The effects of climate change are not going unnoticed – especially in the Baltic Sea region, profound changes can be observed affecting important ecosystems and its population.
The European Space Agency (ESA) set up an initiative called GTIF – short for „Green Transition Information Factory“ which uses Earth Observation data to provide decision-makers and the public with relevant and accessible information. By providing solid data, political measures can be evaluated more accurately and designed more effectively. The aim is to pave the way to a greener and climate neutral future.
The initiative was first tested in a demonstration project for Austria and is now being extended and adapted to various European regions. One of these regions is the Baltic Sea. This region is warming faster than the global trend, with significant impacts on the environment and the sea.
Now with Lithuania as a pilot partner in the Baltic GTIF project, five services are being developed for four application areas – tailored to the needs of the region.
Sustainable Urban Development
- Heat Trend Analysis Service: This Service is designed to help urban planners and administrators identify Urban Heat Islands and evaluate countermeasures.
- Thermal Insulation of Building Services: This Service addresses the problem of inadequate building insulation and enables city administrators and energy suppliers to assess the effectiveness of insulation measures and accurately predict energy demand.
Resilient Food Systems
- Climate-Resilient Farming Service: This service provides farmers and insurance companies with information on crop damage per plot and on access restriction for heavy machinery caused by wet ground and extreme weather events.
Adaptive Forestry
- Adaptive Forestry Service: This Service aims to efficiently monitor forests in Lithuania and prevent illegal deforestation. It simplifies the identification of individual trees from space and allows the determination of their species, protection status, height, and health.
Agriculture Carbon Balances
- Natural Capital Shares Management Service: Companies that cannot completely eliminate their emissions must offset the climate impact of their activities in order to become carbon neutral. This Service provides accurate information on the carbon sequestration potential and biodiversity metrics of specific areas.