SOS Alarm is Sweden’s national emergency services operator, responsible for handling all 112 calls, coordinating police, fire, ambulance and public warnings across the country, as well as playing a role in civil defense. They hold a central role in national crisis preparedness, using situational analyses, extensive information flows and advanced technology to manage alarms and coordinate Sweden’s aid efforts during accidents, crises and societal disruptions. Their work aims to strengthen the Swedish safety chain while driving rapid incident response, crisis communication and safety innovation. They have an interest in space-related technologies to enhance both response times and nationwide public safety.

The challenge

The two most important information for SOS Alarm are what happened and where. Before 2019, the callers were located through Cell-ID from mobile operators, which had significant limitations: depending on density, the coverage area varied between 500 meters up to 2 kilometers, making precise positioning difficult. This slowed response times for 112 callers in accidents, incidents or when locating lost persons. In addition, Sweden’s vast rural, mountainous, and coastal regions often lacked mobile coverage, creating further challenges for situational awareness and rapid response. There was also no reliable redundancy in case of network outages, limiting the ability to communicate with people during emergencies.

The satellite solution

In 2019, SOS Alarm implemented Advanced Mobile Location (AML), which uses smartphones’ global navigation satellite system, Wi-Fi, and cell network data to provide precise caller locations. Its accuracy, within 15 to 65 meters, allows emergency services to locate incidents in real time, even without detailed information from the caller. This is particularly effective in road traffic accidents and outdoor emergencies.

Building on this, SOS Alarm will implement satellite-based communication for mobile phones in 2026, enabling text-based emergency messaging even when terrestrial networks fail due to power outages or network issues. This approach provides redundancy in remote areas and ensures that first responders and alert centers remain connected under extreme conditions.

The results

AML is used in approximately 82% of mobile calls where someone needs assistance. With the integration of AML and satellite-assisted communication, 112 callers can now be precisely located, reducing search areas from kilometers to just meters, and significantly improving response times. It also lowers caller stress, as they no longer need to describe their location, resulting in clearer communication and fewer errors during emergencies. This accuracy is especially valuable in remote areas, where it enables faster and more targeted emergency response.

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Founded in 1868, Hvilan Utbildning is the largest gardening school in Sweden, offering secondary, adult and corporate education. The School has four main premises in Åkarp, Stockholm, Järna, and Visby. The premises in Åkarp are placed on an area of 60 ha, 15 of which are occupied by buildings and gardens. Currently, 400 students are enrolled in the courses, and a large majority of them are adults.

Courses include gardening classes within the school’s facilities, as well as excursions to forests and nearby cities. Indeed, many of the students will follow a career in urban planning and tree care, and need to know which trees are most suitable for different areas within and around cities.

The challenge

In the school gardens of Hvilan Utbildning, labels frequently disappear from or harm the trees. Moreover, many of the trees are not labelled yet. Outdoor classes are carried out under the guidance of a teacher, who pinpoints to students the various tree and plant species, their names, characteristics and vulnerabilities, and how to take care of them. This means that attending classes is fundamental for students to acquire the practical skills they need.

At Hvilan Utbildning, love for nature, city parks and innovation go hand in hand. Hence, teachers were looking for effective tools to allow students to deepen their knowledge after classes, and to rapidly catch up when they missed one or more school days.

The satellite solution

In October 2016, a teacher at the nearby Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences invited the arborist students of Hvilan Utbildning to test a system allowing them to study trees and plants also without the support of a teacher. The CURIO system consists of a map based on satellite imagery allowing users to geolocate trees and to add pictures and information on them. The system is accessible through a smartphone app and a desktop platform and is conceived as an urban forestry inventory, education and outreach platform.

The feedback of the students proved crucial to improve the prototype version of the app. In February 2017, the CURIO challenge was finally launched at Hvilan Utbildning. During the summer, teachers started mapping the trees in the school gardens and in the nearby locations where learning excursions are organised.

Upon the beginning of the new semester all students were taught how to use this new tool. The tagging process is monitored by teachers, who verify the accuracy of the contents. These are available to all students, as well as to any other person subscribed to CURIO, for them to deepen their knowledge after class or to catch up on missed classes.

