The report, entitled Space Applications for Civil Protection provides a roadmap for Civil Protection with particular interest in SatCom and has been published as a contribution to the Polish EU Council Presidency 2011. It intends to highlight a potential way forward in improving the overall operational capabilities of European Civil Protection agencies through the use of satellite-based services. It represents a joint effort of the European Space Policy Institute (ESPI), the IAP Ambassador Platform for the CEE region (APCEE), and ESA.

The report reflects the main issues which were discussed during a workshop organized by ESPI, together with the Austrian Federal Ministry of the Interior (BM.I), the Austrian Aeronautics and Space Agency, and ESA on 5/6 May 2011. It aims at identifying user needs and gaps in existing services as well as the most appropriate way forward for generating space-based, user-driven activities creating direct benefit to the European Civil Protection community. The report underlines that dedicated efforts are needed to enhance interoperability, availability, cost effectiveness, and best practice of the Civil Protection community based on satellite-based services. For the time being, no institutional European mechanism has been established to allow the European disaster management community to have efficient and simple access to space-based systems. In addition specific needs of the disaster management community have not been clearly articulated to enable the development of appropriate resources and services by the space industry.

The study is structured into main parts. The first part provides an overview of the current status of Civil Protection (CP) in Europe, including the drawbacks of the current systems and ESA's past user-driven activities to overcome these shortcomings. The second part delineates the national strategies and perspectives of CP agencies of selected European States with the focus on satellite-based applications that were presented during the workshop. Based on the summary of the roundtable discussions, current shortcomings regarding the utilization of satellite-based services and the requirements of the CP community are identified. The third part of the study analyses the current international and European regulatory framework based on the needs and requirements of the Civil Protection community. It highlights relevant aspects that would guarantee legal certainty and an effective mechanism to respond to disasters in a timely and flexible manner. Moreover it reviews recent developments at EU level with respect to the review of the EU Civil Protection legislation. Finally, recommendations to improve the overall operational effectiveness of CP users through the use of space-based systems SatCom are provided and concrete measures are outlined.

For further information please contact:

Erich Klock
Manager of the IAP Ambassador Platform for the CEE region
European Space Policy Institute (ESPI)
Email: erich.klock@espi.or.at

IAP's Space Assets for Demining Assistance (SADA) projects investigate how space-enabled services can support Land Release in Mine Action. Three parallel studies have been implemented that have formulated conceptual services that will next be demonstrated in field settings. To ensure the intended SADA services are directly relevant to the Mine Action community, the users. involvement has been fundamental:

Photo 1: Demining demonstration during SADA field trip to Tajikistan. Credit: FSD/SADA.	Photo 2: The SADA teams at the IMSMA/SADA interface development workshop. Credit: GICHD.	Map 1: Geographical distribution of Mine Action user representatives so far involved in the SADA needs analysis.

In particular, the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD) plays an important role as ESA.s external advisor. The GICHD strives to provide capacity development support, undertake applied research, and develop standards, aimed at increasing the performance and professionalism of mine action. In an interview with ESA, GICHD representative Dr. Daniel Eriksson shares his views on the SADA project.

GICHD has supported the project definition, participates in project reviews, and has hosted a SADA discussion with the consortia and user community during the 14th International Meeting of National Mine Action Programme Directors and UN Advisors (March 2011). In August 2011, GICHD organized a training workshop for the SADA consortia in order to allow them to develop effective interfaces between SADA services and IMSMA, GICHD.s Information Management System for Mine Action in use by almost all Mine Action programs today.

In addition, a large number of operational Mine Action entities and user representatives have so far been involved in the SADA projects, e.g. through workshops and user surveys. One of the users, the Swiss Foundation for Demining (FSD), a relatively small but representative Swiss-based NGO, has provided a shared user needs baseline to the SADA participants from the field operator perspective, and has hosted interested SADA participants for a field visit to one of their demining sites in Tajikistan.

Now, in October 2011, the three SADA consortia will each initiate one or more Proofs of Concept to demonstrate their solutions to Mine Action users. Mine Action users in, amongst others, Bosnia i Herzegovina, Afghanistan and Chile will host these Proofs of Concept in order to:

• Iterate the service & system design
• Validate the foreseen performance against the user requirements
• Decide whether to support the development of a pre-operational service in a possible follow-up (Demo Project).

