Business in Earth Observation EoVOX080508

8/4/2019 Business in Earth Observation EoVOX080508

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BusinessinEarthobservation

an overview omarket developmentand emerging applications


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Table o contents 3

Earth observation: Making the dierence in the inormation economy 5

Adding value to Earth Observation inormation 9

Global Market Forecast 11

Emerging services applications 17

Factors driving Earth Observation Industry growth 31

Embracing the change 37

Reerences 39

Business in Earth observation

Table o contents


4/40Photo: ESA


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1. Making the dierence in the inormation economy

Satellite observations have provided us with eective ways o monitoring our

planet, helping us improve the exploitation and management o Earths resources.

Google Earth and other similar tools have demonstrated that Earth observation

EO is not a specialist area but something that can add value to many aspects

o our lives, both at work and at home. This brochure aims to illustrate that and to

reveal new opportunities or business, industry and government to add value to

their operations.

The Earth observation industry is already addressing - at a global level - important

environmental, social, and economic challenges. It is ocusing its research and

development programs on innovative capabilities and services which will improve

the quality o lie o citizens as well as the eciency o economic actors.

The Earth observation sector is being recognized as a leader in the development,

deployment and integration o science and technology into policy and decision-

making by industry and other stakeholders.

Commercial high resolution and multi-spectral satellite systems are delivering an

unprecedented quantity o Earth observation data in very short timescales ater

acquisition. The commercial remote sensing business has entered a new era.

The satellites, the images, the delivery systems and the value-added inormation

providers and products are all now components o a well-established industry.

EO oers added-value cost-eective solutions to business problems associated

with the interplay between asset management, technical processes, systems and

data management, rapid dissemination o data, results or services, and distribution

channels.


Earth observation: Making the dierence inthe inormation economy


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The EO value adding (VA) industry is dedicated to the development and use o

Earth observation data processing and exploitation tools to provide optimized

inormation or decision makers. This industrial sector is mainly composed o small

and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). It is a mature sector. There are players

active across the entire value chain, providing homogeneous, continuous and

global coverage o even the most remote and inaccessible areas o the world

where inormation has previously been non-existent. Access to this valuable

inormation is rapid, simple and cost-eective. EO has become part o the more

general concept o Geo-inormation, where users receive inormation tailored to

their needs and pertaining to their precise place in space.


FIGURE 0. Relation EO VA supply and costumer demand.

push

Value added info:Earth observation data,

geo-information, high integration,software, know how, contacts

pull

Customer

demandinformationexploitation

informationcreation

EO VA

Supply


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FIGURE 1. Global European annual satellite EO products andservices turnover, in millions o euros. (Source: mission study - ISU- MSS)

5000

6000

3000

4000

1000

0

2000

2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 2020

Services

Products

This brochure demonstrates the maturity o the EO value-adding sector and provides

examples that have emerged recently in the market. It allows an assessment o the

economic importance o these activities, either at product level with the sale o

data and sotware or at the level o system integrators or the development o

novel applications and value-added services. This market is on the brink o a wide

expansion, representing a huge economic gain in terms o industrial products and

service provision as shown in Figure 1. The main challenge or the EO industry now

is to alert potential customers to the benets o this essential new resource.


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2. Adding value to EO inormation a diverse and astgrowing sector

Ever since the launch o the rst satellite systems or civil imagery (LANDSAT) in

the early seventies, companies worldwide have been developing products and

services to stimulate and serve a civilian market or land and coastal applications,

among others. From a baseline o proessional equipment or image processing

and geographical inormation systems, continued innovation in technology has led

to huge improvements in the price and perormance o tools. In tandem with this,

value-adding companies have continued to develop new applications and spawnnew businesses to serve growing markets. Today, several hundred companies are

already involved in satellite Earth observation service provision, encompassing

a diversity o markets ar outstripping anything that could have been envisaged

even ten years ago.

