Final Report Summary - OBSERVE (Strengthening and development of Earth observation activities for the environment in the Balkan area)
Executive summary:
Balkan countries do not have a coherent and continuous approach towards the challenge of implementing integrated Earth observation (EO) applications in environmental monitoring and management. It should be mentioned that the Balkan countries, except Greece and Romania, are not European Space Agency (ESA) members. Besides, Albania, Bulgaria, FYROM, Montenegro and Bosnia Herzegovina are also not members of the Group on EO (GEO).
The defect in the implementation of EO applications and their use in the environmental decision making are manifested through the limited synergies among national and regional institutions, ineffective technological means and discontinuous record of participation to international organisations and committees. On the other hand, the increasing importance of a common approach towards effective environmental monitoring practices, for the benefit of the societal web of the broader Balkan region, calls for immediate action, setting as a starting point the built up of regional institutional capacity and spillage of technology transfer.
The main goal of the OBSERVE project has been to collect and compile all the necessary information for delivering an integrated analysis on the current status of EO activities and networks in the Balkan area regarding environmental monitoring, the potential benefit from the full exploitation of an integrated capacity development strategy and the prospect of establishing a relevant permanent EO Community in the region. The methodology applied in the OBSERVE project consists of different steps and activities. In the field of EO activities, the critical point found for the Balkan countries is how to create a future environment of cooperation between different partners and at various levels where companies of different scale from many countries would be involved in joint projects. Experience gained in projects supported by the European Union (EU) paves the way towards the future models of cooperation and will help to identify new products and market niches for these products and services. Future cooperation between Balkan partners becomes much easier if experience from initial projects is already available. In this sense, the OBSERVE project has significantly contributed through developing a network and capacity building in the region. Many activities within the OBSERVE project have been focused to collect information and investigate the current state of affairs in the field of the EO in the Balkan region. The analysis of this very detailed data shows that there are inevitable differences between the contributing countries due to historical, political and other reasons. On the other hand, we can found many common trends as well striving after some common goals and actions of the EO in the region.
Project context and objectives:
The aim of the OBSERVE project was to collect and compile all the necessary information for delivering an integrated analysis on the current status of EO activities and networks in the Balkans regarding environmental monitoring, the potential benefit from the full exploitation of an integrated capacity development strategy and the prospect of establishing a relevant permanent EO Community in the broader region. OBSERVE project considered the capacity development priorities as defined in the GEO strategic documents and developed by a number of other international organisations such as IOC, UNEP, CEOS, UNDP, and APN. OBSERVE project had the ultimate goal to raise awareness and establish firm links with the regional decision making bodies on the importance of a mutual and enhanced EO application network on environmental monitoring.
The OBSERVE implementation strategy had the objective to:
- raise awareness on the need to harmonise policies and practices in the field EO applications in order to address the challenges described by the GEO societal benefit areas;
- serve as an efficient mechanism for recording, monitoring and influencing policy in EO;
- favour exploitation and development of EO activities and ensure coordination of these activities for the benefit of natural resources management;
- promote the idea of permanent institutional links and mutual cooperation between Balkan states in the field of EO for environmental management;
- promote free access of Balkan countries to all advantages of EO techniques and international standardisation;
- promote cooperation between Balkan States in the fields of training and sharing of staff and experiences in all aspects of EO;
- build a spatial database and web inventory with all existing dynamic elements related to the scope of the relevant analysis in order to reinforce new synergies in EO solutions for the benefit of environment.
More specifically OBSERVE project attempted to:
- develop and implement awareness raising strategy so that the Balkan governments provide national budgets for geo-information;
- institutionalise the existing community and relevant stakeholders to support proficiency in the development of EO applications and awareness of new applications;
- improve data availability, access, and distribution;
- improve access to regional and international EO communities;
- improve infrastructure and knowhow for data access, analysing, and distribution, including IT, hardware and software development;
- strengthen regional coordination of existing institutional structures;
- implement monitoring and evaluation of EO programs and applications;
- conduct further evaluation on EO business models, sustainability, role of other regional institutions and associations;
- expand, extend and interlink data and information portals;
- develop or enhance EO capacity and curricula at Universities and other institutions in the Balkans.
Project results:
The strategic key result of OBSERVE was the Roadmap and Strategy plan for strengthening EO capacity in the Balkans for environmental monitoring. The development of the Roadmap and Strategy plan has been supported by a number of activities that contributed to other deliverables including the creation of a stakeholders database, national thematic reports regarding EO capacity, a multilevel assessment and gap analysis, and the OBSERVE spatial information system and CIP. Another important part of the project was the creation of informative publications along with the organisation of workshops that contributed to capacity strengthening and capacity development. Furthermore various dissemination activities were performed that helped to raise awareness of the general public and disseminate the project's results to a wider audience.
Mapping the current state of EO capacity in the Balkan region
In order to acquire all the necessary information for the Roadmap and strategy plan for strengthening EO capacity in the Balkans for environmental monitoring the following three activities pillars were employed for mapping of current state:
- stakeholders database;
- individual countries report on EO capacity;
- multilevel assessment and gap analysis.
In the following sections a description of the achieved results is presented:
Stakeholders database
The creation of SD was one of the crucial parts of task 2.2 'Identification and classification of regional stakeholders', and WP2 'Assessment and gap analysis of EO capacity in the Balkans' as it constituted the starting point for most of the actions planned in this work package. The created database provided all available information for the questionnaires delivery. Furthermore it was the starting point for the communication between relevant stakeholders in each country, and enhanced the project's dissemination activities in the broader Balkan region. Additionally it was the foundation for the spatial stakeholder's database and OBSERVE CIP.
The database collected information about the nature, activities, type, and contact details of all the stakeholders. Taking into account the synergies that were developed with the sister project Balkan GEO NET, the stakeholders' database was a common effort of the two projects i.e. Both the project's participants contributed in the data collection process. Partners of both projects cooperated in a national level to collect data for stakeholders. The design of the Database File was performed in Microsoft Access. One main table containing data fields about the stakeholders' information was created and several auxiliary tables, containing predefined selections inserted in the database, were introduced. More specifically the main table's structure is comprised by 20 text, 1 hyperlink and 1 memo field gathering information about the organisation (name, abbreviation, description, address and other contact information, origin, type of organisation, activities) and a contact person (title, name, position, other contact information).
The final main stakeholders' table contains 382 records distributing unevenly the EO stakeholders in the Balkan region.
Except from the distribution of the stakeholders in the Balkan countries, additional data mining can be performed by applying queries within the Microsoft Access environment. The contact information collected from the SD and especially the email addresses of organisations and contact persons were used to compile a stakeholders' electronic mailing list. The mailing list was used for the questionnaires delivery to the organisations or to their contact persons in order to receive their experience and feedback on the use of EO data and applications.
The SD was vital for the implementation of several deliverables of OBSERVE since:
1. It collected important information about the multilevel stakeholders that currently make use EO data in the community and industry.
2. It was helpful for the implementation of National thematic reports (NTR) of individual countries.
3. It supported the creation of a spatial database and web inventory in order to reinforce new synergies in EO solutions for the benefit of environment.
Individual countries report on EO capacity
The aim of individual countries reports on EO capacity was to review and analyse the current status, of EO instruments, research initiatives, operating procedures, data providers, relevant stakeholders and public institutions in the OBSERVE consortium partner countries. In order to achieve this goal, information regarding three major fields (policies, data - applications, and capacities) was gathered from each participating country.
The thorough information collection, research, investigation and analyses of the field in the cooperating countries in the OBSERVE project all present a basis for an objective insight in the current situation in the Balkan region regarding the EO. This is, to our opinion, the most valuable contribution to the improvement of the situation in the region.
Spatial data have a long history of use in support of decision making. This is true also for the Balkan countries which have a long tradition in mapping and cadastral evidences. With development of new technologies for spatial data acquisition and management, the importance of spatial data for the society is higher than it has ever been. Traditional maps have been replaced by digital spatial data. However, the new technology has brought new challenges in the fields of spatial data usage and capacity building, data accessibility, interoperability, re-use of information (for different domains like e-Government services of all kinds).
Some of the cooperating countries share a common cartographic history since recently (like the former Yugoslavian Republics of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, FYROM, Slovenia, Montenegro and Serbia) or even in the past (era of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy) they were once part of a common country. There still exist small-scale maps and even large-scale and cadastral maps from those times. However, the development of the national spatial data infrastructure took different ways in those countries, and as the consequence the national data sets are hardly useful at the trans-national levels (different data sharing policy, quality standards, spatial reference systems). Amongst the countries, only Greece, Bulgaria and Slovenia are the EU member, obliged to follow the EU directives also in the fields of SDI. The countries participate in several international initiatives and projects dedicated to technological and general development in these fields.
Multilevel assessment and gap analysis
The main aim was to collect all the available data for the preparation of the gap analysis, and to perform the multilevel assessment and gap analysis. Within this context the first activity was the data and information collection. Data were collected using two approaches. The first approach was the creation and delivery of a questionnaire regarding EO activities, while the second one pertained to the national thematic reports.
The second activity was the multilevel assessment and gap analysis. More specific within this framework information collected by questionnaires, and the national thematic reports was used to design the gap analysis methodology and perform an in depth analysis of the current status of EO activities and capacity in the broader Balkan region with regard to environmental monitoring. In order to achieve the abovementioned objectives a series of actions were undertaken.
The first action involved the design of the questionnaire. The questionnaire was designed in collaboration with our sister project B.GN and consisted of 83 questions addressing three major categories:
EO data providers and producers;
- EO data users;
- potential end users.
Following the questionnaire design a web toll was created for the delivery of the questionnaires. The web tool was based on the Lime Survey technology and was implemented in collaboration with B.GN . The information in the stakeholders database was used to invite stakeholders to fill in the online survey. Furthermore partners from both consortiums contacted the regional stakeholders and assisted them to fill in the survey.
Using the collected data from the questionnaires a series of indices and metrics were designed to help the realisation of the gap analysis methodology and tools. Furthermore a Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis of the status of EO activity in the Balkan region was performed. In particular the questionnaire was filed by 278 stakeholders of the 382 collected stakeholders, meaning that almost 75% of the original identified stakeholders took part at the survey.
Using information acquired from a series of organisations or projects such ASPRS, GEOSS, GEO, EU, Eurospace, ESA, ESPI, a general framework concerning the types of gaps that are going to be analysed has been designed, and a series of indicators, and indices has been proposed for the implementation of gap analysis.
