NEW CHALLENGES – NEW NEEDS
The implementation of the Water Framework Directive and Soil Thematic Strategy is a major challenge to most legal bodies in charge: The European Commission (EC) will soon request them to deliver spatially disaggregated information on national, regional and local water and soil conditions in a standardized format. Authorities will thus have to adapt their proven reporting mechanisms to meet these requirements.
EARTH OBSERVATION SOLUTIONS
SAGE introduces information products, based on data collected by Earth observation satellites. The integration of information derived from such data with existing methods and models is the most economic and reliable way to deliver the required topical and internationally harmonised geospatial environmental information.
The SAGE portfolio consists of two product lines;
AquaSAGE: products focussing on water quality, water shortage and (pressure and state) indicators of the water condition;
SoilSAGE: products displaying pressure and state indicators of soil condition.
USER-DRIVEN DEVELOPMENT
All products have been developed by experienced Service Providers in various European countries, representing different ecozones.
In developing the products, the Service Providers have been closely cooperating with various national and regional user organisations.
GLOBAL MONITORING FOR ENVIROMENT AND SECURITY (GMES)
GMES
is a joint initiative of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Commission (EC) to provide operational information for monitoring and management of the environment and for security in order to fulfil European policies. The GMES Service Element (GSE) is the first programme fully dedicated to GMES. It focuses upon the delivery of policy relevant services to end users, primarily from Earth Observation sources.
SAGE aims at the GMES priority themes "Environmental Stress" and "Land Cover and Vegetation" of the GMES master plan.
FUTURE IMPLEMENTATION
Earth observation (EO) has been recognized as an key source of information required for a successful implementation of newly implemented and upcoming European directives, policies and regulations. Thus, the initiators of the GMES programme are discussing the operational implementation of such services with all stakeholders.
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