Sentinels Synergy for Agriculture

Project Information

SENSAGRI

Grant agreement ID: 730074

DOI

10.3030/730074

Project closed

EC signature date 28 October 2016

Start date 1 November 2016

End date 31 October 2019

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies – Space

Total cost

€ 1 854 757,50

EU contribution

€ 1 854 757,50

Coordinated by

UNIVERSITAT DE VALENCIA
Spain

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - SENSAGRI (Sentinels Synergy for Agriculture)

Reporting period: 2017-11-01 to 2019-10-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Sentinels Synergy for Agriculture (SENSAGRI) aimed at providing Copernicus, the European Union Earth Observation programme, with prototypes for new core services targeted to the agricultural sector.
Copernicus is an ambitious programme that is producing a wealth of information from a constellation of different satellites, the Sentinels, on a free and open data policy basis. While some useful services for the agricultural sector are already implemented, there is an enormous potential for new applications and services. Two of the Copernicus satellite missions, namely Sentinel-1 (S1) and Sentinel-2 (S2), are especially suited for agriculture applications. Both satellites obtain images at high spatial resolution (up to 10 m) with high frequency (each five days or less) and are therefore capable of providing highly dynamic field-level information at a pan-European scale.
In response of the Horizon 2020 work programme topic EO-3-2016 (Evolution of Copernicus Services), SENSAGRI aimed to exploit the unprecedented capacity of S1 and S2 to develop an innovative portfolio of prototypes for agricultural monitoring services. SENSAGRI has exploited the synergy of optical (S1) and radar (S2) measurements to develop three prototype services capable of near real time operations: (1) Surface Soil Moisture (SSM), (2) green and brown leaf area index (LAI) and (3) crop type mapping. In addition, SENSAGRI proposes four advanced proof-of-concept services: (i) yield/biomass, (ii) tillage change, (iii) irrigation and (iv) advanced crop maps.
The developed algorithms have been validated in four European agricultural test areas in Spain, France, Italy and Poland, which are representative of the European crop diversity. To ensure that the prototypes are developed fulfilling the Copernicus Land strategic goals, a periodic communication with the Copernicus Entrusted Entities was maintained during the project life. A continuous relationship with other similar projects was also maintained, to maximize synergies and complementarities.

The main SENSAGRI project achieved objectives are to:
1. Combine the Copernicus S1 radar with S2 optical and in-situ data in order to develop new applications for the European agricultural sector
2. Develop prototype services of SSM, green and brown LAI and seasonal crop type mapping and use those for proof-of-concept services of advanced agricultural monitoring products
3. Validate delivered services and establish service demonstration cases to show the large application potential of the new upstream data products
4. Disseminate prototype and proof-of-concept services and interact services with the agricultural sector and the Copernicus Entrusted Entities.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

During the three years of the Project, the work was centered in developing the algorithms, implementing the software, producing sets of products and validating with field data the prototypes and proof-of-concept services of SENSAGRI.

The project partners agreed on the measurement procedures for all the generated products, on the sampling strategy for validation and on the error metrics. All the required instrumentation and methods were set up in the test sites and two campaigns were carried out in the four core sites during two consecutive years

To ensure an efficient data sharing and storage, a data, image and service product repository was implemented. The partners uploaded the generated products as well as the field data sets obtained at the test sites.

A summary of the major achievements of the project was presented at the Final Review meeting, where the consortium identified the following issues:

- SENSAGRI offers mature and validated prototypes, able to be integrated in operational processing chains
- Some of the products and/or the combined use of it, have demonstrated a high potential as a base for CAP monitoring procedures.
- All products present improvements with respect to current and incoming Copernicus Land Services, either in attained accuracy (e.g. SCM), spatial / temporal resolution (SSM) or in the statistical information provided (standard deviation for SSM or model CV for LAI)
- We offer novel and/or innovative products (LAI Brown, tillage change, irrigation events’ detection, early crop maps without current year reference data), which are not available in Copernicus so far.
- The project has done a huge effort in the validation of the offered products. In addition to its use during project life, the very valuable field dataset obtained could be further used beyond the project end.
- The Living Lab implementation and transfer was successful and served to know the potential impact of the SENSAGRI products in a wide range of possible application domains.
- A comprehensive set of products over European test sites is publicly available, serving as a good showcase of the project achievements and allowing its inspection by potential users.
- The products are accessible through a web GIS

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

SENSAGRI aims at overcoming the limitations of current Copernicus products for agricultural applications, which are often unsuitable for most European agricultural areas, due to its coarse spatial resolution, its low temporal frequency or the mismatch between its delivery time and the moment when the products are more useful for stakeholders.
The services proposed in SENSAGRI could provide high-spatial resolution agricultural information suitable for field-scale monitoring applications at a Pan-European scale. They could feed a variety of information and Decision Support Systems, operated either by public or private organizations, serving as a basis for new downstream Copernicus services in the agribusiness.

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