The services based on satellite earth observation have proven to be extremely effective and reliable in various fields including monitoring weather changes, disasters and natural calamities, stability of infrastructures, oil and mineral deposits, fisheries, transport, ship routing, forest mapping, utilities and availability of water sources. Many private as well as public users have been increasingly benefiting from these techniques. For example: insurance companies (eg. flood-affected areas to assess the number of casualties), manufacturing and utilities companies (eg. weather forecast), agriculture operators (eg. weather forecast, high spatial resolution images for land use and vegetation assessment) and public authorities in charge of the control of urban areas and the management of relief operations during natural disasters. The industry is now capable to tackle social, economic, and environmental challenges as it has been gradually evolving from a government, defense and intelligence based sector to a more open market driven by industrial, business and civilian purposes. The sector is now made of several companies that develop and offer products and services to handle multiple needs. The satellite EO industry considerably improved its value proposition in the last several years. Besides spatial resolution, satellites now propose higher spectral resolution. In addition, the considerable extension of the commercial EO satellites’ receiving ground station network improved the satellite EO value proposition and consequently increased the market potential. However, UAV EO products are getting stronger as UAV capabilities are rapidly increasingly (NSR’s Satellite-Based Earth Observation (EO), 7th Edition).
In terms of data type, along with the optical sensors, SAR satellite technology has been rapidly evolving achieving resolution and revisit time. The increased supply and performance of the SAR data coupled with an expected sharp reduction of SAR data prices in the next years, will push for the development of value added services in terms of accuracy and reliability to a wide range of potential users. New business models and new product value propositions are expected to reshape the sector in the next 5 years thus unleashing a significant hidden market potential. The market trend for interferometry based monitoring products is characterized by a significant annual rate growth (estimated + 10 – 15%; the estimate is based on insights from the interviews with market players and potential users).
I.MODI range of services/levels is defined in a modular/flexible way in order to match the requirements of a wide group of potential users (in terms of precision, length of time series and engineering interpretation of the results and related levels of sophistication) including both public and private entities. The assessment of the competitive landscape has shown that the main market operators do not currently offer significant added value benefits to their customers (specifically in the downstream/user end of the value chain) and do not seem to be able to differentiate their products. The competitors’ existing market advantages essentially rely on the established network of relations with some primary “big” users.
