AGAME

The Environment Agency Austria together with Stichting Deltares and the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research GmbH supports the European Space Agency in further enhancing the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) by providing targeted data products and engaging with relevant user communities.

Client:
European Space Agency (ESA)

Project Duration:
12 Months, January 2024 to December 2024

Overall Objectives:

Providing quality controlled and up-to-date data is an important prerequisite for informed environmental policies and the implementation of management decisions especially on local and regional scale. In this respect, AGAME aims to: 

• provide consistent data products together with detailed metadata. The availability and accessibility of data and derived products will stimulate their exploitation by a wide range of users in the biodiversity sector. 

• generate added value products that will facilitate the use of remote sensing data in new applications involving the vision of new operational products in the GEOSS portal that will lead to an increased understanding of Earth processes. 

The goal is to contribute to the development of the GEOSS platform by delivering information on gross primary production accessible via the GEOSS Platform and linking to main stakeholder groups to enhance the user uptake of Earth Observation data products.

Our Approach:

We selected gross primary production as relevant ecosystem health indicator to enable the monitoring and assessment of impacts of global change on ecosystems. The data requirements, as well as functional requirements to access and use these data, need to be developed and aligned already in an early stage of the process. AGAME aims to offer a service co-designed with users that provides information of gross primary production on local scale and can be used to give direct and focused answers to specific questions from the targeted scenarios. 

AGAME adopts a user-centred approach. It will benefit from the cooperation with local stakeholders, their knowledge and expertise. Potential users will be engaged in the service design and validation in an iterative process in the different project phases.

AGAME exploits the benefit of integrating Copernicus Products (remote and local data) and other diverse data sources (local, regional or global) by delivering tailored information and services co-designed with the users. It will incorporate EO data from Sentinel missions, local monitoring data and advanced modelling in the GEOSS platform to improve biodiversity management. 

Added Value:

AGAME will contribute to the further development of the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) by including end-user requirements into the development process as well providing added-value data products for local eLTER site and platform coordinators for management and scientific analysis.

Links:

Information on the GEOSS Platform Plus project 

Information on the eLTER Research Infrastructure

Related information

Project overview (presentation)

AGAME results - Webinar Gross Primary Production 

Conference contributions

GeoDPA’24 (April 2024, Oldenbug, poster)  

IGARSS’24 (July 2024, Athens, conference paper) 

eLTER Annual Meeting (June 2024, Sofia, presentation) 

Involved Institutions:

Umweltbundesamt - Environment Agency Austria

Stichting  Deltares 

Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research GmbH 

This project is funded by the European Space Agency (ESA, contract no. 4000143740/24/I-AG) in the frame of the GEOSS Platform Plus project (Horizon Europe, GA No. GA.Nr. 101039118).

AGAME User Communities

AGAME aims to develop its products and services in a co-design process with the users.

AGAME adopts a user centered approach engaging different user communities in capturing requirements, service design and validation during the project.

End user communities, as the eLTER Site and Platform Coordinators, who are (a) provider of input data (e.g. Eddy-Flux) as well as (b) direct users of the project results through targeted data products but also as users of the GEOSS ecosystem. Site and platform coordinators have a vested interest in obtaining time series information on gross primary production. This data will allow them to derive insights such as potential declines in carbon uptake in response to global warming, or predictions about the future of the biosphere under changing climate conditions.

Targeted user communities, as the European Environmental Agency, benefiting from the integration of developed work chain and algorithm into their service portfolio. This integration is expected to enhance their capabilities by in-situ and Sentinel data.

Research Infrastructures, as RI eLTER (Integrated European Long-Term Ecosystem, critical zone and socio-ecological Research) which is interested in providing developed products as an additional information layer within the Site Information Cluster, further enriching their research capabilities.

Earth Observation community, as GEO/GEOSS, which has a strong interest in a comprehensive knowledge package tailored to the pan-European context. They are looking for a pilot link between European Research Infrastructures, in particular eLTER, and GEOSS portal components. They also anticipate the integration of additional eLTER knowledge packages.