In today’s changing climate is of urgent importance to understand the adverse impacts of climate change to the local and regional Arctic natural environments, infrastructures and industries. To this end, Earth Observation (EO) is the way forward, as it is extremely challenging to obtain long-term continuous ground observations. Recent advances in EO sensors, in cloud computing, geographical information systems (GIS) and in the field of socioeconomics provide unique opportunities to promote research and socioeconomic studies in the Arctic. Yet, despite their plethora, EO data are provided in a dispersed and unconnected way through several web platforms and in diverse formats, making their use difficult. EO-PERSIST proposes the development of a single cloud-based system that will allow in a unique way the availability of the collection, management and exploitation of the available EO data suitable to permafrost studies. The system leverages existing services, datasets and novel technologies to: a)create a continuously updated ecosystem with EO datasets suitable for permafrost studies, b)promote methodological advances in permafrost studies by exploiting the huge volume of EO datasets and c)provide indicators directly connected with socioeconomic effects to permafrost dynamics. Experimental analysis will also be carried with the system to showcase its use via five carefully selected and innovative Use Cases, that will serve as Key Performance Indicators of the system. EO-PERSIST brings together staff from academia and industry via a series of carefully-designed secondments, establishing a unique fertile collaborative research and innovation environment to promote pioneering research and socioeconomic studies implementation in the Arctic. A strong inter-sectoral experienced research team, of 5 academic and 5 industrial partners, coming from Greece(3), Finland(1), Sweden(1), Germany(1), Poland(1), Romania(2) and Italy(1) constitute the project’s consortium.