The most important weaknesses, critical points and gaps that were identified in the national analyses and are not limited only to the local environment (e.g. country) were the following:
- EO data regulation is not clear to data producers;
- in general data in many countries are expensive, incomplete / limited, outdated, not available or incorrect;
- the use of standards regarding EO data could be improved;
- collaboration of data producers and providers are not regular and could be improved;
- the share of regional datasets (former Yugoslav republics, Balkan countries) could be improved and increased;
- data compatibility with Global Earth observation system of systems (GEOSS) can be improved;
- most of the data producers or providers are only partially aware of end-users needs regarding EO data (in most of the countries);
- the export of products or services in most of the countries is low, thus it could be improved;
- the share of regional data sets (former Yugoslav republics, Balkan countries) can be increased;
- EO related issues reported on media in most of the countries could be improved;
- especially the professional society in many countries is not informed enough about new data sources, data availability and data usage;
- the full and easy access to all EO data the end-users might need can considerably increase the annual income of 10-25 %;
- collaboration of academic institutions and decision makers for EO data development and implementation could be improved.
- many of these aspects call for better use of international standards (e.g. OGC web services).
Roadmap and strategy plan
The critical point for the Balkan countries is how to create a future environment of cooperation between many partners and at various levels where large and small companies from many countries are involved in joint projects. Experience gained in projects supported by the EU paves the way towards future models of cooperation and will help to identify new products and market niches for these products. Future cooperation between Balkan partners becomes much easier if experience from initial projects is already available. In this sense, the OBSERVE project has significantly contributed in building a network and capacity building that should be further maintained and even expanded through participation in international networks.
Another aspect to consider is the embedding of partners from the Balkan partners in globally international projects and research programmes, as well as contribution to the international standards development leading to the input and requirements coming from a European region. The Balkan states have become and will become members of several international research oriented organisations. As a consequence, the Balkan countries have the chance to assign personnel to international institutions. In this issue, the established network in the OBSERVE can help in giving support from experienced groups. The constant contribution to GEOSS architecture implementation pilot should be considered, as well.
The analysis of the detailed national roadmaps and strategy plans of the cooperating Balkan countries in this project, further shows that there are some significant differences between these countries due to historical, political and other reasons. In spite of this, we can find many common issues as well (in gaps, national and regional priorities, action plans) striving after some common goals and actions of EO in the region. To have a clear picture of the results of our research, we summarise and present here the most relevant and to our opinion realistic challenges that can be addressed to the EO community as well as decision makers and politicians in the region.
The partners of the OBSERVE from the Balkan region have defined the following key priorities and future trends, referring to the recognised regional priorities:
The interest to a joint (national, regional and international) approach to EO is highly expressed. The main identified problems are:
- absence of a common body for coordination and cooperation;
- lack of harmonisation of activities of EO players across the Balkan;
- lack of jurisdiction over the establishment of regional Balkan EO system on a high political level;
- need for financial means for establishing regional EO system (who / how);
- lack of recognition of national interests in some participating countries.
The expected or desired key characteristics of the EO data in the future are:
- easier access and exchange of various EO data;
- data standardisation;
- uniform metadata system available to users;
- improvement of management in hazardous or disastrous situations;
- less expensive data for the end-users;
- access to all data in one place;
- efficient on-line services;
- emphasis on the data quality and quality control approaches.
The engagement in international standards development organisations (e.g. OGC, ISO / TC 211) could help achieving positive results for these key characteristics.
Partners in the OBSERVE project from the Balkan countries are proposing the following action points and action plan (short term and medium term):
i) Short term (1-2 years)
Start initiatives to set a common GEO forum for networking and application exchange at the national level
The already established database of stakeholders at the national as well as at the international level could serve as the basis for development of a common GEO and GMES forum. The minimum goal should be to maintain the established network of stakeholders in the OBSERVE project, use the database for delivery of information and use existing networks and institutions (e.g. OGC) in the fields of EU EO priority actions: satellite navigation, space for the benefit of the environment and the fight against climate change, secure space, and space exploration.
The established network of stakeholders should be also used for promoting different actions and development of teams for common actions, projects in the future (FP7, Horizon 2014-2020, INTERREG and PHARE, COST, Bilateral agreements for research and applicative projects). The established network could thus serve to take advantage of cooperation in future EU open calls referring to Environment. The actions could be coupled with the BALKANGEONET capacity-building activities.
Currently we are in a situation, where the users of EO data are faced with terms such as 'geospatial standards' and 'open publication of geoscience data'. These terms describe the ambition to adhere to common standards and to profit from common knowledge that becomes apparent when everyone uses the common standards. The chances offered by open data policies are also an important topic to be discussed among Balkan partners when they envisage a new era of EO applications. These open policies could allow the set-up of local centres of expertise that use coupled systems to exchange data sets of global importance. Within this ambitious framework we are fully aware that an 'interoperable' environment is the pre-requisite for the interaction of products, data, and applications. This also applies to the Balkan countries that currently (with the help of EU support) have the chance to set up new institutions for geospatial and EO data handling. An asset of such institutions could be that they take a leading role in the international standardisation process influencing it and leverage or link European and Balkan requirements directly to the global EO activities in this domain.
Consider and evaluate ways to participate in international standards bodies and activities in the EO domain (e.g. OGC working groups, GEOSS architecture implementation pilot). In this way the OBSERVE partners can directly influence future developments through bringing in European expertise and requirements.
Develop and use different communication channels for international and national exchange of ideas on various aspects of EO activities and environmental monitoring:
a) South-eastern European journal of EO and geomatics that has already been launched aims at offering a scientific forum to experts covering the wide field of EO and environmental from south-eastern Europe, in order to enhance the scientific dialogue, fill the existing gap in policies and applications, build-up acquaintances, establish networks and co-operations and contribute to regional capacity building. The first issue was published in January 2012 (http://ejournals.lib.auth.gr/seejeog/index).
Start e-forum or blog for thematic discussions. In this way new proposals and ideas could be discussed in the established network. Another important aspect is to strengthen the EO community in the region (also with connection to the Mediterranean region and Black Sea region) and commonly contribute to European and international EO activities.
Promote GEOSS as a common data platform in the region for data producers, providers and end-users that will allow the sharing and exchange of EO data
In this issue, common standards and requirements for EO data management, access and sharing are of great importance. Currently, the Balkan states have the chance to set up new structures and institutions involved in the use of geospatial and EO data. New investments offer the chance to fully exploit chances of cooperation within linked networks. Thus, all actual and potential stakeholders should be aware of current technological developments and future aspects in order to avoid any false investments. False investments could occur both in the fields of technology as well as in manpower. GEOSS as a common data platform that already exists could help to fulfil this gap.
Strengthen scientific, research and education cooperation with different activities:
a) After establishment of the network of partners in the Balkan region in the framework of the OBSERVE project, the further goal should be to follow scientific development and expand to other, not traditional market niches and develop new applications (e.g. traffic monitoring, location based services).
b) The workshops named 'CARAVAN' that were realised as supplement to the some consortium meetings of the OBSERVE partners should continue in the future. The CARAVAN knowledge-transfer concept is following the ISPRS tradition, but is focused on the Balkan region. The main idea of the CARAVAN is to visit a target audience at their location rather than transporting them to the scientific and professional events. The CARAVAN workshop may focus on topics that are of interest to the region or the host country and aim to meet directly the local demands and needs. CARAVAN events support cooperation between individuals, institutes and countries within the region.
c) Develop a model for training courses and workshops (for the region) regarding as a permanent education for the professional community. Academic institution in the region can play an important role in these activities.
Based on the assumption that most innovations will have to be made within limited financial constraints, a model that considers small institutions and working groups. We can assume that conventional personal computers with high rate Internet access are available. After defining the goals of the courses or workshops, first the concepts how to set up an SDI or a geo-architecture should be explained. For practical work available tools could be used, e.g. access to data content via 'readers' (e.g. tools offered by ESA, HDF readers, GRIB readers); data 'viewers' to understand the data content (e.g. tools provided by ESA, ArcGIS free viewers, or available catalogue browsers); data analysis tools ('toolboxes') (e.g. ESA - BEAM toolbox); development of data analysis software (e.g. using the free GNU compilers or Octave); simulation models that are also freely or nearly freely available; databases can be shared via the Internet. In future, data processing can also be done outside of one's home institution via Web Processing Services, or by cloud computing approaches. In addition, a number of commercial product vendors have a long tradition of selling products to academic institutions with limited financial capabilities.
Another topic is training and education (even distance learning) to acquaint people with the real capabilities of 'spatial information'. Seminars organised by universities or professional associations tailored to the needs of the Balkan countries could be an efficient way to train new experts.
The ISPRS 'Summer school seminars' could possibly be used as a model for cooperation in the Balkan region as well.
d) Use the present exchange programs for students, researchers, professors (Erasmus, for example Basileus: http://www.basileus.ugent.be/index.asp CEEPUS)
- Offer institutional support (at the regional and European level) to the countries that are not yet members of GEO (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia) in order to help them join the GEO, as well as support the approach to ESA (only Greece is ESA member).
- Encourage national bodies to perform market researches on the end-users needs (at the national and regional level) aiming at getting objective information on real needs and achieving a qualitative collaboration between the end-user and EO producers and providers. The evaluation of the questionnaires and the gap analysis in OBSERVE project clearly show that the needs of end-users are not fully satisfied, thus the national agencies and other institutions providing EO data should be informed on these results and encouraged to perform such investigations. %l%l ii) Medium term (5-7 years)
- extend the initiative of a common GEO forum for networking and application;
- exchange from national to the Balkan region;
- further expand dissemination and stakeholder involvement;
- disseminate good practices to other parts of the world;
- further promote GEOSS data sharing facilities;
- organise permanent training courses and workshops in the region;
- increase cooperation between universities in the region (student and teacher exchange; organisation of specialised courses);
- strive for increasing funding for scientific research in the EO field.
Although increase of funding this is connected to the political decisions in each country, it is important to convince all the decision makers that quality and reliable EO data is strategic information. The society needs EO data to support different high-priority policies as: environmental policies (Kyoto protocol, biodiversity convention, management of natural resources), research policies, assessment and opportunity for international cooperation, space policy, different European organisations (ESA, EUMETSAT).
Spatial information system
The OBSERVE spatial information system provides a spatial depiction of results of the gap analysis and also the opportunity to Balkan stakeholders to register their institution in a WEBGIS platform developed exclusively for the purposes of the OBSERVE project. Detailed information on the architecture and objectives of the OBSERVE SIS are included in the D2.4 - OBSERVE spatial information system.
Collaboration strengthening and capacity development
The main objectives of collaboration strengthening and capacity development were the following:
- contribute to the regional EO capacity development including institutional strengthening through the promotion of collaboration and knowhow exchange;
- promote institutional and stakeholders networking for technology transfer;
- provide access to repositories of information and resources (for example, databases, libraries, web sites and open software);
- organise educational and informational trainings and workshops (public, customised or on-line);
- establish and coordinate alliances within the existing environmental monitoring initiatives in the broader Balkan region;
- identify synergies between regional educational and research institutions on EO applications for environmental monitoring with intersectional secondings, educational visits and summer schools following the spirit of GEO 2009 - 2011 work plan tasks and particularly CB-09-03b;
- promote the development and use of open software;
- promote standardisation guidelines to data production and processing according to user needs, international standards and GEOSS principles.