As the market grows in size, it also develops in structure. What started as an

industry that supplied stand-alone image processing tools, the situation has

developed to encompass all geo-inormation tools combining image acquisition,

data processing, geographical inormation systems, as well as their integration

with both navigation and communication technologies as shown in Figure 2.

The product business is complemented by a rapidly developing service industry that

integrates, among others, digital mapping, bundled with mobile communications

to deliver packaged services to end-users.


Adding value toEarth Observation inormation


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10 Business in Earth observation

FALLOWS

CULTIVATED AREAS

CROPS

MONITORING

RENEWABLE

RESOURCES

TELECOM

SETTING UP

DATA PROCESSING

SOFTWARE

SPECIES CENSUS

NATURE RESERVES

RADAR

INSTRUMENTS

INDUSTRIAL

SETTING UP

ENVIRONMENT CONTROL

AND MONITORING

URBAN

DEVELOPMENT

FINAL

MARKETS

FINAL

MARKETSAPPLICATIONS APPLICATIONSSYSTEMS/PRODUCTS

FUNCTIONAL

PROPERTIES

CONSTITUENT

TECHNOLOGIES

SYSTEMS/PRODUCTS

URBANIZATION

FOREST MANAGEMENT

DEFENCE

AGRICULTURE

MAPPING

ENERGY

TRANSPORTS

NATURAL DISASTERSFORECAST ANDMANEGEMENT

COASTAL EROSIONPOLLUTION, OUTFLOWS

MONITORING

OPTICALINSTRUMENTS

IR INSTRUMENT

SPECTRAL HIGHTRESOLUTION

SPATIAL HIGHTRESOLUTION (


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3. Global Market Forecast

The main driver o the evolution o the European EO VA industry activities in the coming

years is the GMES (Global Monitoring or Environment and Security) initiative. This

European initiative has already gathered substantial momentum through the actions

o the European Union and European Space Agency and through the wide ranging

participation o European industry since European remote sensing companies, who

have all the competence and experience needed or a successul GMES programme.

This encompasses in-situ, airborne and space-borne sensor deployment, ground

inrastructures and data processing, value added data production and interpretation,and extending to aid or environment and security decision-making. GMES is o

strategic importance, however it is a complex undertaking which needs a sustained

backing to become a success story and a denitive European asset.

GMES is a cornerstone o the European Union space strategy. GMES will supply

accurate inormation in support o several European policies such as sustainable

development and climate change, civil protection, humanitarian aid, saety,

research and space strategy. It will provide a platorm or the growth o innovative

knowledge based organizations in the environmental and geo-inormation sector.

It will also improve the links between government institutions providing public

inormation services, EO service companies providing niche products and other

industrial operators providing a wider range o environmental services. This

clustering is expected to stimulate a range o innovative products and services.

The availability o environmental inormation through GMES combined with the

dynamism o the European geo-inormation service industry create very avourable

conditions or the industry (i) to exploit the expected increase in accessibility and

reduction in cost o environmental data and inormation and (ii) to innovate new

products and services rom the GMES initiative. This process can be a very positive

contribution to European competitiveness.


Global Market Forecast


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The protected benets o GMES to the geo-inormation value adding sector

grouped by public policy domain are represented in Figure 3.

FIGURE 3. Impacts on the geo-inormation value adding sector (source: PwC Analysis)Note: 25 year appraisal period, discounted at 4% real to 1/1/2006

Global environment

17000

2800

3600

5200

2700

900

Natural resources

2200

Security

Risk and Civil Protection

Sustainable growth

European environmental protection

Development and aid Security

Gmes Benefts by

Public Policy Domain.

Total 35 Billion Euros(25 years appraisal period)


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Over the next 10 years, as use o satellite-based imagery spreads, international

cooperation on civil programs will intensiy. The potential users o geospatial

data and products are numerous, including governments seeking services or

development and deence, engineers or solutions and innovations, armers

or crop yields and monitoring, telecom operators or mobile networks, etc.

Competition to sell products is erce, and Forecast International (website: www.

orecastinternational.com/) expects this competition to spur another round o

limited consolidation within the industry over this period.

