From rxpgnews.com
ESA highlights the potential of satellite data for the European Investment Bank
By European Space Agency,
Feb 25, 2010 - 4:59:36 AM
The European Investment Bank has an annual lending portfolio of around 75 billion euros, operating globally in more than 130 countries. The Bank has been increasingly mainstreaming environmental considerations into its lending portfolio, boosting the need to monitor the impact of the projects it funds. As its environmental commitments have increased, so too has the demand for geospatial information.
Earth observation (EO) from space can provide consistent, accurate and timely information on the state of the global environment that could help the Bank to assess the feasibility, monitor the progress and quantify the environmental impact of its investment projects. ESA began collaborating with the European Investment Bank (EIB) with three EIB projects chosen as pilots for initial small-scale demonstrations to show how EO can help to monitor their implementation. Specific EO-information services relevant to each project were defined with the help of the Luxembourg-based company LuxSpace, acting as a local technical agent on behalf of ESA. Under the technical guidance of ESA, these specifications were used to select the best offers from value-adding companies across Europe to carry out the work.
First demonstrations
In 2007, the EIB signed a loan for a nickel-cobalt mining and processing project in the Ambatovy region in Eastern Madagascar. The project includes the development of an inland mine site, a refinery close to the harbour on the coast and a connecting 220-km-long pipeline.
Due to the impact on the environment caused by the construction, the borrowers proposed a series of measures to manage the conservation of biodiversity. The measures included the establishment of forest buffer zones at the mine site, the management of a substantial off-set area of primary forest and the monitoring of biodiversity fragmentation along the pipeline.
To assess the impact of the project and to monitor the effectiveness of the adopted measures, the Bank required information on the mining area, an area covered by primary forest, and the 1-km buffer zone around the pipeline.
ESA selected the Belgium-based Keyobs service provider to supply the EIB with a set of up-to-date high-resolution orthophoto maps and land-cover maps of the primary forests and the disturbed areas, based on the most recent EO data. Five SPOT-5 satellite images acquired during 2008 were georeferenced and orthorectified using Landsat ETM+ images and the 90-m digital elevation model.
The service has been a success. It provides valuable information about the land cover of the area, demonstrates to the users exactly what can be monitored and allows them to make an informed decision about whether and how to proceed with EO-based monitoring of this important project, said the EIB's Mr Eberhard Gschwindt, Technical Advisor in the EIB Projects Directorate.
The second EIB demonstration focused on reforestation monitoring on Kolombangara, a small island located in the Western Province of the Solomon Islands. Replanting the forests began in 2007 and will continue until 2011.
The EIB needed information on the progress of replanting of the forests. To achieve this, historic and recent satellite data were used to set the baseline that enabled land cover change detection maps to be created. ESA selected the Danish-based Geographic Resource Analysis and Science (GRAS) service provider who supplied the EIB with mosaics of satellite images covering the entire island, providing information on the progress of the reforestation as well as the impact on the remaining regions of the island.
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