Founded in 2020, WEO is a company built on the conviction that timely, accurate analytics are essential to tackling major environmental challenges and driving sustainable decision-making. WEO focuses on delivering environmental intelligence that is affordable, frequently updated, and scalable across the globe. Specialised in strengthening urban resilience, optimising vegetation management, and reducing environmental risk, WEO transforms satellite imagery into advanced analytics and leverages AI to produce clear, actionable insights.

The challenge

Many communities still rely on outdated, project-based environmental data, meaning they miss regular updates that reflect changing risks. Accessing current, high-resolution data over large areas is often too expensive or technically difficult.

The satellite solution

Satellite data offers regular, objective, and consistent observations over time. This top-down regional perspective becomes truly actionable when enriched with local datasets and expert knowledge: for example, revealing how vegetation structure shapes fire propagation toward homes or critical infrastructure. Because it provides continuous, unbiased, and often freely accessible information, satellite data is a powerful and inclusive resource for communities. By combining multiple satellite datasets, it delivers a more complete and robust picture of environmental conditions.

However, the spatial resolution of open-source satellite imagery can be too coarse to directly support decisions at the community or asset scale: WEO overcomes this limitation by fusing open-source satellite data with high-resolution local datasets, enhancing its precision and generating detailed, actionable insights at the scale communities need. WEO also enables community participation, integrating local knowledge and documenting measures taken on the ground to ensure that insights reflect real-world conditions.

The results

WEO’s solution empowers communities to understand and anticipate climate-related risks, enabling them to plan with greater confidence and immediately explore suitable mitigation options when threats are identified.

For example, WEO helps communities manage climate risks by identifying heat retention patterns, seasonal hot spots, and the effectiveness of mitigation measures; assessing vegetation for wildfire prevention and guiding land management; and detecting flood-prone areas to plan protective infrastructure. It also supports up-to-date risk documentation, clear communication with residents, and planning of evacuation zones integrating multiple risk factors.

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+ATLANTIC is a Collaborative Laboratory that transforms scientific knowledge into practical solutions for ocean, coastal, climate, and environmental challenges. By combining Earth observation, data science, AI, and numerical modelling, it delivers user-oriented products that support governance, innovation, and public awareness, all with the mission to drive a sustainable transition across the Atlantic region. 

The challenge

Mediterranean cities face multiple climate risks, from heatwaves to sea level rise and storms, all amplified by coastal urbanisation, tourism pressure, ageing populations, and migration trends. These vulnerabilities affect health (heat-related mortality and pollution-linked illness), energy (changing demand and reduced hydropower during droughts), and infrastructure (damage from unpredictable floods and storms driven by growing climate variability). 

The satellite solution

Earth Observation provides essential data to anticipate and manage climate-related risks in Mediterranean cities, particularly heat extremes and sea level rise. By analysing satellite-derived information on land use, vegetation, and built-up areas, EO helps detect and quantify the Urban Heat Island effect, where heat accumulates in densely built environments. Long-term geospatial datasets feed into data-driven models that improve local weather forecasts and enable the creation of early warning and adaptation tools. These EO-based systems are strengthened by in-situ measurements and computing power, with many initiatives supported through European public funding. 

The results

The integration of EO data into local planning enhances cities’ awareness and preparedness for climate-induced extremes. Beyond heatwaves, the approach supports a broader understanding of interconnected hazards and their impacts on health, infrastructure, and energy. Through +ATLANTIC’s multi-hazard platform AtlanticSENSE, decision-makers and citizens can now benchmark local risk profiles, access transparent and traceable information, and strengthen their literacy on environmental and climate risks, fostering more resilient and informed urban communities. 

The post Building Climate-Resilient Mediterranean Cities appeared first on Eurisy.

The Maltese Planning Authority is the national government agency responsible for land use and spatial planning in Malta. It also serves as the country’s national mapping authority, providing essential cartographic data to support the development permit system and ensure that urban development aligns with planning regulations.

The challenge

For over a decade, the Planning Authority relied on aerial photography to produce maps of the Maltese Islands. However, with rapid and constant urban development — new constructions, extensions, and land-use changes — there was an increasing need to update maps more frequently and monitor change across the entire country.
Aerial imagery, while detailed, posed several obstacles: it required special flight permits, favourable weather conditions, and costly equipment. Drone surveys offered flexibility but covered only urban areas, making them impractical for nationwide mapping. The Planning Authority therefore sought a simpler, faster, and more scalable solution that could provide regular, high-resolution imagery over Malta as a whole.