A urther signicant development expected over the next 10 years correspondsto the growth in turnover associated with services. At present, the product market

dominates turnover. However, as the number o users increase in mass-market

image related products segments, the potential or service turnover also increases.

Economies o scale or suppliers, maturing service oerings and network eects

will all combine to increase the value o the service market. Expectations or the

geo-inormation service markets resulting rom the synergy between the use o

Earth observation, Navigation and Telecommunications techniques are shown in

Figures 4 and 5.


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Agriculture / Vegetation / Fishing

Traffic Management

Fleet Management

Civil Engineering

Disaster Management

Regulations Monitoring

Urban

Insurance

Mining

Cartography/Mapping

Tracking

Citizen

Precision Farming

FIGURE 4. Worldwide turnover by domain in 2015 (primary markets, total 50 billion euros. Source: Source: mission study - ISU- MSS)


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Meteo

Wildlife

Enviromental Monitoring

Search and Rescue

Crime Tracking

Earth Monitoring

Ground Motion

FIGURE 5. Worldwide turnover by domain in 2015 (Secondary markets, Total 1 Billion euros. Source: Source: mission study - ISU- MSS)


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The Industry iseverevolving;

leading-edge tech-nologies, address-ing problems and ft-ting customer needs.

Photo: ESA


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4. Emerging services applications

From orbiting space platorms to precision sensors, Earth observation capabilities

measure short- and long-term variations on the planet, enhancing knowledge

o global trends, or example in weather and climate, the environment, human

activity, etc. The EO industry is unique in its ability to gather and process

inormation on a global scale and is increasingly seen by mainstream industries as

an enabler o internationally competitive perormance through its development

and delivery o improved geo-inormation products and services or land, ocean

and atmosphere.

The suite o applications is tailored to industry users seeking multi-spectral imagery

to monitor and anticipate changes in their surroundings. The benets which are

envisaged range rom long term social benets through to more immediately


Emerging services applications

FIGURE 6. Products markets. (Source: ESA-EOMD Compendium)

0 30 60 90 120 150

Public / governmental bodies

ProductsMultiple marketsSingle market

International / intergobernmental organistions

Infrastructure / transport / communications

Agro / fish / forestry

Energy / natural resources

Other

Commercial services(insurance, news, travel, etc)


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quantiable economic benets. This section explores the benets that are

envisaged in a range o primary application sectors, including resources, energy,

inrastructures , transport & communications, services, public and international

institutionsand security. A summary o the current structure o sales and revenues

or dierent types o products and services across these application sectors is

shown in Figure 6 and Figure 7.

Software 1%

Standard Offerings 1%

Data 0%

Integrated solution 23%

Customised Solutions 74%

Training 1%

FIGURE 7. Development revenues by service. (Source: ESA-EOMD Compendium)


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4.1 Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry

As the satellite imagery archive continues to grow, it will be increasingly possible

to track changes over time or applications such as agriculture. Farmers worldwide

make substantial annual investments in arm chemicals, yet continue to lose crops

due to pest inestations, plant diseases, and poor arming practices. Using high

spatial resolution imagery, inadequate irrigation and soil erosion can be identied

quickly, while herbicides, pesticides, ertilizer, and other agricultural treatmentscan be more accurately assessed, closely monitored and optimised.

When combined with other inormation (arm census, seed sales, market

inormation, etc.) Earth observation outputs make a signicant contribution to

the eciency o modern agricultural practice, while the consistency and broad

coverage o the data are important to the large companies in todays market.

Space observations o oceans have evolved over last our decades and have been

increasingly used or understanding various oceanic conditions. For those studying


Earth observation helpsto the eciency o

modern agriculture.

Tomato Plantation inBrazil.

Photo by JooPaglione.


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the oceans environmental processes or assessing its marine resource potential,

Earth observation can help to identiy the potential fshing zones and to assess sh

stocks. The EO industry is already delivering products that help optimise shing

feets; it also provides data or sh stock control monitoring and detection o

biophysical parameters such as primary production and sea surace temperature.

