Understanding the Role of Space-Based Technologies in Smart City Development
As cities worldwide strive to improve the quality of life for their residents, the integration of modern, space-enabled technologies into urban infrastructure has become increasingly crucial. The convergence of satellite communications, navigation, earth observation, and human spaceflight capabilities has unlocked a vast array of innovative services and solutions that can address a wide range of health-related challenges and environmental monitoring needs in urban environments.
One such application that is gaining traction is the deployment of roof-mounted smart city infrastructure, leveraging a diverse range of space-based assets. By combining different space-based systems and integrating them with terrestrial systems, cities can create capabilities that are greater than the sum of their parts, enabling and enhancing a broad range of viable services that are sustainable in the long term.
Optimizing Energy Asset Management with Cloud-Based Intelligent Tools
The OCTAGON suite of intelligent tools and services, available in the cloud as SaaS (Software-as-a-Service), is a prime example of how space-enabled technologies can facilitate the decision-making process and management of energy assets. These “intelligent” tools optimize the design, dimensioning, and management of energy systems, simulating and managing multiple scenarios and sites, while remaining easy to use for all stakeholders, decision-makers, and users.
Leveraging Satellites, Wearables, and AI for Productivity and Wellbeing
Another notable development in the realm of roof-mounted smart city infrastructure is the “Space-enabled Productivity & Wellbeing” initiative, which harnesses the power of satellites, wearable devices, and artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the overall productivity and wellbeing of urban residents.
Integrating Positioning, Inertial, and Subsurface Data for Comprehensive Asset Management
The fusion of positioning, inertial, and subsurface data sets at a singular point is another groundbreaking application. A consortium of leading ground-penetrating radar and electronic developers, along with high-profile horizontal drilling operators, have teamed up to create a terrain-compensating subsurface inspection system capable of generating 3D data sets for analyzing buried assets below challenging terrain.
Enhancing Infrastructure Resilience and Environmental Monitoring
Beyond energy management and productivity, space-based technologies are also transforming the way cities approach infrastructure resilience and environmental monitoring.
Leveraging Earth Observation for Holistic Insights into Buildings and Surroundings
The InsurEO project, for instance, applies innovative Earth Observation (EO) services to provide detailed insights into buildings and their surroundings, ranging from flood and landslide risks to environmental health, climate change, and sustainability. This information is delivered through an intuitive web platform, enabling organizations in sectors such as insurance, banking, real estate, and energy service companies to make more informed decisions.
Monitoring Railway Tracks with Millimeter Precision
The GRailMon project aims to demonstrate an innovative GNSS-based solution for monitoring the 3D position of railway tracks with millimeter precision, enhancing the safety and resilience of critical transportation infrastructure.
Detecting and Monitoring Oil Spills in Real-Time
The DataCosmos platform, developed by Open Cosmos, leverages satellite imagery to detect and monitor oil spills in the Persian Gulf and Red Sea areas in near-real-time, enabling timely data delivery for efficient analysis and response.
Integrating Space-Based Technologies for Urban Air Mobility
The SUPER project focuses on utilizing Earth Observation (SatEO) and Satellite Navigation (SatNav) for Urban Air Mobility (UAM) infrastructure planning and integration into public transport, as well as planning and monitoring aspects of UAM operations. By combining diverse geospatial, environmental, weather, and mapping information from SatEO data with SatNav data, SUPER aims to address the unique challenges of UAM in urban environments.
Empowering Structural Health Monitoring and Disaster Prevention
The ISABHEL project leverages 5G technologies and the synergistic integration of different technologies to provide a continuous monitoring service for the structural health of bridges located on the Po River in Italy. This service identifies areas for predictive maintenance and supports asset financial resilience and disaster prevention.
Combining Real-Time Data and Forecasts for Flood Prevention
The safeBACK project, developed by Rezatec, combines real-time water levels, precipitation forecasts, and Earth observation data to provide accurate alerts and probabilistic flood forecasts for brooks and creeks, enabling local authorities and civil protection agencies to act proactively in case of flooding.
Mitigating the Urban Heat Island Effect
The HeatScape Resolve project, a collaboration between Paulinyi&Partners cPlc. and Envirosense Hungary Ltd., utilizes satellite Earth observation imagery as input parameters for microclimate simulations to map and mitigate the urban heat island effect, improving the effectiveness of existing predictive simulations.