The satellite solution

To meet these needs, the Planning Authority adopted high-resolution commercial satellite imagery: satellite data provides synoptic coverage — capturing the entire island in a single snapshot — and can be acquired regularly (one to two times per week), with access to a rich archive of past images. This allows them to select cloud-free images for specific time periods and conduct change detection analyses, supporting urban planning policies such as modification of development zones. Although commercial imagery involves a cost, it remains more affordable than aerial photography and offers greater temporal flexibility. Transitioning to satellite-based mapping required a mindset shift and specialised training for the Planning Authority’s geomatics team, enabling staff to interpret and integrate satellite data effectively into existing workflows.

The results

The use of satellite imagery has significantly improved the efficiency and accuracy of urban monitoring in Malta. The Planning Authority now produces value-added datasets, including national land-use maps, derived from satellite analyses. The Authority is also exploring the use of AI-based tools for automatic building detection, further enhancing its capacity to track and analyse urban change. By embracing satellite technology, they have strengthened their ability to plan sustainably, leveraging both current and archived imagery to maintain an up-to-date view of the country’s evolving landscape — a model that could inspire other national mapping agencies across Europe.

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Not everyone is yet aware of the added value that satellite data can have to better prepare societies to the effects of climate change. The Netherlands Space Office supports companies willing to develop solutions that respond to the emerging needs of public bodies by exploiting data captured by satellites.

In this webinar, four companies benefitting from the NSO innovation programme presented products using satellite data to prevent and manage congestions on the electricity grid, to monitor the health of urban trees, to better prepare to floods, and to support agroforestry.

This first episode of the Eurisy Members’ Corner series of 2023 was designed by Ms Coco Antonissen, Advisor for Satellite Applications at the Netherlands Space Office (NSO).

The Netherlands Space Office (NSO) stimulates the use of satellite-based data in civil society by advising the government (for example on how to procure or implement services based on satellite data), by facilitating access to data (e.g. through a data portal that can be accessed for free by Dutch entities), and by supporting the government and the industry to carry out innovation projects.

The Dutch ecosystem includes numerous private companies. The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) financing scheme is conceived to support the government to identify their information needs that could be filled with satellite data and to stimulate innovation in small businesses.

The SBIR scheme is structured in three phases, from dialogue with public bodies in order to identify their needs, to the feasibility assessment, the demonstration, and commercialisation of satellite-based services that respond to the needs identified.

The four companies sharing their experience within our webinar are currently in the third phase of this path, the commercialisation stage.

The first to present its services, represented by Ties van der Heijden, was HKV Lijn in Water. The company is demonstrating a solution aimed at anticipating congestions in the electricity grid, a challenge that could become a reality in a context of energy scarcity and global warming.

The “RayCast” system uses Earth observation data from satellites made available by the NSO to forecast cloud movements and improve their estimations of solar irradiance.

Currently, HKV is validating the forecasts realised with this system with actual grid data, and is contacting regional grid operators to make them aware of the solution. After completion of the validation phase, the first operational version of their product interface will be online by June 2023.

The product will allow operators to be better prepared to congestion imbalances on the electricity grids by knowing which parts of the grid will be overloaded in order to perform targeted interventions. Moreover, it would improve forecasts for solar energy producers, hence contributing to the energy transition in the Netherlands.

The effects of climate change will be particularly felt in cities, where extreme heat is increasingly common in summer, and heavy rains can cause severe damage to people and properties, as happened in central Europe in the summer of 2021.

Greeneries, and trees in particular, can be precious allies to make cities more resilient to heat and floods, in addition to contributing to increasing social well-being and health.

Cobra Groeninzicht, represented by Dirk Voets, is using the EO data made available within the SBIR scheme to better predict the effects of climate change on single trees in cities. Satellite data are used in this product to calculate the heat stress risk of the vegetation according to the vegetation type, and to estimate the water stress and the salinity of the soil.

The results are maps of the climate stress risk of the vegetation in a city that can help civil servants to identify the best areas to plant additional trees, and that at the same time allow for predictions of what will happen if no more trees are planted in an area.

For this system, the company uses high resolution data from satellites that allow them to assess the health status of single trees.

In the city of Helmond, where the system is being tested on publicly-owned trees, every single tree is mapped. The maps allow for the recognition of species for most of them, and for the identification of young trees.

This is important information for cities to preserve their green capital and adapt to the new challenges posed by climate change.  Civil servants can access forecasts on the status of each tree and decide on the interventions to be made, while citizens could exploit the data to take action in their own gardens.

The catastrophic effects of floods on human lives and assets have become alarming worldwide, making it urgent for national and local governments to improve their flood prediction systems.

Numerous Dutch municipalities and water boards are contributing to the perfectioning of the third solution showcased in this webinar, presented by Bob Ammerlaan from Weather Impact. This company  exploits satellite-based data to improve extreme precipitation and flood risk forecasting.

Since 2019, they work with the Meteorological Institute of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water to improve forecasts of extreme precipitations in the Netherlands.

