The first contract, entitled “Copernicus Emergency Management Service (EMS) - Rapid Mapping”, was signed with the Joint Research Centre (JRC), the in-house science and knowledge management service of the European Commission who is in charge of running the EMS through service contracts. It was awarded to a team led by e-GEOS for the third consecutive time, after winning the international tendering processes in 2012 and 2015. It covers the supply of satellite maps to be used for managing emergencies caused by natural disasters (earthquakes, flooding, fires, and landslides) as well as human-made emergency situations and humanitarian crises throughout the world.
This activity constitutes the operational service of the European Copernicus programme for Earth observationand is unique worldwide in the emergency management field. Since 2012, the Copernicus Emergency Management Service has been involved in more than 342 events and has produced more than 4,000 mapsrelated to 85 countries in Europe and around the world. The activations numbers in 2018 grows by 30% in respect of previous year.
e-GEOS heads a consortium made up of its subsidiary GAF (Germany) and Telespazio Ibèrica (Spain), and partners ITHACA (Italy), SIRS and Strasbourg University (France), as well as GMV (Portuga). The team acquires and processes satellite data that comes primarily from remote sensing platforms, and makes maps available within a few hours of the service being activated by one of the authorised users (EU Member States and Copernicus participating states, European Commission Services and EU Agencies), showing the areas struck by a natural disaster or humanitarian crisis.
The second contract signed by e-GEOS was awarded by the European Union Satellite Centre (SatCen) for the Copernicus Service in Support to EU External Action (SEA). This contract is supported by EU funds of the Copernicus programme. In particular, e-GEOS will assist SatCen in supporting the European Union in crisis situations and security operations outside its territory, by providing geoinformation services derived from analysing satellite images and data from various sources in critical remote areas that are difficult to reach, that are being observed for security purposes.
SatCen, a decentralized EU agency that supports the decision making and actions of the EU in the field of Common Foreign and Security Policy, in particular Common Security and Defence Policy, has renewed its trust in the consortium headed by e-GEOS, which has run the service since 2017. The awarded consortium includes the GAF (Germany) and Telespazio Ibèrica (Spain) Companies - both part of the Telespazio Group -, Airbus Defence and Space (Germany, France and Spain), GMV and Skysoft (Portugal), IABG (Germany) and SIRS (France).
Massimo Claudio Comparini, Head of the Geoinformation Business Line at Telespazio and CEO of e-GEOS, said: “e-GEOS is proud to head two successful teams that see international partners work together effectively with a single common goal - to guarantee the provision of very high-quality services to the European Union and our users. With the support of its industrial shareholders, Telespazio and Leonardo, and the Italian Space Agency, e-GEOS continues to invest in new technologies, and aims to confirm its leadership as a supplier of services for the European Copernicus programme”.