1. European Commissioner for Climate Action Emphasizes the Role of Space
2. The GlobCover Project
3. Workshop on Maritime Monitoring for Coast Guards
4. EU Study Reveals the Plight of Baltic Sea Ecosystem
5. UK Accorded Time Extension to Comply with the Air Quality Directive
6. Climate Change Threatens European Forests
7. Water Scarcity and Droughts in Europe: State of Play
8. Consultation on Maritime Spatial Planning and Integrated Coastal Zone Management
9. Reminder: Call for Expressions of Interest Concerning GMES Projects and Services
GMES Project Corner:
10. Newly launched GMES projects
11. MACC Project: Recent Achievements
12. G-MOSAIC: Recent Activations
13. Latest Activations of the GMES Emergency Management Service
1. European Commissioner for Climate Action Emphasizes the Role of Space
On 2 February 2011, a Hearing on “Space Systems and Key Assets for Climate Change Monitoring and Adaptation Strategies” took place at the European Parliament. European Commissioner for Climate Action, Connie Hedegaard, stressed that Earth observation is of the utmost importance for monitoring, tackling and adapting to climate change, and pointed to satellite navigation as an important space tool. Moreover, she is working together with Vice-President and Commissioner for Industry and Entrepreneurship, Antonio Tajani, in order to develop a joint strategy on space and climate.
2. The GlobCover Project
On 9 February 2011 took place the final meeting of the European Space Agency’s GlobCover project at the Institute for Environment and Sustainability (JRC IES) in Ispra, Italy. The objective was to make an assessment of both the strengths and limitations of the project, as well as to present the new GlobCover 2009 Map. The GlobCover project has developed a service capable of delivering land cover maps on the basis of satellite images, thanks to observations from the 300m MERIS (MEdium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer) sensor on board the ENVISAT (“Environmental Satellite”) mission.
3. Workshop on Maritime Monitoring for Coast Guards
On 10 February 2011, a training workshop on the latest space technologies for maritime monitoring and surveillance was held at the European Space Agency’s Earth observation centre in Frascati (Italy). This course served as a platform to agree on future collaborative projects and to provide coast guards with an improved understanding of the technical aspects behind operational systems that make wider use of satellite data. New developments, currently under verification, were also presented.
4. EU Study Reveals the Plight of Baltic Sea Ecosystem
In a recently study, EU-funded researchers at the Geological Survey of Finland have found that the sea surface temperature of the Baltic Sea was warmer in the past than at the present time and that the oxygen depletion was stronger than current figures show. In this context, the INFLOW project (one of the sixteen BONUS+ projects) is developing a model for natural variability in marine ecosystems that will clarify how the changes will affect the Baltic Sea in the long term.
5. UK Accorded Time Extension to Comply with the Air Quality Directive
On 11 March 2011, under a temporary and conditional exemption, the European Commission granted the United Kingdom additional time to comply with the European Union’s air quality standards for airborne particles (known as “PM10”) in the Greater London Urban Area. The decision approves the time extension provided that the UK adapts its air quality plan for this zone.
6. Climate Change Threatens European Forests
Europe’s forests face threats from climate change. Global warming and extreme events will probably make disappear some tree sorts from certain areas. In response to this concern, the European Commission issued in March 2010 a Green Paper on “Forest protection and information in the EU: preparing forests for climate change”. Following this, Kriton Arsenis – Greek Socialist Member of the European Parliament (MEP) – wrote a draft report on the Commission Green Paper that was adopted by the European Parliament (EP) Environment Committee at its meeting of 16 March. The indicative date for the vote in plenary is 9 May 2011.
7. Water Scarcity and Droughts in Europe: State of Play
On 21 March 2011, the European Commission published the “Third Follow up Report to the Communication on water scarcity and droughts in the European Union”. In the run up to a major water policy review in 2012, the report presents the water management measures introduced by Member States to tackle water scarcity and droughts and highlights the areas in which further action will be needed in the future.
8. Consultation on Maritime Spatial Planning and Integrated Coastal Zone Management
On 24 March 2011, the European Commission launched a public consultation in order to seek views on how to reduce pressure on coastal and marine areas in the European Union. The questionnaire is aimed at collecting background information for the Impact Assessment which the Commission launched in December 2010 on options for action on Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) and Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM), as well as at obtaining thoughts about the future of coastal and marine areas in the EU and where action at European level would be most useful. The consultation will be open for a period of eight weeks and to all interested parties.
9. Reminder: Call for Expressions of Interest Concerning GMES Projects and Services
As GMES gradually moves towards operations, the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Enterprise and Industry (EC DG ENTR) plans to launch more projects on this theme. These should provide value-added services and products in all GMES areas. In this context, EC DG ENTR is looking for experts in evaluating, monitoring and validating GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security) projects and services.
GMES Projects’ Corner
10. Newly launched GMES projects
Several GMES-related projects have been launched recently by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Enterprise and Industry (EC DG ENTR). Two of them, GRAAL and DORIS_Net, aim at fostering the development of GMES downstream services and the link with the regions. Another project, CryoLand aims at implementing a snow and land ice monitoring service. A fourth project, PanGeo, aims at enabling access to geological information in support of the GMES programme.
11. MACC Project: Recent Achievements
The EC-funded project MACC (Monitoring Atmospheric Composition & Climate) is implementing the pre-operational version of the GMES Atmosphere Monitoring Service. An accurate monitoring of the depletion of the ozone layer in March and an improvement of aerosol forecasts are part of the recent achievements of the project.
12. G-MOSAIC: Recent Activations
The EC-funded project G-MOSAIC (GMES services for Management of Operations, Situation Awareness and Intelligence for regional Crises) provides intelligence data that can be applied to early warning and crisis prevention, as well as to crisis management and rapid interventions in hot spots around the world. Recent activations of the project include for instance the illegal monitoring of charcoal production in Africa, the delivery of population distribution maps in support to yearly surveys in Asia or the analysis of widespread damages due to continuous rainfalls in combination with unstable grounds in Latin America.
13. Latest Activations of the GMES Emergency Management Service
The GMES Emergency Management Service powered by the EC-funded project SAFER reinforces the European capacity to respond to emergency situations: it provides a reactive cartographic service to the registered users involved in the management of humanitarian crisis, natural disasters and man-made emergency situations with timely and high quality products derived from Space Observation. During the last two months, this service has been triggered several times (floods in Madagascar, Oil Spill in Norway, earthquake in New Zealand and civil unrest in Lybia).
(Source GMES.Info)