In order to achieve the aforementioned targets OBSERVE engaged in the following activities:
- establishment of common standards and requirements for EO Data management, access and sharing;
- informative publications;
- the OBSERVE competition;
- organisation of caravan workshops.
In the following section a description of these activities is presented.
Establishment of common standards and requirements for EO Data management, access and sharing
The objectives of establishing common standards and requirements for EO data management, access and sharing were to:
- provide access to repositories of information and resources (databases, libraries, web sites and open software);
- identify data providers and observatories and define common standards and requirements for EO data management and sharing among Balkan stakeholders according to the principles and guidelines of GEOSS.
As a result a detailed review of existing practices, organisations and standards has been contacted providing useful information and access information for:
- International political framework bodies.
International standard organisations.
International technical level bodies.
International Non-governmental organisation (NGO) bodies.
National bodies
With regard to Standards and requirements for EO data management, access and sharing, Repositories of Information, Resources, data sources and providers, and educational websites, software tools, and GIS environments. It must be underlined however that operational adoption of common standards by Balkan countries that do not comply with current standards is a task beyond the objective of OBSERVE project. The purpose of this activity was to record, describe and provide guidance to EO stakeholders in the Balkans regarding standardisation, EO data management, access and sharing.
Informative publications
Within the OBSERVE project, a series of informative publications has been planned during the lifetime of the project. As part of task 3.2 technology transfer and training according to the identified regional priorities on the different societal benefit areas, OBSERVE partners would create 'dedicated informative including an informative 6-10 page newsletter containing all project developments, relevant news dedicated scientific articles, relative innovations and developments that can contribute to the project objectives'.
Under this spectrum:
- In total the 6 e-newsletters were produced, and distributed to registered stakeholders in hard copy and web forms. All newsletters are available online.
- In addition to the newsletter production, a flyer including information objectives and aims of the OBSERVE project has also been produced. The flyer was produced in 12 different languages and distributed through the projects website.
- Furthermore a multilingual DVD was also produced during OBSERVEs lifetime. The DVD contained OBSERVE's consortium partner experiences and projects regarding environmental EO applications. Each partner prepared its video clip in their mother tongues, while English subtitles were added to each video.
- Furthermore an article regarding information about the project was published in international Innovation Magazine with Prof. Petros Patias giving an overview of the OBSERVE Project.
- Finally an OBSERVE booklet was produced containing an executive summary of D2.5 'Roadmap and strategy plan for strengthening EO capacity in the Balkans for Environmental monitoring'. The booklet was distributed in OBSERVE's final event and also through the project's website.
The aims of the informative publications were to:
- inform the general public, stakeholders, policy makers, related EO research institutes and researchers, and EO users in order to promote the idea of using EO data and tools for efficient environmental monitoring;
- raise public awareness on the needs for integrating environmental monitoring products and assessments into national and regional observing priorities.
The OBSERVE competition
OBSERVE organised a competition which aimed at the intensified use of EO data in the Balkans.
Participants from the Balkans and beyond were invited to analyse given air quality data sets and to report their findings to the organisers of the competition. The analysis results described typical phenomena that are contained in the data such as pollution levels, their spatial relationships, temporal evolutions.
The prise winners were invited to present their results during the final event organised by the OBSERVE project. Additional travel funding were offered to the prise winners by the OBSERVE project.
During the final event an award was presented to competition winners by (Athina Trakas, Vassillis Tritakis, and Gottfried Schwars). Furthermore the competition winners had the opportunity to present their work during the symposium.
OBSERVE caravan workshops
The caravan concept
Following the ISPRS tradition, the OBSERVE project realised the CARAVAN concept in the Balkan countries.
The CARAVAN knowledge-transfer concept is simple:
1. Visit target audience at their location rather than transporting them to the scientific and professional events.
2. May focus on topics that are of interest to the region or the host country and aim directly to meet with local demands and needs.
3. CARAVAN events will support cooperation between individuals, institutes and countries within the region.
Its goals were set as:
- knowledge transfer and capacity building;
- amplify the voice of local scientists and professionals;
- encourage their cooperation;
- elevate and support the status of local scientists, professionals, managers and officials that are dealing with spatial information;
- increase the awareness of the private, public and governmental communities, officials and decision-makers to EO;
- further the cooperation between individuals, institutes and countries within the Balkan region in particular and outside the region, as well.
In total the OBSERVE project Organised two Caravan events, the 1st one was organised in Sofia, Bulgaria 1 March 2012, while the second one was organised in Belgrade, Serbia 17 May 2012.
First OBSERVE CARAVAN in Sofia, Bulgaria (1 March 2012)
The aims of the Workshop were to inform participants on EO activities with focus on EU and GEO, exchange views on how the above relates or can relate to EO activities in the Balkans, inform speakers and leading EO institutions on needs regarding EO in the Balkans and build-up networks and co-operations, with focus on capacity building and more extensive use of EO.
The speakers in the workshop were all by invitation and highly esteemed experts and officials from European and international organisations.
This first CARAVAN workshop that was held in the UACEG of Sofia Univesity, Bulgaria at 1 March 2012, was the first of a series of informational events organised by OBSERVE project and targeting Balkan EO stakeholders.
The workshop had a participation of 58 people, coming from different statues levels (administration officials, press, professionals, academicians and students). All the presented material (videos and presentation files) are freely available from the OBSERVE Website
Second OBSERVE CARAVAN in Belgrade, Serbia (17 May 2012).
The aims of the workshop were to inform participants on EO (EO) activities with focus on EU and GEO, exchange views on how the above relates or can relate to EO activities in the Balkans, inform speakers and leading EO institutions on needs regarding EO in the Balkans and build-up networks and co-operations, with focus on capacity building and more extensive use of EO.
The speakers in the workshop were all by invitation and highly esteemed experts and officials from European and international organisations.
This CARAVAN workshop that was organised by University of Belgrade and GIS DATA Serbia and held in Belgrade at 17.05.2012 in the University of Belgrade, Faculty of Transport and Traffic Engineering and was the second of a series of informational events organised by OBSERVE project and targeting to Balkan EO stakeholders.
The workshop had a participation of 62 people, coming from different statues levels (administration officials, press, professionals, academicians and students, but mostly GIS professionals from Serbian institutions - ministries, public companies, local government). All the presented material (videos and presentation files) are freely available from the OBSERVE website.
Potential impact:
Impact, dissemination, and exploitation
The OBSERVE project has its main focus in supporting activities in EO capacity building in the Balkans for environmental monitoring.
The OBSERVE project has contributed significantly to the capacity building in the region. In this topic we have to mention the capacity building as defined in GEO and its strategic targets and evaluate the contribution of the OBSERVE project to this tasks.
The GEO definition of capacity building focuses on three elements of clearest relevance to EOs: human, institutional and infrastructure capacity.
Human capacity building refers to the education and training of individuals to be aware of, access, use and develop EO data and products.
Institutional capacity building is focused on developing and fostering an environment for the use of EOs to enhance decision making. This includes building policies, programs and organisational structures in governments and organisations aimed at enhancing the understanding of the value of EO data and products. Furthermore the Albanian OBSERVE Partner University Polytechnic of Tirana (UPT) participated actively in drafting the law 'Organisation and functioning of NSDI in the Republic of Albania', where main outcome was the establishment of the governmental authority on spatial data and geoinformation as scientific partner of the governmental group by conducting several presentations and meeting with policy makers and providing useful insight on INSPIRE related issues. It must be underlined that this development signals a new era for Albania regarding future participation in the international institutional context. The Law was approved by the Albanian Parliament on 28 June 2012.
Infrastructure capacity building is related to the hardware, software and other technology required to access, use and develop the EO data, and products for decision making.
In the strategic targets (from GEO-VI Document 12 Rev 1) the capacity building has been defined in the following actions:
- networking activities that specifically build individual, institutional and infrastructure capacity;
- increased use of EO in policy and decision making;
- enhanced participation of developing countries in GEO and GEOSS.
The priority actions for institutional development and individual development have been set in the GEO task ID-02.
However, there are further important questions that arise and the possible future scenarios depend highly on many circumstances:
- Will sufficiently many partners quickly submit their well described data free of charge to GEOSS and make it a common tool for data exchange?
- Will the EU be successful in supporting coordinated 'geospatial research and development' and offer comfortable access to most European geodata via INSPIRE?
- Will OGC standards be accepted by the majority of community partners and will free standard software be available that provides the envisaged OGC services?
- Will GMES services be readily available and will they provide the fully funded backbone for numerous value-added products offered by small companies and research groups?
- Will the Balkan countries adapt the working habits of their public institutions to the chances offered by innovative 'spatial information' (from cadastral records and surveying to public health and civil security)?
- Will the Balkan countries see the creation of many small companies engaged in remote sensing and geospatial solutions that sell their expertise and products easily beyond their national borders?
- Will the Balkan countries experience a joint approach of universities, research establishments, and newly established institutions to create a common sone of expertise in the field of 'spatial information'?
- Will the Balkan countries be significantly more involved in international scientific associations and programmes?
The future geospatial development of the Balkan countries will also be affected by the economic development in Europe. As many geospatial innovations call for initial funding by public institutions, one can expect a selection of most promising or financially attractive techniques.
Although all these possible obstacles and objective overall difficult economic situation in Europe, we can be positive for the future of the EO in the Balkan region. Many examples of good practice, presented in this document show a variety of good and interesting application in the region.
Research Impact: The scientists, stakeholders, and companies network that established during the lifetime of the project created knowledge, training and understanding in EO applications regarding environmental monitoring. The various project activities (expert consultations, events, caravan workshops and competition) stimulated the generation of new research ideas, adoption of research methodologies due to exchange of best practices and transfer of knowhow from different Balkan countries on common research questions, and increase of scientific publications that increase visibility of institutions and individual researchers in the field of environmental monitoring using EO applications. Furthermore the two workshops organised during the project managed to attract EU policy makers that informed local stakeholders and researchers about the EU strategic agenda. Moreover, during the OBSERVE event a detailed presentation of the Roadmap and Strategy plan was given informing the participants on the current state of EO in the Balkan Region, and potential actions that can performed in order to strengthen EO capacity in the Balkan region for environmental monitoring.
Economy: OBSERVE managed to bring together research communities and stakeholders coming from different origins, background and economic constellations in order to create a critical mass in EO for environmental monitoring, thus boosting competiveness and effective use of resources in the EO industry. Furthermore, the created researchers, companies and stakeholders network has a direct economic impact as research is ranked first as a competitive tool for sustainable development. In that context OBSERVE consortium partners have already participated in a number of National and European level proposals regarding environmental issues. Finally adoption of best practices, introduction of standardisation principles and regional human resources networking can have extensive economic impact at the organisational level through the creation of economies of scale. This specific impact at the institutional level through the spill over effect will can impact positively the general socioeconomic operational environment of the Balkan institutions.
