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A “saline & sodic soil map” and a “soil compaction map” are now available for the EU territory

On 22 December 2009, the EU Soil Portal published the two new soil maps of the EU territory.

The saline and sodic soil map demonstrates the distribution of natural saline or sodic soils as well as salt affected areas within the EU. Salinisation is the accumulation of soluble salts of sodium, magnesium and calcium in soil which are poisonous for the plants and leads towards reduced fertility. It is considered as one of the greatest environmental threats.

The soil compaction map provides a global picture of the European compaction soils which occurs when the weight of livestock or heavy machinery compresses the soil. Compaction is the reduction of soil pore space which leads to the reduced ability of rain absorption and causes various problems for growing the plants.

More information at

A description of the products and services developed by the MyOcean project is now available online

MyOcean is the EU FP7 Research Project responsible for the development of the GMES Marine Monitoring Service.

MyOcean develops upgraded European capabilities for reference marine information and provides a wide range of key ocean indicators such as temperature, salinity or currents in oceans and seas.

In cooperation notably with national metrological services, the European Environment Agency and the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA), MyOcean undertakes the pre-operational validation of the GMES Marine Service. The project also aims at proposing a governance structure for the GMES Marine Service.

The products and services developed by MyOcean are described in a “Product / Service Porfolio” document which is available for dowloading on this website.

“Download MyOcean “Product / Service Porfolio” document”:http://www.gmes.info/fileadmin/files/4.%20GMES%20Services/GMES_Marine_Service_Portfolio_Jan2010.pdf

Source Gmes.Info

A description of the products and services developed by the MACC project is now available online.

MACC is the EU FP7 Research Project responsible for the development of the GMES Atmosphere Monitoring Service.

MACC monitors the composition of the Earth’s atmosphere and predicts regional air quality. It provides data that are critical to the understanding of climate and
to the improvement and validation of the computer models that are used to predict climate change. It also provides information important for the protection of health and for the efficient exploitation of sources of renewable energy.

MACC monitors the distributions and long-range transport of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane, aerosols that result from both natural processes and human activities, and reactive gases such as tropospheric ozone and nitrogen dioxide. It provides global forecasts of reactive gases and aerosols, as well as detailed forecasts and assessments of air quality in Europe. It also provides records and forecast for stratospheric ozone, UV radiation and solar energy.

The products and services developed by MACC are described in a “Product / Service Porfolio” document which is available for dowloading on this website.

Download MACC Product / Service Porfolio document

SOURCE GMES.Info

On 30 December 2009, the European Commission (DG Enterprise) published the names of two successful organizations that applied to the tender on implementation of an initial GMES service for geospatial reference data access.

The contract award was granted to the Spanish company Indra Espacio SA and Italian company SITI (Istituto Superiore sui Sistemi Territoriali per l’Innovazione).

Reference data are in many aspects crucial for the GMES services. According to the Inspire Directive, all the data providers of the Member States are obliged to make this data available. The aim of the contract is to provide a central service to access these reference data providers in a unified manner.

More information on the contract

More information on the Inspire Directive

SOURCE Gmes.info

Latest news on INSPIRE

07-Jan-10 Corrigendum to INSPIRE Metadata Regulation published in the Official Journal

14-Dec-09 Deadline extended: Call for Expression of Interest for participation in development of INSPIRE data specifications for Annex II & III Data Themes l

14-Dec-09 INSPIRE Implementing Rules on interoperability of spatial data sets and services have been approved by the INSPIRE Committee

14-Dec-09 Amendment of the INSPIRE Network Services Regulation for Download and Transformation approved

07-Dec-09 INSPIRE Conference 2010: Call for papers

03-Dec-09 INSPIRE Forum: Connecting people and sharing knowledge

Draft COMMISSION REGULATION implementing Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards interoperability of spatial data sets and services 14.12.2009=

Draft COMMISSION REGULATION amending Regulation (EC) No 976/2009 as regards download services and transformation services 14.12.2009

In Europe a major recent development has been the entering in force of the INSPIRE Directive in May 2007, establishing an infrastructure for spatial information in Europe to support Community environmental policies, and policies or activities which may have an impact on the environment.

