Earthquakes, floods, oil spills and other major disasters should be better managed in future thanks to a new earth observation satellite system to be developed in the EU by 2014. On Wednesday, Parliament gave its green light for the system's initial phase (2011-13) and approved €107 million in extra funding to make it fully operational.
Setting up this new Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) satellite system would enable the EU to collect its own data - most of which currently comes from American satellites. Thanks to MEPs' efforts, Parliament's deal with Council will provide for open and free of charge access to this data, so all local, regional and national players can use the data to help manage any natural disaster. This should also boost a "downstream market" for which small and medium-sized software companies can develop new applications.
Satellites could serve to monitor climate change and help policy makers to take better decisions on agriculture, forestry, energy, urban development, infrastructure or transport.
The EU funding foreseen for the 3-year initial operations phase is €107 million, supplemented by €209 million from the EU seventh research framework programme's "space" theme for accompanying research actions.
Parliament approved the regulation with 624 votes in favour, 33 against and 12 abstentions.
What is GMES?
The primary purpose of the GMES system is to provide detailed environment and security data, tailored to user needs. The programme should boost innovation, research and technological development, and also become a key tool for supporting biodiversity, ecosystem management, and climate change mitigation and adaptation.
In the so-called "pre-operational validation phase", GMES services were developed through EU seventh research framework programme projects. To enter the operational phase, the programme needed a new legal basis and additional funding, which the new regulation will provide, to start initial operations in 2011-2013. The GMES programme should be fully operational by 2014
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A few weeks ago we spoke to German Socialist Norbert Glante who Drafted Parliament's report.
Why do we need a European Earth Observation Programme?
The GMES is an earth monitoring initiative, managed by the EU, in collaboration with member states. Currently, data is collected by nations, research institutes, private companies and military observation. But there is a lack of compatibility. GMES is about collecting and preparing reliable data using satellites and terrestrial facilities.
The EU is building satellites in partnership with the European Space Agency, while member states will use air, ground and sea-based facilities to record and process data and make it available to users. The project will soon move into the operational phase.
How will it help citizens?
The aim is to guarantee better management of the environment through information about the earth’s surface, biodiversity, condition of oceans and composition of the atmosphere. This should provide greater security for the population, for example in connection with natural disasters.
In concrete terms, if an earthquake occurs accurate maps can be produced using satellites allowing improved management of rescue teams. Sea levels can also be accurately measured in order to observe the consequences of climate change and GMES can track the spread of an oil slick if there is a tanker disaster and warn people on the coast.
Had GMES been fully operational could disasters like the one in Haiti have been prevented?
Of course natural catastrophes cannot be prevented by systems like GMES. But they can limit the negative effects.
Once a disaster has happened, GMES can help organise the rescue teams faster. Images can help identify the problem regions. You can see broken infrastructure -streets, trains, you can see if the airport is damaged or not. The population can be evacuated or helped more efficiently.
Unemployment is at its highest in 10 years. How can you justify the heavy costs of the project for the European taxpayers?
The total costs are not clearly defined yet. In any case, we are talking about a few hundred millions - that is really not much for an infrastructure project. Nobody would argue against building a motorway during a period of high unemployment because it is too costly.
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