Weather Impact worked to increase the resolution of the information provided by the system already in place to reach a local scale and completed a first project in 2020. Nevertheless, the dashboard did not distinguish extreme precipitations from floods and contained too much information for emergency operators.

Within the SBIR funding scheme, satellite data, together with data from other numerous sources, was used to feed an algorithm that allows for fast flood forecasts and alerts.

Currently, to continue improving the product, ten Dutch governmental institutions, three municipalities, six water boards, and four regions are further testing it, with the intention of increasing its resolution, functionalities, and usability, and of including additional data sources by next year.

The last project to be showcased in the webinar, CarboCatch, developed by Space4Good in collaboration with the Louis Bolk Institute, was presented by Thijs Oosterhuis.

CarboCatch aims at facilitating the carbon credit market among farmers and industry, while supporting the government to plan future developments in agroforestry.

The Dutch Climate Agreement foresees to increase agroforestry in the country from the current 1.000 ha up to 30.000 ha by 2030. Agroforestry integrates pasture or crops with trees and shrubs on the same plot of land, which increases soil health, biodiversity and carbon sequestration.

While farmers are expected to reduce their carbon production, the industry is seeking to buy carbon credits from them. At the same time, public institutions need information to better plan agroforestry developments.

To provide data useful for all these actors while stimulating agroforestry practices, Carbocatch uses EO data and artificial intelligence (AI) to verify the biomass and carbon stocks and the potential carbon sequestration on specific plots.

The information is provided via maps on a dashboard including advice on which agroforestry practices are more suitable for specific plots.

We look forward to knowing how these products will further evolve and to talk about their operational uses and concrete benefits in the near future.

To know more about the activities of the NSO visit: https://www.spaceoffice.nl/en/

The presentations of the webinar are available here:

• How the NSO supports the development of EO-based solutions for climate adaption and mitigation, Coco Antonissen, Netherlands Space office
• Space-based solar irradiance nowcasting to manage traffic on the electricity grid, Ties van der Heijden, HKV Lijn in Water
• FutureTrees: Predicting the future of urban trees and their ecosystem benefits, Dirk Voets, Cobra Groeninzicht
• Extreme precipitation and flood risk forecasting, Bob Ammerlaan, Weather Impact
• Carbocatch – Bringing agroforestry home, Thijs Oosterhuis, Space4Good

The recordings can be accessed here: https://youtu.be/zHWceDhJNb4

Stay tuned for the next webinar of the Eurisy Members’ Corner that will be hosted by the Beyond Centre of EO Research & Satellite Remote Sensing on the 26th of May 2023 between 11:00 AM and 12:00 PM CET.

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The World Settlement Footprint provides five products that monitor the changing dynamics of urban areas. Such products help policy makers to take informed decisions to make cities more sustainable and resilient to future changes. The WSF combines satellite Earth observation with machine learning and information and telecommunication technologies to provide assessments and predictions, and even to enable participatory platforms to collect and share information on urban settlements.

The 7^th episode of the Eurisy Members’ Corner series was conducted by Dr Thomas Esch, Senior Scientist and leader of the “Smart Cities and Spatial Development” team at the German Aerospace Center (DLR).

83% of cities are highly vulnerable to disaster-related mortality and the number of people living in urban areas is constantly increasing. Sustainable and resilient management of our cities is of key importance for our future. The World Settlement Footprint Initiative developed by DLR wants to exploit Earth observation to provide up-to-date and area-wide insights into the status and the dynamics of the built environment.

Sentinel-1 radar and Sentinel-2 multispectral images, open and free, are the core of the WSF information system, that has the ambition of providing free services.

In addition to the information provided daily by satellites, the platform includes data generated by social media and volunteered geographic information, like OpenStreetMap.

Machine learning and artificial intelligence allow scientists at DLR to organise the data collected and to turn it into actionable information for policy makers, scientists and the industry.

The World Settlement Footprint initiative includes five products, or data layers.

The WSF is the first they created in 2015 and updated in 2019, a binary settlement map of the globe indicating where settlements are and how they interrelate with each other. The product is based on Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 satellite images. It provides very precise information on the settlements’ extent on the entire Earth.

WSF visualisation of settlements in the Bavarian area of Germany based on a Sentinel-2 image and processed by an algorithm.

The second product considers the amount of impervious surface to locate the settlements. Created in 2019, it is based on WSF and Sentinel-2 images and it provides an insight into the density of built areas within cities.

WSF Imperviousness in Laos. Here, different satellite images collected over a period of time have been analysed with the support of machine learning to mask the clouds on the final image. The product shows indexes, like the built-up areas (in red), the vegetation index (in green) and the water index (in blue).

The third product developed by DLR, WSF Population, uses satellite data and statistical data on population to provide information on the distribution of people in a certain area. These products have been used on several occasions by entities such as the World Bank, that asked them to estimate the number of people exposed to natural hazards on the whole African continent.