Precisely located Earth observation data has assumed great importance in orest

mapping and management, re damage monitoring and the increasingly important

problem o illegal logging in developing countries. Currently the demand or

orestry inormation is driven by international and European environmental

conventions. National governments are introducing geo-inormation to provide

the inormation necessary or orest policy development. However, EO data can be

more easily and cost-eectively managed by private operators. Earth observation

is being used in many areas o orestry, including orest inventory, health, wild

land, chemistry, carbon accounting and land cover mapping. For example, orest

managers know how much wood will be available at any one time on a sustainable

basis. They will be able to compare up-to-date maps o orests and conserved


Earth observationcould help to identiy

potential shing zones.

Fishing Boat leavingCromarty harbour,Ross-shire, Scotland.Photo by CalumDavidson.


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areas with inormation rom wood suppliers to prevent protected wood rom being

taken.

4.2 Energy and Natural Resources

One o the most established markets in Earth observation is within the areas o

natural resources exploration including oil, gas and minerals and the Energy

sector in general. Earth observation products aid in the development o initial oor on shore surveys as well as in the areas o oil spill mitigation and remediation.

Energy companies are one o the pillars o the market. Energy is an input

universally required by the economic and social inrastructure o all countries.

The Earth observation industry can optimize the available spatial data or specic

locations using ground-based monitoring techniques providing the existing

surace networks with data where none was previously available. Such optimization

occurs through the development o specic decision support system tools that



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require detailed meteorological and specic parameters inormation depending

on the energy activity.

Earth observation imagery is used extensively by exploration companies in support

o their search or new oil and gas reserves both on land and at sea as well as

playing an important role in exploration, extraction and sae transportation o the

worlds oil and gas reserves.

Real opportunities exist or inormation rom Earth observations to contribute

to the optimisation orenewable energy systems or power production, and tocontribute to the provision o inormation or optimal integration o traditional and

renewable energy supply systems into electric power grids.

Energy sources such as solar, wind, and wave power fat acilities, oer

environmentally-riendly alternatives to ossil uels but are particularly sensitive

to environmental conditions. These energy sources are intermittent, and their

availability depends largely on local climate and weather. Local climate data on

cloud cover, solar irradiance, and on wind/wave speed and direction combined

with other environmental parameters such as land elevation and land cover

models are vital elements in developing a strategy or the location and operation

o solar, wind, and wave power acilities.

Earth observation is commercialising science solutions to provide a competitive

advantage in the market place omining during the design and construction o

underground structures and during the operating period o these structures.

Water authorities require access to reliable inormation at the regional scale. This

can be derived rom traditional and laborious point measurements, but Earth

observation can additionally provide data on the temporal evolution o the extent

o open water suraces and indices o irrigation or water scarcity such as the spatial


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and temporal variations o the vegetation phenological cycle. Earth observation

data provides new options to diagnose land and water resources conditions, and

thereore an opportunity exists or providing new services.

4.3 Inrastructure, Transport and Communications

There is sustained interest in Earth observation products and services rom a broad

range o sectors o the economy, includingconstruction and other inrastructures ,

commercial and even residential real estate companies.

The application o Earth observation technology in exploration can save time,

money and increase eciency. The processed imagery is also able to provide

accurate and up-to-date inormation or many purposes. Dierent users o the

inormation include: oil and gas exploration/production companies, geophysical/

geo-chemical services companies, mineral exploration/operators and independent

consultants.


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Industry can quickly acquire images that portray very current conditions on the

ground to assist in site appraisal, detection, evaluation, location analysis and

development.

Other geospatial data provide a range o societal benets, such as improving

public saety and transportation access providing companies with options or

reducing uel usage and improving operational eciencies.

Data on drainage, watersheds, buildings, and land uses has vital importance to

inrastructures and EO data can help to understand these better. Road networks

can be more eciently and eectively managed by drawing up on quantitativeand qualitative real time inormation. EO data is used to increase the eciency

o project planning, shorten project timelines or delivery and signicantly reduce

costs or developing and managing the highway corridors. Large investments

are being made to upgrade road/highway inrastructures and the transportation

sector has begun to understand the potential benets o using EO value-added

products. The most requested products are thereore cartography and specic

thematic and morphological maps, such as digital elevation models (DEMs).


