Sentinel data bring significant economic benefits
Copernicus is a programme of the European Union based on a family of satellites called the Sentinels, which are being progressively deployed by ESA through 2020.
Over the next decade, the programme is expected to generate notable benefits for the European economy and society and appropriate methodologies will be required to assess them in a credible way.
The operational nature of the Copernicus programme, coupled with its long-term sustained data provision and its open and free data policy is expected to boost applications and potentially change traditional EO paradigms (e.g. by shortening time-to-business cycles and lowering entry barriers), also favoured by notable efforts to promote user uptake at European scale.
For demonstrating the Sentinels-derived economic benefits in a credible way, bottom-up approaches can be particularly effective. Recently, an ESA study undertaken by the European Association of Remote Sensing Companies and The Green Land showed promising results through the development of a new methodology.
The study, unlike previous similar ones, follows the cascading impact of the use of satellite (Sentinel-like) imagery along the full value chains for three specific use cases. Dedicated reports were produced, addressing:
- the use of satellite radar imagery (like the one provided by the Sentinel-1 mission) in support of winter navigation in the Baltic Sea, in which the improved ice-breaking operations generate each year between €24m and €116m of economic value.
- the use of optical images (like the ones provided by the Sentinel-2 mission) in support to improved forest management in Sweden, generating total direct economic benefits between €16m and €21m per annum.
- the use of satellite radar imagery in support to maintenance of buried gas and water pipelines in The Netherlands. The potential economic benefits of using Sentinel-1 data – coupled with higher-resolution radar data from a commercial satellite mission – could be in the order of €15m to €18m each year.
These cases represent only a small part of the possible applications that can be supported by the Sentinels all over the world. Yet, the obtained results point to very significant benefits especially with respect to long tail effects, which can be spectacular.
Geoff Sawyer, Project manager at EARSC, declared: “Initially, we were expecting to find lower figures, with important overall benefits originating by virtue of summing up a large number of cases. So, we were surprised to find such high numbers even for the single cases!”
Through detailed value chains models, the reports convincingly show a traceable impact linking satellite imagery to the local economy and society (“from satellites to citizens”). Noteworthy, the improved monitoring capabilities enabled by the use of satellite-based technology are found to have potential impact on legislations.
Copernicus is expected to generate notable benefits for the European economy and society: the demonstration of such benefits will be vital to support further user uptake and to sustain investments. This will require new approaches and continued, strengthened cooperation with core stakeholders and beneficiaries.