Dissemination
OBSERVE project had the vision of establishing a new Balkan EO community of multilevel stakeholders that will make use of state of the art technological developments, products and knowhow from the existing European EO community and industry.
The OBSERVE project dissemination strategy had two central characteristics:
- spreading the ideas and results within scientific community;
- results' presentation to the potential final users.
The major dissemination activities of the consortium were:
- publications in relevant scientific and industrial journals, and in trade magazines and journals;
- continue an active speaking program, targeting national and regional conferences, and in industrial sector meetings;
- produce and distribute the OBSERVE e-newsletter every 4 months;
- produce the web-based activities aiming at disseminating the knowledge and technology;
- dissemination of knowledge in a reference to the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) 'Environment' theme: public web-site, leaflets, videos, re-usable illustrations;
- the results will be spread via collaboration in national or European funded academic research projects and in training and dissemination events including the workshops and the final event.
The main dissemination activities and tolls can be summarised as follows:
Events attendance, conferences, publications
OBSERVE consortium partners represented OBSERVE in more than 25 national and international conferences and workshops where they presented papers and made announcements, distributed flyers and also submitted articles in scientific publications. In total 21 publication were made during the lifetime of OBSERVE.
Furthermore OBSERE co-organised two workshops with the sister project BALKANGEONET.
The First OBSERVE workshop
The first joint workshop of FP7 projects BALKANGEONET and OBSERVE EOs for the Social Benefit of the Balkans Post-GEO Workshop was organised at Istanbul, Turkey 18-19 November 2011 aimed:
- to inform audience on EO activities with focus on European institutions (aims, actions, near-term future plans);
- to exchange views on how the above relate to EO activities in south-eastern Europe;
- to inform speakers and leading EO institutions on needs regarding EO in south-eastern Europe;
- to build-up acquaintances, networks and co-operations, with focus on capacity building and more extensive use of EO in south-eastern Europe, incl. possible contributions of related EU projects in European activities.
The workshop attracted 90 experts, stakeholders, local policy makers and academics that had the opportunity to get informed on the latest developments regarding International and European EO developments and participate in vivid debates on the future of EO in the Balkans.
The Second OBSERVE Workshop
The second joint workshop of FP7 projects BALKANGEONET and OBSERVE 'Towards inclusion of Balkan countries into global EO' was organised at Split, Croatia, 24-25 September 2012 aimed to inform audience on:
- GEO and related coordination activities in the Balkans.
- state-of-the-art technology in EO in the Balkans;
- programmes and bodies related to EO in the Balkans;
- challenges in EO capacity building;
- challenges to EO data providers;
- GEO and GEOSS in practice.
The workshop attracted 68 experts, stakeholders, local policy makers and academics that had the opportunity to get informed on the latest developments regarding International and European EO developments and participate in vivid debates on the future of EO in the Balkans.
OBSERVE final event
The OBSERVE final event observation activities in the Balkans building on Experience was organised was organised at Thessaloniki, Greece, 15-16 October 2012 aimed to: 1. Capitalise on the outcomes of the OBSERVE project, through:
- presentation of the 'Spatial information system and the stakeholder database';
- presentation of an in depth 'Multilevel assessment and gap analysis' regarding the EO activities in the Balkans;
- presentation of the 'Roadmap and strategy plan for strengthening EO capacity'.
2. Raise awareness in the Balkans, through:
- demonstration of EO solutions on the different societal benefit areas;
- dissemination of challenges and Best practice examples in the Balkan countries.
3. Scale up in challenging times, through:
- sharing experiences with other related EU sponsored capacity building projects;
- attraction of key public institutions and authorities;
- favouring the involvement of local decision makers.
4. Serve as a network vehicle for dissemination and capacity development mechanisms. The workshop attracted 123 experts, stakeholders, local policy makers, students and academics that had the opportunity to get informed on the latest developments regarding EO developments in the Balkan Region, along with information about the project. During the symposium a booklet 'Roadmap and strategy plan for strengthening EO capacity in the Balkans for environmental monitoring - Executive summary' (I SBN: 978-618-80291-0-1) was distributed in the participants.
The south-eastern European Journal of EO and Geomatics
In January of 2012 the first Volume of 'the south-eastern European journal of EOs and geomatics' was launched. The journal can be accessed at the following link http://ejournals.lib.auth.gr/seejeog/index
The journal editorial
The nine societal benefit areas (agriculture, biodiversity, climate, disasters, ecosystems, energy, health, water, and weather), identified by the Group on EOs (GEO) Member States, and clearly shows that EO is here only to benefit the citizens. This global effort can be traced in international organisations and initiatives like GEO, GEOSS, Committee on EO satellites (CEOS), and so on.
EU lists its EO priority actions: satellite navigation, space for the benefit of the environment and the fight against climate change, secure space, and space exploration. Therefore a global picture of EO industry is progressing with actors, such as: (a) Providers of EO data, who are either public institutions or commercial enterprises; (b) Users of EO data, who are either institutions, companies, or the general public; and (c) Sources of EO data, which are either sensors / instruments, models/simulators, or databases.
The major effort is to provide timely, accurate and costly data for Land monitoring, marine environment monitoring, atmosphere monitoring, emergency management, security, and climate change with the use of aerial-and satellite-based EO. And this requires, on one hand, user consultation, followed by algorithmic studies, processing activities, and validation efforts to convert satellite data and calibration constants into physically realistic information; on the other hand, a common processing approach guarantees the long term generation of consistent and traceable results.
Finally, Information and communication technologies (ICT) emerged and provided the infrastructure for open geodata standardisation, uniformity in data (e.g. EU INSPIRE directive) and wide availability of data sources through Geo portals (eg. UNEP Geodata, FAO Geo-network, ICSU World Data System, EU INSPIRE Geoportal, EEA Urban Atlas).
Balkan countries, on the other hand, do not have a coherent and continuous approach towards the challenge of implementing integrated EO applications in environmental monitoring and management. The defect in the implementation of EO applications and their use in the environmental decision making are manifested through the limited synergies among national and regional institutions, the lack of substantial infrastructure, ineffective technological means and discontinuous record of participation to international organisations and committees.
The south-eastern European Journal of EO and geomatics aims at offering a scientific forum to experts from southeastern Europe, in order to enhance the scientific dialogue, fill the existing gap in policies and applications, build-up acquaintances, establish networks and co-operations and contribute to regional capacity building. For this reason it is free, open-access, e-journal to all; both authors and readers. Our major concern is not to exclude anybody from this effort.
All stakeholders of EO research, industry, academia and policy making, either situated or having interest in the region of SEE, are welcome to contribute and cordially invited to support our effort.
The Aristotle University is gratefully acknowledged for offering this free service to our scientific society.
Web Presence and the OBSERVE CIP
The OBSERVE website has been developed in month one and it will be maintained for two years after the end of the project. OBSERVE CIP comprised logically by two physically separated online building blocks that complemented each other in an interactive and multifunction mode. More specifically OBSERVE CIP contained two pillars:
- members working and repository area of restricted access internal CIP (SharePoint application);
- external CIP informational section accessible from the World Wide Web.
The first pillar of OBSERVE CIP facilitated inside consortium coordination providing a dynamic repository where all project documents (finalised and active) will be available. The second pillar of the OBSERVE CIP will contained the basic elements of the website and online tools available to users (external CIP).
Each OBSERVE Building Block comprised by different structure elements and content folders containing stable and dynamic information regarding the OBSERVE project online content. The main dissemination and networking tools integrated in the website are the following:
- produced and published 23 press releases at the relevant news section (full illustrated stories);
- developed and published 5 additional independent interactive websites embedded in the OBSERVE CIP and hosted at www.observe-fp7.eu communicating results of the major events of the OBSERVE project;
- published all project 6 e-newsletters and provided them in a downloadable form;
- published all informational and scientific material (posters, logos, flyers, papers) and provided them in a downloadable form;
- a relevant stakeholders database with 536 registered users;
- a moderated newsletter subscription facility;
- an automatic mail delivery tool that sent more than 2 800 customised individual emails;
- the OBSERVE Spatial Information System that provides a spatial depiction of results of the Gap Analysis and provided the opportunity to Balkan stakeholders to register their institution in a WEBGIS platform developed exclusively for the purposes of the OBSERVE project;
- social Media active links;
- the Members Area using the Microsoft SharePoint software;
- OBSERVE Knowledge Base Repository
1. currently hosts 206 files;
2. the total sise files hosted is 505 MBs;
3. the overall downloads performed within the knowledge base are 11 838 Downloads;
4. the 50 most popular files received 7 284 downloads.
- liaison with relevant web platforms.
OBSERVE website for the second year of operation, according to the Google Analytics engine attracted 7 831 visitors from 112 countries. Due to a technical problem no statistics are available for the first 8 months of the project.
Exploitation
The OBSERVE partners from the Balkan region recommend some initiatives to establish a common GEO forum for networking and application exchange in the Balkan. In the short term, national forums should be established which are later (e.g. in 5 years) joined into the regional forum. This could be regarded as a 'Balkan focal point' (e.g. Balkan Institute for EO).
It is further recommended to exploit brokering approach (developed in the context of various FP7 projects) with existing networks and training activities / initiatives (GEO, ISPRS, IEEE, etc.). Further on, many of the existing training material, data, best practice examples (e.g. from GEONetCast, Energeo, GEO, IEEE, OGC, DLR, ESA) could be used. A variety of different tools and available applications are listed in D3.1 of the OBSERVE project.
It is highly recommended to consider existing international standards and available technologies (e.g. ISO / OGC, INSPIRE, online brokering available technologies), as well as use the GEOSS as a platform for data storage and exchange.
Dissemination is another important issue. The OBSERVE project has already contributed very much in this issue (details in the report on the dissemination activities). However, we recommend continuation of these activities in the region. It is important to attract policy makers and raise the issue of Balkan participation to GEO and to ESA, where invitation of EC officials or GEO/ESA officials may help. In addition, marketing, national TVs, press conferences and public announcements should follow-up the events.
There are many opportunities not yet used enough. Thus, we recommend to follow:
- EC plans for 2012/FP7 (GEO-BON, SuperSites, Citizen contribution);
- Horizon 2014-2020: Research / innovation / education on EO and space related activities;
- structural funds (starting with the activities at the national level);
- European innovation partnership opportunities;
- put in perspective alternative cost of climate change impacts.
Finally, not only financial aspects should be evaluated and recognised in the future cooperation. There are many possibilities to further run different activities between the established network in the OBSERVE which can be based on the overall contributions of individuals or institutions (contributions in kind, e.g. to initiate an e-forum or blog). The synergy between the OBSERVE partners and the network established in the framework of the project could bring much more and better results that considering only individual or national activities in the EOs.