WSF Population showing the distribution of population in Cape Town. White areas are industrial complexes where no population is estimated.

WSF Evolution shows changes of the built-up area and trends over time. Developed in collaboration with Google, the product shows where settlements are growing and how fast.

WSF evolution allows to distinguish planned urban development from more spontaneous urban growth globally. It also allows to measure indicator 11.3.1 “Ratio of land consumption rate to population growth rate” of the Sustainable Development Goal 11 “Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable”.  Indeed, a city is supposed to be more sustainable if the settlements’ growth is higher than the population’s growth.

By combining the data on settlements’ growth coming from WSF evolution with population data provided by the UN, the experts of DLR were able to find out that in cities in low-income countries, settlements grow faster than the population, while in cities in high-income countries, buildings tend to appear at a slower pace than new inhabitants.

Evolution of settlements’ extent in Cairo from 1985 to 2015 based on Landsat satellite images from that period. The colours — from red (before 1985) to violet (2015) — indicate the years in which the buildings appeared.

The products of the World Settlement Footprint are continuously evolving. Currently, building up on the WSF Evolution, WSF Imperviousness is being fed with Landsat images from 1985 that allow for the assessment of the evolution of the impervious surface over time, while also indicating population density.

In the future, Dr Esch’s team wishes to integrate such analyses with population data, as they did for the International Red Cross in the Gaza Strip, where they mapped the distribution of the population from 2015 to 2020.

Evolution of impervious surface over population density in Gaza between 1995 and 2015.

Most population modelling activities are still made in 2D. The last product of the WSF initiative, WSF 3D, also includes information on the height of the buildings in the settlements mapped, which allows to estimate population density much more precisely.

The algorithm of the WSF 3D product estimates the location of the centres of cities based on buildings’ volume.

In the main graph: the height of buildings in Paris. Even though it is still not possible to calculate the height of each building, the algorithm of WSF 3D allowed scientists at DLR to find out that cities in high-income countries tend to concentrate high buildings in the city centre, while these are more equally distributed in the neighbourhoods of cities of low-income countries.

These data have a great potential to support decision making, especially when integrated within thematic applications. Among current activities, DLR is running the Urban Thematic Exploitation Platform project, funded by the European Space Agency. On the platform users can generate information on demand by selecting their area and time of interest. The platform also provides other data, like population data, that can be combined to produce statistics.

The World Settlement Footprint intiative’s products are largerly used for evidence-based policy advice and decision support (e.g., by the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank) and for knowledge and technology transfer (more than a thousand institutions use the WSF products).

Nevertheless, also local authorities can use such data if they have a geographic information system (GIS). In addition, the WSF can also provide data in the form of statistics or Excel tables that can be used also by municipalise without a GIS. At the moment, the DLR team is also working on technologies to transfer information machine-to-machine for users who can’t store large datasets.

To know more about the activities of DLR visit: https://www.dlr.de/EN/Home/home_node.html

The presentation of the webinar is available here: 20221104_EurisyMembersCorner_DLR-TEsch (2)

The recordings can be accessed here: https://youtu.be/R08Rq6DUAVI

Stay tuned for the next webinar of the Eurisy Members’ Corner that will be hosted by the Netherlands Space Office (NSO) on the 16th of December 2022 between 11:00 AM and 12:00 PM CET.

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As the newest associate member of the European Space Agency, the Slovak Space Office intends to leverage on international opportunities to boost the development and use of space-based services locally.

After the Members’ Corner webinar organised on the issue of space-based services for the transport sector in May 2022, the Slovak Space Office hosted a new webinar of the series, this time focused on their activities to stimulate the use of satellite data and services to build sustainable cities and communities.

Despite being a relatively small country, Slovakia has a vibrant space ecosystem, including private space tech companies, R&D institutions, and companies operating in spin-in technologies (such as electronics and ITC).

After becoming the newest associate member of the European Space Agency, the Slovak Space Office prepares to select new additional programmes within the organisation, and to leverage on its fast-growing downstream ecosystem to stimulate the participation of local entities to Horizon Europe projects.

Michal Brichta, leading the Industry Branch of the Slovak Space Office, introduced the audience to the activities and the mission of the newly established national space agency, created one year ago by merging the Space Policy Unit of the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sports and the Space Industry Unit of the Investment and Trade Development Agency of Slovakia (SARIO).

The SSO currently supports 20 project partnerships, resulting from inter-institutional as well as international cooperations. Both locally and internationally, the SSO also supports discussions on the democratisation of space, working to ensure that all countries and all people can benefit from space research and applications.

Furthermore, the SSO operates to raise the awareness of such benefits of private and public entities, and to build skills for the future generations.

To this end, the SSO organises the “Emerging Space” staple event, which next edition will be held on May 3^rd 2023, and it has been hosting a Cassini Hackathon in 2021. In November 2022, the SSO will also contribute to ActInSpace, an international innovation contest uniting over 100 cities across 50 countries, open to everyone.

