QuantCube Technology is a fintech company that provides high quality financial performance indicators to its clients.

Founded in 2013 by two entrepreneurs with strong expertise in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Big Data, the company counts today in its portfolio of clients financial institutions such as Moody’s, the World Bank, Banque de France, Ardian, and Union Bancaire Privée (UBP).

The challenge

Financial forecasting is the process by which companies think about and prepare for the future. Forecasting involves assessing historical and current data concerning macroeconomics, environmental, social and governance factors.

While plenty of official economic data exists, these are often published with a lag of three or four months and for some areas of the world such data is difficult to access. As an example, up-to-date information on urban growth or maritime traffic, which can be linked to economic growth, is not available for many geographic areas, and it needs to be retrieved from sources other than official reports.

The satellite solution

Copernicus data are used by QuantCube to collect real-time information on four wide sectors of activity that are crucial to economic growth.

Agriculture: Sentinel-2 images, as well as meteorological data, are used to calculate real-time estimates of the crop yield per region and country, allowing for better tracking of agricultural activities.

Pollution: Sentinel-5p satellite images allow QuantCube to estimate the level of pollution per region and per country, focusing on the industrialised areas. Assessing the level of pollution (and in particular of NO2 emissions), allows for the tracking of industrial production.

Urban growth: Sentinel-2 images are used to measure and monitor urbanised surfaces and their yearly evolution. This helps QuantCube to track how cities change over time.

Water stress: Sentinel-2 satellite images allow for the montoring of water sources. Monitoring the fluctuation of water surfaces enables QuantCube to foresee droughts, which have a noticeable impact on water-intensive economic sectors.

To obtain the best possible accuracy, QuantCube Technology couples information extracted from satellite imagery with other data sources, such as job offers, sentiment data from social media, or logistics flows data.

The results of the analyses are delivered in real-time via the QuantCube Macroeconomic Intelligence Platform. The platform offers users different levels of granularity, ranging from sector data to country-level macroeconomic indices.

The results

The use of Copernicus-based data adds a significant value-adding layer to QuantCube’s offer of macro smart data, providing  information on regions where official statistics and indicators are difficult to obtain or are made available with some delay. In addition, the satellite images also allow for the monitoring of changes in a specific region or country over time to detect unusual trends.

In 2021, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Hub and the Bank of Italy placed QuantCube among the finalists for the G20 green and sustainable financial challenge, which was launched during the Italian G20 presidency.

“As climate change is increasingly affecting economic growth, environmental parameters are becoming more and more important for financial predictions. Hence, the use of satellite data will continue to play a crucial role in enabling companies to produce reliable financial and macroeconomic forecasts”. Alice Froidevaux, Lead Data Scientist, QuantCube Technology

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DSE-Data Science Experts is a company created in 2020 and focused on building products and solutions based on Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Based in Grenoble, France, the company today employs 11 people. The team’s vision is to help insurance companies to better support the agriculture sector in times of natural disasters.

The challenge

According to the World Meteorological Organization’s Atlas of Mortality and Economic Losses from Weather, Climate and Water Extremes, the number of disasters related to a weather, climate or water hazard has increased by a factor of five between 1970 and 2019 globally. Agrıculture is among the sectors that are affected the most by climate-related disasters.

To establish mechanisms, and in particular insurance schemes, to support the recovery of agricultural activities affected by disasters, there is a growing need for data and information to foresee and assess such damages.

The satellite solution

AIperion is a system, developed by DSE, that estimates the damage affecting agricultural fields, identifies the boundaries of flooded and burned areas, and detects the extent, impact and duration of droughts based on extreme weather events or natural disasters.

The system is based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) applied to Earth observation images to identify and detect the boundaries of flooded and burned areas. It integrates meteorological data from the MSG mission (Meteosat Second Generation satellites) to detect the intensity and duration of extreme weather events.

AIPerion relies on data from the Copernicus Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 missions to calculate vegetation indices and estimate agricultural damage.

These analyses are combined to produce an assessment of the level of damage to the crops and of its causes. The results are provided to customers through a dashboard, in the form of maps and figures.

The results

By integrating Copernicus data into their software, DSE can provide precise information on the crops’ health and determine if the damage to crop reported by farmers is a consequence of natural disasters and not of fraud attempts.

Moreover, based on the information provided by DSE, insurance companies can determine the premium to be paid for crop losses caused by natural disasters.