The results

The app has got a lot of success among students and residents in the nearby areas. Indeed, 40% of Swedish indicate gardening as their main hobby. Students and neighbours can now learn about trees that were once anonymous, about their age, characteristics and on how to take care of them, and can contribute creating a history of their urban and rural landscapes.

The system also makes available analytics based on the information collected. These will be used by the school to perform surveys in parks and to check the health status of the trees.

CURIO is currently collaborating with European city authorities to use the system as a participative tool to improve urban planning. Indeed, CURIO allows for the creation of a complete picture of urban landscapes, which is crucial for improving biodiversity, local environment and quality of life for local communities. The app is also being used worldwide and currently hosts data on over 2.1 million trees from cities across world.

The system allowing to geolocate trees on a satellite map represents a powerful tool for the students to learn about the trees autonomously”, Eric Danell, Gardening Teacher at Hvilan Utbildning, Åkarp branch.

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Aventi, a professional event organiser based in Sweden, creates and facilitates games and other group activities. Events can be both outdoor and indoor, and range from kayaking, climbing, dancing and singing, to conferences and training sessions. The company was set up in 2000, and currently employs 87 people, of which 80 work part time. Their main clients are private companies from various sectors for whom they help host conferences, team building exercises and training sessions.

The challenge

Traditional event formats are shifting a from top-down approach, to become more interactive and engaging. Indeed, hundreds of companies and schools organise events for corporate occasions and education. As a result, “gamification” as a tool for communication and learning is becoming popular. However, creating meaningful games still takes time, staff and resources to organise. For an event to be successful, it should be tailored to specific learning objectives and the available landscape. Also, it needs to be easily adaptable to the needs of clients.
In sum, this makes games too expensive for many potential clients and time-consuming for the organiser. As a result, Aventi sought a way to reduce the cost and time required creating and facilitating their events, whilst keeping it engaging and interactive for participants.

The satellite solution

Aventi decided to integrate an adaptable and efficient game-creation platform to help them create and facilitate events. They came across Loquiz which allows them to quickly create a new game online through a web interface. With a licence, users of Loquiz may set up their own challenges, quizzes, and questions, and edit the content of the games as they like. Virtual checkpoints are set at specific outdoor locations for the participants to follow throughout the activities.
The games can be accessed on any smart device with an embedded satnav system, which Aventi provides to the participants themselves. When reaching checkpoints on the map, participants will engage with the game as designed by the game creator, and interact with it as they follow the selected route. The Loquiz app keeps track of participant’s movement, and records their score.

The result

The platform has made it easier for Aventi to standardise events, and build upon the same templates and resources. Thanks to the use of Satnav and the app, games are also more autonomous and efficient compared to the previous use of manual hand-held GPS devices and written notes.

As a result, Aventi has more than halved the time and cost of preparing and facilitating an event. It now takes only four to eight hours, and one or two instructors, to roll out the complete interactive experience for the players. Instead, Aventi has been able to increase the number of events per year, and continuously improved the service, as employees can spend more time creating better tailored events for new clients.

After implementing Loquiz we are now using 1-2 instructors instead of 6-7 instructors in one of our typical events

Tord Björkqvist, Aventi

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Stockholm is Sweden’s capital and largest city with approximately 850 000 inhabitants. The city’s Traffic Administration is responsible for the construction and maintenance of the urban road infrastructure. This includes managing the pedestrian road network (sidewalks, pedestrian crossings, access to public transport facilities) and making it accessible for citizens and visitors with disabilities.

 The challenge

In 1999, the city set itself the goal of becoming the world’s most accessible capital city for visually and mobility impaired persons. Initially, the Traffic Administration adapted the urban infrastructure to their needs, for instance, by rebuilding pedestrian crossings and reducing the gap between the kerb and buses in bus stops.

Yet the changes in the urban infrastructure addressed accessibility issues only partially. In particular, the guidance of visually impaired persons with elements such as raised bands only was insufficient.

 The satellite solution

The e-Adept solution enables citizens with reduced mobility to plan their walking routes, receive precise navigation guidance and call for help in case of emergencies, thanks to audio-visual guidance. The system combines a downloadable software for mobile phones adapted for the visually impaired based on a city map of streets and roads and a GPS device connected to the mobile phone via Bluetooth.