Air and seatransportation are thecirculatory system othe global economy,enabling the fow ogoods, people andservices across borders.Growth rates or bothmodes o transportcontinue to exceed thato the world economy.On a national level,ecient transportinrastructure is a keyarea o comparativeadvantage.

(Source: ESA)


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Ship routing or sae transportation and ecient use o uel is critical or worldwide

commerce. Earth observation supplies inormation and imagery which improves

the maritime weather orecast. Shipping is thereore supported by an accuracy

day-and-night coverage o the entire globe.

The telecommunications and utilities industries have seen the use o large-scale

o EO data, such us land-use categories o urban and vegetated areas, as clutter

classications. These interpretations have been used to assist in the network

development and expansion planning process and to look or areas in modelling

cellular telephone signal propagation, which in turn helps engineers to locate celltowers.

4.4 Services

EO services help to generate revenues or Insurance companies by providing

real-time data or understanding hazards and by adding value to imagery datasets

or visualisation during a risk assessment, evaluating variables that would lead to

additional operational costs. This approach provides the insurance customers with

unparalleled opportunities to understand and assess uture risks. The importance

o post-crisis analysis could be improved i the insurance sector would start to

use satellite data operationally, or the assessment o damage caused by natural

disasters.

The potential o the news and mediamarket is very high, because prospective users

are not limited to the technical community. All consumers could be considered a

client. Images could be used or publishers, media and newspapers or reportage

and articles.



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The Earth observation industry oers new techniques or creating promotional

material or tourism using web sites based on EO data seen rom a pictorial point

o view and deploying virtual reality medium scale applications.

New products also exist in the leisure sector providing inormation on textures

and landscapes or video games, such as fight simulators.

4.5 Public and Governmental Bodies

The Earth observation provides an ever-increasing range o derived inormation

products or public bodies. The wide range o established activities includes

contributions to national land cover assessment, environmental impact and

warning services to government and industry. Governments together with EO

value adding companies are already playing a role in developing and tailoring new

technologies, adapting existing tools to create new products, and incorporating

new data sources to increase accuracy. This is already the case in demographic


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monitoring and prediction or local and regional governments; and in water,

electric power and telecommunications inrastructure assessment.

EO VA companies achieve efciencies in routine operations, get inormation

to clients more quickly and eectively, and respond to emerging community

needs.

Inormation is the key element or an educated society, economic growth and

decision-making. Earth observation rom space sharpens our sensitivity to the

natural environment and thus stimulates our willingness to learn o its relevanceto everyday lie conditions. It also make us aware o the need to use science and

technology methods to obtain inormation or environmental monitoring. Private

consultancies are developing courses on awareness o the potential o Earth

observation and geo-inormation in both the public and private sectors and or

the general public. The accessibility and knowledge o Earth observation improves

the decision support and provides key inormation needed to promote economic

vitality and environmental stewardship. Earth observation contributes to solutions

that result in socio-economic benets to society.

4.6 International and Governmental Bodies

Understanding the Earth system its weather, climate, oceans, land, geography,

natural resources, ecosystems and natural and human-induced hazards is crucial

to enhancing human health, saety and welare, protecting the global environment,

and achieving sustainable development. Data collected and inormation created

rom Earth observations are critical to this understanding.

Governments are exploring the potential o Earth observation to support in the

near uture the implementation o international environmental treaties. To respond

to national and international issues related to climate change and sustainable


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development international bodies require measurements and monitoring

systems that can provide timely inormation. Governments have taken several

steps towards establishing a comprehensive coordinated and sustained Earth

observation system which can play an essential role in nding solutions related to

improving the multiunctional use o space, or water management, ood security

& the environment and or disaster management.

Public regulations can create market sectors: Aim to create Europe-wide markets

in order to avoid ragmentation and to provide critical mass.

