centres its action in the space field on the wellbeing of its citizens. Its interest also focuses on how space can support our economy by creating growth and jobs. Space programmes are indeed highly innovative; they create opportunities for new services as well as technology spin-offs in other sectors.

Thanks to this survey we have now a realistic (and positive) view on the perception that European citizens have of EU space activities.

More information at full report

See also the DG ENTR space web site

Source EC and GMES.Info

This survey acknowledges the importance that space has for European citizens and it supports the EU’s involvement in this domain. So despite the current economic and financial turmoil our citizens are confident in our space initiatives. They are crucial for the economy and society and to foster innovation and industrial competitiveness.

By Petros Patias, posted on September 11th, 2012 at earthzine (Earthzine, Fostering earth observation & global awareness Sponsored by IEEE Sponsored by ICEO)

In the field of Earth Observation (EO) activities, the critical point found for the Balkan countries is how to create a future environment of cooperation between partners at various levels where companies from across the world would be involved in joint projects. Experience gained in projects supported by the European Union (EU) paves the way toward future models of cooperation and will help to identify new products and market niches for these products and services. Future cooperation between Balkan partners becomes much easier if experience from initial projects is already available. In this sense, the OBSERVE project has significantly contributed by developing a network and capacity-building in the region.

Many activities within OBSERVE have been focused on collecting information and investigating the current state of affairs in the field of EO in the Balkan region. The analysis of this detailed data shows there are inevitable differences between the contributing countries due to history, politics and other reasons. On the other hand, we can find many common trends and common goals for the EO in the region.

The biggest weaknesses are that EO data regulation is not clear to the data producers. Data in many countries is expensive, incomplete, limited, outdated, unavailable or incorrect. Other factors include the use of standards regarding EO data, weak and irregular cooperation among data producers and providers, limited sharing of EO regional datasets in places such as the former Yugoslav republics and Balkan countries, and data compatibility with GEOSS.

Also, in many counties, most of the data producers or providers are only partially aware of the needs of end-users regarding EO data. Other areas that need improvement include the export of products and services in most countries, media reports of EO-related issues, informing professional societies about new data sources, data availability and data usage, and the cooperation between academic institutions and decision makers for EO data development and implementation. The completeness of EO data and the ease of access can considerably increase the annual income of EO data users by 10-25 percent.

More information at

GeoViQua is an EU research project that is working to provide the GEO data user community with innovative quality-aware visualisation and advanced geo-search capabilities. One of the objectives of our research is to contribute to defining the concept of a GEO label – that is, a label to assist users in quality assessment of geospatial datasets.

It is now available online the GeoViQua Newsletter Nº1 with the last developments and ideas on the project.
You can download the Newsletter in the following link on the GeoViQua Twiki page

For more information about the GEO label

(July 2012). Speaking in Japan at the Google-hosted event, “Big Tent: The Role of Technology in Disaster Preparedness and Relief”, the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) head of office Margareta Wahlström said Google and other providers of information can make an important contribution to raising awareness about disaster risk reduction in disaster-prone countries.


“Experience shows that early warning messages save lives if people receiving the message know how to act – what to do when the emergency strikes.

She pointed out that the internet combined with technologies such as Geographic Information systems make it possible to better understand hazards, and, in particular, the growing exposure and vulnerability of cities to disasters and risks.“There is an opportunity for Google and other providers of information to make themselves part of the chain of education and awareness raising that is necessary to reach all people in exposed and vulnerable regions and to save lives. In a number of high risk countries, 90 percent of the people have a cell phone, and only 10 percent have internet access. Innovative partnerships will overcome this gap.”

Google took the opportunity of the event to urge governments to get better at sharing information to allow citizens and first responders to make better use of the Internet during natural disasters. Rachel Whetstone, the firm’s senior vice president of public policy and communications, said that some countries hesitate over disclosing data and that this prevents civil society from creating new services to help citizens in need.

Read more: UNISDR

UN-SPIDER’s goal is to ensure that countries as well as international and regional organization can fully benefit from the opportunities that space-based information offers for risk and disaster management.

