100KTREEs
Decision Toolbox for cities to improve air quality, biodiversity, human wellbeing and reduce climate risks by planting more trees in our cities
The ambition of the HORIZON Europe project 100KTREEs is to make cities a better and healthier place to live. The project will provide a Decision Support System for cities to improve air quality, biodiversity, human wellbeing and reduce climate risks by planting more trees. 100KTREEs will develop mapping and modelling tools to optimize the planting of trees and to monitor their health, based on satellite data from Copernicus EU space programme and in-situ data. Sofia (Bulgaria) and Copenhagen (Denmark) are the two metropolitan use cases where technical and socio-economic approach of 100KTREEs will be tested and demonstrated. The 100KTREEs team will support these cities by mapping the existing trees and by showing a solid business case for planting new trees, as well as attracting third party sponsorship to make it happen.
BirdWatch
A Copernicus-based service for the improvement of habitat suitability of farmland birds via satellite-enabled monitoring, evaluation and optimisation of CAP greening measures
BirdWatch will support the restoration of spatial heterogeneity on farmland, a necessary component in the lasting recovery of our ecosystems. BirdWatch will make this monitoring of farmland habitat suitability, a product of both rigorous species distribution modelling and EO data-based geospatial features of the individual farmland parcels, freely accessible to various stakeholders and the interested public. The bird species’ requirements regarding their habitat are the guiding factor of the habitat suitability assessment. With the knowledge on farmland bird habitat requirements and the capability to monitor farmland in terms of habitat suitability opens up the possibility to optimise the structural makeup of farmland and associated greening measures. Combined with the requirements of local stakeholders, including their budgetary and operational constraints, BirdWatch becomes a tool for the optimisation of greening measures both ins terms of farmland bird species requirements and stakeholder constraints. With more effective greening measures at optimised cost, farmers will be supported to increasingly reach ecological and economical sustainability. This will alleviate the burden of costs and economic pressure, thus incentivising landowners to take action towards the improvement of their lands. Additionally, economic instruments such as the CAP or the EAFRD which distribute financial aid to sustainable and organic farming activities will be provided with evidence-based support in monitoring compliance with national and EU biodiversity regulations and the definition of new, increasingly effective policies. With an evidence-based view on biodiversity and the effectiveness of greening measures, BirdWatch encourages the improvement in the communication and mutual understanding between scientists, farmers and administrative bodies.
CLUG 2.0
CLUG Demonstration of Readiness for Rail
Three major railway operators in Europe – DBN, SBB and SNCF – endorse and support the efforts of the EU Parliament and propose a follow-up-project to the "Certifiable Localization Unit with GNSS in the railway environment” (CLUG) project to demonstrate the technological readiness of the CLUG Localisation On-Board (LOC-OB) System. In CLUG 2.0 (CLUG Demonstration of Readiness for Rail), the system architecture aims to complement the existing European Train Control System (ETCS) odometry system by using GNSS to enable absolute safe train positioning whilst also transforming the way of train localisation is done today by demonstrating a GNSS-based multi-sensor fusion architecture. To ensure that an enhanced on-board localization in ERTMS/ETCS using GNSS is interoperable, the technological readiness of the LOC-OB System shall be demonstrated in CLUG 2.0. To achieve its objectives, the consortium continues the work started in the first CLUG project, by improving the design of the safe functional architecture and validating it against the requirements defined by the operators. Ultimately, all thanks to an improved LOC-OB System for ERTMS, benefits such as increasing the line capacity, reducing headways between trains, reducing expenditure for rail infrastructure rollout can help reduce emissions, and accelerate the adoption of sustainable and smart mobility solutions that revolve around rail. LOC-OB can make rail transport more attractive, enhance the competitiveness of rail for citizens and businesses.
MAGDA
Meteorological Assimilation from Galileo and Drones for Agriculture
The MAGDA project aims at developing a toolchain for atmosphere monitoring, weather forecasting, and severe weather/irrigation/crop monitoring advisory, with GNSS (including Galileo) at its core, to provide useful information to agricultural operators. MAGDA will exploit the untapped potential of assimilating GNSS-derived, drone-derived, Copernicus EO-derived datasets, in situ weather sensors into very high-resolution, short-range (1-2 days ahead) and very short-range (less than 1 day ahead) numerical weather forecasts to provide improved prediction of severe weather events (rainfall, snow, hail, wind, heat and cold waves) as well as of weather-driven agriculture pests and diseases to the benefit of agriculture operations, also in light of ongoing effects of climate change. These targets will be achieved by setting up a database of variables of interest, and an assimilation system to feed a numerical weather prediction model, which in turn drives a hydrological model for irrigation performance and water accounting to assess water use and related productivity. In addition to already existing observational networks, new dedicated networks of sensors, including GNSS and drones, to monitor atmospheric variables at high spatial resolution will be deployed in the vicinity of large farms and cultivated areas, to provide data with high spatial and temporal resolutions for the assimilation into the weather model. The delivery of the augmented forecasts and irrigation advisories to farmers will be enabled by a dedicated dashboard and APIs to already existing Farm Management Systems. The tools developed within MAGDA will represent the technical and methodological components based on which services to support agricultural operations will be defined.
RESPONDENT
Renewable Energy Sources Power FOrecasting and SyNchronisation for Smart GriD NEtworks MaNagemenT
RESPONDENT was submitted in response to Horizon Europe’s research and innovation programme under the topic EGNSS and Copernicus applications for fostering the European Green Deal. The RESPONDENT project, through the utilisation and leveraging of both Galileo and Copernicus systems and services, aims to develop and promote the integration of RES into Europe’s existing power grids, as well as to demonstrate their viability and reliability compared to traditional sources of energy that are wreaking havoc on global temperatures and accelerating the most destructive impacts of our rapidly changing climate.
Led by Future Intelligence Ltd (FINT), the RESPONDENT consortium consists of experts in the fields of energy transition, information and communication technologies, construction, research, and more, made up of 8 partner organisations from 3 countries across Europe.
SWIFTT
Satellites for Wilderness Inspection and Forest Threat Tracking
Forests around the world provide home and livelihood not only to billions of people, but also to the majority of Earth’s biodiversity. However, the ever more frequent extreme weather events make trees even more vulnerable to several threats, such as insect outbreaks, windthrow and forest fires. With early and targeted action, these threats can be contained, and the ecological and economic impacts can be reduced. This is SWIFTT’s goal: to provide affordable, simple, and effective remote sensing tools to monitor forests at risk across Europe, using Copernicus Sentinel satellite imagery and powerful machine-learning models. SWIFTT will allow forest managers to deal with threats in a proactive and efficient manner, allocating the proper resources for prevention and mitigation. SWIFTT will make Europe, and the world, better positioned to preserve forests, biodiversity, and to combat climate change.