Exciting proessional opportunities in the atmospheric sciences and meteorology

are growing in a number o weather- and environment- sensitive technology areas.

Some examples o areas o synergy opportunity include:

management (rom seed selection through harvest) o agricultural crops and tur(gol course-type) grasses;

orest ecosystems and watershed management;

wind energy, including problem areas such as site selection and turbine designand operation; environmental impact assessment or industrial permitting and

monitoring purposes;

emergency response ollowing accidental or other releases o hazardous and toxicmaterials on local, regional and national scales;

special problems in marine meteorology and air-water exchange;

weather-dependent disease vectors or human and animal health;

and environmental impacts o high animal density agri-industries.



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4.7 Security and deence

The security segment is a well-established user o EO data as a key inormation

source, and it is handled with more and more sophisticated GIS instruments. The

main applications are the generation o maps, target monitoring and detection,

and digital elevation model generation. Data usion techniques that combine data

rom dierent sources are also used. Earth observation data makes an excellent

basis or medium to large scale cartography. Consequently, this segment makes

extensive use o satellite data, especially in those situations where the requirements

or accuracy can be met, and alternative data sources are too expensive or evenunavailable. This is a mature market where the use o satellite data is consolidated

practice. The market potential is high, because there are large areas o the earth

that remain unmapped at both medium and large scales, and other parts that,

even i already mapped, require regular updating. High resolution data now oers

solutions or topographic scales and cadastral activities.

EO inormation is perceived to be o signifcant beneft to many sectors o society

Some private and public industry in rescue and recovery eorts may use satellite

imagery that helps to quantiy the geographic damage extents in conjunction

with geo-inormation to assess wildre and food risks with imagery captured ater

events. Prediction and detection o these risk events has to be accomplished in a

cost-eective way that improves security.

Mapping, civil protection and global security applications o geospatial data

inormation are currently present in the market. The needs o environmental

assessment and inrastructure applications are substantial and are likely to increase

as our scientic understanding advances, and thereby provide uture economic

benets.



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Photo: ESA


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Factors driving EO industry growth

5. Factor driving EO industry growth

A number o actors were identied which will aect the EO industry in the near

uture. EO providers see primary markets as probably their best hope o increasing

service revenues over the next ew years. The EO VA industry depends on the

growth and development o the market or its own uture. VA companies providing

new products to new customers are keeping a close eye on the market to identiy

which application promises larger revenues.

5.1 Market drivers

New advances such as the Google-Earth-like developments and wide availability

o new satellite navigation techniques (GPS/GIS) are revolutionising the market.

Such advances will result in a steep change in the market or EO products, with an

acceleration o the market growth in the next 5 years.

Social, demographic and economic actors together with technological and

political actors are also likely to have an impact on the EO revenues over the

next ew years. In addition, the development o new services such as or oil and

insurance companies will extend the demand or these services to more users, and

increase usage by existing users.

On the overall EO supply chain, regulations, competition, business models and

technology limitations all come into play to impact the market share and growth

prospects in specic countries or regions.

Technological Trends:

New satellite and payload technologies, new sensors, ormation fying and

constellations o mini/micro satellites,


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GIS and sotware advances improve price versus perormance and avour its use

in portable devices. Advances in geographical inormation systems and digital

mapping provide the necessary data to support new Location Based Services.

In the deployment o new services, continuity o data is a critical element. It

impacts both the cost and the reliability o the service oering, and powering

solutions are continuously innovating and growing in complexity.

Convergence and integration with other Space application domains

(Telecommunications, Galileo and GMES inrastructures). Complementarities othe satellite capabilities with terrestrial capabilities should also be addressed as

an integral part o the overall system concept. The target should be a service

demonstration platorm, with the objective o validating the system/technological

concepts and o demonstrating to potential users the benets o an integrated

Communication/observation inrastructure

Political and regulatory environment:

New directives in shery policies, in environment monitoring, in agriculture, etc.