The world of disaster management and space-based technology is complex and potential users are still struggling to fully capture all information about the existence, availability and accessibility, quality, costs and timeliness of space-based data. Disaster management experts, national institutions and governments are sometimes not aware of the full potential of satellite technology and the benefit it offers for disaster and risk management. Therefore, the UN-SPIDER Programme was founded as a platform to bring institutions and practitioners together to share their knowledge and expertise, and to improve access to space-based information for disaster management.

The successful implementation of UN-SPIDER’s mandate benefits from the support and voluntary contributions in cash and in kind of our partners: Member States, national institutions, governmental institutions and non-governmental institutions. Four projects to build partnerships have been identified on the sidelines of the 55th session of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) in June 2012:

The United Nations Office of Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) has furthermore announced partnership projects in the areas of Space Applications for the Management of Natural Resources, Space Applications for Health, the Basic Space Technology Initiative, the Human Space Technology Initiative, Navigation Satellite Systems and Space Law. Find out more.

Interested in building a partnership with us?
Get in touch, we’ll tell you more:
United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs
Telephone: +43-1-260 60 4950
Fax: +43-1-260 60 5830
E-mail: oosa@unoosa.org
Read more:
UNOOSA

RIO+20: The “landscape approach”

It is “landscape science/ agriculture/ approach”, which now embraces “eco-agriculture”, “forest landscape restoration”, “territorial development”, “model forests”, “foodsheds”, “participatory watershed management”, “community-based natural resource management”, “biological corridors”, and many other connected concepts.

This is no fringe effort – its collaborators are the UN Environment Programme, the Food and Agriculture Organization, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, the World Resources Institute, and Conservation International, among others.

What is it?

As higher temperatures and erratic rainfall affect the lives of rural dwellers, this approach helps them develop and use their land and water resources more efficiently to earn a livelihood, produce food, maintain livestock and take care of other needs. But they do it in a manner that causes minimum damage to the environment while helping to restore and maintain biodiversity, according to Sara Scherr, president and CEO of EcoAgriculture Partners, a co-organizer of the Landscapes for People, Food and Nature Initiative, a US-based non-profit organization.

The initiative hopes to use spatial technology, for instance, to advise rural communities on which portion of the land in their village should be put under agriculture, or left alone to revive, to ensure the ecological balance is maintained.

It falls under the broader ambit of sustainable development. The Rural Futures programme of the African Union, launched in 2010, is based on a similar approach, better known as integrated rural development.

How is it different?

But unlike the integrated rural development models from the 1970s and ‘80s, where a lead organization devised and financed a “top-down” plan within a defined project period, landscape initiatives are led by local stakeholders, said Scherr.

“There are several such initiatives where communities, pastoralists, farmers, the private sector, people from agriculture, water and other sectors, conservationists, have come together – we have found more than 300,” she noted.

These efforts are known by different names, but the initiative’s collaborators thought it would be useful to band them under a single umbrella, which would help not only to create awareness but also funding, “otherwise these initiatives struggle to raise money sectorally.”

Lindiwe Sibanda, head of the Food Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network, a think-tank based in South Africa, said: “It doesn’t matter what it is called – we are interested in its motives and results. Any initiative that helps reduce hunger and improve rural lives should be welcomed.”

The landscape approach is a bit more than integrated development, said Tim Benton, the UK Champion of the Global Food Security Programme, who teaches at the University of Leeds. The use of remote sensing, resource monitoring, and spatial analysis are part of landscape science and provide the tools to communities to assess the impact of their actions on a rural landscape.

Benton said the expansion of mobile phone technology could help make such information available to communities at their fingertips.

Source: IRIN, the humanitarian news and analysis service of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

For more information visit:www.irinnews.org

Source

The sixth call for proposals under the Space theme of FP7 was published on 10 July 2012.

The deadline is set on 21st November 2012 (at 17:00:00 – Brussels local time). Evaluation is foreseen in December-February 2012/2013, proposal negotiation in 2013.

In the sixth Space call, the focus is on research topics in climate change, critical technologies, Earth analogue R&D preparing for space exploration missions, space weather, and space debris and collision threats. Proposals with international cooperation are solicited in particular with China and Ukraine. SME specific research is funded to enhance technology transfer.

For further information, visit the Research & Innovation Participant Portal

(10 May 2012) US: The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) released its latest Broad Agency Announcement (DARPA-BAA-12-35) for the programme, Space Enabled Effects for Military Engagements (SeeMe). Bidders will be competing for approximately USD 45 million to be distributed via multiple awards.