Under the request of one insurance company, using this system DSE was able to map 80% of cultivated fields on the French territory to detect the growth status of vegetation. That was made possible thanks to the high temporal resolution of the Copernicus data and could not have been done by using in-situ surveying techniques.

Using free and open Copernicus data, DSE can provide its services at a much lower cost than the price that they would ask if they used other paying satellite data. As a result, after only one year of existence, the company can count some of the world’s biggest insurance companies among their customers.

In 2020, the AIPeiron system has been awarded the Copernicus Masters Prize for France.

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D-ICE is a French SME working on technological solutions to diminish the impact of boats on the environment.

The company is based in Nantes, with a team of 26 people, and operates in the fields of routing, clean energy and safety at sea. D-ICE assists ship owners and operators to find solutions to diminish their impact on the environment. In particular, they work on assessing the interest of adding wind-assisted ship propulsion systems onboard merchant ships.

The challenge

More than 3% of global carbon dioxide emissions can be attributed to ocean-going vessels, which is equivalent to the annual greenhouse gas emissions from over 205 million cars. Moreover, boats powered by fuel also cause noise pollution that negatively affects marine life.

The carbon dioxide emissions of ships are directly proportional to fuel consumption and speed. To reduce their environmental impact and to align with the objectives of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), the shipping industry is looking for solutions to reduce fuel consumption by using wind-assisted propulsion systems.

D-ICE decided to create systems to help ship operators to assess the interest of adding wind-assisted ship propulsion systems onboard their ships.

The satellite solution

Since 2020, D-ICE developed the SATORI software, an online service that estimates the fuel consumption of ships on specific routes. SATORI is particularly interesting to evaluate the performances of wind-assisted ship propulsion systems.

Initially funded by the Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service (CMEMS), SATORI relies on data from Copernicus satellites to acquire information on weather, wind, waves and sea currents on sea routes. Those historical data are made freely available by the Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service through two products: the Global Waves Reanalysis Waverys and the Global Ocean Physics Reanalysis.

The data are used to calculate ships’ motions and interactions with the environment. Indeed, the evaluation of wind, waves and currents is necessary for the model to calculate the speed of ships and their engine power between two points at a specific time.

The results

SATORI is built for shipowners, naval architects and providers of propulsion systems. Customers access SATORI through a web portal, where they can enter the ships’ data and their potential speed according to different directions and winds.

Users can perform statistical weather routing studies on the online interface, choose a route and the time periods on which they wish to assess the ships’ average consumption, and then create their own data visualisation to obtain the required forecasts (environmental conditions to be encountered, fuel saving associated with wind-assisted propulsion, ship motions).

SATORI has been already used by some notable skippers. For example, Total and Z&B are today using the software on some of their ships, while AYRO and Chantiers de l’Atlantique rely on it to design wind-assisted ship propulsion systems.

The same algorithm which powers SATORI was used to perform a study for the design team of the new Banque Populaire trimaran after their boat capsized during the Route du Rhum yacht race in 2018.

In 2021, the boat Maître Coq won the greatest sailing race around the world, solo, non-stop and without assistance: the Vendée Globe. D-ICE provided the skipper, Yannick Bestaven, with a software that contained a database of historical routes.

This database was computed with the same algorithm as SATORI. This tool helped him to confirm his routes’ choices and to eventually win the race.

“Thanks to this new technology, the shipping community can now validate business models around the new targets of the International Maritime Organization and take action to reduce greenhouse gases emissions globally”. Sylvain Faguet, D-ICE
Engineering.

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Port-la-Nouvelle is a French town in the Occitanie region, in the south of France, on the Mediterranean coast.

The historic port of Port-la-Nouvelle extends over 2.5 kilometres, and it represents a major economic asset in the area. Owned by the Region, it includes a commercial port, a fishing harbour, and a marina. The Chamber of Commerce of Aude is responsible for its daily management. This commercial port has historically specialised in the import of oil and the export of cereals.

The challenge

In 2018, the Occitanie region decided to start important works to adapt the commercial port of Port-la-Nouvelle to new traffics and allow for the development of new sectors.

Notably, the regional plan foresees the installation of floating wind-turbines and the creation of a green hydrogen production plant as from 2024. These works are part of a regional policy that aims at combining the economic development of the region with the valorisation of its environment.

Carrying out the works around the harbour implied dredging, which could bring back to the surface sediments on the seafloor, hence endangering the marine environment and the natural areas nearby.

