GMES
Observing our Planet for a Safer World
GMES, which stands for Global Monitoring for Environment and Security, is a joint initiative of the European Commission (EC) and the European Space Agency (ESA) aiming to operationally provide sound, reliable and affordable geo-information products and services throughout Europe and across the globe.
The services developed within GMES are based on remote sensing and in-situ observations as well as numerical models and are designed to support public authorities and decision makers in Europe and around the globe and to facilitate their reporting obligations from the new EU environmental directives. In 2008, GMES pre-operational services were launched with the objective to move into the operational phase in 2011.
The GEO-Information Division of Astrium Services has gained a leading role within GMES and has been engaged, since the beginning of this initiative, in developing and demonstrating a range of reliable, affordable and cost-effective services that support - among others - urban planning, water management, risk management, protection of the environment, biodiversity and soils.
Astrium Services has also worked with institutional GMES partners to develop innovative mechanisms and infrastructures for accessing Earth observation data. They cover R&D needs and GMES operational requirements. Astrium Services is actively involved in discussions at the European Commission and the European Space Agency (ESA) on ensuring future access to data and continuity of space-based infrastructures.
Astrium Services currently leads the EC FP-7 geoland2, follow-up to the successfully concluded geoland project, which provides the pre-operational land service within GMES.
The project aims at providing geo-information data on the regional, European and global scale and covers thematic domains like land use/ land cover change, soil sealing, water quality and availability, spatial planning, forest management, carbon storage and global food security
Further, the companies experts contribute to GMES projects supporting disaster management (SAFER, RISK-EOS, PREVIEW, BOSS4GMES), humanitarian aid (Respond) and civil security issues (G-MOSAIC).
In the SAFER project (Services and Applications For Emergency Response) the European capacity to respond to emergency situations is strengthened, covering disasters such as floods, fires, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and landslides.
The main objectives are to improve the rapid mapping capacity and the provision of thematic products with risk specific information before and after the crisis. Astrium Services experts further develop flood risk analysis and assets mapping services and contribute to reference mapping based on both radar and optical Earth observation data.
Thereby the company continues its successful service developments from previous projects in the disaster management domain, namely RISK-EOS and PREVIEW.
Both these projects focused on service and product developments supporting users on federal and community level in their responsibilities for an effective flood risk management.
In addition, Astrium Services contributed to BOSS4GMES (Building Operational Sustainable Services for GMES), which developed an operational foundation for the long-term sustainability of GMES services, focusing on technology, business and communications.
In BOSS4GMES, the companies’ specialists led the Fast Track Service (FTS) Land and contributed to the FTS Emergency by providing topographic maps as background information and reference for future natural disasters.
In the Respond project - which is an alliance of European and international service providers and organisations collaborating with actors from the humanitarian community - Astrium Services provides expertise in reference mapping as well as crisis and damage mapping.
Finally, G-MOSAIC (GMES Services for Management of Operations, Situation Awareness and Intelligence for regional Crises) is a project to identify and develop products, methodologies and pilot services that support the EU external relations policies and the GMES global security perspective. In the project, the GEO-Information Division of Astrium Services contributes to service developments related to site monitoring (blue & green borders, critical infrastructures) in combination with change detection as well as reference mapping services.
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