As cinema owners worldwide begin to embrace new digital technologies via satellite, audiences are being given more ways to enjoy an evening at the movies.

The emergence of new digital technologies and standards has paved the way for innovative and cost effective solutions for cinemas. The transition from analogue to digital has been recently boosted by innovative formats (e.g. 3D movies) and by the increasing demand for live and interactive events (e.g. sport, operas, virtual theatres, seminars) hosted in cinema theatres.

Through the ESA ARTES Applications programme, a secure, cost effective system enabling cinemas owners to receive movies via satellite has been developed by a consortium composed of Italian companies (Microcinema, OpenSky, Skylogic, Digital Pictures, with the support of the Business Incubator Centre BIC Lazio in Rome). Thanks to this new system known as ISIDE (Innovative Satellite Interactive Digital Entertainment), cinema operators can now browse a content catalogue of hundreds of movies, and perform the orders on-line.

But it is not only traditional movies that are being shown in today.s cinema theatres. The evolution of digital and electronic cinema has brought new forms of entertainment with it, such as movies in 3D, interactive events and virtual theatre. Through the ISIDE network, a virtual theatre event was set up and successfully demonstrated, putting together in the same virtual stage two groups of actors, one located in Rome and one in Burkina Faso (West Africa).

However, satellite capacity is a very valuable and expensive resource. In order to make the distribution via satellite effective, the same content has to reach a sufficient number of cinemas. This is especially true for top quality digital standards such as DCI (Digital Cinema Initiatives), which involves high volume of data (one single movie can exceed 200 GBytes) and high transmission rates (up to 100Mbit/s). ISIDE brings the convenience of satellite technology within reach. When multiple locations in the network download a film, the costs of satellite capacity are shared among them.

Today, Microcinema, with more than 200 cinemas connected in a bidirectional satellite VPN, has become a leader in Italy for providing film, audovisual content, live opera from Italian and European theatres as well as cultural events such as music concerts, theatre performances and premieres. Microcinema distributes two or three live events per month, plus one or two flims per week.

OpenSky mainly provides for the delivery of DCI movies from major Hollywood Studios and the distribution of live events to more than 600 cinemas spread throughout Italy, France, Germany and Spain. Most of the cinemas are equipped with the state-of-the-art professional receivers and projectors.

.The opportunity provided by the ISIDE project has been very instrumental to Microcinema, as it occurred when the company started to approach the market proposing possible satellite services,. explains Silvana Molino from Microcinema. .The successful pilot phase of the system, developed and tuned in 2010 during the ISIDE project, proved to be fundamental for cinemas owners. persuasion..

According to Walter Munarini from OpenSky: "The ISIDE project was fundamental to Opensky to implement the first European network of digital cinema capable of receiving satellite services like the live events and movies via satellite, as well as its evolution to live 3D events."

For more information visit the project web page.

(First published in Rail Technology Magazine, Issue April/May 2011)

Railways and satellites are not obvious companions, but an increasing number of rail companies across Europe are starting to explore the commercial and operational benefits of integrating space technologies into their systems.

In the latest issue of the Rail Technology Magazine, Alan Brunstrom of the European Space Agency explains the impact that space technology could have on the rail industry in signaling and telecoms.

Based on the example of the IAP funded and UK-based rail project IRISS (Intelligent Railways via Integrated Satellites), he discusses aspects of fuel-efficient driving, better information to support decision making, improved liability of trains and accurate, up-to-date timetable information in relation to the role of space technology.

The complete article is available for download below.

Whether at sea, on rail, staggered or stored, shipping containers can now be tracked worldwide via satellite. Cont-Trak, an efficient satellite-based container tracking solution has been developed with the help of ESA's Advanced Research in Telecommunications Systems (ARTES) programme.

Field tests have been carried out at a container yard in Halifax (CA) to test different staggering or stacking situations and during transit of containers shipping from Europe to North America. Containers were fitted with Cont-Trak terminals and deployed on their normal routes. Terminals were set to provide reports every four hours. These successful tests showed that seamless coverage between North American and European systems can be achieved; that transmission capability in the container environment on board ship, in a harbour, on a truck or rail car was successful; and the system had the capability to receive and process polling commands.