To guarantee that the port expansion works were carried out sustainably, the Directorate for the Sea needed a reliable water quality monitoring system in the area of the works.

The satellite solution

i-SEA- a company based in Aquitaine, supported the port authorities to monitor water turbidity nearby the works, by using data from the Sentinel-2 and Sentinel-3 Copernicus satellites. The satellites provided data on water turbidity in the past and the near future.

Before the works started, satellite imagery allowed I-SEA and the Region to better understand the hydro-sedimentary processes of the site of Port-la-Nouvelle. During the works, the data contributed to in-situ monitoring, by providing a big  picture of water turbidity levels and a forecast of the turbidity levels expected within the next three days.

The results

Thanks to the Copernicus data, it was possible to avoid damage to the nearby natural areas and to prevent the infiltration of a turbid plume in the nearby pond of Bages Sigean.

The predictive method provided the personnel responsible the works in the Region with daily objective tools to monitor the impact of the expansion of the port on water turbidity and to adapt the works according to the forecasted turbidity levels.

In 2024, the commercial harbour of Port-la-Nouvelle will welcome the first floating wind turbines in the Mediterranean Sea. This operation is part of a regional strategy to achieve sustainable development in the littoral by using technology to boost the local economy, while safeguarding the environment.

“We do our best efforts to ensure that economic development is based on the safeguard and valorisation of the region’s natural resources”. Benjamin Grente, Directorate for the Sea, Occitanie Region.

READ THE FULL STORY: Monitoring water turbidity in Port la Nouvelle

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The Lyon public transport network Transports en Commun Lyonnais (TCL) is managed by the public transport authority SYTRAL. Its task is to build and set up the agglomeration’s transport policy, carry out investments, determine pricing policy and adapt the transport offer in the Rhône and Lyon region in France.

The Challenge

As the number of people living in cities is growing, local authorities fear a rise in the number of vehicles and pollution. To respond to the increasing urban congestion, cities are exploring smarter and greener mobility solutions. One of the main challenges to encourage the use of public transport, is to bridge gaps at the edges of existing transit systems. This challenge is also known as “the first and last kilometre”. It represents the distance from a specific starting point to a transport network, or the distance remaining from a transport network to a final destination.

Lyon’s public transport network is the second largest in France. Nevertheless, in some areas of the city, commuters still face the first and last kilometre barrier. For example, the large majority of those working in the Gaulnes business park still prefer to use the car, while only 15% rely on public transport. To face this challenge, rather than increasing the number of traditional bus lines, the city decided to expand the coverage of the existing infrastructure.

Lyon has a strong history of innovation in public transport, starting in 1862 with the introduction of the first funicular railway. This innovative mindset led SYTRAL to contact the Keolis Group and NAVYA, a company based in Lyon that specialises in autonomous electric shuttles. The driverless shuttles offer a cost-effective way to encourage the use of public transport.

To be guided safely through the trafficked streets of Lyon, all the shuttles have a GNSS antenna. Thanks to satellite navigation, the position of a vehicle is constantly monitored by the control centre. Moreover, to ensure constant monitoring of the buses also where the satellite connection is interrupted, the vehicles are equipped with additional guidance and detection systems such as cameras and sensors.

In September 2016, Lyon launched its very first autonomous shuttle service named NAVLY in the Confluence district, complementing an urban renewal project overlooking the Saône River. The NAVLY shuttles, running at an average speed of 15 km/h, make five stops on a public route of 1.3 km. The vehicles are freely accessible, carry up to 15 passengers at a time and circulate regularly every day. For the moment, an operator is present on the bus. To know the position of the shuttles in real time and to consult the schedule, an application called “NAVLY” is available for free.

In March 2019, another autonomous shuttle line was added. The Mobilité Intelligente & Autonome (MIA) service connects the offices in the Gaulnes business park with the nearby tram station. This 2.4 kilometre route, which includes three stops, runs during rush hours and at lunch time. The objective is to offer an alternative to the car and encourage the use of public transport for those working in the area. A third line, N1, was launched in November 2019: two more autonomous shuttles provide a regular service between the Décines Grand Large tram station and the Parc Olympique Lyonnais stadium.

