Project description
Harnessing Earth observation for a greener future
As global demand for critical raw materials surges, conventional mining practices pose significant environmental and socio-economic challenges. These include ecological degradation, resource depletion and social conflicts in mining regions. Moreover, existing methods lack efficiency and transparency, hindering the sustainable management of mineral resources. To address these pressing concerns, the EU-funded TERRAVISION project emerges as a pioneering initiative poised to revolutionise the mining industry through innovative Earth observation technologies and sustainable practices. TERRAVISION’s effectiveness will be demonstrated in Greece, Spain and beyond, with validation campaigns at six mining sites. With targeted dissemination and replication activities, TERRAVISION aims for significant EU-wide impact, paving the way for sustainable mining practices.
Objective
TERRAVISION will establish and deploy an integrated platform to enhance the entire critical raw materials value chain towards implementing sustainable mining practices. TERRAVISION Earth Observation (EO) Mining Services Platform will be supported by 4 innovation pillars; (i) the Data Ecosystem for Large scale EO mining services will link and exploit various data from key sources (e.g. Copernicus satellite/ground radar/drone/in-situ sensing data) for monitoring the entire raw materials life cycle; (ii) the Analysis Ready Data and Raw material spectral library, will provide a novel framework for processing raw multisensory EO data to become Analysis Ready Data and to be combined semantically with in-situ data to enable the development of an open and standardised raw material spectral library to support the full mining life cycle of critical raw materials and the mapping of primary and secondary critical raw materials,(iii) the EO services for the mining industry will develop and deploy services critical to supply chain (e.g. mapping of critical raw materials, mineral exploration, extraction rates in opencast mines and stockpile volumes) but also enable a dynamic hazard mapping service for proactive management of risks to promote operational efficiency of mining sites. (iv) The Green & Resilience Accountability component will promote critical raw materials supply chain resilience and sustainability based on the quantification of environmental and socio-economic impact of mining activities for different mining phases (e.g. permission, operation, post-closure). The effectiveness of the TERRAVISION EO Mining Services Platform will be demonstrated at both EU (Greece, Spain) and beyond coupled by validation campaigns at 6 mining sites that will pave the way for rapid uptake of the proposed systemic innovations. Targeted dissemination, exploitation and replication activities will enhance a clear pathway for TERRAVISION towards significant EU-wide impact.
Fields of science
- engineering and technologymechanical engineeringvehicle engineeringaerospace engineeringsatellite technology
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringmining and mineral processing
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringinformation engineeringtelecommunicationsradio technologyradar
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectronic engineeringroboticsautonomous robotsdrones
Keywords
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-IA - HORIZON Innovation ActionsCoordinator
106 82 ATHINA
Greece