Objective:
To present and discuss the latest findings of the Sentinel Benefits Study, and in particular reflect on:
- the benefits of using Copernicus Sentinel data for public authorities in charge of roads infrastructure management, forest management, and lake water quality management in Europe and beyond
- the challenges and the opportunities for the uptake of Copernicus-based solutions from the public authorities.
Format:
The workshop was held in 3 parts:
- Session 1: the European users’ perspective (virtual, June 6th 9:30-12:30 CEST): a virtual workshop gathering experts from user organisations and especially from each of the 3 key domains analysed. The results of the SeBS Transversal Analysis were presented as a starting point for a discussion and sharing of views. Perspectives were invited from users, including those concerned in the core SeBS benchmark cases, on the benefits and adoption of the services.
Report and presentations here. - Session 2: the Public Authority uptake perspective (hybrid, Brussels, June 13th 11:00-13:00 CEST): A hybrid workshop looking deeper at the issues around the adoption of EO-derived services. Views were sought from regional and local authorities within the NEREUS network which were complemented with views from the private sector as suppliers. The OECD brought a general perspective on the challenges related to uptake of innovation in the public sector at large.
Report and presentations here. - Session 3: the international perspective (hybrid, Brussels, June 13th 14:15-17:30 CEST): A hybrid workshop to draw together all the findings from the study and the 2 earlier workshops. The results of the SeBS Transversal Analysis were summarised along with the outcomes from the user-focused workshops. An international perspective on benefits in the three sectors was provided leveraging on the GeoValue community.
Report and presentations here.
Agenda:
Please find the agenda here.
Background:
SeBS (Sentinel Benefits Study) is a study funded by the EU and managed by the ESA. Since 2017, over 25 use cases have been analysed through a bottom-up methodology developed by the SeBS team. According to this methodology, the use of a product or service based on data from one or more Copernicus Sentinel satellites has been evaluated for a wide variety of diverse applications. The result is a portfolio of case studies showcasing the benefits arising to stakeholders, and society at large, through the use of Sentinel data.
The analyses have exposed a number of unexpected benefits many of which are not economic – or more accurately are difficult to monetise. These may be environmental in nature, make for improved regulation, lead to innovation and new businesses, contribute to better research or are societal in nature. All these “dimensions of value” are analysed for the unique product or service.
The portfolio contains many different types of services in many countries which leads to some interesting comparisons as to how and why a service has been adopted by a public agency in one country but not in others. To examine this in more detail, a transversal analysis has been made based on three domains, each of which has been studies in more than one country, offering different perspectives; highways management, forestry and water quality.
As a result, we have a growing body of evidence on the benefits driven by these services and how these differ between countries as well as some understanding of why the stakeholders in different European countries are using the services or are not. What has been their experience for adoption of the new services into their operations? What difficulties have they faced and how have these been overcome? These questions are at the heart of what we call the SeBS Transversal Analysis which was focused around the three application areas of roads infrastructure management, forests management and lake water quality management. As a result, the workshop provided:
- An understanding of the particularities of the three domains and what benefits can be found by users in each of them.
- An opportunity to contribute your own findings in respect of the use of satellite EO data.
- An opportunity to discuss the process of adopting new services in public organisations.
- A networking platform to meet experts in these three domains as well as in EO services.
- an opportunity to understand the latest developments behind the SeBS methodology.
- An international perspective on the benefits to users in the three domains.
The workshop(s) worked with the GEOValue network to gather international views on findings and to compare with similar international activities.
The Workshop findings will be used by ESA to gather recommendations for further activities as part of the Sentinels Benefits Observatory.