Enhancing the use of Geoinformation technologies to assess the socioeconomic impacts of climate change in the Arctic: Insights from the EO-PERSIST Project

In today's changing climate, there is an urgent need to understand the adverse impacts of climate change on natural environments, infrastructures, and industries.Particularly permafrost regions in the Arctic are highly vulnerable to global warming, impacting both the environment and socioeconomic aspects. Thus, systematic monitoring of such environments, is of paramount significance. Advances in Geoinformation technologies, and in particular in Earth Observation (EO), cloud computing, GIS, web cartography create new opportunities and challenges for Arctic research examining the socioeconomic impact of climate change.The rapid advancements in EOin particular have led to an exponential increase in the volume of geospatial data that come from spaceborne EO sensors. This surge, combined with the fast developments in GIS and web cartography present significant challenges for effective management, access, and utilization by researchers, policymakers, and the public. Consequently, there is a growing need for advanced methodologies to organize, process, and deliver geospatial information that comes from EO satellites in an accessible and user-friendly manner.

Recognizing thepromising potential of geoinformation technologies, the European Union (EU) has funded several research projects that leverage advanced technologies such as geospatial databases and WebGIS platforms to streamline EO data handling and dissemination. One such project is EO-PERSIST (http://www.eo-persist.eu), which aims to create a collaborative research and innovation environment focusing on leveraging existing services, datasets, and emerging technologies to achieve a consistently updated ecosystem of EO-based datasets for permafrost applications. To formulate the socioeconomic indicators, the project exploits state of the art cloud processing resources, innovative Remote Sensing (RS) algorithms, Geographic Information Systems (GIS)-based models formulating, exchanging also multidisciplinary knowledge.EO-PERSIST innovative approach is anticipated to contribute to more informed decision-making and broader data accessibility for researchers, policymakers, and other stakeholders.

The present contribution aim is two-fold: at first, to provide an overview of EO-PERSIST Marie Curie Staff Exchanges EU-funded research project; second, to present some of the key project outputs delivered so far relevant to the selected Use Cases of the project and the geospatial database developed for assessing the socioeconomic impacts of climate change in the permafrost Arctic regions.

This study is supported by EO-PERSIST project which has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No. 101086386.

KEYWORDS:earth observation, cloud platform, Arctic, socioeconomic impact