For this 6^th webinar of the Eurisy Members’ Corner series, the Slovak Space office selected three examples of use of satellite data to increase quality of life in urban aeras.

The first example was presented by Alex Kutka, from Gospace Tech s.r.o. Initially focused on upstream space activities, since 2016 Gospace made its mission to “bring rocket science into urban challenges”.

Since then, the company developed a smart parking solution and a smart hydrometeorological station monitoring system, both using data from satellites.

This second service was developed to enable city authorities to intervene rapidly in the event of a rise of the Danube River in Bratislava. The system allows for the automatic monitoring of water levels and it includes a mobile app that alerts authorities and citizens via email and SMS.

The system is based on a small sensor (match.com), the size of a cup of tea, connected through a wireless satellite connection and equipped with a battery that can last for at least 5 years. Thanks to the satellite connection, the measurements of the sensor can be communicated to a control unit over a distance up to 700 kilometres.

This system allows for the monitoring of water pumps, water reservoirs, waste waters, and river levels also in remote locations, and even underground.

Gospace’s portfolio of customers includes the Slovak Hydrometeorological Institute, the Bratislava Water Company and the Slovak Water Management Company.

Following the presentation of the services of Gospace, the webinar showcased the experience of the University of Prešov (UNIPO) using satellite data to come up with innovative urban solutions based on citizen science.

Since 2020, Mr Miloslav Michalko is one of the two mentors of a group of self-organised students who are passionate about the potential of crowd mapping. The group is part of an international community of humanitarian mappers, that got inspired by the role played by satellites to enable mapping and post-disaster intervention in Haiti in 2010.

At UNIPO, they acknowledge the power of the crowds to use satellite imagery to map roads, trails, cafes, train stations and much more around the world, as it happens in OpenStreetMap (OSM) under an open license.

In 2022, the UNIPO team won a citython co-funded by the European Union with the “Green Parking Smart Surrounding” app. Since temperatures in cities are increasing, the team wanted to provide people with an app allowing to monitor temperatures in parking areas and to take measures to cool down the air there.

The app relies on satellite data from Sentinel-2 and Landsat to identify the hot spots. Based on the analysis of the data, the team proposed measures to cool the air around parking spots, for example by adding natural shadowing and installing solar panels, which potential output is also calculated by using satellite data.

The app wants to use citizen science as a way to actively engage people in data collection and mapping. In this sense, Citythons are not only a means to come up with new solutions, but also an occasion to train the young generation on the potential of satellite imagery to design, implement and monitor policies to make cities more liveable and sustainable.

Finally, Mr Matus Bakon presented some of the products developed by INSAR s.r.o. to monitor urban infrastructure with the support of satellites.

The stability of buildings in urban areas is threatened by events like landslides and earthquakes and collecting in-situ measurements to better prevent and manage damage is often expensive and time-consuming for local authorities.

The app developed by INSAR provides visual alerts on the conditions of roads, rails and infrastructure.

The application relies on satellite INSAR data and provides guidance to urban decision-makers in a number of cities, for example in New Delhi, in India, but also in Slovakia, where the company provides data useful to prevent and understand damage to buildings caused by undermining.

The use of satellite data allows customers to limit ground inspections and to have an historical overview of soil movements over a vast area.

Urban planners, but also companies and citizens can easily identify areas where soil movements could endanger infrastructure and buildings, verify conflicting uses of the urban space, and plan interventions (e.g. renovation works).

The solution is particularly interesting for local governments, providers of smart cities solutions, infrastructure operators, and assets managers.

To know more about the activities of the Slovak Space Office visit: https://spaceoffice.sk/ 

Presentations:

Michal Brichta, Slovak Space Office

Satellite technologies for smart cities and sustainable communities in Slovakia

Alex Kutka, Gospace Tech s.r.o.

Internet of Things: solutions for connecting in-situ measurements and satellites

Miloslav Michalko, University of Presov

From satellite data to smart solutions for cities: Experience with Citythons

Matus Bakon, INSAR s.r.o.

Satellite data as a critical asset for urban infrastructure monitoring

Stay tuned for the next webinar of the Eurisy Members’ Corner that will be hosted by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) on the World Settlement Footprint initiative on the 4th of November 2022 between 11:00 AM and 12:00 PM CET !

To register: https://bit.ly/3eJfuZy

The post Eurisy Members’ Corner: New focus on the Slovak Space Office appeared first on Eurisy.

The Environmental Protection Department of the City of Prague approves and implements the Climate Change Adaptation Strategy and its Implementation Plans.

The Department designs, manages and finances adaptation projects and analyses of some selected data. For these tasks the Department is supported, among others, by the Prague Institute for Planning and Development, which manages the Prague Geoportal, making available a number of maps of Prague.

