STEREO II

Support to the Exploitation and Research in Earth Observation data

Organization

Duration of the research: 2007-2013
Budget: 25.845.000 EUR

Objectives

  • Consolidating Belgium’s EO potential. This has to be achieved by:
    • ensuring Belgium can produce and deploy independently information that is crucial for its policy-making (at federal, regional and municipal level) and meeting its international commitments;
    • putting Belgium definitely on the map as an international centre of competence in a number of niches;
    • consistently deploying earth observation as a common technique in the greatest number of disciplines, organisations, companies and social realms;
  • Promoting innovation;
  • Creating the capacity Belgian organisations need to ensure they are involved as much as possible in international research programmes and European and international EO activities;
  • Lending support to the Belgian EO infrastructure;
  • Developing an extensive form of interaction with users.

Description

The thematic research priorities are as follows:

  • Global monitoring of vegetation and changes in large terrestrial ecosystems;
  • Environmental management (water, soil, forests, agriculture, coastal areas, urban areas and suburban areas);
  • Health and humanitarian aid;
  • Security and risk management.

In the wake of a three-year period, a review made in consultation with Belgian and European EO stakeholders will provide a means of deciding the relevance of the research themes and whether they need rethinking or not.

Other themes, such as atmospheric chemistry and climatology, are covered by Belgium's participation in ESA's PRODEX programme.

The research synergies among these key themes will be promoted where they help to investigate joint cross-cutting issues, to develop general tools or provide a means of adopting an integrated approach to environmental issues so as to understand the intricate relationships between ecosystems, highlight the effect natural or man-induced disturbances have on a series of ecosystems, and assess the environmental implications of various provisions and measures.

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