Policy makers increasingly need accurate and timely information to meet reporting requirements linked to environmental legislation and decision making. This project explored the extent to which Earth Observation (EO) services can help meet the special reporting requirements of two important European Union (EU) environmental policy areas, namely the Water Framework Directive (WFD) and the Soil Protection Initiative (SPI).

In December 2002, the European Space Agency (ESA) launched 10 research projects that aim at exploring the potential for earth observation (EO) in supporting "Global Monitoring of Environment and Security" (GMES).

Project Objectives

In this framework, the SAGE Project (Services for the Provision of Advanced Geo-Information of Environmental Pressures and State) focused on supporting the implementation of two important European environmental policy areas, namely the Water Framework Directive (WFD) and the Soil Protection Initiative (SPI). Ecologic provided the necessary policy background to this project by outlining key information requirements resulting from these two policies. The policy review analyses how the information requirements are met today, and to which extent there is potential for EO to enhance the policy implementation by providing better results.