description
- Agricultural resources are in high demand to sustain the world’s growing population. In Europe, agriculture is regulated and monitored through the CAP and agricultural insurances are increasing in importance as an instrument for risk management. In the developing world droughts and other natural disasters impact vulnerable populations and lead to famines and starvation. The EC development policy and its emergency response mechanisms address these issues through actions that aim at reducing the occurrence and impacts. Agriculture and environment are both priorities for Europe’s GMES initiative. Satellite images with a high temporal frequency (daily) but low spatial resolution (>250m) are frequently used for agricultural monitoring. However, since the early 2000, new high frequency, high resolution (<30m) wide swath sensors have become available. The ISAC proposal intends to explore improvements of current Agricultural Services based upon such high frequency, high resolution data. It intends to expand the capabilities of LMCS and ERCS for what concerns the agro-environment. ISAC proposes to develop and test feasibility of 3 services: 1. Core Mapping Service (CMS) on High Resolution Biophysical Parameters (ABP-CMS) 2. Core Information Service (CIS) on Drought stress (DS-CIS) 3. Core Information Service (CIS) on Agricultural change (AC-CIS) Purpose of the ABP-CMS, in analogy to the BIOPAR-CMS of the LMCS, is to produce vegetation parameters (NDVI, fAPAR,…) with much greater spatial detail based on sensors like DMC. Purpose of the DS-CIS is to build synergy between vegetation indicators of high and low spatial detail in order to enhance the current capabilities of satellite-based drought information systems. Purpose of the AC-CIS is to analyse agricultural change taking global seasonal climate forecasts as well as satellite data into account. ISAC services will be demonstrated and validated in East-Africa, Spain and Belgium.