Earth Observation Systems: 2014

Research of the Ecosystems Services and Management (ESM) Program Earth Observation Systems (EOS) in 2014 will encompass three specific projects building on Geo-Wiki and a fourth on Terrestrial Ecosystems Verified Full GHG Accounting.

Brisbane flood

1. The CrowdLand Project

The ERC-funded CrowdLand Project (1.4 million Euros) kicks off in 2014 in which the coordinator, Steffen Fritz, will work in Kenya and Austria to involve citizens in the crowdsourcing of land cover. A major focus of the project will be on the assessment of the quality of crowdsourced data.

Collaborators

Austrian Environmental Agency as a partner in Austria;
International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI);
The Intergovernmental Authority on Development's Climate Prediction and Application Center (ICPAC);
Regional Centre for Mapping and Resource Development (RCMRD).

The latter three, headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya, have close links to local partners, agricultural extension workers, and farmers.

2. Building a Risk Geo-Wiki for Flood Resilience

This project will identify and address research gaps on flood resilience and community-based disaster risk reduction, in which a Risk Geo-Wiki will be built for visualization of risk information relevant for insurers, business, and the general public. This will be complemented by a mobile app for in situ data collection on flood risk.

Collaborators

Risk, Policy and Vulnerability Program (RPV), IIASA;
Water Program (WAT), IIASA;
Zurich Insurance Group, Switzerland;
Wharton Risk Management and Decision Processes Center, US;
Practical Action, UK;
International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent (IFRC)

3. Global Monitoring of Agriculture project of SIGMA

The SIGMA (Stimulating Innovation for Global Monitoring of Agriculture) project will provide support to the GEO Global Agricultural Monitoring initiative where Geo-Wiki will be used as a visualization portal for the project. A modified Geo-Wiki mobile application will be developed for in situ data collection at field sites.

Collaborators

Vision on Technology (VOT);
Wageningen University and Research Centre (DLO), Netherlands;
University College London (UCL), UK;
La Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (CIRAD), France

4. Further development of methodology for VFGHGA

Further developments of Terrestrial Ecosystems Verified Full GHG Account (VFGHGA) will consider: application of new remote sensing sensors; modification of the optimization algorithm for fusion of remote sensing and ground data and downscaling; search of new mathematical tools for mutual constraints of VFGHGA parameters; development of approaches for inventory of BVOC; implantation of new findings in VFGHA for Russia.

Collaborators

Advanced Systems Analysis Program (ASA), IIASA;
National Institute for Environmental Studies, Japan;
National University of Life Sciences of Ukraine, Kiev;
National Forest Technical University of Ukraine, Lviv;
Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany

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Last edited: 22 May 2014