Below you will find the projects that were carried out in the STEREO programme, organised by theme. For projects of previous programme phases you can find extracts from the final publication of each phase (STEREO II, STEREO I or TELSAT 4). For projects from the current phase (STEREO III) you can access our webstories. These are short, interesting articles highlighting projects that resonate with current events. Since most of our projects are multidisciplinary in scope, they might appear in several themes.
Agriculture
The agricultural sector lies at the centre of major challenges such as food security, respect for the environment and socioeconomic expansion. From a planetary level right down to the plot, remote sensing is used for the development of ever-more efficient monitoring and forecasting tools.
- INTELLI-FRUIT brings precision fruticulture to practice
- BEETPHEN: Mildew detection in sugar beets takes to the sky
- UAVSoil: Using drones to optimize agricultural plot management
- BELCAM, collaborative platform for monitoring agricultural plots
- RAPAS: New drone-borne methods for digital soil mapping
- Copernicus Sentinel-2 data to estimate soil organic carbon in croplands
- IPOT - Watch iT Grow, a new online platform for potato monitoring
- Focus on agriculture
- An overview of the parcels
- Vast amounts of data
- Precision agriculture and imagery
- A tool for pedology
- Sustainable grazing for cows
- Harvest prediction
- Subsidies for agriculture
Water & Aquatic environment
Over 70% of our planet is covered in water. The coastal areas that border seas and inland waters host ecosystems that are especially rich, but subject to extreme anthropic pressure.
Remote sensing has become essential to better understand and safeguard precious aquatic and coastal resources.
Also consult our news items regarding Water or Seas and oceans
- AQUALOOKS: Further improving coastal and inland waters observations
- ET–SENSE: High resolution evaporation and soil moisture based on the Sentinel constellation
- HYPERMAQ: Improving water monitoring with hyperspectral
- MIMO - Satellite data over Antarctica predict global climate change
- The morphodynamics of Belgian beaches under the magnifying glass of the RS4Mody project
- SNOPOST: New methods for remote sensing of snow cover studied during NASA's SnowEx campaign
- Eutrophication monitoring of Belgian coastal waters with MULTI-SYNC
- PONDER: Monitoring coastal and inland waters with very high resolution imagery
- SAT-EX: The global ecosystem more limited in water than expected
- RiReMo: Riparian zones viewed from the top
- HYDRAS+, a STEREO project to battle drought
- HIWET: Using satellite images for wetland vegetation monitoring
- STR3S: Fluorescence to better understand transpiration
- Seas and coastlines, in the spotlight
- The colours of the sea
- The protection of coastal areas
- A forecasting model for Lake Tanganyika fisheries
- Sediment transport
- The multicoulored North Sea
Archeology
Biodiversity & Ecology
In an attempt to curb the decline of biodiversity, a new approach is being implemented.
Multidisciplinary, large-scale and integrated, it aims to observe ecosystems in a global manner, in all their complexity. Serving this so-called ecosystemic approach, remote sensing is proving to be an excellent tool.
- GARVAL: A garden map validated by citizens
- GARMON: Mapping and characterizing gardens using remote sensing
- Biodiversity threatened by invasive species: INPLANT carried out the survey
- MAMAFOREST: Managing mangrove forests from the sky
- DIARS: images against invasive plants
- HIWET: Using satellite images for wetland vegetation monitoring
- Focus on agriculture
- Biodiversity, a wealth to be preserved
- Products and services for the African continent
- Seas and coastlines, in the spotlight
- Forests, a vital heritage to be protected
- Monitoring the urban lungs
- Precision agriculture and imagery
- The protection of coastal areas
- Tracking industrial pollution
- Sustainable grazing for cows
- A tool for pedology
- Better defined biotopes
- Wetlands
- The multicoulored North Sea
- Radar and tropical forest
- Tropical diseases
- Game management
Climate change
Climate issues are so extensive and complex that the international scientific community is increasingly being called upon to conduct research in a coordinated manner on various fronts in order to:
• to gain a better understanding of climate change;
• analyze and predict the effects of climate change;
• to propose measures to limit global warming and adapt to it.
One of the STEREO's objectives is to study the interaction between changes in land cover and climate change. Satellites are the perfect instruments for monitoring the interaction between oceans, continents and the atmosphere worldwide.
Other thematic projects address the impact of climate change in a wide range of areas: food safety, the marine environment, risk management, health problems, biodiversity, cultural heritage, etc.
- ET–SENSE: High resolution evaporation and soil moisture based on the Sentinel constellation
- ALBERI: How do trees affect the Earth’s atmosphere in dry environments?
- 3D-CITREES: Tools to estimate the importance of urban trees
- MIMO - Satellite data over Antarctica predict global climate change
- SNOPOST: New methods for remote sensing of snow cover studied during NASA's SnowEx campaign
- U-TURN contributes to the fight against desertification and drought
- SmartPop: Cities hit by the heat
- 3D-FOREST: Understanding Tropical Forests with the help of LiDAR
- SAT-EX: The global ecosystem more limited in water than expected
- HYDRAS+, a STEREO project to battle drought
- HIWET: Using satellite images for wetland vegetation monitoring
- STR3S: Fluorescence to better understand transpiration
- Focus on agriculture
- Biodiversity, a wealth to be preserved
- Forests, a vital heritage to be protected
- Products and services for the African continent
- Seas and coastlines, in the spotlight
- Using space to fight disease
- How images can help in disasters
- A forecasting model for Lake Tanganyika fisheries
- Bluetongue, a disease to watch
- A better understanding of terrestrial ecosystems
- CO2 and plants
- Deforestation
- Desertification
- El Niño reach Africa
Forests
How can we protect our forests?
