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European Space Agency

Press Release

New guide highlights ESA's environmental enforcement activities

13 June 2003
 
How can environmental treaties that apply across our entire planet be
effectively monitored and enforced, from boreal forests to African
deserts? The sheer scale of the challenge makes it a daunting
prospect, at least from down here on Earth. 
 
Earth Observation satellites provide global information-rich views of
the state of our planet. And ESA is pioneering the application of
space data to international conventions through the TESEO (Treaty
Enforcement Services using Earth Observation) initiative. From this
week the Agency has available a CD-Rom introductory guide to what
Earth Observation data is available and how it can be utilised by
those who need it.

Titled 'Environmental Conventions and Observation from Space', the
multimedia CD-Rom is targeted at anyone in the business of protecting
the environment, from top-level national policy makers to statutory
bodies tasked with reporting ecological data, conservation NGOs in
search of up-to-date information, down to wetland or forest managers
seeking ways to perform their duties more effectively.

There have been numerous international treaties signed during the
last 20 years, all of them obliging the signatories in some way to
monitor and assess the environment. The CD-Rom highlights three of
them - the 1971 Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, the 1992 Kyoto
Protocol to the United Nations Framework on Climate Change, and the
1996 United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification - and
explains how Earth Observation data can be used to support their
implementation. 
 
 
Satellites observing resources under threat
 
Wetlands are an important environmental resource under threat - it is
estimated that half the world's wetlands were lost in the 20th
century - but TESEO analysis shows Earth Observation is a way both to
keep track of wetlands globally as well as increase scientific
knowledge of individual wetland areas (plus surrounding water basins
potentially extending across millions of hectares) and more
efficiently manage them. Radar imaging carried out by ESA's ERS and
Envisat spacecraft is proven to be a particularly effective way of
detecting open water and flooded vegetation. 

Another TESEO project examined issues arising from Kyoto. Helping
Italy to meet its Kyoto requirements, an Earth Observation survey of
national forest cover change over ten years has been carried out
(forests are an important store of carbon). In West Borneo the
planting of a test tree plantation that serves as a carbon 'sink' has
been verified and certified by using data from space.

For desertification, another TESEO project has established how Earth
Observation provides continuous data - factors such as temperature,
rainfall, evapotranspiration, land cover and land use - on global,
regional and local scales. Information products can be used to
highlight the areas most at risk. And by measuring local ground
subsidence down to a few centimetres, satellites can even help
predict which desert aquifers are running dry. 

The TESEO initiative is paving the way for the GMES (Global
Monitoring for Environment and Security) joint undertaking with the
European Commission. GMES is the first structured open dialogue
between ESA's Earth Observation Directorate, the European Community,
and international communities responsible for defining and
implementing global environmental conventions.

For more information on TESEO see:
http://styx.esrin.esa.it:5000/teseo/teseo.htm

The CD-Rom is available on request to eohelp{at}esa.int

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