The results

The autonomous shuttles offer a cost-effective response to the challenges of urban mobility, in addition to conventional means of public transportation. Overall, the autonomous shuttles in Lyon have been used by over 70 000 passengers to date, while the N1 shuttles transport an average of 80 passengers every day. These first and last kilometre services mark the first wave of autonomous vehicle adoption in the city. This project is part of the EU-funded project Autonomous Vehicles to Evolve to New Urban Experience (AVENUE), and more autonomous vehicles will be deployed in other European cities in the future. Local transport in rural areas, or on specific sites such as university campuses and hospitals, can benefit from this smart mobility service as well.

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KERMAP is a spinoff of the University of Rennes 2 and the LETG laboratory set up by the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS). The company, founded in 2016, provides solutions to support cities in their ecological transition, offering a broad range of services, such as vegetation and air quality monitoring, and carbon storage estimation, among others.

The challenge

Every city is an ecosystem, and maintaining its good status is crucial for the health and happiness of city residents. This implies granting a good balance between green and built areas, sustaining biodiversity, restoring natural habitats and providing ecological corridors for wild species. The city of Rennes, where KERMAP is based, counts 12.700 trees. Among them, many are ancient specimens that need to be cut down to prevent damages to the infrastructure. To plan such works, the city needed a precise map of the trees and their species, in addition to information on air quality, infrastructure and buildings in the concerned areas.

KERMAP wanted to assist the city of Rennes in planning its tree management works. Hence, the company started looking for a viable solution to map and monitor the vegetation status.  The data on green areas had to be scalable and comparable over time and be made available online to local communities, public administration, and private actors.

The satellite solution

In 2017 KERMAP used satellite imagery to map and qualify green areas in Rennes. Satellite imagery reveals to be useful to map wide portions of territory in different time gaps and conditions. The images used are provided by the French Centre for Space Studies (CNES), the Bretagne province and its academic labs. The urban vegetation is monitored at least once a month to model the vegetation development cycle.

Thanks to the data collected, KERMAP prepared a demo map of the city, showing green areas and the kind of trees and plants present in different neighbourhoods, together with the percentage of vegetation compared to built-in areas. In addition to this, at the end of 2017 KERMAP realised a new demo that shows the impact of urban morphology on the local climate (KERMAP- Urban Climate of Rennes).

The users of the demo can see different local climate zones and the impacts of the urban planning on the local climate. The demo mainly shows that the urban vegetation is essential for local climate regulation. The maps are free and publicly available online, on the website of the Company (KERMAP- Green areas of Rennes). The first deliveries of the demos for the city of Rennes are expected for mid-2018.

The results

The satellite-based map will help the City of Rennes to monitor the evolution of the vegetation in different areas, the increasing of house units to the detriment of green areas and climate change issues. The map will allow city authorities to understand which trees need to be cut and to decide on where they will be replanted and on which species are more suitable for different areas of the city. The information on the vegetation cover collected through satellite imagery will also help the city to prepare its future Local Plan of Urbanism (PLU). Indeed, according to the PLU, each neighbour of the city needs to have a mandatory percentage of green areas.

Our objective is to offer a free showcase of information on the vegetation of big cities. This is possible today thanks to satellite imagery.

Antoine Lefebvre, Founder and President of KERMAP

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The city of Montpellier is the capital of the Hérault department, in southern France. With a population of almost 270,000 people, Montpellier is the fastest growing city in the country.

Within the Montpellier Méditerranée Métropole, the Commission for the Prevention and Valorisation of Waste is in charge of managing waste collection and of working to reduce the amount of domestic waste produced in the city.

The challenge

In Montpellier, each habitant produces an average of 114 kg of organic waste per year, and three tons are produced daily by school canteens alone.

Since 2016, those producing more than ten tons of organic wastes per year have the obligation to recycle and give value to them.  Hence, the Municipality of Montpellier was looking for an effective and viable solution to allow all habitants to recycle and value their organic waste.

Local collective composting makes it possible to give value to domestic organic wastes by turning them into fertilisers. Composting is easy, but the development of waste management coordination in cities is still restrained by lack of means and support. Moreover, collective composters can easily generate bad smells, which need to be prevented and rapidly managed to avoid nuisances to the neighbourhood.

The satellite solution

To address these challenges, the Municipality of Montpellier decided to partner with Ecosec, a local cooperative developing processes and equipment to give value to urban organic wastes. The initiative was supported by the ministerial incubator Green Tech Verte, and launched under the policy Ville belle.

Thanks to this collaboration, Ecosec developed a connected composter called Waste Connection, which contains a number of sensors monitoring in real time the trays’ internal and external temperature, humidity, weight and gases (such as CO2, methane and ammonia).