List of websites: http://www.observe-fp7.eu
Balkan countries do not have a coherent and continuous approach towards the challenge of implementing integrated Earth observation (EO) applications in environmental monitoring and management. It should be mentioned that the Balkan countries, except Greece and Romania, are not European Space Agency (ESA) members. Besides, Albania, Bulgaria, FYROM, Montenegro and Bosnia Herzegovina are also not members of the Group on EO (GEO).
The defect in the implementation of EO applications and their use in the environmental decision making are manifested through the limited synergies among national and regional institutions, ineffective technological means and discontinuous record of participation to international organisations and committees. On the other hand, the increasing importance of a common approach towards effective environmental monitoring practices, for the benefit of the societal web of the broader Balkan region, calls for immediate action, setting as a starting point the built up of regional institutional capacity and spillage of technology transfer.
The main goal of the OBSERVE project has been to collect and compile all the necessary information for delivering an integrated analysis on the current status of EO activities and networks in the Balkan area regarding environmental monitoring, the potential benefit from the full exploitation of an integrated capacity development strategy and the prospect of establishing a relevant permanent EO Community in the region. The methodology applied in the OBSERVE project consists of different steps and activities. In the field of EO activities, the critical point found for the Balkan countries is how to create a future environment of cooperation between different partners and at various levels where companies of different scale from many countries would be involved in joint projects. Experience gained in projects supported by the European Union (EU) paves the way towards the future models of cooperation and will help to identify new products and market niches for these products and services. Future cooperation between Balkan partners becomes much easier if experience from initial projects is already available. In this sense, the OBSERVE project has significantly contributed through developing a network and capacity building in the region. Many activities within the OBSERVE project have been focused to collect information and investigate the current state of affairs in the field of the EO in the Balkan region. The analysis of this very detailed data shows that there are inevitable differences between the contributing countries due to historical, political and other reasons. On the other hand, we can found many common trends as well striving after some common goals and actions of the EO in the region.
Project context and objectives:
The aim of the OBSERVE project was to collect and compile all the necessary information for delivering an integrated analysis on the current status of EO activities and networks in the Balkans regarding environmental monitoring, the potential benefit from the full exploitation of an integrated capacity development strategy and the prospect of establishing a relevant permanent EO Community in the broader region. OBSERVE project considered the capacity development priorities as defined in the GEO strategic documents and developed by a number of other international organisations such as IOC, UNEP, CEOS, UNDP, and APN. OBSERVE project had the ultimate goal to raise awareness and establish firm links with the regional decision making bodies on the importance of a mutual and enhanced EO application network on environmental monitoring.
The OBSERVE implementation strategy had the objective to:
- raise awareness on the need to harmonise policies and practices in the field EO applications in order to address the challenges described by the GEO societal benefit areas;
- serve as an efficient mechanism for recording, monitoring and influencing policy in EO;
- favour exploitation and development of EO activities and ensure coordination of these activities for the benefit of natural resources management;
- promote the idea of permanent institutional links and mutual cooperation between Balkan states in the field of EO for environmental management;
- promote free access of Balkan countries to all advantages of EO techniques and international standardisation;
- promote cooperation between Balkan States in the fields of training and sharing of staff and experiences in all aspects of EO;
- build a spatial database and web inventory with all existing dynamic elements related to the scope of the relevant analysis in order to reinforce new synergies in EO solutions for the benefit of environment.
More specifically OBSERVE project attempted to:
- develop and implement awareness raising strategy so that the Balkan governments provide national budgets for geo-information;
- institutionalise the existing community and relevant stakeholders to support proficiency in the development of EO applications and awareness of new applications;
- improve data availability, access, and distribution;
- improve access to regional and international EO communities;
- improve infrastructure and knowhow for data access, analysing, and distribution, including IT, hardware and software development;
- strengthen regional coordination of existing institutional structures;
- implement monitoring and evaluation of EO programs and applications;
- conduct further evaluation on EO business models, sustainability, role of other regional institutions and associations;
- expand, extend and interlink data and information portals;
- develop or enhance EO capacity and curricula at Universities and other institutions in the Balkans.
Project results:
The strategic key result of OBSERVE was the Roadmap and Strategy plan for strengthening EO capacity in the Balkans for environmental monitoring. The development of the Roadmap and Strategy plan has been supported by a number of activities that contributed to other deliverables including the creation of a stakeholders database, national thematic reports regarding EO capacity, a multilevel assessment and gap analysis, and the OBSERVE spatial information system and CIP. Another important part of the project was the creation of informative publications along with the organisation of workshops that contributed to capacity strengthening and capacity development. Furthermore various dissemination activities were performed that helped to raise awareness of the general public and disseminate the project's results to a wider audience.
Mapping the current state of EO capacity in the Balkan region
In order to acquire all the necessary information for the Roadmap and strategy plan for strengthening EO capacity in the Balkans for environmental monitoring the following three activities pillars were employed for mapping of current state:
- stakeholders database;
- individual countries report on EO capacity;
- multilevel assessment and gap analysis.
In the following sections a description of the achieved results is presented:
Stakeholders database
The creation of SD was one of the crucial parts of task 2.2 'Identification and classification of regional stakeholders', and WP2 'Assessment and gap analysis of EO capacity in the Balkans' as it constituted the starting point for most of the actions planned in this work package. The created database provided all available information for the questionnaires delivery. Furthermore it was the starting point for the communication between relevant stakeholders in each country, and enhanced the project's dissemination activities in the broader Balkan region. Additionally it was the foundation for the spatial stakeholder's database and OBSERVE CIP.
The database collected information about the nature, activities, type, and contact details of all the stakeholders. Taking into account the synergies that were developed with the sister project Balkan GEO NET, the stakeholders' database was a common effort of the two projects i.e. Both the project's participants contributed in the data collection process. Partners of both projects cooperated in a national level to collect data for stakeholders. The design of the Database File was performed in Microsoft Access. One main table containing data fields about the stakeholders' information was created and several auxiliary tables, containing predefined selections inserted in the database, were introduced. More specifically the main table's structure is comprised by 20 text, 1 hyperlink and 1 memo field gathering information about the organisation (name, abbreviation, description, address and other contact information, origin, type of organisation, activities) and a contact person (title, name, position, other contact information).
The final main stakeholders' table contains 382 records distributing unevenly the EO stakeholders in the Balkan region.
Except from the distribution of the stakeholders in the Balkan countries, additional data mining can be performed by applying queries within the Microsoft Access environment. The contact information collected from the SD and especially the email addresses of organisations and contact persons were used to compile a stakeholders' electronic mailing list. The mailing list was used for the questionnaires delivery to the organisations or to their contact persons in order to receive their experience and feedback on the use of EO data and applications.
The SD was vital for the implementation of several deliverables of OBSERVE since:
1. It collected important information about the multilevel stakeholders that currently make use EO data in the community and industry.
2. It was helpful for the implementation of National thematic reports (NTR) of individual countries.
3. It supported the creation of a spatial database and web inventory in order to reinforce new synergies in EO solutions for the benefit of environment.
Individual countries report on EO capacity
The aim of individual countries reports on EO capacity was to review and analyse the current status, of EO instruments, research initiatives, operating procedures, data providers, relevant stakeholders and public institutions in the OBSERVE consortium partner countries. In order to achieve this goal, information regarding three major fields (policies, data - applications, and capacities) was gathered from each participating country.
The thorough information collection, research, investigation and analyses of the field in the cooperating countries in the OBSERVE project all present a basis for an objective insight in the current situation in the Balkan region regarding the EO. This is, to our opinion, the most valuable contribution to the improvement of the situation in the region.
Spatial data have a long history of use in support of decision making. This is true also for the Balkan countries which have a long tradition in mapping and cadastral evidences. With development of new technologies for spatial data acquisition and management, the importance of spatial data for the society is higher than it has ever been. Traditional maps have been replaced by digital spatial data. However, the new technology has brought new challenges in the fields of spatial data usage and capacity building, data accessibility, interoperability, re-use of information (for different domains like e-Government services of all kinds).
Some of the cooperating countries share a common cartographic history since recently (like the former Yugoslavian Republics of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, FYROM, Slovenia, Montenegro and Serbia) or even in the past (era of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy) they were once part of a common country. There still exist small-scale maps and even large-scale and cadastral maps from those times. However, the development of the national spatial data infrastructure took different ways in those countries, and as the consequence the national data sets are hardly useful at the trans-national levels (different data sharing policy, quality standards, spatial reference systems). Amongst the countries, only Greece, Bulgaria and Slovenia are the EU member, obliged to follow the EU directives also in the fields of SDI. The countries participate in several international initiatives and projects dedicated to technological and general development in these fields.
Multilevel assessment and gap analysis
The main aim was to collect all the available data for the preparation of the gap analysis, and to perform the multilevel assessment and gap analysis. Within this context the first activity was the data and information collection. Data were collected using two approaches. The first approach was the creation and delivery of a questionnaire regarding EO activities, while the second one pertained to the national thematic reports.
The second activity was the multilevel assessment and gap analysis. More specific within this framework information collected by questionnaires, and the national thematic reports was used to design the gap analysis methodology and perform an in depth analysis of the current status of EO activities and capacity in the broader Balkan region with regard to environmental monitoring. In order to achieve the abovementioned objectives a series of actions were undertaken.
The first action involved the design of the questionnaire. The questionnaire was designed in collaboration with our sister project B.GN and consisted of 83 questions addressing three major categories:
EO data providers and producers;
- EO data users;
- potential end users.
Following the questionnaire design a web toll was created for the delivery of the questionnaires. The web tool was based on the Lime Survey technology and was implemented in collaboration with B.GN . The information in the stakeholders database was used to invite stakeholders to fill in the online survey. Furthermore partners from both consortiums contacted the regional stakeholders and assisted them to fill in the survey.
Using the collected data from the questionnaires a series of indices and metrics were designed to help the realisation of the gap analysis methodology and tools. Furthermore a Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis of the status of EO activity in the Balkan region was performed. In particular the questionnaire was filed by 278 stakeholders of the 382 collected stakeholders, meaning that almost 75% of the original identified stakeholders took part at the survey.
Using information acquired from a series of organisations or projects such ASPRS, GEOSS, GEO, EU, Eurospace, ESA, ESPI, a general framework concerning the types of gaps that are going to be analysed has been designed, and a series of indicators, and indices has been proposed for the implementation of gap analysis.
