Funded by the Horizon 2020 Framework Program and part of the broader EuroGEOSS initiativa, the E-SHAPE project aimed to develop operational Earth Observation (EO) services with and for users in key sectors of society, so that data would be usable not only by researchers, but also by policy makers and citizens.
The project
The project’s main objectives included demonstrating the benefits of EO pilots through the exploitation of EO data, promoting their long-term sustainability, and supporting their continued use in various application areas, from civil defense to agriculture and others. In addition, E-SHAPE promoted the use of the pilots on a national and international scale, in vertical markets (private and public) and for users active in key social sectors (e.g., in civil defense), and wanted to expand their uptake through targeted communication, dissemination activities, and outreach.
Started in May 2019 and completed in April 2023, e-shape also contributed to the achievement of the goals of Agenda 2030, the Paris Agreement, and the Sendai Framework, in accordance with the commitment of the GEOSS network.
Results
- to develop operational EO services with and for users active in key societal sectors
- to demonstrate the benefits of the EO pilots through the coordinated downstream exploitation of EO data and the utilization of existing EO resources;
- to promote the uptake of pilots at national and international scale, across vertical markets (private and public) and amongst key user communities
- to enable the long-term sustainability of the largest part of the numerous pilots, their penetration in public and private markets and support their upscaling
CIMA Research Foundation’s contribution
We were responsible for the development of Pilot 2, Disaster Showcase, an application that employs new capabilities to design and deploy innovative services using a meteorological modeling chain coupled with hydrological and fire risk prediction models. This chain was implemented using the assimilation of Copernicus data from key services integrated from the application programming interfaces of the Copernicus Open Access Hub and DIAS platforms, as well as data from weather stations.
The assimilation of these data enables more accurate predictions of high-impact events in urban and peri-urban environments to support decision makers. To this end, datasets and tools made available as part of the pilot (weather prediction models, citizen science, hydrological and fire risk forecasting models) were also integrated to assess the impact of natural hazards in areas of interest to enable better risk forecasting. The resulting forecasts can provide support for European decision making, as envisioned by the GEO partnership in the Disaster Resilience Social Benefit Area.