Earth Observation Network for Environmental Planning, Sustainable Development and Crisis Management
OBSEARTH
Sabatakakis Nikolaos, Associate Professor
Objectives and Activities
Within the OBSEARTH network we have a strong and coherent research pole for the determination of environmental, climate and urban problems monitoring aiming to
a) Develop an integrated database of problems and requirements
b) To propose integrated scientific solutions to problems and user requirements
The use of remote sensing and space technologies along with information technology provide unique capabilities in order to design and develop integrated services that will promote education and improve the protection and security of the environment. The complementarity of the network’s research groups in research fields as well as in equipment provides a significant advantage in this research entity of the University of Patras to submit competitive proposals in the fields of FP7 Security and Environment or other related national programmes.
The environment changes continuously due to human intervention or natural disasters. Among the significant environmental issues we can just name
- Urbanization without planning
- Deforestation and land use change
- Landslides
- Sustainable exploitation of water resources
- Human intervention in sea and shore ecosystem
- Atmospheric pollution and climate change
These problems are not addressed in an integrated and systematic way by most public authorities and this affect the quality of life for European citizens. Therefore, it is important to have a combination of scientific and societal planning for the protection of the environment and the improvement of the quality of life. The first step towards this direction is the adequate reporting and observation of Earth surface changes.
The main objective of the OBSEARTH network is to exploit the available technologies for monitoring Earth surface as well as its atmosphere combining space borne sensors and ground stations in environmental, security and sustainable development fields. In this way, we aim to create an integrated and continuously updating mapping of the changes and the problems in order to address them in a multidisciplinary scientific framework.
The network has significant experience and expertise in the fields of biodiversity, engineering geology, urban planning, ground and underwater deformations, atmosphere pollution, satellite positioning systems, earth observation and remote sensing, digital processing of satellite images and region surveillance. Through this experience OBSEARTH targets to become a reliable consultation instrument for subjects lying within this knowledge spectrum, to the National Public Authorities. It is important to highlight the multidisciplinarity and complementarity of the research groups of the network that guarantees a holistic approach in the fields of environment, security and sustainable development as well as its effectiveness for the on time problem definition and successful planning for solving them.