The most important weaknesses, critical points and gaps that were identified in the national analyses and are not limited only to the local environment (e.g. country) were the following:
- EO data regulation is not clear to data producers;
- in general data in many countries are expensive, incomplete / limited, outdated, not available or incorrect;
- the use of standards regarding EO data could be improved;
- collaboration of data producers and providers are not regular and could be improved;
- the share of regional datasets (former Yugoslav republics, Balkan countries) could be improved and increased;
- data compatibility with Global Earth observation system of systems (GEOSS) can be improved;
- most of the data producers or providers are only partially aware of end-users needs regarding EO data (in most of the countries);
- the export of products or services in most of the countries is low, thus it could be improved;
- the share of regional data sets (former Yugoslav republics, Balkan countries) can be increased;
- EO related issues reported on media in most of the countries could be improved;
- especially the professional society in many countries is not informed enough about new data sources, data availability and data usage;
- the full and easy access to all EO data the end-users might need can considerably increase the annual income of 10-25 %;
- collaboration of academic institutions and decision makers for EO data development and implementation could be improved.
- many of these aspects call for better use of international standards (e.g. OGC web services).
Roadmap and strategy plan
The critical point for the Balkan countries is how to create a future environment of cooperation between many partners and at various levels where large and small companies from many countries are involved in joint projects. Experience gained in projects supported by the EU paves the way towards future models of cooperation and will help to identify new products and market niches for these products. Future cooperation between Balkan partners becomes much easier if experience from initial projects is already available. In this sense, the OBSERVE project has significantly contributed in building a network and capacity building that should be further maintained and even expanded through participation in international networks.
Another aspect to consider is the embedding of partners from the Balkan partners in globally international projects and research programmes, as well as contribution to the international standards development leading to the input and requirements coming from a European region. The Balkan states have become and will become members of several international research oriented organisations. As a consequence, the Balkan countries have the chance to assign personnel to international institutions. In this issue, the established network in the OBSERVE can help in giving support from experienced groups. The constant contribution to GEOSS architecture implementation pilot should be considered, as well.
The analysis of the detailed national roadmaps and strategy plans of the cooperating Balkan countries in this project, further shows that there are some significant differences between these countries due to historical, political and other reasons. In spite of this, we can find many common issues as well (in gaps, national and regional priorities, action plans) striving after some common goals and actions of EO in the region. To have a clear picture of the results of our research, we summarise and present here the most relevant and to our opinion realistic challenges that can be addressed to the EO community as well as decision makers and politicians in the region.
The partners of the OBSERVE from the Balkan region have defined the following key priorities and future trends, referring to the recognised regional priorities:
The interest to a joint (national, regional and international) approach to EO is highly expressed. The main identified problems are:
- absence of a common body for coordination and cooperation;
- lack of harmonisation of activities of EO players across the Balkan;
- lack of jurisdiction over the establishment of regional Balkan EO system on a high political level;
- need for financial means for establishing regional EO system (who / how);
- lack of recognition of national interests in some participating countries.
The expected or desired key characteristics of the EO data in the future are:
- easier access and exchange of various EO data;
- data standardisation;
- uniform metadata system available to users;
- improvement of management in hazardous or disastrous situations;
- less expensive data for the end-users;
- access to all data in one place;
- efficient on-line services;
- emphasis on the data quality and quality control approaches.
The engagement in international standards development organisations (e.g. OGC, ISO / TC 211) could help achieving positive results for these key characteristics.
Partners in the OBSERVE project from the Balkan countries are proposing the following action points and action plan (short term and medium term):
i) Short term (1-2 years)
Start initiatives to set a common GEO forum for networking and application exchange at the national level
The already established database of stakeholders at the national as well as at the international level could serve as the basis for development of a common GEO and GMES forum. The minimum goal should be to maintain the established network of stakeholders in the OBSERVE project, use the database for delivery of information and use existing networks and institutions (e.g. OGC) in the fields of EU EO priority actions: satellite navigation, space for the benefit of the environment and the fight against climate change, secure space, and space exploration.
The established network of stakeholders should be also used for promoting different actions and development of teams for common actions, projects in the future (FP7, Horizon 2014-2020, INTERREG and PHARE, COST, Bilateral agreements for research and applicative projects). The established network could thus serve to take advantage of cooperation in future EU open calls referring to Environment. The actions could be coupled with the BALKANGEONET capacity-building activities.
Currently we are in a situation, where the users of EO data are faced with terms such as 'geospatial standards' and 'open publication of geoscience data'. These terms describe the ambition to adhere to common standards and to profit from common knowledge that becomes apparent when everyone uses the common standards. The chances offered by open data policies are also an important topic to be discussed among Balkan partners when they envisage a new era of EO applications. These open policies could allow the set-up of local centres of expertise that use coupled systems to exchange data sets of global importance. Within this ambitious framework we are fully aware that an 'interoperable' environment is the pre-requisite for the interaction of products, data, and applications. This also applies to the Balkan countries that currently (with the help of EU support) have the chance to set up new institutions for geospatial and EO data handling. An asset of such institutions could be that they take a leading role in the international standardisation process influencing it and leverage or link European and Balkan requirements directly to the global EO activities in this domain.
Consider and evaluate ways to participate in international standards bodies and activities in the EO domain (e.g. OGC working groups, GEOSS architecture implementation pilot). In this way the OBSERVE partners can directly influence future developments through bringing in European expertise and requirements.
Develop and use different communication channels for international and national exchange of ideas on various aspects of EO activities and environmental monitoring:
a) South-eastern European journal of EO and geomatics that has already been launched aims at offering a scientific forum to experts covering the wide field of EO and environmental from south-eastern Europe, in order to enhance the scientific dialogue, fill the existing gap in policies and applications, build-up acquaintances, establish networks and co-operations and contribute to regional capacity building. The first issue was published in January 2012 (http://ejournals.lib.auth.gr/seejeog/index).
Start e-forum or blog for thematic discussions. In this way new proposals and ideas could be discussed in the established network. Another important aspect is to strengthen the EO community in the region (also with connection to the Mediterranean region and Black Sea region) and commonly contribute to European and international EO activities.
Promote GEOSS as a common data platform in the region for data producers, providers and end-users that will allow the sharing and exchange of EO data
In this issue, common standards and requirements for EO data management, access and sharing are of great importance. Currently, the Balkan states have the chance to set up new structures and institutions involved in the use of geospatial and EO data. New investments offer the chance to fully exploit chances of cooperation within linked networks. Thus, all actual and potential stakeholders should be aware of current technological developments and future aspects in order to avoid any false investments. False investments could occur both in the fields of technology as well as in manpower. GEOSS as a common data platform that already exists could help to fulfil this gap.
Strengthen scientific, research and education cooperation with different activities:
a) After establishment of the network of partners in the Balkan region in the framework of the OBSERVE project, the further goal should be to follow scientific development and expand to other, not traditional market niches and develop new applications (e.g. traffic monitoring, location based services).
b) The workshops named 'CARAVAN' that were realised as supplement to the some consortium meetings of the OBSERVE partners should continue in the future. The CARAVAN knowledge-transfer concept is following the ISPRS tradition, but is focused on the Balkan region. The main idea of the CARAVAN is to visit a target audience at their location rather than transporting them to the scientific and professional events. The CARAVAN workshop may focus on topics that are of interest to the region or the host country and aim to meet directly the local demands and needs. CARAVAN events support cooperation between individuals, institutes and countries within the region.
c) Develop a model for training courses and workshops (for the region) regarding as a permanent education for the professional community. Academic institution in the region can play an important role in these activities.
Based on the assumption that most innovations will have to be made within limited financial constraints, a model that considers small institutions and working groups. We can assume that conventional personal computers with high rate Internet access are available. After defining the goals of the courses or workshops, first the concepts how to set up an SDI or a geo-architecture should be explained. For practical work available tools could be used, e.g. access to data content via 'readers' (e.g. tools offered by ESA, HDF readers, GRIB readers); data 'viewers' to understand the data content (e.g. tools provided by ESA, ArcGIS free viewers, or available catalogue browsers); data analysis tools ('toolboxes') (e.g. ESA - BEAM toolbox); development of data analysis software (e.g. using the free GNU compilers or Octave); simulation models that are also freely or nearly freely available; databases can be shared via the Internet. In future, data processing can also be done outside of one's home institution via Web Processing Services, or by cloud computing approaches. In addition, a number of commercial product vendors have a long tradition of selling products to academic institutions with limited financial capabilities.
Another topic is training and education (even distance learning) to acquaint people with the real capabilities of 'spatial information'. Seminars organised by universities or professional associations tailored to the needs of the Balkan countries could be an efficient way to train new experts.
The ISPRS 'Summer school seminars' could possibly be used as a model for cooperation in the Balkan region as well.
d) Use the present exchange programs for students, researchers, professors (Erasmus, for example Basileus: http://www.basileus.ugent.be/index.asp CEEPUS)
- Offer institutional support (at the regional and European level) to the countries that are not yet members of GEO (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia) in order to help them join the GEO, as well as support the approach to ESA (only Greece is ESA member).
- Encourage national bodies to perform market researches on the end-users needs (at the national and regional level) aiming at getting objective information on real needs and achieving a qualitative collaboration between the end-user and EO producers and providers. The evaluation of the questionnaires and the gap analysis in OBSERVE project clearly show that the needs of end-users are not fully satisfied, thus the national agencies and other institutions providing EO data should be informed on these results and encouraged to perform such investigations. %l%l ii) Medium term (5-7 years)
- extend the initiative of a common GEO forum for networking and application;
- exchange from national to the Balkan region;
- further expand dissemination and stakeholder involvement;
- disseminate good practices to other parts of the world;
- further promote GEOSS data sharing facilities;
- organise permanent training courses and workshops in the region;
- increase cooperation between universities in the region (student and teacher exchange; organisation of specialised courses);
- strive for increasing funding for scientific research in the EO field.
Although increase of funding this is connected to the political decisions in each country, it is important to convince all the decision makers that quality and reliable EO data is strategic information. The society needs EO data to support different high-priority policies as: environmental policies (Kyoto protocol, biodiversity convention, management of natural resources), research policies, assessment and opportunity for international cooperation, space policy, different European organisations (ESA, EUMETSAT).
Spatial information system
The OBSERVE spatial information system provides a spatial depiction of results of the gap analysis and also the opportunity to Balkan stakeholders to register their institution in a WEBGIS platform developed exclusively for the purposes of the OBSERVE project. Detailed information on the architecture and objectives of the OBSERVE SIS are included in the D2.4 - OBSERVE spatial information system.
Collaboration strengthening and capacity development
The main objectives of collaboration strengthening and capacity development were the following:
- contribute to the regional EO capacity development including institutional strengthening through the promotion of collaboration and knowhow exchange;
- promote institutional and stakeholders networking for technology transfer;
- provide access to repositories of information and resources (for example, databases, libraries, web sites and open software);
- organise educational and informational trainings and workshops (public, customised or on-line);
- establish and coordinate alliances within the existing environmental monitoring initiatives in the broader Balkan region;
- identify synergies between regional educational and research institutions on EO applications for environmental monitoring with intersectional secondings, educational visits and summer schools following the spirit of GEO 2009 - 2011 work plan tasks and particularly CB-09-03b;
- promote the development and use of open software;
- promote standardisation guidelines to data production and processing according to user needs, international standards and GEOSS principles.
