Landslides across the Alps have major socio-economic impacts and represent a significant risk for the population, properties and infrastructures as well as a serious hindrance in the development of mountainous regions. Landslides are diverse in form and mechanism, ranging from rockfalls and debris flows to deep-seated rock instabilities and shallow rotational soil slides. Those shallow …
Background ESA is pleased to announce the organization of the 2024 EO for Africa Symposium in partnership with the African Union Commission (AUC), African Association of Remote Sensing of the Environment (AARSE), the European Commission (EC), the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The …
The Geohazards Exploitation Platform (GEP) is the outcome of an ESA initiative to implement Thematic Exploitation Platforms, i.e. advanced on-line processing environments dedicated to user communities in specific thematic areas. The GEP is looking at geological and hydrogeological hazards with a focus on terrain motion mapping. In the context of its current evolution, the GEP …
Background Environmental crime is growing at annual rates of 5% to 7% globally. Countering environmental crime is complex as it is often perpetrated by criminal organizations operating across borders. It also spans a broad range of activities, such as illegal waste management and shipment, illegal logging and trade in timber, illegal water abstraction, pollution, habitats …
ESA’s World Fire Atlas, an essential tool in wildfire monitoring, keeps detecting and mapping active fires globally since 2019 thanks to the SLSTR sensor aboard Sentinel-3. The tool already counted 258 fires in Canada in 2024 up to 13 May. At the same time, the extent of air pollution caused by these wildfires are highlighted …
There is an increasing threat from water-related issues impacting the human population through global warming, shifts in precipitation patterns and extreme weather conditions, all leading to water stress, including natural disasters such as floods or droughts, with a risk of severe damage to the environment, property and human life. A less studied aspect of such …
EO4MULTIHAZARDS aims to use state-of-the-art satellite Earth Observation to improve the understanding of high-impact cascading and compounding multi-hazard events, revealing their underlying drivers and dynamics, and enhancing our ability to assess their societal and ecological impacts. This project is dedicated to advancing scientific understanding and modeling of multi-hazard events through collaboration with both local and …
The European Space Agency (ESA) is delighted to announce the reopening of the Sentinel-3A World Fire Atlas, now upscaled at global level, providing the latest data on fire occurrences since June 2016. Following a successful prototyping phase in summer 2019, during which it supported European civil protection agencies and firefighter forces, the Atlas is now …
The International Charter ‘Space and Major Disasters’ is an international agreement among space agencies to support the immediate disaster response phase with satellite data and information. This is organized with Charter activations that are triggered by Authorized Users. Since its inception in 2000, it has supported 723 activations in 129 countries worldwide. In support …
A new processing chain is available on the Geo-hazards Exploitation Platform (GEP). Its core is the avalanche detection method demonstrated in an open call project led by Norce. Taking advantage of the geo-hazards community platform’s new capabilities, anyone can exploit the simple, intuitive user interface and process Sentinel-1 data to detect and monitor avalanches on …