The goal of this programme is to provide needed on-demand imagery directly to the warfighter in the field from a very-low-cost satellite constellation in a timely manner. Such a programme will fill current gaps in critical information prior to, during and after military engagements.

There are obvious significant advantages in closing this information gap with persistent coverage and on-demand delivery in terms of driving up mission success probability and reducing personnel risk.

If successful, the SeeMe programme will provide reliable and persistent information by using small, short-lived, very-low-cost satellites at very low altitudes, integrated into existing communications systems and handheld platforms.

The challenge here is to provide full constellation coverage over a selected latitude band at a cost that is only a fraction of current airborne costs. This roughly translates into a satellite unit cost of no more than USD 500,000, exclusive of launch and ground operations.

Today, the warfighter in the field is unable to obtain on-demand satellite imagery in a timely manner due to unavailability of satellite over-flight opportunities, lack of information distribution channels, prioritization conflicts, and/or classification restrictions. The BAA pointed out: “At the same time, insurgents that operate against US warfighters worldwide have the ability to utilize commercial imagery services to obtain information, effectively providing them with an asymmetric advantage.”

Source: “Space Daily”;http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/DARPA_SeeMe_Program_Has_Arrived_999.html

(15June2012) Three new satellite concepts are vying to be chosen as ESA’s seventh Earth Explorer mission. In preparation for selection next year, a series of reports has been published presenting the scientific and technical ambition of each mission.

Since the Biomass, CoReH2O and PREMIER mission concepts were selected for feasibility study in 2009, each candidate has been undergoing a set of rigorous activities to demonstrate their value to science and that they are technically viable.

The culmination of these efforts provides an important juncture at which to document their capabilities. Furthermore, the release of the three Reports for Mission Selection is timely in view of preparation for the ESA Ministerial Council in November, at which funding is sought to finance the development of the seventh Earth Explorer.

These three state-of-the-art candidates address gaps in our scientific knowledge of a number of dynamic, complex and interdependent Earth-system processes.

How much carbon do forests store?

The Biomass mission will study the global distribution of forest biomass using a new
P-band polarimetric, interferometric synthetic aperture radar.

Since the Biomass, CoReH2O employs a new twin-frequency (Ku- and X-band) imaging radar to study the global distribution of snow and seasonal variations in the amount of water stored in snow. Meanwhile, PREMIER will study coupling between dynamic and chemical processes in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere using a combination of infrared and microwave limb imaging instruments.

Each of the concepts reiterates that the pursuit to advance scientific knowledge about Earth can only be accomplished through long-term commitment to the development of innovative space technology.

How much freshwater is held in snow?

After the recent loss of the Envisat mission, the addition of a seventh Earth Explorer to the current missions will help to shape the future of Earth observation by ESA.

The Earth Observation Envelope Programme (EOEP) forms the backbone of ESA’s activities in Earth observation, whilst also providing the critical funding for the Earth Explorer series of missions.

The upcoming fourth period, EOEP-4, will ensure Europe stays at the forefront of satellite-based science and applications, while stimulating technical innovation and industrial growth.

Importantly, the programme also lays the foundation for international cooperation for a collaborative approach in understanding and tackling global environmental challenges.

How are atmospheric chemistry and climate linked?

The programme and the selection of new Earth Explorer missions offer a solid investment for Europe to further science and develop superior technology. In return, the Explorers secure a solid heritage for future missions for much-needed operational purposes.

Pending the outcome of the Ministerial Council, a few steps remain prior to selection of the seventh Earth Explorer. A User Consultation Meeting is scheduled in early 2013 where the three missions will be presented to the scientific community.

The extended Phase-A activities, which are under way, will consolidate the concepts even further and address areas of remaining risk prior to the meeting. These results will be summarised in ‘delta reports’ to deliver the most comprehensive picture on the status of each candidate mission.

Meeting the challenges of a changing world

Based on the recommendation made by ESA’s Earth Science Advisory Committee after the User Consultation Meeting, the final decision on selection decision will be taken by the ESA’s Programme Board for Earth Observation.

The Reports for Mission Selection can be downloaded
BIOMASS
CoReH2O
PREMIER

(Source ESA)