Using open-source Arduino technology, with built-in satellite navigation, all these data are recorded, geolocated, and transmitted to a server, and then showcased on the web in open source.

The results

The real-time satellite connection allows the Municipality to timely intervene to empty the trays when they are full or when bad smells are produced, and to be immediately alerted in case of malfunctioning.

The sensors and the satellite connection allow for a reduction of the trays’ management costs and to intervene within two hours in case of bad smells. Moreover, by making all the information available online, the initiative aims at engaging all residents, making composting a collective and conscious process.

The first connected composter was inaugurated on the 1^st of July 2017 on the Grisettes neighbourhood of Montpellier. Four additional composters will be deployed in 2017 to validate the beta-test. Afterwards, the solution will be commercialised on the whole French territory and abroad.

Thanks to SatNav, the connected composters can be monitored in real time and remotely. Waste connexion aims at democratising composting and promoting ecologically responsible citizenship”, Léa Egret, Ecosec

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I Wheel Share is a start-up based in France. The company develops solutions to promote the social inclusion of people experiencing disabilities.

Created by Audrey and Lucas Sovignet in March 2016, I Wheel Share is recognised as a social enterprise. Today, the start-up finances its activities thanks to crowdfunding and through the participation in calls for innovative and solidarity projects.

The challenge

According to INSEE (the French National Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies), there are 12 million people with disabilities in France, of which three million with a mobility impairment. Only one out of two persons with a disability considers that her/his daily life has improved in the last ten years. Their participation in social and economic life is often restricted by the difficulties related to daily mobility and by the lack of information on places and social and cultural activities appropriate to their needs.

Indeed, there are guides indicating places accessible to the disabled in France. However, these guides do not list inaccessible places and do not offer real-time information about temporary restrictions to circulation. Moreover, the information provided by existing guides is not precise enough. For example, locations classified as accessible with manual wheelchairs prove sometimes non-accessible to users of electric wheelchairs.

Hence, when Lucas lost the use of his legs after a road accident, Audrey decided to engage in the search for a solution that could improve the life of his brother and that of millions of people facing reduced mobility. This not only includes individuals with disabilities, but also the elderly and people with pushchairs.

The satellite solution

In 2015, Audrey, a graphic designer with some training in programming, developed a mobile application designed to facilitate urban mobility for disabled people. The app has since then been improved by two other companies, specialised in Android and IOS systems. Thanks to a partnership with the APF (Association of French Paralysed) and other associations, the app was tested during six months before being launched.

I Wheel Share was conceived to give a voice to persons with disabilities by “geolocating their thoughts and opinions”. The app is available for free. Users just need to create a profile with an email address to access it. The application allows users to identify places difficult to access for people with disabilities, and to geo-locate them using the GPS embedded in their smartphones. Users can report their experiences, be them positive or negative, and share them with the rest of the community. As an example, when the access to a road is made difficult by public works, the app registers the information in real time for other users to see. The information can be saved in written or orally, through the voice recognition system included in the application. This feature makes the app particularly suitable for the visually impaired.

The results

The application allowed for the creation of a mutual assistance network. Since its launch, more than 1,000 people in 10 countries have downloaded the application and 1200 experiences have already been posted.

One of the distinctive advantages of the application, as compared to other available guides, is represented by the “good deals”. Through I Wheel Share, users can for example identify and record places which are adapted to their needs, like a restaurant or a bar whose waiters know sign language, or they can share information about events, such as theatre shows, which are suitable for people with visual or hearing impairment.

I Wheel Share was well welcomed by public institutions. In the future, the application will be complemented with an online portal accessible from computers.

For the app to remain free of charge, I Wheel Share is currently developing push notifications advertising services and products for disabled individuals. These will pop up on the users’ devices when they are close to the advertising stores, restaurants or cultural places. However, the company is seeking for new partnerships and other funding opportunities to expand their range of offered services.

We consider disability as a lever for innovation. The GPS is a fundamental component of I Wheel Share, allowing users to geo-locate and share in real time a lot of information. The application is an example of virtuous use of new technologies to improve the lives of people with reduced mobility”. Audrey Sovignet, I Wheel Share

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The Directorate for Food, Agriculture, and Forest of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Region is a regional executive body of the French Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forests. Notably, it applies the Ministry’s national strategy in the region, where the forest covers a total of 2,514,000 hectares (i.e. 15% of the national forest). One of its main responsibilities is to keep in check the balance between the exploitation of the wood and systemic environment standards. Wood is a major economic resource for the region, with €5 million m3  harvested every year for private heating, the construction sector and the paper industry. The Directorate must deliver harvest authorisations and penalise illegal clear-cutting with these imperatives in mind.