The Municipality constantly updates the system’s information to take into account any changes in the urban landscape

e-Adept was developed by the Traffic Administration in partnership with the Swedish Post and Telecom Agency, the Swedish Road and Rail Administrations, the city of Malmö and the ICT Programme of VINNOVA, and in partnership with associations of the visually impaired.

 The result

e-Adept is currently being used on a trial basis by visually impaired citizens and proves to be a valuable support tool to increasing their urban mobility. In order to be able to market the solution more widely to other groups of citizens and visitors with reduced mobility, the Traffic Administration is currently exploring cooperation with public transport operators to integrate it with their accessibility strategies.

“By developing e-Adept we are giving people with visual impairments the same freedom the rest of our citizens have.” Pernilla Johnni, City of Stockholm Traffic Administration.

 Key Fact: Inclusive transport managed locally

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Seventy percent of the Swedish territory is covered by forests. 90,000 people are employed in the forestry sector, which generates an export value of €12 billion. The government and the industry own around half of the national forests, while the other half is owned by over 300,000 individuals.

The Swedish Forest Agency (SFA) is the public body in charge of ensuring the implementation of the Swedish Forestry Act, which aims to maintain production levels while protecting biodiversity.

The challenge

Under the Forestry Act, private forest owners are obliged to replant the forest land which has been cleared in the previous years. When forest owners plan to clear-cut an area of over 0.5 ha, they have the obligation to notify the SFA. They then have three years to proceed with the harvesting of the timber.

To make sure that legal obligations are respected and to detect illegal activities, the SFA needs continuous and accurate information on the state of the country’s forests.

The satellite solution

Since 2000, the SFA has included satellite imagery into a country-wide system integrating and sharing geographic administrative data. The use of satellite data was facilitated by the Enforma project. Kick-started in 1997, the project explored possible applications for satellite imagery coming from SPOT satellites. Once the system was implemented, SFA realised that nearly 10% of the clear-cut areas (around 25,000 hectares) were not cut in accordance with the notifications received from owners.

Satellite imagery, combined with other geographical information, allows the SFA to create clear-cut maps showing where forests have been cleared. The images are purchased by the SFA in co-operation with other governmental entities. The Agency then processes the images to highlight clear-cuts and makes the maps available on its website as open data. By using these maps, the SFA is able to check if the clearings were approved by law and take action where appropriate.

The results

Forest owners are now aware that the SFA can monitor their land, and thus law compliance has greatly improved. According to the SFA, the use of the imagery led to a fall in the size of forests area cleared illegally, which has fallen from around 10% of harvested forest each year (in 2003) to less than 0.5% in 2005.

Yearly, the SFA spends approximately €500,000 to purchase and use the imagery (including salaries), but its advantages are large. The SFA saves time to monitor the forests, while a more sustainable use of forest resources has lead to an increase of timber production. Wood quality has also improved. Positive externalities also include wild life preservation and forest diversity protection measures. In a recent report, the European Association of Remote Sensing Companies* estimates that the use of imagery brings Sweden between €16.1m and €21.6m per year in direct economic benefits.

By integrating satellite imagery into our tools, we can be more efficient in monitoring forests and working towards an economically and environmentally sustainable forestry: better regeneration, fewer illegal clear-cuts, and more attention to protected areas.”, Anders Persson, Swedish Forest Agency 

*The information included in this article has been extracted from the EARSC report “Copernicus Sentinels’ Products Economic Value: A Case Study of Forest Management in Sweden”, January 2016.

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The members of the Helsinki Commission are the nine Baltic Sea states (Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia and Sweden) and the EU, which are Contracting Parties to the Helsinki Convention. The aim of the intergovernmental cooperation is to protect the Baltic Sea from all sources of pollution and to ensure safety of navigation in the region.

The challenge

Oil spills are one source of pollution, among other substances from ships and from land. Even small amounts of oil can have a negative impact on the marine environment; seabirds for instance are very sensitive to oil.