INSPIRE is based on the infrastructures for spatial information established and operated by the 27 Member States of the European Union. The Directive addresses 34 spatial data themes needed for environmental applications, with key components specified through technical implementing rules. This makes INSPIRE a unique example of a legislative “regional” approach.
Legislation

Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 March 2007 establishing an Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community (INSPIRE) was published in the official Journal on the 25th April 2007. The INSPIRE Directive entered into force on the 15th May 2007

To ensure that the spatial data infrastructures of the Member States are compatible and usable in a Community and transboundary context, the Directive requires that common Implementing Rules (IR) are adopted in a number of specific areas (Metadata, Data Specifications, Network Services, Data and Service Sharing and Monitoring and Reporting). These IRs are adopted as Commission Decisions or Regulations, and are binding in their entirety. The Commission is assisted in the process of adopting such rules by a regulatory committee composed of representatives of the Member States and chaired by a representative of the Commission (this is known as the Comitology procedure).

SOURCE

(EC “Report on Progress Made in Developing the European Border Surveillance System (Eurosur)”

Note especially:

- 2.1.1. Step 1: Providing the essential border surveillance infrastructure at national level

o During the 2nd half of 2009, FRONTEX will present the risk assessment determining those parts of the external borders of the Member States which should be covered by a national surveillance system […]. At the same time, the different technical concepts for the surveillance of external land and maritime borders elaborated by the contractor of the technical study will be presented to the Member States […] The Commission will consider, in consultation with the Member States whether the concepts and the [European Border Funds] guidelines could become minimum technical requirements to promote interoperability and uniform border surveillance standards, with the possibility for a legislative proposal to be tabled in 2011.

- 2.2.1. Step 4: Research and development to improve the performance of surveillance tools

o 2.2.1.1. Objective: The intention of this step is to promote the use of FP6 and FP7 to improve the performance and use of surveillance tools in order to increase the area covered, the number of suspicious activities detected as well as to improve the identification and tracking of potentially suspicious targets and the access to high resolution observation satellite data.

- 2.2.2. Step 5: Common application of surveillance tools

o 2.2.2.1. Objective: The purpose of this step is the development and setting up of common applications of surveillance tools to provide national coordination centres with surveillance information on their external borders and on the pre-frontier area on a more frequent, reliable and cost-efficient basis. FRONTEX could act as a facilitator in this regard, e.g. via the procurement of satellite imagery on behalf of Member States and co-ordinating the sharing of surveillance equipment such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV).

o 2.2.2.2. Measures taken during the reporting period: In June 2009, the GMES border surveillance group, consisting of experts from the Commission, interested Member States, FRONTEX, ESA, EUSC and EDA, has finalised its work on a concept for the common application of tools for border surveillance, in which it identified the Main user scenarios and requirements for land and maritime border surveillance; State-of-the-art technology to meet these requirements (e.g. airborne and space based surveillance platforms) and applicability of this technology to the different user scenarios.

o 2.2.2.3. Next measures to be taken: […] In 2010, under the FP7 2011 work programme (space theme), a number of projects will be programmed to demonstrate the technical feasibility of the scenarios chosen.

- 2.3.2. Step 8: Creation of a common information sharing environment for the whole EU maritime domain

o 2.3.2.2. Measures taken during the reporting period: In 2008, the EC and ESA started a set of joint initiatives aiming at investigating the possibility of picking up and distributing Automated Identification System (AIS) signals from space. The conclusions of the projects will feed into recommendations for possible next steps towards a common space-borne AIS service by the end of 2010.

- 3. CONCLUSION: […] Concepts and tools developed under Phase 2 (in particular steps 5 and 6) shall be first tested and then progressively inserted into the EUROSUR framework from 2012 onwards.

st13770.en09.pdf

(Source Eurospace)

European Earth observation programme (GMES) and its initial operations 2011–2013

Please find here a procedure file on European Earth observation programme (GMES) and its initial operations 2011–2013. The paper has been discussed at the meeting (28/09) of ITRE committee of the European Parliament regarding the Regulation on GMES Initial operation

Procedures_GIO.pdf

(Source ASD-Eurospace)

communication from the EC “Reviewing Community innovation policy in a changing world” (com(2009)442final_en.pdf), which presents an assessment of the achievements and shortcomings in implementing Community policies in support of innovation in recent years.