The challenge

80% of the regional forest is private. Beyond a certain minimum total surface, a Sustainable Management Code applies to harvest authorisations, whether in private or public forests. But monitoring both large and smaller forest areas is not always easy. Field inspectors have only a fragmented view of the situation on the ground, since they cannot physically cover all the area by car, and even less so on foot. Furthermore, wood companies can sometimes buy wood from private owners in an “oil stain” pattern: they harvest in neighbouring plots belonging to different owners, which means that even if the total harvested area is over the limit of what is allowed, individual owners cannot be penalised. Finally, wood heating has been strongly encouraged in the region, notably through subsidies for such heating systems. This creates the risk of deforestation hot spots on the mountainous ranges situated next to urban centers or factories exploiting wood.

The solution

Since 2015, the Regional Forest Directorate uses a service provided by Géosud – a French Platform of satellite data freely available for public authorities in the country. As a complement to the high resolution images from RapidEye, Spot, and other Earth Observation satellites, that Géosud provide, the Directorate also uses coarser Landsat images; the combination allows them to annually compare high-resolution maps of the forest so as to monitor the evolution of forest coverage and to identify illegal forest cuts.

The result

Over the period 2013-2014 (evaluated in 2015), the Directorate detected 1600 illegal cuts in the forest, of which 250 were larger than 1 hectare. While no forest owner was fined at that stage (since some changes were spotted after the legal penalisation time-lapse), a vast communication campaign was implemented to inform owners of irregularities and the negative impact of cuts on the regional forest. It had the merit of acting as a deterrent to those who cut illegally on purpose, and as an awareness-raising tool for owners of small forests who were oblivious to such dangers. The system is currently being adapted to be able to exploit Sentinel data, but the success of the methodology already implemented means that such surveys could be extended to the whole of France in a couple of years, on decision by the Agriculture and Forest Ministry.

Satellite images are not just for policing the forest. It is also in the best interest of forest owners that they make the best of it, and we have a strong policy to support them in doing so by encouraging sustainable management practices.
Laurent CHARNAY, Director of the Forest and Sustainable Management Department
DRAAF Auvergne Rhône-Alpes – SERFOBE

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The Haute-Corse departmental service for rescue and fire (SDIS 2B) is based in Furiani in the North of the French Island. It employs 1200 firemen to insure the protection of people, goods and the environment. SDIS 2B is in charge of risk assessment and evaluation, managing all rescue resources, and intervening in case of emergency.

The challenge

Haute-Corse County is highly vulnerable to natural hazards, especially forest fires, being a mountainous area with a dry climate. On average, 1750 forest hectares burn and 800 forest fires break out every year in Haute-Corse. In carrying out prevention, protection and rescue missions, SDIS 2B must be able to know with an extremely high accuracy and on time what the situation is on the field (the state of the vegetation, the position of its intervention units, thin weather data, among others). The SDIS needs the relevant info on time, to be able to evaluate the stakes, fix the objectives and optimise the operational reply.

The satellite solution

Since 2005, SDIS 2B uses a 3D map visualisation service that combines aerial and satellite-derived maps, real-time aerial videos (such as a Canadair dropping on zone), as well as weather data, to give a complete picture of risk situation for both forecast and operational management.

In addition, the mapping service integrates the geo-information gathered in the operational GIS of the SDIS, enabling the management team to know the position of the rescue units and equipments via GPS receivers, in real time.

The result

Thanks to the mapping service SDIS 2B knows the situation on the ground in real-time and with more accuracy, whether for preparedness measures or intervention. It is thus easier to monitor the soils modifications (urban sprawl, burned area, vegetation cover) and to assess risks and various stakes. With such accurate information, SDIS 2B optimises the commitment and deployment of fire fighting and emergency means in a safe manner.

Finally the use of a unique 3D mapping tool lightens working processes and supports inter-services collaboration through a better information sharing. 

We use satellite applications every day. They have become essential tools in the conduct of our missions, both provisional and operational. Marien Setti, head of the SDIS 2B operation group

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