In order to achieve the aforementioned targets OBSERVE engaged in the following activities:
- establishment of common standards and requirements for EO Data management, access and sharing;
- informative publications;
- the OBSERVE competition;
- organisation of caravan workshops.
In the following section a description of these activities is presented.
Establishment of common standards and requirements for EO Data management, access and sharing
The objectives of establishing common standards and requirements for EO data management, access and sharing were to:
- provide access to repositories of information and resources (databases, libraries, web sites and open software);
- identify data providers and observatories and define common standards and requirements for EO data management and sharing among Balkan stakeholders according to the principles and guidelines of GEOSS.
As a result a detailed review of existing practices, organisations and standards has been contacted providing useful information and access information for:
- International political framework bodies.
International standard organisations.
International technical level bodies.
International Non-governmental organisation (NGO) bodies.
National bodies
With regard to Standards and requirements for EO data management, access and sharing, Repositories of Information, Resources, data sources and providers, and educational websites, software tools, and GIS environments. It must be underlined however that operational adoption of common standards by Balkan countries that do not comply with current standards is a task beyond the objective of OBSERVE project. The purpose of this activity was to record, describe and provide guidance to EO stakeholders in the Balkans regarding standardisation, EO data management, access and sharing.
Informative publications
Within the OBSERVE project, a series of informative publications has been planned during the lifetime of the project. As part of task 3.2 technology transfer and training according to the identified regional priorities on the different societal benefit areas, OBSERVE partners would create 'dedicated informative including an informative 6-10 page newsletter containing all project developments, relevant news dedicated scientific articles, relative innovations and developments that can contribute to the project objectives'.
Under this spectrum:
- In total the 6 e-newsletters were produced, and distributed to registered stakeholders in hard copy and web forms. All newsletters are available online.
- In addition to the newsletter production, a flyer including information objectives and aims of the OBSERVE project has also been produced. The flyer was produced in 12 different languages and distributed through the projects website.
- Furthermore a multilingual DVD was also produced during OBSERVEs lifetime. The DVD contained OBSERVE's consortium partner experiences and projects regarding environmental EO applications. Each partner prepared its video clip in their mother tongues, while English subtitles were added to each video.
- Furthermore an article regarding information about the project was published in international Innovation Magazine with Prof. Petros Patias giving an overview of the OBSERVE Project.
- Finally an OBSERVE booklet was produced containing an executive summary of D2.5 'Roadmap and strategy plan for strengthening EO capacity in the Balkans for Environmental monitoring'. The booklet was distributed in OBSERVE's final event and also through the project's website.
The aims of the informative publications were to:
- inform the general public, stakeholders, policy makers, related EO research institutes and researchers, and EO users in order to promote the idea of using EO data and tools for efficient environmental monitoring;
- raise public awareness on the needs for integrating environmental monitoring products and assessments into national and regional observing priorities.
The OBSERVE competition
OBSERVE organised a competition which aimed at the intensified use of EO data in the Balkans.
Participants from the Balkans and beyond were invited to analyse given air quality data sets and to report their findings to the organisers of the competition. The analysis results described typical phenomena that are contained in the data such as pollution levels, their spatial relationships, temporal evolutions.
The prise winners were invited to present their results during the final event organised by the OBSERVE project. Additional travel funding were offered to the prise winners by the OBSERVE project.
During the final event an award was presented to competition winners by (Athina Trakas, Vassillis Tritakis, and Gottfried Schwars). Furthermore the competition winners had the opportunity to present their work during the symposium.
OBSERVE caravan workshops
The caravan concept
Following the ISPRS tradition, the OBSERVE project realised the CARAVAN concept in the Balkan countries.
The CARAVAN knowledge-transfer concept is simple:
1. Visit target audience at their location rather than transporting them to the scientific and professional events.
2. May focus on topics that are of interest to the region or the host country and aim directly to meet with local demands and needs.
3. CARAVAN events will support cooperation between individuals, institutes and countries within the region.
Its goals were set as:
- knowledge transfer and capacity building;
- amplify the voice of local scientists and professionals;
- encourage their cooperation;
- elevate and support the status of local scientists, professionals, managers and officials that are dealing with spatial information;
- increase the awareness of the private, public and governmental communities, officials and decision-makers to EO;
- further the cooperation between individuals, institutes and countries within the Balkan region in particular and outside the region, as well.
In total the OBSERVE project Organised two Caravan events, the 1st one was organised in Sofia, Bulgaria 1 March 2012, while the second one was organised in Belgrade, Serbia 17 May 2012.
First OBSERVE CARAVAN in Sofia, Bulgaria (1 March 2012)
The aims of the Workshop were to inform participants on EO activities with focus on EU and GEO, exchange views on how the above relates or can relate to EO activities in the Balkans, inform speakers and leading EO institutions on needs regarding EO in the Balkans and build-up networks and co-operations, with focus on capacity building and more extensive use of EO.
The speakers in the workshop were all by invitation and highly esteemed experts and officials from European and international organisations.
This first CARAVAN workshop that was held in the UACEG of Sofia Univesity, Bulgaria at 1 March 2012, was the first of a series of informational events organised by OBSERVE project and targeting Balkan EO stakeholders.
The workshop had a participation of 58 people, coming from different statues levels (administration officials, press, professionals, academicians and students). All the presented material (videos and presentation files) are freely available from the OBSERVE Website
Second OBSERVE CARAVAN in Belgrade, Serbia (17 May 2012).
The aims of the workshop were to inform participants on EO (EO) activities with focus on EU and GEO, exchange views on how the above relates or can relate to EO activities in the Balkans, inform speakers and leading EO institutions on needs regarding EO in the Balkans and build-up networks and co-operations, with focus on capacity building and more extensive use of EO.
The speakers in the workshop were all by invitation and highly esteemed experts and officials from European and international organisations.
This CARAVAN workshop that was organised by University of Belgrade and GIS DATA Serbia and held in Belgrade at 17.05.2012 in the University of Belgrade, Faculty of Transport and Traffic Engineering and was the second of a series of informational events organised by OBSERVE project and targeting to Balkan EO stakeholders.
The workshop had a participation of 62 people, coming from different statues levels (administration officials, press, professionals, academicians and students, but mostly GIS professionals from Serbian institutions - ministries, public companies, local government). All the presented material (videos and presentation files) are freely available from the OBSERVE website.
Potential impact:
Impact, dissemination, and exploitation
The OBSERVE project has its main focus in supporting activities in EO capacity building in the Balkans for environmental monitoring.
The OBSERVE project has contributed significantly to the capacity building in the region. In this topic we have to mention the capacity building as defined in GEO and its strategic targets and evaluate the contribution of the OBSERVE project to this tasks.
The GEO definition of capacity building focuses on three elements of clearest relevance to EOs: human, institutional and infrastructure capacity.
Human capacity building refers to the education and training of individuals to be aware of, access, use and develop EO data and products.
Institutional capacity building is focused on developing and fostering an environment for the use of EOs to enhance decision making. This includes building policies, programs and organisational structures in governments and organisations aimed at enhancing the understanding of the value of EO data and products. Furthermore the Albanian OBSERVE Partner University Polytechnic of Tirana (UPT) participated actively in drafting the law 'Organisation and functioning of NSDI in the Republic of Albania', where main outcome was the establishment of the governmental authority on spatial data and geoinformation as scientific partner of the governmental group by conducting several presentations and meeting with policy makers and providing useful insight on INSPIRE related issues. It must be underlined that this development signals a new era for Albania regarding future participation in the international institutional context. The Law was approved by the Albanian Parliament on 28 June 2012.
Infrastructure capacity building is related to the hardware, software and other technology required to access, use and develop the EO data, and products for decision making.
In the strategic targets (from GEO-VI Document 12 Rev 1) the capacity building has been defined in the following actions:
- networking activities that specifically build individual, institutional and infrastructure capacity;
- increased use of EO in policy and decision making;
- enhanced participation of developing countries in GEO and GEOSS.
The priority actions for institutional development and individual development have been set in the GEO task ID-02.
However, there are further important questions that arise and the possible future scenarios depend highly on many circumstances:
- Will sufficiently many partners quickly submit their well described data free of charge to GEOSS and make it a common tool for data exchange?
- Will the EU be successful in supporting coordinated 'geospatial research and development' and offer comfortable access to most European geodata via INSPIRE?
- Will OGC standards be accepted by the majority of community partners and will free standard software be available that provides the envisaged OGC services?
- Will GMES services be readily available and will they provide the fully funded backbone for numerous value-added products offered by small companies and research groups?
- Will the Balkan countries adapt the working habits of their public institutions to the chances offered by innovative 'spatial information' (from cadastral records and surveying to public health and civil security)?
- Will the Balkan countries see the creation of many small companies engaged in remote sensing and geospatial solutions that sell their expertise and products easily beyond their national borders?
- Will the Balkan countries experience a joint approach of universities, research establishments, and newly established institutions to create a common sone of expertise in the field of 'spatial information'?
- Will the Balkan countries be significantly more involved in international scientific associations and programmes?
The future geospatial development of the Balkan countries will also be affected by the economic development in Europe. As many geospatial innovations call for initial funding by public institutions, one can expect a selection of most promising or financially attractive techniques.
Although all these possible obstacles and objective overall difficult economic situation in Europe, we can be positive for the future of the EO in the Balkan region. Many examples of good practice, presented in this document show a variety of good and interesting application in the region.
Research Impact: The scientists, stakeholders, and companies network that established during the lifetime of the project created knowledge, training and understanding in EO applications regarding environmental monitoring. The various project activities (expert consultations, events, caravan workshops and competition) stimulated the generation of new research ideas, adoption of research methodologies due to exchange of best practices and transfer of knowhow from different Balkan countries on common research questions, and increase of scientific publications that increase visibility of institutions and individual researchers in the field of environmental monitoring using EO applications. Furthermore the two workshops organised during the project managed to attract EU policy makers that informed local stakeholders and researchers about the EU strategic agenda. Moreover, during the OBSERVE event a detailed presentation of the Roadmap and Strategy plan was given informing the participants on the current state of EO in the Balkan Region, and potential actions that can performed in order to strengthen EO capacity in the Balkan region for environmental monitoring.
Economy: OBSERVE managed to bring together research communities and stakeholders coming from different origins, background and economic constellations in order to create a critical mass in EO for environmental monitoring, thus boosting competiveness and effective use of resources in the EO industry. Furthermore, the created researchers, companies and stakeholders network has a direct economic impact as research is ranked first as a competitive tool for sustainable development. In that context OBSERVE consortium partners have already participated in a number of National and European level proposals regarding environmental issues. Finally adoption of best practices, introduction of standardisation principles and regional human resources networking can have extensive economic impact at the organisational level through the creation of economies of scale. This specific impact at the institutional level through the spill over effect will can impact positively the general socioeconomic operational environment of the Balkan institutions.
