Italian Space Agency's Program for the Development of Novel EO-based Scientific Products for Natural Hazards Applications

In Italy, "Telecommunications, Earth Observation, and Navigation" (TLC/EO/NAV) assets are currently exploited to realize services and applications (the so-called downstream) providing benefits to citizens and public institutions, translating space technology investments into significant social and economic gains. Among the downstream satellite-based services and products of most interest for the Italian institutions, there was the support to civil protection and environmental safeguard from natural and anthropogenic hazards.

In this context, the Italian Space Agency (ASI) promotes the development of downstream services through the "Innovation for Downstream Preparation" (I4DP) program. I4DP foresees an active engagement of the user community in the demonstration projects since the user requirement consolidation phase, until the testing of the developed technological solutions in real-world scenarios. The I4DP_SCIENCE stream, addressed to the Scientific User Community (i.e., Italian Universities and Public Research Bodies) and designed to develop joint projects with ASI, is aimed at demonstrating the usefulness of novel methods and algorithms in supporting applications of user's interest regarding topics of national relevance (e.g., defined by the National Copernicus User Forum), and/or international agendas (e.g., the UN Sustainable Development Goals). The I4DP_SCIENCE program has been developed through the issue of two Calls for Ideas, focused on the themes of "Sustainable Cities" and "Agriculture and Sustainable Use of Water Resources" [1]. Among the selected projects, three address the theme of natural and anthropogenic hazard assessment and mitigation: GEORES, SatellOmic, and GRAW. GEORES (Geospatial Application to Support the Improvement of Environmental Sustainability and Resilience to Climate Change in Urban Areas, Agreement n. 2023-42-HH.0) [2], led by the University of Bari and CNR-IREA, aims at developing a geospatial application to improve environmental sustainability in urban areas, through a multi-risk platform, with the synergistic use of EO data, machine learning techniques, and artificial intelligence. SatellOmic (Integration of Satellite and Metagenomic Systems for the Monitoring and Safeguarding of Water Basins, Agreement n. 2023-36-HH.0) [3], led by the Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS) and the Scuola di Ingegneria Aerospaziale (SIA) of Sapienza University of Rome, aims at combining EO-based products with metagenomics analyses, to evaluate and monitor the quality of inland and coastal waters, assessing the presence of oil spills or algal blooms. GRAW (Geomatics for Resilience Against Water Scarcity, Agreement n. 2023-52-HH.0) [4], led by Sapienza University of Rome, aims at developing specific approaches and algorithms to monitor and forecast hazards due to hydrological and agricultural drought. The paper outlines how the three I4DP_SCIENCE projects are addressing natural hazard and risk using EO and geospatial technologies and accounting for the specific user requirements and needs.

[1] D. Tapete et al. (2024) The Italian Space Agency’s programs of scientific downstream applications for water resources and hydraulic hazard management. 14° Workshop tematico di Telerilevamento “Telerilevamento applicato alla gestione delle risorse idriche”, ENEA, Bologna, Italy, pp. 5-9. https://www.eventi.enea.it/images/presentazioni2024/2024_06_06_telerilevamento/Abstract_AIT2024_def.pdf

[2] R. Lafortezza et al. (2024), doi: 10.1109/IGARSS53475.2024.10642728.

[3] E. D’Ugo et al. (2024), doi: 10.1109/IGARSS53475.2024.10642700.

[4] F. Bocchino et al. (2024), doi: 10.1109/IGARSS53475.2024.10641154