Any oil and oily mixture discharges into the Baltic Sea are prohibited according to IMO MARPOL Annex 1 special area regulations. However, HELCOM statistics, based on detections by national surveillance aircraft, show that over 100 illegal oil discharges by ships occur every year in the Baltic Sea.

The satellite solution

In order to prevent and detect any violation of existing discharge regulations, the Baltic Sea states have agreed within the HELCOM framework to regularly conduct aerial surveillance, individually and jointly.

Satellite observations support the efforts of the Baltic Sea states in their surveillance work. Satellite surveillance in the Baltic Sea has intensified since 2007 thanks to the CleanSeaNet satellite surveillance service provided by the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA). The satellite images are delivered to users of CleanSeaNet in near real time to provide a first indication of possible oil slicks to be checked by aircraft on spot. The HELCOM Group on Aerial Surveillance annually checks the operational satellite coverage requirements for the Baltic Sea area and sends a request to EMSA for each sub-area.

The result

Regular aerial and satellite surveillance has contributed significantly to the decrease in illegal discharges of oil in the last ten years because ships are aware that their activities are being monitored.

In 2013, a total of 565 satellite scenes were provided by EMSA to the users of CleanSeaNet in the Baltic Sea indicating 130 possible detections of which the national surveillance aircraft were able to inspect 61% within three hours of the first warning.  Of these detections the aircrews were able to confirm 5% as mineral oil spills, 11% as spills of other oil types, chemical, sewage or garbage, and 8% as unknown substances. Typical false positive detections are caused by natural phenomenon like waves.

The EMSA CleanSeaNet service has proven to be a valuable asset in the Baltic Sea in deterring and monitoring illegal oil spills as it provides near real time information on potential spills when the opportunity to detect spill and to catch potential polluters is time-limited. Laura Meski, Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission

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Agency9 AB is a Swedish SME specialised in 3D web-based solutions and founded in 2003. Agency9 holds patents for several new technologies it has developed. Its products were originally designed for the gaming industry. The company evolved towards urban planning solutions in 2009, when it started integrating GIS and spatial support to its 3D components, to develop its main product, CityPlanner.

In 2018, Agency9 was acquired by Bentley to realise digital twins for cities.

The opportunity

Agency9 identified a market opportunity in adapting the internet based 3D modeling technologies they had used for the gaming sector to the needs of land planners and Local and Regional Authorities.

First, 3D spatial information is usually difficult for users to share and manipulate because of the technical limitations of computers and the need for specific software. Moreover, urban planning projects are complex, with many land uses (such as transports, constructions or roads) and stakeholders to consider, for whom communication is key in the success of the planning process. The target clients (planners, Local and Regional Authorities) were also likely to need to reduce the time and effort necessary for the red tape associated with planning and building permits.

Agency9 was in a good position to leverage their gaming industry experience and develop a solution that was user-friendly and technically innovative.

The solution

CityPlanner is a web-based application hosted on the cloud that combines traditional geographic information, satellite and/or aerial imagery to generate and display 3D city models of astounding visual accuracy. The 3D models, that rely on the gaming expertise of Agency9, were traditionally only seen in high-end video games. Planners can in CityPlanner easily create, share and publish projects and spatial information from their regular web browser, not needing to install any additional software.

The result

Not only does CityPlanner help urban planners communicate better by benefiting from a very interactive tool, but it also allows them to engage citizens, get them interested in the planning process, and prepare them to the changes to come. Citizens can pin their comments and proposals directly on the map just by logging into their personal account. CityPlanner can also be used for a variety of planning needs, such as flooding forecasts for coastal cities, or studies on energy consumption of buildings for reuse of CO2 emissions.

Since the creation of CityPlanner, the number of clients of the agency has rapidly grown. Agency9 now works with around 20 municipalities in Europe, mostly in the Nordic Region but also international cities such as Hamburg, Berlin or Vienna. The agency also has resellers in Asia and Europe.

“In city development, internet based 3D visualisation is an important component to reach out to team members, stakeholder and citizens. Agency9 is committed to provide easy-to-use tools to support internal work and dialogue with the public”
Håkan Engman, CEO Agency9

Håkan Engman, CEO Agency9

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