Dissemination
OBSERVE project had the vision of establishing a new Balkan EO community of multilevel stakeholders that will make use of state of the art technological developments, products and knowhow from the existing European EO community and industry.
The OBSERVE project dissemination strategy had two central characteristics:
- spreading the ideas and results within scientific community;
- results' presentation to the potential final users.
The major dissemination activities of the consortium were:
- publications in relevant scientific and industrial journals, and in trade magazines and journals;
- continue an active speaking program, targeting national and regional conferences, and in industrial sector meetings;
- produce and distribute the OBSERVE e-newsletter every 4 months;
- produce the web-based activities aiming at disseminating the knowledge and technology;
- dissemination of knowledge in a reference to the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) 'Environment' theme: public web-site, leaflets, videos, re-usable illustrations;
- the results will be spread via collaboration in national or European funded academic research projects and in training and dissemination events including the workshops and the final event.
The main dissemination activities and tolls can be summarised as follows:
Events attendance, conferences, publications
OBSERVE consortium partners represented OBSERVE in more than 25 national and international conferences and workshops where they presented papers and made announcements, distributed flyers and also submitted articles in scientific publications. In total 21 publication were made during the lifetime of OBSERVE.
Furthermore OBSERE co-organised two workshops with the sister project BALKANGEONET.
The First OBSERVE workshop
The first joint workshop of FP7 projects BALKANGEONET and OBSERVE EOs for the Social Benefit of the Balkans Post-GEO Workshop was organised at Istanbul, Turkey 18-19 November 2011 aimed:
- to inform audience on EO activities with focus on European institutions (aims, actions, near-term future plans);
- to exchange views on how the above relate to EO activities in south-eastern Europe;
- to inform speakers and leading EO institutions on needs regarding EO in south-eastern Europe;
- to build-up acquaintances, networks and co-operations, with focus on capacity building and more extensive use of EO in south-eastern Europe, incl. possible contributions of related EU projects in European activities.
The workshop attracted 90 experts, stakeholders, local policy makers and academics that had the opportunity to get informed on the latest developments regarding International and European EO developments and participate in vivid debates on the future of EO in the Balkans.
The Second OBSERVE Workshop
The second joint workshop of FP7 projects BALKANGEONET and OBSERVE 'Towards inclusion of Balkan countries into global EO' was organised at Split, Croatia, 24-25 September 2012 aimed to inform audience on:
- GEO and related coordination activities in the Balkans.
- state-of-the-art technology in EO in the Balkans;
- programmes and bodies related to EO in the Balkans;
- challenges in EO capacity building;
- challenges to EO data providers;
- GEO and GEOSS in practice.
The workshop attracted 68 experts, stakeholders, local policy makers and academics that had the opportunity to get informed on the latest developments regarding International and European EO developments and participate in vivid debates on the future of EO in the Balkans.
OBSERVE final event
The OBSERVE final event observation activities in the Balkans building on Experience was organised was organised at Thessaloniki, Greece, 15-16 October 2012 aimed to: 1. Capitalise on the outcomes of the OBSERVE project, through:
- presentation of the 'Spatial information system and the stakeholder database';
- presentation of an in depth 'Multilevel assessment and gap analysis' regarding the EO activities in the Balkans;
- presentation of the 'Roadmap and strategy plan for strengthening EO capacity'.
2. Raise awareness in the Balkans, through:
- demonstration of EO solutions on the different societal benefit areas;
- dissemination of challenges and Best practice examples in the Balkan countries.
3. Scale up in challenging times, through:
- sharing experiences with other related EU sponsored capacity building projects;
- attraction of key public institutions and authorities;
- favouring the involvement of local decision makers.
4. Serve as a network vehicle for dissemination and capacity development mechanisms. The workshop attracted 123 experts, stakeholders, local policy makers, students and academics that had the opportunity to get informed on the latest developments regarding EO developments in the Balkan Region, along with information about the project. During the symposium a booklet 'Roadmap and strategy plan for strengthening EO capacity in the Balkans for environmental monitoring - Executive summary' (I SBN: 978-618-80291-0-1) was distributed in the participants.
The south-eastern European Journal of EO and Geomatics
In January of 2012 the first Volume of 'the south-eastern European journal of EOs and geomatics' was launched. The journal can be accessed at the following link http://ejournals.lib.auth.gr/seejeog/index
The journal editorial
The nine societal benefit areas (agriculture, biodiversity, climate, disasters, ecosystems, energy, health, water, and weather), identified by the Group on EOs (GEO) Member States, and clearly shows that EO is here only to benefit the citizens. This global effort can be traced in international organisations and initiatives like GEO, GEOSS, Committee on EO satellites (CEOS), and so on.
EU lists its EO priority actions: satellite navigation, space for the benefit of the environment and the fight against climate change, secure space, and space exploration. Therefore a global picture of EO industry is progressing with actors, such as: (a) Providers of EO data, who are either public institutions or commercial enterprises; (b) Users of EO data, who are either institutions, companies, or the general public; and (c) Sources of EO data, which are either sensors / instruments, models/simulators, or databases.
The major effort is to provide timely, accurate and costly data for Land monitoring, marine environment monitoring, atmosphere monitoring, emergency management, security, and climate change with the use of aerial-and satellite-based EO. And this requires, on one hand, user consultation, followed by algorithmic studies, processing activities, and validation efforts to convert satellite data and calibration constants into physically realistic information; on the other hand, a common processing approach guarantees the long term generation of consistent and traceable results.
Finally, Information and communication technologies (ICT) emerged and provided the infrastructure for open geodata standardisation, uniformity in data (e.g. EU INSPIRE directive) and wide availability of data sources through Geo portals (eg. UNEP Geodata, FAO Geo-network, ICSU World Data System, EU INSPIRE Geoportal, EEA Urban Atlas).
Balkan countries, on the other hand, do not have a coherent and continuous approach towards the challenge of implementing integrated EO applications in environmental monitoring and management. The defect in the implementation of EO applications and their use in the environmental decision making are manifested through the limited synergies among national and regional institutions, the lack of substantial infrastructure, ineffective technological means and discontinuous record of participation to international organisations and committees.
The south-eastern European Journal of EO and geomatics aims at offering a scientific forum to experts from southeastern Europe, in order to enhance the scientific dialogue, fill the existing gap in policies and applications, build-up acquaintances, establish networks and co-operations and contribute to regional capacity building. For this reason it is free, open-access, e-journal to all; both authors and readers. Our major concern is not to exclude anybody from this effort.
All stakeholders of EO research, industry, academia and policy making, either situated or having interest in the region of SEE, are welcome to contribute and cordially invited to support our effort.
The Aristotle University is gratefully acknowledged for offering this free service to our scientific society.
Web Presence and the OBSERVE CIP
The OBSERVE website has been developed in month one and it will be maintained for two years after the end of the project. OBSERVE CIP comprised logically by two physically separated online building blocks that complemented each other in an interactive and multifunction mode. More specifically OBSERVE CIP contained two pillars:
- members working and repository area of restricted access internal CIP (SharePoint application);
- external CIP informational section accessible from the World Wide Web.
The first pillar of OBSERVE CIP facilitated inside consortium coordination providing a dynamic repository where all project documents (finalised and active) will be available. The second pillar of the OBSERVE CIP will contained the basic elements of the website and online tools available to users (external CIP).
Each OBSERVE Building Block comprised by different structure elements and content folders containing stable and dynamic information regarding the OBSERVE project online content. The main dissemination and networking tools integrated in the website are the following:
- produced and published 23 press releases at the relevant news section (full illustrated stories);
- developed and published 5 additional independent interactive websites embedded in the OBSERVE CIP and hosted at www.observe-fp7.eu communicating results of the major events of the OBSERVE project;
- published all project 6 e-newsletters and provided them in a downloadable form;
- published all informational and scientific material (posters, logos, flyers, papers) and provided them in a downloadable form;
- a relevant stakeholders database with 536 registered users;
- a moderated newsletter subscription facility;
- an automatic mail delivery tool that sent more than 2 800 customised individual emails;
- the OBSERVE Spatial Information System that provides a spatial depiction of results of the Gap Analysis and provided the opportunity to Balkan stakeholders to register their institution in a WEBGIS platform developed exclusively for the purposes of the OBSERVE project;
- social Media active links;
- the Members Area using the Microsoft SharePoint software;
- OBSERVE Knowledge Base Repository
1. currently hosts 206 files;
2. the total sise files hosted is 505 MBs;
3. the overall downloads performed within the knowledge base are 11 838 Downloads;
4. the 50 most popular files received 7 284 downloads.
- liaison with relevant web platforms.
OBSERVE website for the second year of operation, according to the Google Analytics engine attracted 7 831 visitors from 112 countries. Due to a technical problem no statistics are available for the first 8 months of the project.
Exploitation
The OBSERVE partners from the Balkan region recommend some initiatives to establish a common GEO forum for networking and application exchange in the Balkan. In the short term, national forums should be established which are later (e.g. in 5 years) joined into the regional forum. This could be regarded as a 'Balkan focal point' (e.g. Balkan Institute for EO).
It is further recommended to exploit brokering approach (developed in the context of various FP7 projects) with existing networks and training activities / initiatives (GEO, ISPRS, IEEE, etc.). Further on, many of the existing training material, data, best practice examples (e.g. from GEONetCast, Energeo, GEO, IEEE, OGC, DLR, ESA) could be used. A variety of different tools and available applications are listed in D3.1 of the OBSERVE project.
It is highly recommended to consider existing international standards and available technologies (e.g. ISO / OGC, INSPIRE, online brokering available technologies), as well as use the GEOSS as a platform for data storage and exchange.
Dissemination is another important issue. The OBSERVE project has already contributed very much in this issue (details in the report on the dissemination activities). However, we recommend continuation of these activities in the region. It is important to attract policy makers and raise the issue of Balkan participation to GEO and to ESA, where invitation of EC officials or GEO/ESA officials may help. In addition, marketing, national TVs, press conferences and public announcements should follow-up the events.
There are many opportunities not yet used enough. Thus, we recommend to follow:
- EC plans for 2012/FP7 (GEO-BON, SuperSites, Citizen contribution);
- Horizon 2014-2020: Research / innovation / education on EO and space related activities;
- structural funds (starting with the activities at the national level);
- European innovation partnership opportunities;
- put in perspective alternative cost of climate change impacts.
Finally, not only financial aspects should be evaluated and recognised in the future cooperation. There are many possibilities to further run different activities between the established network in the OBSERVE which can be based on the overall contributions of individuals or institutions (contributions in kind, e.g. to initiate an e-forum or blog). The synergy between the OBSERVE partners and the network established in the framework of the project could bring much more and better results that considering only individual or national activities in the EOs.
List of websites: http://www.observe-fp7.eu
