The Sensor and Satellite Asset Alert and Management System (SSAAMS) project will take a systemic approach to improving infrastructure management of energy, transport and urban earthwork systems. The core innovation of the proposed system is the development of business decision support tools based on the analysis of low cost sensor data, combined with open access satellite data, and other sources of data to monitor and predict areas of high risk where disruption to urban living might occur. A monitoring and alerting system will identify potential and actual ‘failure’ events so asset managers (e.g. Amey, Network Rail and Local Authorities such as Sheffield City Council and Buckinghamshire County Council) can take proactive action to mitigate a potential event, or to react quickly and precisely to detected failures therefore making the infrastructure assets more resilient and minimise costly future interventions as well as improving the daily lives of citizens. The benefits of SSAAMS include: 1) improved intelligence, 2) greater asset resilience and longer lifetime expectancy, 3) reduced cost of asset management and event failure incidents, and 4) reduced impacts on citizens from transport, energy and urban system disruptions.

Grassland is the dominant land use in the UK and throughout the world. No other habitat is as agriculturally useful to humans, providing food for ruminants (e.g. cattle and sheep), as well as numerous other benefits (e.g. hosting diverse grass and plant species that attract bees). Grazed grass is one of the cheapest feeds on most British dairy farms, yet the most poorly utilised. This project executed by University of Reading and Rezatec Ltd provides grassland farmers with a management tool that uses the latest information gathered by satellite sensors, combined with mathematical models that calculate (grazed) grass crop behaviour. Together they allow for assessment and near-future prediction of grassland status, in terms of productivity, quality, and plant species composition. This will inform the farmer and advisors how to better manage their pastures, especially in terms of grazing and cutting, agrochemical application, and which pasture plant mixtures potentially deliver the greatest benefits to ecosystem services such as pollination. The project outcomes have the potential to significantly improve productivity and competitiveness for dairy farming businesses in the UK and beyond.

Renewable energy targets have led to a growth in demand for woody biomass, in turn leading to a re-assessment of methods for defining sustainable forest management and forest carbon stock. Well managed forest can be both productive and sustainable, maintaining a positive carbon balance whilst providing all sorts of ecosystem services. However, lack of data and tools to quantify the effect of forestry management brings uncertainty to the effectiveness of bioenergy policy as a climate change mitigation measure and poses a risk to the bioenergy and other wood processing sectors. In this project E4tech, Rezatec, the University of Edinburgh and Drax will develop a methodology to accurately identify the temporal carbon impacts of biomass removal from forests. Information will be extracted from different environmental datasets (satellite, radar and on the ground measurements) using information retrieval algorithms and linked to a forest growth model. The result will be a service that helps businesses in the wood industry understand the GHG impact associated to a given forest biomass feedstock and prove compliance with sustainability criteria to its stakeholders.

The project "Optimsing Sugar Beet Growth Yield through use of Space and Environmental Data" assesses the feasibility of combining earth observation (EO), environmental and in situ farm data to improve harvest productivty for growers of sugar beet and to enhance their capacity to manage the environment around the nation's sugar beet crop. The project brings together British Sugar (BS), Rezatec and Rectory Farmhouse Limited as consortium partners and the British Beet Research Organisation (BBRO) provides in kind support to the project. The project utilises the nation's investment in the capture of environmental data and in the processing of satellite information by leveraging existing national environmental data sets such as those provided by the Met Office and the CEMS (Centre for Environmental Monitoring from Space) at Harwell to process captured data. The project plans to make available improved sugar beet crop growth models to help UK growers maintain their leadership position in the face of increased competitive challenges worldwide.

CAL applies proprietary algorithms and statistical analysis to data, collected by space-based remote sensing systems, in order to calculate carbon stock values – and changes in those values over time – for forested land. In so doing, CAL’s technology significantly lowers the transaction costs that are a key component of trading forest-based carbon credits. In particular, CAL technology reduces the expense associated with ground-based observations of forest inventories and automates the analysis of Earth Observation (EO) data to derive carbon values. The company addresses downstream applications of sensing within the National Space Technology Roadmap by targeting forest monitoring and carbon markets, and aims to deliver an internationally significant new service that exploits data gained from space-based systems.

DMC International Imaging Ltd (DMCii), Carbon Associates Ltd (CAL) and University College London (UCL) are jointly developing a system for measuring land carbon stocks and fluxes from Earth observation data. The resulting carbon-market intelligence products will address key segments of the carbon market by providing essential information on carbon flux. The project applies the developing science of carbon stock and flow measurement techniques to delivering global high resolution products. The system will be available to a wide-ranging customer base through an automated online delivery system. The project builds on existing investment by the partners in this area and the resources and expertise of the TSB to position UK industry through the partners to exploit new services in this high growth emerging market.