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NPA Group: Terrafirma moves to Stage

Terrafirma, run by NPA of the UK, is an ESA GMES project aimed at establishing a ‘terrain motion’ hazard information service across Europe in support of policies aimed at saving lives, improving safety and reducing economic loss.

Terrafirma, now in Stage 2 and starting its fourth year of activity, is based on a combination of radar satellite interferometry and expert geophysical interpretation to produce terrain motion information products that relate to four key areas of concern: urban stability (including mining), flood-risk (coastal lowlands, floodplain subsidence and flood defence integrity), crustal deformation (earthquakes) and landslides.
Terrafirma has so far enlisted the national geological organisations of 22 member states (including the British Geological Survey), as well as the main pan-European geological associations (EuroGeoSurveys, European Federation of Geologists and the Euro-Mediterranean Seismological Centre). Terrafirma therefore represents a single point of contact for geohazard expertise in Europe. The project is delivering products for at least one major town in each of the EU25, plus 17 landslide products in Italy, Spain, Greece and Switzerland. All in all, nearly 60 terrain motion products will have been made by 2008.
Terrafirma products cross-cut a range of established applications: landslide products are allied to emergency response, urban stability to land monitoring, crustal deformation is more appropriate to future security issues, and monitoring coastal lowlands is complementary to in-situ services. Because of this cross-cutting nature and there consequently being no single home for Terrafirma in the current FP7 Fast Track regime, it is important that all lobbying activities continue to ensure that the unique and valuable attributes offered by Terrafirma are fully exploited.
“Stoke on Trent, UK. A result showing the remarkable attributes of the Terrafirma product. Red is subsidence, blue uplift and green stable. Current theories believe the uplift to be due to the flooding of old mines.”
For further information, please contact the project Co-ordinator,
Ren Capes, on ren@npagroup.com
(Source NPAGroup)