Copernicus Land Monitoring Service evolution -

Expected Outcome

Project results are expected to contribute to the following expected outcomes:

• Enhanced quality and efficiency of the current service to respond respectively to policy and/or user requirements and to technological developments.
• Development of efficient and reliable new products chains, calling for new paradigms in data fusion, data processing and data visualisation essential for the service to handle more high-volume satellite data sets and product sets. The baseline is to preserve continuity of what has been achieved while keeping the service modern and attractive.

Development of new algorithms and processing chains preparing for the use of the new types of space observation data (being from new Sentinels or other contributing missions) in order to allow development of new products or the improvement of existing products.

Scope

Since 2013, CLMS has developed core products for the monitoring of natural resources and the assessment of land cover and land use changes, including land cover conditions. At European level, land cover mapping is carried out on a regular basis, every 6 years for CORINE and every 3 years for the thematic ‘High Resolution Layers” (HRL). The local component dealing with land cover mapping on specific areas like riparian areas, urban zones and Natura 2000 sites, is following the same approach with a 6 years cycle but at very high resolution. At Global level, an annual land cover mapping has been proposed since 2015 at mid resolution, the evolution to high resolution is also envisaged.

Vegetation, Inland Water and Cryosphere conditions are also monitored but on a regular basis, mainly ten-daily basis at mid-resolution for the Global and European levels.

These mapping and monitoring approaches were partly conditioned by the availability of satellite data. The deployment of the full Earth Observation capacities of Copernicus and the complementarities between the instruments, including outside Copernicus environment, allows to rethink of the approach including for providing a better answer to the policy needs.

The R&I has the main scope to develop new and innovative methods to combine and explore data with different spatial and temporal characteristics using automatic processing for land cover and land cover status change assessment. A more dynamic approach (e.g. annual overviews or early warning or alert systems) and the integration of various sensors will enhance the development of specific automatic processing approaches for real and near real time data processing to respond to emerging European policy needs.

With an integrated modelling approach, the integration of new observational data becomes a driver for further enhancement and improved realism of the already existing production chains, assimilation systems and coupled models. The development of advanced processing (also including AI and HPC) and modelling techniques, as well as the exploitation of new sources of data, will be targeted to create new products or significantly improve the quality and performances of existing elements-components for the benefit of users.

The project should take into account the existing service and clearly define to what extent the service will be improved with new elements or products, including the use of enhanced models, algorithms, tools and techniques to generate new product(s).

Proposals are expected to provide tangible results (new or improved products or service elements) for the Copernicus service within the period 2021-2027. The proposed research and development should be modular and scalable. The project should provide a proof-of-concept (e.g. system element targeting TRL5-6) at least demonstrating the feasibility of the integration in the existing core service. The activities of the project should also contribute to the objectives set by the Group on Earth Observation and outcomes and relevant results of the project should be promoted also at international level through the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS). In addition, the project could potentially contribute to the objectives set by the DestinE initiative.

Additionally, the transfer of research results to possible operations should receive active attention during the course of the project to strengthen the readiness for an operational deployment in the future. Appropriate interaction with the relevant Entrusted Entity of the Copernicus services, the conditions for making available, for re-using and exploiting the results (including IPR) by the said entities must be addressed during the project implementation. Software should be open licensed.

Applicants are advised to consult information on the Copernicus programme in general at https://www.copernicus.eu/en and further details on the topic in the Guidance document[1]

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In this topic the integration of the gender dimension (sex and gender analysis) in research and innovation content is not a mandatory requirement.

Activities are expected to achieve TRL5-6 by the end of the project – see General Annex B.

International Cooperation

[1]Published on the EU funding and tenders portal (https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal)

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