"Cont-Trak can track containers in remote locations where no terrestrial communication networks are available, such as the transit of containers via rail, road, ships in the middle of the ocean, or storage of containers in remote locations all over the world," explains Norbert Hübner, ESA's technical officer for the Cont-Trak project. "The major challenge of the activity was to solve the problem of container staggering which typically represents a major obstacle for the requirement of line of sight communication with satellites. This challenge was met successfully."

The Cont-Trak solution consists of a satellite terminal that is located on the outer hull of the container and contains two distinct elements. The first is the GPS / satellite communication terminal which provides location-based information as well as the link to the communication satellites.

The second element is the newly-developed Container Tracking Interface Module (CTIM). The CTIM communicates with the satellite communication terminal, with container sensors, and with other containers that do not have a line of sight to a communication satellite, via a UHF wireless inter-container communications link. This data is collected and transmitted via an L-band satellite to the specially-designed Cont-Trak server.

"The CTIM will connect to the container that has line of sight to a communications satellite, thereby setting up autonomously a communication network between all containers equipped with the Cont-Trak solution,. says Mr. Hübner. .One big advantage of this solution is that it can be applied globally, as the frequency of the CTIM was chosen to be 2.4 GHz which has no utilisation restrictions worldwide, compared to other frequencies."

Novacom (FR) and GlobalWave (CA) were the original Cont-Trak project contractors. GlobalWave has since been sold to SkyWave Mobile Communications (CA). The GPS / satellite communication terminal used in the Cont-Track solution was based on the MT3550 terminal which is already used commercially. Novacom was responsible for designing the Cont-Trak server.

ESA is helping to take the bite out of mosquitoes and their deadly diseases by tracking their distribution and habitat via satellite-based observations, navigation and mobile communications.

The VECMAP initiative is testing the accurate mapping of mosquitoes in Europe, in particular, mosquitoes carrying diseases, for public health agencies and regional mosquito controllers.

Testing began in 2009 in the Netherlands, the UK, Belgium, France, Switzerland and Italy. Transmitters of disease such as mosquitoes are known as vectors.

With this information, the insects can be kept below the level where they become a nuisance or able to spread disease.

"Diseases such as Dengue or West Nile fever that are carried by mosquito vectors are an increasing public health concern in many European countries, yet very little is known about the distribution of either the diseases or the vectors that transmit them to humans", says Michiel Kruijff, ESA's technical officer.

"There is a clear need for maps showing where mosquitoes have been detected, where they could be and when the population will peak".

"VECMAP is now being refined and is planned to be tested further by users in several European countries during the next two summer seasons to prepare for commercial marketing."

But predicting mosquito presence, abundance and risks is difficult. The conditions, location and timing of hatching vary widely between species. Highly detailed and frequent information on the local environment and weather conditions are required.

ESA has enabled three companies to join forces in developing VECMAP, who are now working closely with  a representative selection of potential users, i.e. public health, industrial and academic entities. These involved users have been coordinated by The Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM).

VECMAP is a system and service that addresses the problem by integrating the entire process of producing risk maps into a single package that can be used by a wide range of practitioners.

"It literally is a one-stop-shop for vector mapping", says Dr Marieta Braks, a medical entomologist at RIVM.

VECMAP combines inputs from field work and Earth observation satellites such as vegetation, land temperature, moisture and water bodies. The field measurements are entered into a palm-to-web terminal or smart phone, which pinpoints them using satellite navigation. Then they are transferred to a central database. In this way, the field work can be done effectively and independently.

While VECMAP is tailored for mosquito mapping, it can be expanded to other vectors of disease targets that are largely under influence of environmental and climatic factors such as ticks, biting midges as well as wide range of animal and even the human diseases they transmit.

The consortium is led by Avia-GIS (BE), a company specialising in spatial risk management, and includes ERGO (GB), MEDES (FR) as developing partners; VITO (BE) and EARS (NL) which provide remote sensing imagery; and RIVM which represents the user community.

The Integrated Applications Promotion (IAP) programme of the European Space Agency (ESA)  is inviting public and commercial organisations to propose ideas and suggestions for new services in the Alpine area. The aim is to generate ideas leading to new services that will improve business performance and operations, and help enforce new regulatory standards (for instance on environmental protection).