Together with a series of more detailed Commission staff working papers (http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/innovation/documents/index_en.htm) it serves as an input to the preparation of a new European innovation plan, as called for by the European Council last December (in the conclusions of this Council, under FR presidency, space was one of the five industrial sectors explicitly mentioned!).

The objective is to put in place new ambitious policies to foster innovation in Europe. The new policy will be presented in the context of the forthcoming post-2010 Lisbon strategy for growth and jobs, taking into account the global economic crisis.

It is worth noting:

- in the EC staff working paper “Challenges for EU support to innovation in services – Fostering new markets and jobs through innovation” (st12956-re01.en09.pdf)

o p. 5: the Presidency conclusions of the European Council of 12 December 2008 called for the launch of a European plan for innovation, encompassing all of the conditions for sustainable development and the main technologies of the future, including new services deriving from them, in particular space-based services which represent an important potential market.

o p. 78: “[…] the European Knowledge Intensive Services Innovation Platform (KIS-IP), was launched in February 2008. The KIS-IP addresses the specific needs of innovative service firms and it focuses on the innovative service solutions in technological and industrial fields by developing and testing new or better innovation support mechanisms for innovative SMEs […]. The KIS-IP currently consists of three sectoral partnerships in the areas of ICT, space-based services and renewable energy services”

o p. 85: “Recent results from the Europe INNOVA initiative show that innovative SMEs operating in riskier environments like knowledge intensive services or very early stage markets continue to have problems accessing finance. For example, space-based services have difficult access to capital for breakthrough development in Europe. This is due to the problems in the European risk capital markets, in particular to the problem of providing sufficient growth capital. These problems are addressed in detail in the Staff Working Document ‘Financing Innovation and SMEs’ ”.

- In the EC staff working paper ‘Lead Market Initiative for Europe – Mid-term progress report” (swd_lmi_midterm_progress.pdf)

o on p. 86, the EC provides a number of suggestions for other applications of the LMI: “There are several industries and market segments which may be suitable for a LMI-type approach, for instance, in satellite-derived applications. […] more emphasis could be placed on fostering innovative products and services that could potentially have the greatest impact on meeting societal challenges. This would establish the LMI approach as a tool to meet societal challenges at hand.”

The EC is now organizing a public consultation which seeks to follow up the findings of the referred Communication. It will explore new ways to address challenges for a better European innovation policy and collect information for the impact assessment report on the innovation plan. To this purpose, a list of questions has been prepared (see doc in attachment).

All interested stakeholders are invited to submit comments by Monday 16 November 2009 to entr-innovation-policy-development@ec.europa.eu.

infoconsultationoncommunityinnovationpolicyconcern.zip

(Source ASD-Eurospace)

Please find here for information the Communication from the EC: « GDP and beyond – Measuring progress in a changing world”

See, especially, on page 6:

3.2.1. More timely environmental indicators

Satellites, automatic measurement stations and the internet make it increasingly possible to monitor the environment in real time. The Commission is stepping up efforts to realise this potential. It has taken major steps to employ these technologies with the INSPIRE Directive and GMES.

st12739.en09.pdf

Source ASD-Eurospace

EC updated Sectoral Overview 2009 “European Industry in a changing world”

The aim of this Sectoral Overview is to provide stakeholders and policy makers in the European Institutions or in national administrations with a succinct analysis of the current situation, and the factors affecting competitiveness, in all industrial sectors.

See page 177-180 for information regarding the Space sector, which is seen by the EC as a sector to become even more important in the future “as it will offer new opportunities for business and services for citizens”. The figures regarding the space sector come from Eurospace.

st12539.en09_sectoral overview 2009.pdf

Source Europace