EOPOWER

Earth Observation for Economic Empowerment

The purpose of the EOPOWER project is to create conditions for sustainable economic development through the increased use of Earth observation products and services for environmental applications. This purpose serves the higher goal of effective use of Earth observation for decision making and management of economic and sustainable development processes.

The EOPOWER project builds on the results of the GEONetCab, BalkanGEONet, OBSERVE, enviroGRIDS, SEOCA and EGIDA projects. The GEONetCab project produced global and regional marketing studies, success stories, marketing toolkits and valuable feedback from promotion activities and quick-win projects. This enables the EOPOWER project and the partners involved to benefit fully from the experience of the GEONetCab and the other projects.

The promotion activities of the various projects have been very successful, but there are still gaps to be addressed. On the demand side, there are new target groups of potential end-users that are not familiar yet with the possibilities of Earth observation and that have not yet been reached. Involvement of these potential end-users is of cardinal importance for a successful application of Earth observation solutions across the globe. On the supply side, access to data is a necessary condition. The Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) will provide this access to data, through the GEOSS Common Infrastructure (GCI). The EOPOWER project will provide an extra push to stimulate the demand side, with the following results:

• Opportunities created for economic development, in particular in developing countries;
• Key international economic development processes identified that require environmental information and mechanisms to develop them in a sustainable fashion;
• Local communities and authorities have received capacity building and are able to collaborate with international development programs, use environmental EO information and products, and engage resource providers;
• Mechanism established to market and exploit EO applications for the creation of new innovative products and support services.

EOPOWER brings together 13 partners from three continents, coordinated by the enviroSPACE group at ISE.

The 2-year project runs from June 2013 to May 2015 and has a total budget of about 1.17 mio. EUR (1 mio. EUR EC contribution)

Coordinator: Nicolas Ray

Manager: Gregory Giuliani

Director: Mark Noort (HCP)

Work Package leader: Yaniss Guigoz

Project members: Pierre Lacroix, Anthony Lehmann

Project website: www.eopower.eu