The ideas will be used to help define and consolidate requirements for user-driven services supported through the IAP.

Themes that it is intended to cover in this Call for User Ideas include (but are not restricted to):

• Transport (public and private).
• Tourism (e.g. search and rescue, telemedicine, safety).
• Energy (e.g. hydropower, wind energy, solar energy).
• Environmental Monitoring (e.g. pollution, natural hazards, biodiversity protection).
• Any other promising topic.

The ideas submitted will be used to help define and consolidate requirements of IAP projects which are planned to start in 2012.

Full details of the Call and on how to submit your ideas can be found on the IAP portal at: /opportunities/iap/alpine-call-for-user-ideas.

Your ideas and suggestions should reach us by 22nd May 2011.

The European Space Agency in cooperation with the European Commission and the Telemedicine Task Force (TTF), formally awarded the SAHEL demonstration project to a consortium led by EADS CASA ESPACIO last December 14th 2010. This 18 month initiative aims to support the extension of sustainable eHealth services in Africa through the integrated use of satellite based technologies and other forms of information and communication technologies. 

An operational pilot system connecting some isolated areas in both Western and Eastern countries of the Sub-Saharan Africa will be defined and implemented together with medical centres of excellence. The final goal will be to pave the way for a comprehensive eHealth system including clinical services and eLearning as a contribution to a future pan-African network for telemedicine, in line with the TTF objectives.

The SAHEL project proposes an efficient cooperation between technological players (industries, operators), health stakeholders (health workers, nurses, specialists...), centres of excellence providing medical content for eLearning and NGOs for local implementation with the support of regional actors. Key African partners are involved in the activity such as AMREF for East Africa - a well known health development centre of excellence in Kenya - and Le Kinkeliba for West Africa - a medical NGO set-up in Senegal since 1995.

SAHEL intends to place users at the forefront of the activity. Correspondingly the project will start with an extensive survey lasting six months to retrieve the user needs and service requirements in the domain of health care services in the relevant sub-Saharan Africa countries. For this purpose, a specific questionnaire has been created and will be broadcasted in the following weeks to all key African stakeholders, organisations, health workers and potential users which can provide information about healthcare facilities. SAHEL key for success is to accurately meet the user needs. Consequently it will need to collect a comprehensive set of user driven demands in order to build a suitable telemedicine platform capable of answering satisfactorily to the needs of African citizens.

Contacts:

AMREF (Flying Doctors)

Peter Ngatia: peter.ngatia(at)amref.org

Caroline Mbindyo: caroline.mbindyo(at)amref.org

Le Kinkeliba

Maëlle Prevotat: lekinkekliba(at)gmail.com

Astrium EADS CASA Espacio

Patricia Inigo: patricia.inigo(at)astrium.eads.net

Following an initiative of the International Astronautical Federation (IAF), an open competition on the topic of Space Assets for Demining Assistance (SADA) was launched by ESA. Three consortia have been awarded a contract. To ensure the intended services are directly relevant their target users, the Mine Action community takes the driving seat in the activity.  In particular, the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD) plays an important role as ESA.s external advisor. GICHD supports ESA in the definition of the study objectives and by providing a neutral perspective during the course of the study.

In a recent interview with ESA (see embedded video below), GICHD representative Dr. Daniel Eriksson shares his views on the added values of space assets, the relevance of the envisaged services, and acknowledges the necessity of a user driven approach:

The three studies will be run in parallel, providing complementary approaches to the complex and multi-faceted problem. They are expected to produce multiple concepts for space enabled services supporting land release in Mine Action, at its various stages.  As part of each feasibility study, the added value, fieldability, affordability and viability of the proposed services will be investigated. The studies will also propose a detailed way forward for one or more pre-operational demonstrations.

Following the information meeting, a User Requirement Consolidation Meeting took place on 27 January at EMSA in Lisbon. Close to 100 participants from representatives from EU Member States, ESA, European Commission Services, the user community, service providers and industry were in attendance.

The detailed results of the EMSA User Benefits Analysis were presented and consolidated as well as the scenario descriptions for the Phase B1 system activity. At the meeting it was recommended to establish a User Group that would support the validation of the user needs, support’s the further definition process of the scenario description as well as the trade offs at mission level.