The challenge

Considering the conspicuous presence of paved spaces, built areas and industrial infrastructure, Prague is particularly vulnerable to extreme heat events.

To implement adaptive measures, the Environmental Protection Department sought to visualise heat vulnerability and the areas that are affected the most in Prague, especially nearby public transport stops, where two-thirds of the city’s population spend a considerable amount of time.

The satellite solution

To assess the effects of climate change on transport stops, the Department asked for the support of ECOTEN Urban Comfort, a local start-up specialised in urban and environmental engineering.

As a first step, the company defined the indices to be taken into account for a heat assessment.

Among such indices, thermal exposure, which indicates the distribution of heat over the city, was calculated by identifying the warmest areas of the city during the days in which temperatures exceeded 30 °C. These data were extracted from images acquired by the Landsat 8 satellite in the summers between 2015 and 2019.

Adaptive capacity, which is the ability of the urban ecosystem to be resilient to heat events, was assessed by mapping greeneries and water bodies around public transport stops. This index was calculated by summing up the Advanced Vegetation Index and the Normalised Differential Water Index, both measured through data from the European Sentinel-2A satellite.

Combing all the indices, ECOTEN was able to produce the Urban Heat Vulnerability Map of the City of Prague.

The results

The Map classifies bus and tram stops in five categories, according to their degree of vulnerability to high temperatures.

Based on the information provided by the map, the Environmental Protection Department is taking measures to make transport stops more resilient to heatwaves and hence more comfortable for residents and tourists.

For example, green lawns were placed on the roofs of the most affected stops, together with misting devices and drinkable water fountains.

“Thanks to the Copernicus satellites, we have reliable, objective and shareable data to act against climate change”. Tereza Líbová, Climate change adaptation specialist, Department of Environmental Protection, City of Prague

READ THE FULL STORY

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Foster the development of innovative applications, bridge the gap between research and real-world needs, and establish international cooperation. This is the formula of the STEREO programme of BELSPO to support research in Earth observation.

After the welcome given to the participants by Ms Dominique Tilmans, Eurisy president and former senator of Belgium, this new episode of the Eurisy Members’ Corner series was introduced by Jean-Christophe Schyns, from BELSPO’s Earth Observation programme.

The STEREO programme (Support To Exploitation and Research in Earth Observation), managed by the “Space Research and Applications” directorate of BELSPO, offers to Belgian universities, public scientific institutions and non-profit research organisations opportunities and tools for the development of an expertise in Earth observation and a maximised scientific use of satellite and airborne data.

The current edition (STEREO-III) will end in 2022, but a new call has already been released to look for applicants for the next programme’s phase. Considering the relatively small size of Belgium, the investments made in this programme by the government are not negligible at all.

The programme funds projects with a duration of 2-5 years with a budget that currently ranges from 200.000 up to 1 million EUR, according to the scope of the project and the number of partners involved. Non-Belgian institutions can also be partners in this funding scheme.

Epidemiology and Urban Studies have been among the thematic priorities of STEREO-III, which funded three interconnected projects on population and malaria risk in sub-Saharan African cities. Such projects included five Belgian and three foreign research teams with a total budget of 2,25 M EUR, and aimed at developing tools based on EO to be made freely available to the local populations.

Catherine Linard, from the Department of Geography of the University of Namur, presented two of these projects, MAUPP and REACT.

Even though in Africa only 40% of the population lives in cities, urbanisation represents a growing trend, and a challenge for urban planners who need to adapt the cities’ infrastructure to a growing population.

The STEREO-III projects presented in the webinar aimed at providing urban planners with the data they need to prepare for upcoming risks in African cities. Indeed, even if large-scale gridded population datasets exist, the quality of such data for African cities is often insufficient for urban planning.

To estimate and monitor risks in cities, planners need data on the risk areas and on the population living there. When observing high resolution images of African urban areas, the researchers saw that such cities are very heterogeneous in the materials used for building and in their natural features, which makes it particularly difficult to build a system to characterise urban areas that could be immediately adapted to different cities.

Within the MAUPP project (Modeling and forecasting African Urban Population Patterns), aimed to build a monitoring system on urban areas that could be refined, researchers used high-resolution images (30-100 m) on 48 African cities and very-high-resolution images (<5 m) in the cities of Ouagadougou and Dakar. Satellite imagery allowed them to realise land cover and land use maps and detailed intra-urban population datasets for these two cities.

Within the REACT project (Remote Sensing foe Epidemiology in Sub-Saharan African CitTes), scientists used satellite imagery to improve knowledge of intra- and inter-urban malaria risk. They started by collecting feedback from the population through a survey. The results of the survey were then coupled with EO data on climate variables influencing vector-borne diseases (such as temperature, humidity, and vegetation), to identify hotspots where diseases are more likely to be transmitted within urban areas.