How can we support international efforts to halt deforestation?
Which tools can we develop to sustainably manage forest resources? Remote sensing research explores these vitally important questions.
- ALBERI: How do trees affect the Earth’s atmosphere in dry environments?
- REFORCHA project raising awareness of forest ecosystem degradation in drylands
- Characterising Termite Mounds in a Tropical Savanna with UAV Laser Scanning
- MAMAFOREST: Managing mangrove forests from the sky
- 3D-FOREST: Understanding Tropical Forests with the help of LiDAR
- RiReMo: Riparian zones viewed from the top
- Forests, a vital heritage to be protected
- Products and services for the African continent
- Deforestation
- Radar and tropical forest
Global monitoring
Satellites are the ideal - indeed, often the only - instrument for studying world-wide processes, interactions between oceans, continents and the atmosphere, monitoring changes over vast regions, and acquiring new insights into how everything fits together. They are used to monitor vegetation, map land-use changes, measure ozone concentrations, monitor the temperature of the oceans, etc.
As such, they offer policymakers information necessary for making the right decisions for a sustainable development of our planet.
Innovative projects & Hyperspectral
Innovative projects & Hyperspectral
- Spectral libraries to better interpret cities
- The lost world of the Mayans revealed by satellites
- HYPERMAQ: Improving water monitoring with hyperspectral
- 3D-CITREES: Tools to estimate the importance of urban trees
- BEETPHEN: Mildew detection in sugar beets takes to the sky
- GEOMIX: Gaining better understanding by breaking down the signal
- BELHARMONY: a Belgian initiative to harmonize multi-mission EO timeseries
- HYPERCITY: Biomonitoring of Air Quality in Urban Areas
- RAPAS: New drone-borne methods for digital soil mapping
- DIARS: images against invasive plants
- 3D-FOREST: Understanding Tropical Forests with the help of LiDAR
- Show me your leaves! Health check for urban trees
- Biodiversity, a wealth to be preserved
- Seas and coastlines, in the spotlight
- Forests, a vital heritage to be protected
- Vast amounts of data
- Better defined biotopes
- The protection of coastal areas
- Tracking industrial pollution
- For a better knowledge of our towns
- A tool for pedology
- Precision agriculture and imagery
Land management & Urban area
Earth observation data, and very high resolution images in particular, have interesting potential as decision-making aids for local or regional officials. In towns and cities namely which are increasingly complex and subject to numerous challenges. In response, remote sensing is used on all fronts: it helps to update necessary information, improve diagnostic tools and generate new quality-of-life indicators.
- REACT improves malaria risk prediction
- Spectral libraries to better interpret cities
- 3D-CITREES: Tools to estimate the importance of urban trees
- SARSAR: Sentinel data for urban planning and land management
- GARVAL: A garden map validated by citizens
- GARMON: Mapping and characterizing gardens using remote sensing
- HYPERCITY: Biomonitoring of Air Quality in Urban Areas
- REACT: Fighting infectious diseases with the help of Earth Observation
- SmartPop: Cities hit by the heat
- MAUPP - A better understanding of population patterns in sub-Saharan cities and slums
- Show me your leaves! Health check for urban trees
- Towns and humans
- Information on a town scale
- For a better knowledge of our towns
- Monitoring the urban lungs
- How to identify recent changes
- Game management
- Land cover
Risk management
Satellite images are useful before, during and after a natural or anthropic accidents: they can help to create a risk model, rapidly provide information to manage the crisis and assess the damage, and support rebuilding.
- MUZUBI: using interferometry to evaluate volcanic risks
- Stentor: How Earth observation helps humanitarian organisations save lives
- RESIST: Tracking the rainfalls that trigger landslides in Central Africa
- U-TURN contributes to the fight against desertification and drought
- MODUS: keeping an eye on landslides
- How images can help in disasters
- Products and services for the African continent
- Impact of a dam
- Humanitarian aid
Tele-epidemiology & Health
Tools for Africa
Protecting fragile ecosystems, combating deforestation, preventing locust plagues, providing warning systems for food security or taking a census of populations... Satellite imagery allows researchers to develop operational applications that meet the priorities expressed by their African partners.
- REACT improves malaria risk prediction
- RESIST: Tracking the rainfalls that trigger landslides in Central Africa
- REACT: Fighting infectious diseases with the help of Earth Observation
- MODUS: keeping an eye on landslides
- MAUPP - A better understanding of population patterns in sub-Saharan cities and slums
- Products and services for the African continent
- Forests, a vital heritage to be protected
- Using space to fight disease
- How images can help in disasters
- Wetlands
- Radar and tropical forest
- Desertification
- Tropical diseases
- Humanitarian aid
- Deforestation