New measures to enhance public and consumer protection

Measures or regional development or or humanitarian aid in poor countries,

etc.

Another driving actor is interoperability. Standards development in particular play

a major role. Established standards help reduce market conusion and encourage

vendors to produce interoperable equipment and mass production is expected to

bring down costs


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Earth observation creates demand or better environmental law. Earth observation

is an unparalleled source o inormation that conveys environmental changes in

a visually compelling way. As a result, it is extremely useul or raising awareness

and developing the political support necessary to strengthen environmental laws

at the dierent levels at the dierent levels (synoptic view, global assessment and

compliance verication)

Social actors:

Increased demand or inormation products.

5.2 Technology trends

5.2.1 Satellite technology

There is a need to develop a coordinated suite o environmental monitoring

instruments with long-term data continuity at appropriate spatial, spectral, and

temporal resolutions, with:

the possibility o accessing timely and appropriate spatial data;

the access to computerized sotware tools that enable analysis o spatio-temporal

phenomena; the availability o local expertise, especially at the graduate level,

capable o developing adequate spatial analysis methodologies.

The main trends in satellite technology are the development o constellation o

small satellite with excellent imaging capability both in the spatial domains (in the

one meter resolution range) and spectral domains (with hyper-spectral capabilities

o several hundreds colour bands).



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5.2.2 Geographic Inormation System

Earth observation GIS (Geographical Inormation Systems) can undoubtedly be

considered as one o the great successes o the use o advanced inormation

technology or the improvement o society. The capabilities provided by satellite

imagery, digital maps, and associated inormation have transormed our ability to

understanding the orces that shape the geographical space.

The combination o geographical inormation systems with satellite Earth

observation is at the root o most o the new applications already on the market.

5.2.3 Synergies with mobile telecommunication and navigation

Location Based Services (LBS) are predicted to be amongst the most promising

services o uture wide-band mobile networks, alongside with voice and multimedia

services. They will use more and more EO data.

The need or service guarantee or saety-o-lie and commercial applications

has been taken into account in the design o the systems. Legal implications o

service level commitment are driving the system implementation. Accountability

requirements regarding service provision has led to clear traceability requirements

on detailed system perormance history.

5.3 Regulation and Policy

Regulation at a number o levels international, EU-wide and national will

indirectly drive the use o satellite Earth observation systems. In particular the

INSPIRE directive (http://inspire.jrc.it/home.html) will control the implementation



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o the data output rom uture Earth observation systems including the GMES

system.

Some issues have been identied:

Requirements or updating procedures, verication and maintenance o complex

systems will require a signicant nancial eort and highly qualied service

support.

Within a multilateral context o merging initiatives, alliances and internationalcooperation among space systems (GMES, GEOSS, etc), a clearer understanding

o organizational issues will give room to more eective management solutions

with respect to human resources, nancial arrangements, decision fow, etc.

Increased interoperability and combination o inormation sources rom dierent

space, airborne and in-situ systems, will result in an increased requirement or

eective and timely decision making in a multi-cultural context.



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Photo: ESA


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6 Embracing the change

Knowledge about the state o the environment is an essential basis or establishing

and enorcing policy as well as in reacting to disaster situations. Without such

knowledge one cannot assure sustainable development. Earth observation

provides a unique and consistent input to underpin such a development and plays

a crucial role in understanding our planet through scientic excellence, commercial

protability and the eective achievement o social objectives.

EO inormation is an increasingly important element o Europes knowledgesociety.

The Earth observation value-adding sector in Europe and Canada employs more

than 3000 people dedicated to helping customers achieve better operational and

economic eciency. Its increased rate o growth is an essential and precious asset

or government, industry and citizens alike.

EO VA is a key industry or the 21st century.


Embracing the change


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Photo: ESA


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7 Reerences

ESA Earth observation Market Development (EOMD: www. eomd.esa.int)

European Association o Remote Sensing Companies (EARSC: www.earsc.org)

EOVOX Study: eoVox: www.eovox.org


Reerences


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Business in Earth Observation EoVOX080508

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