Pioneering H2020 project e-shape, strengthens the benefits for Europe of GEO - establishing ‘EuroGEO’

EuroGEO, as Europe’s contribution to the Global Earth Observation System of Systems, aims at bringing together Earth Observation resources in Europe. It allows Europe to position itself as global force in Earth observation through leveraging Copernicus, making use of existing European capacities and improving user uptake of the data from GEO assets.                           


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angle-left null How Satellite Earth Observation Can Help With Monitoring For The Water Framework Directive

Success story

How Satellite Earth Observation Can Help With Monitoring For The Water Framework Directive

Profile

Using knowledge about how certain substances, such as one of the main pigments of the phytoplankton (Chlorophyll a - Chl a) alter the colour of the water, these parameters can be derived from optial Earth Observation (EO) satellite sensors.

Proposal

Water Insight provides monitoring services of Chl a based on EO data which is validated with in situmeasurements. Also the maps of WFD phytoplankton biomass status classes are created, by application of the WFD tresholds on Chl a as a proxy for phytoplankton biomass. The maps are made available in a portal, which allows to follow the lakes in time, zoom and download maps and time series.

Benefits

  • cheap and automated monitoring for under-sampled lakes, combined with targeted sampling in case of unexpected changes
  • systems analysis, for which the spatial component is key
  • evaluation of the spatial effect of measures taken to improve water quality for the WFD as input for spatial ecological models
Satellite-based EO maps confirm that Saadjärv is usually a lake with low Chl a concentrations over the whole surface (example from June 18th 2020). Still, sometimes slightly elevated concentrations of Chl a can be detected in a spatial pattern (example from 28th August 2016).

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