Thermographic map, created by EUROSENSE, wins e-GOV award
The thermographic project of Ghent city, executed by EUROSENSE, has won the e-GOV award for usability. The e-Gov Awards aim to reward the best ICT projects realized by Belgian public services which also demonstrate administrative simplification, innovation and sense for cooperation.
In the winter of 2011 a “thermographic image” of Ghent city was taken by EUROSENSE. At the same time, almost 500 voluntary inhabitants executed temperature measurements in their houses. EUROSENSE processed the thermographic imagery into one geo-referenced map and created by means of the volunteer measurements an interpretation key with corresponding legends. This detailed interpretation allows the inhabitants to make the bridge from heat losses to insulation quality.
With the support of EUROSENSE, the results have been inserted by the city of Ghent into a web application: http://warmtefoto.gent.be/ (in Dutch). By this web application, citizens of Ghent can make an assessment on the quality of their roof insulation. Additionally, a link is made to “roof insulation group purchasing”, information sessions and additional support (subsidies) for people with low incomes.
EUROSENSE’s detailed interpretation key and the involvement of inhabitants, were determining factors that distinguished this project from the others with respect to user friendliness.
Besides this award for our innovative approach, EUROSENSE has recently been awarded with 4 new thermographic projects. A thermographic map will be created for the municipality of Tervuren and some industrial areas in West-Flanders (Belgium), the City of Enschede (the Netherlands) and Luxembourg City.
REDDiness and G-Mosaic outputs presented in a poster session at the international conference on Climate change, Deforestation and the future of African rainforests in Oxford (04/01/2012)
Obtaining compensations due to Reductions of Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD) presupposes the development of a robust, reliable and transparent forest monitoring system.
REDDiness and G-Mosaic are both GMES (Global Monitoring of Environment and Security) projects under the 7th Framework Programme. For both projects, there is a high interest of measuring and mapping changes in the world’s humid tropical forests to derive national and regional figures for multilateral agreements and sustainable forest management.
REDDiness, led by EUROSENSE, compiles a mixed European-African consortium combining years of experience in forest monitoring. The project’s main objective is to assist Gabon and the Republic of Congo in developing EO (Earth Observation) forest monitoring services and building national capacity. Therefore, as a starting point, a quantitative survey has been carried out in both countries to measure needs, interest and awareness of EO-based products for REDD.
| The main part of the questionnaire is based on multiple choice questions about geomatics tools (data, expertise and resources in hardware or software), REDD topic (skills available or requested), and the involvement of participants in REDD (political and scientific knowledge, interesting products and definitions or parameters which are useful in setting up a MRV (Measurement, Reporting and Verification)). |
Based on the user requirements analysis and after a detailed process of decision in the consortium, the aim of REDDiness will be to evaluate the effectiveness of different types of satellite imagery in detecting and monitoring of forest degradation. The figure above summarizes the relevant choices to be made by REDD projects (or countries) when deciding on starting up an earth observation strategy.
In G-mosaic (GMES services for Management of Operations, Situation Awareness and Intelligence for regional Crises), the critical asset working group developed geo-spatial information to assess forest changes linked to the reopening of roads, in the DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo). Change assessment on three hot spots with very high resolution EO data has been compared to the high resolution map recently produced by our local partner OSFAC (Observatoire Satellital des Forêts d’Afrique Centrale).
Click here to see the poster
Contact us for more information
http://www.eurosense.com
