Commercialisation deal
The VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland has developed a software framework for environmental monitoring applications using satellite image data. The framework is suitable for applications ranging from detecting and monitoring floods and landslides to assessing forest resources, assisting navigation and enhancing road safety.
The software and application prototypes are currently being tested in practice. One application, for natural disaster monitoring of events such as floods and landslides, also serves as a tool for managing and overseeing rescue operations. The system handles the acquisition, processing and analysis of satellite data to manage, refine and distribute disaster-related information.
The forest resource application provides data on tree species and volume of wood to support forestry. The maritime application provides data on ice conditions for winter navigation, while the traffic monitoring application is designed to improve road safety through automated traffic monitoring. The application provides, for example, information for traffic analysis purposes and for improving safety at dangerous intersections.
VTT has packaged the computational methods and application logic into a common software framework which allows effective and quick development of new environmental monitoring applications using satellite image data. This reduces costs both in service development and in implementation. The applications can be implemented over the Internet as distributed systems.
VTT collaborated with Stora Enso, Finstaship, the Finnish Maritime Administration, the Helsinki City Planning Department, the Helsinki Metropolitan Area Council, the Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority of Finland, Savcor Indufor and Metsähallitus in the development, which was funded by the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation (Tekes).
A follow-up project to implement live applications is now being prepared. The forestry application, which is expected to be launched in 2007, is closest to reaching this goal.
To support the programme, VTT recently signed an agreement with RapidEye AG of Leipzig, Germany, to co-develop satellite image based services. Initially, the cooperation will focus on the use of VTT's method for estimating forest characteristics and resources.
RapidEye is due to launch five earth observation satellites in 2007, and as part of the deal VTT will get access to new earth observation data they provide.
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