GeoCodis Ltd. is a high-tech Slovenian company specialising in Artificial Intelligence (AI), Earth Observation (EO), and Geo-information Systems (GIS). The company, established in 2014, has headquarters in Slovenia with branch offices in Canary Islands, Spain, and Uganda. The team of EO-specialists and software developers has developed tailored AI models that enable efficient analysis of large datasets, providing clients with a competitive edge. In the field of Earth Observation, GeoCodis has played a key role in numerous projects that transform satellite data into applicable solutions. Whether addressing water resource monitoring, urban development, or land use management the company leverages raw geospatial data to support critical decision-making processes across various domains. GeoCodis already collaborated with major organisations such as the European Space Agency (ESA), the EU the German Corporation for International Cooperation (GIZ) and others commercial clients.

The challenge

Droughts are becoming more frequent and severe, with widespread impacts on agriculture, water supply and ecosystem health. Yet, governments and agencies struggle to track the impact and effectiveness of drought management policies in real time. Without accurate and timely insights, decisions often remain reactive rather than proactive. In many places, persistent dry spells and soil-water deficits undermine both agriculture and water security: over the past few decades, Slovenia has experienced at least seven major agricultural droughts, many of which caused hundreds of millions of euros in damage.

The satellite solution

To address this challenge, GeoCodis, through the DriDanube consortium and in line with the Clim4Cast project, developed the DroughtWatch portal. It provides users with spatial and temporal view of several drought-related datasets and indices, including vegetation and drought indices, precipitation and temperature datasets and integrates estimated drought impacts, using satellite data and analytical tools.

The platform brings together information from several sources developed within Clim4Cast project and EUMETSAT products. Indices such as heat index, daily evapotranspiration, soil drought intensity, soil moisture deficit, thermal climate index and others shows both current conditions and long-term trends in an easy-to-use interface. Users can explore how drought is developing, compare today’s situation with historic data and quickly see where risks are growing, helping them make faster and more informed decisions. The portal is mostly used to assess droughts, heat waves and potential forest fire conditions and supports proactive planning across sectors.

The results

Using DroughtWatch, government agencies and civil protection organisations benefit from earlier detection of emerging drought hotspots, better coordination, and more strategic planning. The tool has improved situational awareness, reduced reliance on fragmented data, and enabled more efficient resource allocation. As a result, Slovenian Environmental Agency (ARSO) is using the portal mainly to monitor droughts and report on possible developing droughts in SE Europe region due to its role as host of Drought management centre for SE Europe. The portal allows visual and numerical comparison of various drought-related indices as well as generation of timeline animations. It currently profits from ARSO and other regional institutions’ involvement in recent projects such as Clim4Cast and Eumetsat’s LSA SAF. DroughtWatch is designed in the way that inclusion of new sets of data layers is relatively straight forward and expected as regional cooperation evolves and requires new information.

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The Administration of the Republic of Slovenia for Civil Protection and Disaster Relief (referred to as ACPDR) is a constituent body of the Ministry of Defence. It performs administrative and professional protection, rescue and relief tasks as well as other tasks regarding protection against natural and other disasters.

ACPDR is divided into 13 branches operating throughout Slovenia. Within each branch there is an “112” emergency response centre on duty 24-hour.

The challenge

Slovenia’s territory is mostly mountainous. The Dinaric Alps and the Pannonian Plain meet in Slovenia. Over half of the territory is covered by forest. Human settlements in Slovenia are dispersed and uneven.

When person in distress called the 112, the location of the caller appeared on the GIS in the respective emergency response centre. However, due to the standard two-dimensional GIS, the call-taker could not see immediately the details about the caller’s location i.e. Is the caller on a hill? On a mountain? In a valley that is difficult to access?). Additionally, the caller’s location was not always accurate, since it relied on the CellID technology. Error margins of 1 km were frequent.

The ACPDR was therefore looking for a viable solution to provide its call-takers with of the 112 additional landscape information (ideally in 3D), while improving the accuracy of the caller’s location in case of emergency.

The satellite solution

Since 2008, the ACPDR has commissioned XLAB, a Slovenian company, to develop “Gaea”, a 3D-based geographic information system. The final solution is based on the NASA World Wind open-source virtual globe. The programme includes NASA satellite imagery, aerial photography and topographic maps. The World Wind data combined with local spatial data were used to create an database that is now used by all Slovenian 112 Emergency Response Centres. Thus, in this case satellite images provided information about places, spaces and spatial phenomena for the Slovenian dispatchers.
Additionally, satellite navigation is being used as well. All 112 Emergency Response Centres in Slovenia are equipped with a software tool that permits to read the location of the caller in distress that is acquired from the smartphone’s global navigation satellite system (GNSS).

The results

The 3D geographic information system allows the ACPDR to identify additional information that dispatchers need in order to start a successful rescue operation. Among these data are:
– the exact location of the caller in distress that uses a GNSS-enabled smartphone to call the emergency services
– a 3D overview of the location of the caller in order to get additional information that is relevant in case of emergency (terrain accessibility, landscape type..)

The European Emergency Number Association (EENA) awarded the ACPDR in 2014 with the award “Most Outstanding Innovation 2014” for the provision of the service.

“We use Gaea+ tools as rescue support even in most demanding situations. Gaea+ enables us simply perform tasks for which we before spent much more time.”
Grigorij Krupenko, Administration of the Republic of Slovenia for Civil Protection and Disaster Relief

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