The project included knowledge transfer workshops aimed at providing local stakeholders with the capabilities to use the EO-based maps produced.

According to Ms Linard, it is very important that the EO datasets produced within projects are used by local urban planners, but it is also crucial to inform them about the uncertainties of such datasets.

Sabine Vanhuysse, from the Earth Observation and Geospatial Information Science department of the Free University of Brussels, presented the SLUMAP project (Remote Sensing for Slum Mapping and Characterisation in sub-Saharan African Cities), aimed at developing an open-source framework for the processing of remote sensing images to identify and characterise deprived urban areas.

The first target of the Sustainable Development Goal 11 aims at ensuring safe and affordable housing for all by 2030. Nevertheless, the UN estimates that 1 billion people still leave today in deprived urban areas.

To support a better management of deprived areas in African cities, the researchers involved a number of local stakeholders in a needs’ assessment that highlighted a gap in spatial data in such areas. Also in this case, the heterogeneity of deprived urban areas represented a challenge for the transferability of a satellite-based system to characterise deprived areas in different cities. At the same time, the cost of very high resolution images limits the scalability of such solutions.

Having these challenges in mind, the researchers used EO to assess deprivation probability in African cities. Satellite imagery was used to map urban morphology, characterise land cover, assess buildings’ density, and identify waste piles.

EO images were also shown to the local population through a mobile app, in order to assess the perception of deprivation of local populations. Such perception data were then used to calibrate the EO data. The results of the project are meant to be used by local associations to claim measures to improve living conditions in the studied urban areas.

To know more about the activities of BELSPO visit: https://spaceoffice.sk/ 

The recordings of the webinar are available here:

Stay tuned for the next webinar of the Eurisy Members’ Corner that will be hosted by the French National Centre for Space Studies on the 1st of July 2022 between 11:00 AM and 12:00 AM CET: https://bit.ly/3aoVkBx

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The Department of Energy Planning of the City of Vienna

In 2019, The Economist ranked the City of Vienna, in Austria, as the city with the highest quality of life worldwide. Indeed, the City’s administration believes in the value of innovation to cope with climate change and reach excellence in the delivery of public services.

The Department of Energy Planning of the City of Vienna is responsible for implementing sustainable policies in the energy sector, allocating funds and testing innovative solutions to produce energy out of renewables, increase the use of waste heat and promote energy-efficient and climate-friendly mobility.

Among other tasks, the Department issues a periodical Energy Report aimed at raising residents’ awareness on the status of energy and climate-related issues in Vienna.

The challenge

Urban areas are generally warmer than their surrounding areas. This phenomenon, known as “urban heat island effect” can cause health risks and higher energy consumption in cities.

In the past years, the urban heat island effect in Vienna has been exacerbated by a growing population and an increase in urban development, which led to the loss of permeable open green spaces and to higher temperatures.

In 2003, the city experienced 44 heat wave days, which were responsible for 180 deaths. Forecasts predict that between 2021 and 2050, there will be an average of 19 heat days in Vienna, while the population is expected to increase from 1.8 million to 2 million by 2029.

To prevent health risks to the residents of Vienna, the Energy Planning Department was hence looking for ways to identify urban “hot spots” and take measures to mitigate the consequences of increasing temperatures in the city.

The satellite solution

In 2019, the Department asked ECOTEN Urban Comfort, a company based in Prague and specialised in urban and environmental engineering, to map heat islands in Vienna to help them identify where action was the most needed.

After assessing the needs of the Department, the company defined the relevant indices to assess the city’s vulnerability to heat waves. Exposure, which is the prevalence of high temperatures across the city, was calculated by looking at images from the Landsat 8 satellite from 2015 to 2019.

Sensitivity was measured based on the density of vulnerable people (younger than 14 and older than 65) with data derived from Vienna’s Open Data portal.

Finally, adaptive capacity, which represents the ability of the urban ecosystem to cope with heat events thanks to the presence of greenery and waterbodies, was calculated by using imagery from the Sentinel 2A European satellite, which carries information to estimate both the enhanced vegetation index of the city (the density of urban vegetation) and its normalised difference water index (measuring water-bodies).

The indices were then combined to create a Heat Vulnerability Map of the City of Vienna.

The map shows which areas in Vienna are more affected to heat (in orange and red), providing information about temperatures and vulnerable people in the 250 districts of the city. In total, ten heat vulnerable areas have been identified in Vienna.

The results

The map created by ECOTEN Urban Comfort on the basis of satellite data and released by the City of Vienna is meant to serve as an operational tool by the Department of Urban Planning and other city authorities to implement mitigating measures in the neighbourhoods that are more vulnerable to heat events.

