Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - ECoLaSS (Evolution of Copernicus Land Services based on Sentinel data)

Teaser

The Horizon 2020 (H2020) project, “Evolution of Copernicus Land Services based on Sentinel data” (ECoLaSS) addresses the H2020 Work Programme 5 iii. Leadership in Enabling and Industrial technologies - Space, specifically the Topic EO-3-2016: Evolution of Copernicus...

Summary

The Horizon 2020 (H2020) project, “Evolution of Copernicus Land Services based on Sentinel data” (ECoLaSS) addresses the H2020 Work Programme 5 iii. Leadership in Enabling and Industrial technologies - Space, specifically the Topic EO-3-2016: Evolution of Copernicus services. ECoLaSS is being conducted from 2017–2019 and aims at developing and prototypically demonstrating selected innovative products and methods as candidates for future next-generation operational Copernicus Land Monitoring Service (CLMS) products of the pan-European and Global Land Components. ECoLaSS will assess the operational readiness of such candidate products and eventually suggest some of these for implementation. This shall enable the key CLMS stakeholders (i.e. mainly the Entrusted European Entities (EEEs) EEA and JRC) to take informed decisions on potential procurement of (part of) the next generation of Copernicus Land services from 2020 onwards.

To achieve this goal, ECoLaSS makes full use of dense time series of Sentinel-2 and Sentinel-1 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data, complemented by Sentinel-3 optical data if needed. Rapidly evolving scientific developments as well as user requirements are continuously analysed in a close stakeholder interaction process, targeting a future pan-European roll-out of new/improved Copernicus Land Monitoring Service products, and the potential transferability to global applications.

In more detail, the key objectives of the ECoLaSS project are:
• to conduct a dedicated stakeholder consultation process, assessing and analysing relevant user requirements, and taking them into account for improving existing and developing novel CLMS products/services;
• to make full use of high data volume processing of dense time series of SAR and optical Sentinel (and other) EO data;
• to develop several prototypes of new or enhanced Copernicus Land services of the Continental and the Global Component;
• to assess/benchmark all operational product candidates in view of their innovation potential and technical excellence, automation level, potential for roll-out to pan-European level and/or global scale, timeliness for operational implementation, costs versus benefits, etc.;
• to suggest to EC and the relevant decision-makers candidates for operational integration into the future Copernicus Land Monitoring Service from 2020 onwards.

Work performed

In the first reporting period from M1 – M18, which at the same time equals the first project cycle of ECoLaSS, work was performed on all six Tasks. All activities of Tasks 1, 2, 3 and 4 were successfully concluded. Some activities of Task 5 and 6 are continued at the beginning of the second reporting period.

The key achievements of the ECoLaSS project in the first 18 months runtime are:
• 30 Deliverables due by M18 submitted; among them all phase 1 Deliverables of Tasks 1, 2, 3 and 4.
• Various stakeholder consultations at all envisaged levels conducted
• Copernicus Land service evolution requirements analysis concluded
• Data sharing & document management methods established
• Sentinel data pre-processing for all phase 1 test and demonstration sites finalised
• DWH VHR data orders and quota placed for 2017+2018; data received and used for product calibration & validation
• All Phase 1 methodological developments and testing as part of Task 3 completed
• Implementation of first-phase high data volume processing lines achieved
• Prototype developments as part of Task 4 concluded and implemented in demonstration sites
• Assessment of the operational framework ongoing
• Several dissemination measures in place, project homepage and Twitter account active. Homepage published & active, Twitter account active
• Numerous high-level conferences attended, ECoLaSS oral and poster presentations given, as well as further dissemination activities executed and further ones planned

Final results

The ECoLaSS project is striving to suggest and demonstrate innovative services and products, extending or improving the future Copernicus Land Monitoring Service portfolio. In that sense, it is a project not primarily oriented at building up specific service provider know-how that could be directly commercialised independently from the CLMS, but to evolve the CLMS’s portfolio and thus its potential impact and outreach. Care is taken that a clear discrimination is maintained between such longer-term “evolution” and the shorter-term “maintenance” of the CLMS portfolio with respective smaller improvement steps addressed by the EEEs themselves as part of their regular tendering procedures (such as the HRL 2018). Such evolution of the portfolio will not only open opportunities to potential new value-added/downstream service activities, but also to new users groups.

However, the targeted highly automated EO data pre-processing chains that are being developed, as well as related analysis methods and semi-automated thematic post-processing workflows, will be relevant for further commercial and scientific long-term market development, in a variety of other markets beyond the Copernicus Land Monitoring Service.

Taking all this into account, instead of a business plan to address market opportunities, the project will, after thorough assessment of all project findings, provide an “Integration Plan into the Copernicus Service Architecture (Deliverable D53.1 in WP 53)”. The first version of this deliverable is currently under consolidation and will provide some first tendencies. A final version with more specific and substantiated conclusions and recommendations will be delivered towards the end of the project.

At the same time, through various high-level presentations at relevant workshops and conferences as well as open access scientific publications, the competitiveness of the service provider community as well as the various user communities outside the consortium are strengthened, improving the scientific State of the Art and technical-operational experience. The ECoLaSS Deliverables are provided as publically accessible documents, potentially increasing their outreach and impact.

Website & more info

More info: https://www.ecolass.eu/.