Indeed, the map contains information on high temperatures in Vienna and on areas with low vegetation and waterbodies and with a high number of vulnerable people. Furthermore, the analysis carried out by Ecoten Urban Comfort showed that, if no action was taken, temperatures in Vienna would increase of 8°C by 2050.

The Urban Heat Vulnerability Map initiated a series of public reactions via social media and mainstream media which ultimately led to a political debate over initiatives that the city can take to protect its citizens from extreme heat and provide comfortable eco-friendly urban districts for urban dwellers that are most vulnerable to extreme heat.

Based on the Urban Heat Vulnerability Map, in 2019 the City of Vienna launched the “Coole Straßen” (Cool Streets) project, aimed at lowering temperatures in the three districts identified as the most vulnerable to heat. In these areas, the City authorities created open spaces with trees and brighter surfaces, which reflect less heat, and installed mist showers to cool the asphalt and humidify the pavement. In addition, parking was banned in selected streets.

“For the first time we have a map that shows us where cooling is urgent and allows us to take specific measures.” Birgit Hebein, Former Deputy Major, City of Vienna

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During the workshop, a variety of satellite-based services in cities were presented.

• For the production and management of solar energy, satellite imagery can help cities to exploit unused roofs or parking spaces to produce green energy. The two applications presented are In Sun We Trust and NextSENSE, two online services providing access to  data on solar radiation at the city level.
• Earth observation data also carries precious information to foresee soil subsidence and to prioritise the maintenance of buildings, infrastructure and street pavements. The case of Amsterdam demonstrated how satellites help to better monitor bridges in the historical city centre, while the example of the Spanish Geological and Mining Institute showed how Earth observation helps to foresee soil subsidence due to groundwater extraction near the Segura river basin.
• Data such as from the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) can help cities to monitor pollutants in the air affecting urban health. The National Observatory of Athens presented an online platform (SMURBS EO Platform) that makes available data on fine particulate matter in cities based on satellite imagery. The CURE project (Copernicus for Urban Resilience in Europe) also illustrated how air quality data derived from Earth observation can be combined with other data to help local authorities define the best policies to make their cities more sustainable.

Furthermore, there are funding mechanisms to develop new services better adapted to user needs. Through the European Green Deal Calls, with specific calls for urban solutions, the European Commission makes available support and funding to increase the sustainability of our cities. In line with the development of the Copernicus services and the creation of the DIAS (Data and Information Access Services), many services based on Earth observation have also been funded.

Slide from the presentation of Cristina Martinez, DG CONNECT

The lack of awareness among public administrations about the existence of services based on satellite applications, and in particular on Earth observation, is still a big obstacle. The information carried by Earth observation data remains difficult to find for the local city managers. This highlights the need to better communicate about the existence of satellite data and services. One way of doing this is to embed the data extracted from satellite imagery where the intended users actually look for information, such as on websites of regional and local entities dedicated to public services.

More case studies of satellite-based services demonstrating cost-effectiveness and their capacity to respond to cities’ concrete operational needs are required. Such case studies should not be showcased only to audiences with an interest towards ICTs and satellite applications, but should be presented to the general public and to local administrations in their language, avoiding technical jargon.

“Cities are hampered by budget constraints and low innovation culture – however the efficiency arguments supporting ICT investment are fully compelling and may be viewed as a solution to financial pressure. But for these arguments to win through, the services need to prove to be fit for purpose.” David Ludlow, Copernicus for Urban Resilience in Europe

The key to turn innovation into operation is to focus on needs. The Eurisy experience shows that the satellite-based services that are most likely to be used operationally and sustainably by local administrations, are those that have been conceived to respond to their specific needs and those that can be easily embedded into their operations, requiring little maintenance or technical skills.

To focus on needs means to involve city administrations actively in all phases of R&D projects, which requires a prior process of mutual education between city administrations and service providers. On the one hand, service providers need to learn about the priorities and needs of city departments, as well as about their structure, capabilities, and functioning. On the other hand, public administrations need to understand what parameters satellites can monitor, at what resolution and how often, and need to be aware of the time and resources they are expected to invest.

Finally, even when city administrations are aware of satellite-based services and convinced of their cost-efficiency, procuring them might not be obvious. Cities need support to procure satellite-based services because they often lack in-house experience to select the most pertinent service and to write the technical specifications for it.

Energy management, connectivity, mobility, urban planning, protecting infrastructure against geo-hazards, air quality monitoring, the list of satellite applications goes on. However, there is still a lot to be done to turn innovation into operation. The speakers that contributed to our workshop are well aware that the transfer of satellite-based services to cities can only happen if these are clearly adapted to the operational needs and capabilities of local administrations. If all stakeholders focus their communications on such aspects, they can find the common language needed to co-design scalable satellite-based solutions enabling cities to make their green and digital transition.

The recordings of the sessions are available here. The presentations of the different speakers are accessible on the event page. You can also read the full report.

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