Enhancing Navigation and Mobility for Two-Wheeled Vehicles
Another project aims to develop an end-to-end navigation service that can be fully integrated into business customers’ own two-wheeled vehicle products and services, including best-in-class routing optimization and navigation tailored to user needs. This solution is intended to make it easier, safer, and more convenient for people and goods to travel by light, two-wheeled transport, reducing reliance on cars, vans, and trucks.
Monitoring Critical Infrastructure and Enabling Energy Transformation
The SuperVision Infrastructure project explores a fusion of optical and radar data with varying resolutions to develop an automated software solution for detecting and assessing damages and risks in close proximity to critical infrastructure, serving as a rapid-response tool for occupied and inaccessible territories.
The EPOS project, a software-as-a-service solution, combines state-of-the-art energy modeling with Earth Observation data to provide energy planning in buildings and cities, enabling engineers and decision-makers to ideate, analyze the current situation, and create diverse supply concepts for a more efficient energy transformation.
Enhancing Water Management and Sanitation
The SWIM project is a dynamic digital twin solution for water management that seamlessly integrates real-time in-situ data, satellite imagery, and advanced analytics to monitor water quality and detect harmful algae blooms, providing customized insights, timely alerts, and detailed reports for municipal and private sector water management.
The PYRNEXAT project, a smart sanitation management platform, harnesses IoT and Artificial Intelligence technologies, incorporating earth observation, satellite communications, and GNSS capabilities to collect and analyze data relating to toilet-user behavior, sanitation management processes, and environmental factors.
Addressing Climate-Related Challenges in Urban Environments
The CTAPP project, tailored to urban environments, will systematically analyze and model the cascading effects of climate-related events using the CICs methodology, Earth Observation and non-EO data, to provide critical insights into the vulnerability of urban areas to climate-related disasters.
Advancing Micromobility Planning and Fleet Management
The proposed service by the SUPER project utilizes Earth Observation (EO) satellites and geospatial technologies to optimize micromobility planning and fleet management in urban areas, offering sustainable and efficient solutions for the growing micromobility sector, encompassing electric cars, bicycles, and scooters.
The Luna Systems’ computer vision solution, explored in a kick-start activity, is designed to improve the safety of shared micromobility vehicles by identifying patterns in rider behavior, focusing on sidewalk riding, travel speed, and proximity to pedestrians, providing valuable insights for shared mobility operators.
Enhancing Positioning Accuracy for Micromobility Vehicles
The PARK project aims to use GNSS Raw measurement to improve the positioning accuracy of micromobility vehicles for parking purposes and to prevent micromobility urban cluttering, avoiding the need for costly infrastructure and zero-impact on users.
Empowering Tree Planting and Monitoring
The Treedom project utilizes satellite images and their elaboration to provide engagement and transparency tools for customers and users of its non-productive, privately financed online planting platform, allowing consumers and businesses to plant trees remotely and follow their storylines.
Enabling Damage Assessment and Monitoring for Recovery Efforts
The AIDA Feasibility study proposes two new services based on Earth Observation (EO) data and integrated with AI technologies, providing tools and value-added information to support damage assessment and monitoring for recovery efforts focused on agriculture and strategic infrastructures, particularly in areas prone to natural and man-made disasters and conflicts.
Improving Earth Observation Services from the Stratosphere
The STREAMO project leverages swarms of small and reusable High-Altitude-Pseudo-Satellite called CubeHAPS®, developed by Stratobotic, to improve regional Earth Observation services, offering super-resolution, 3D models in real-time, and SAR imagery at higher temporal and spatial resolution and lower costs, with almost no infrastructure required.
Delivering Precise Point Positioning Services Globally
DDK Positioning Ltd. (DDK) provides GNSS hardware and Precise Point Positioning (PPP) services that improve GNSS positions from 10m to an accuracy of less than 5cm, delivering its positioning service exclusively via the Iridium satellite communications constellation using Iridium’s 66 military-grade LEO satellites to market sectors globally, from pole-to-pole.
Promoting Walkability and Multimodal Transportation
The project aims for a future where managing the micromobility system makes walking a convenient, accessible, and attractive option for short urban journeys, complementing other transportation modes seamlessly.
Enhancing Insurance Industry Decision-Making
The Commercial Property Insurance project is developing a management platform for the insurance industry, providing Digital Twins of several datasets including crime, fire, and rateable value, as well as Earth Observation and sensor-based data on natural catastrophe aspects (river flow, flooding, landslip, earthquake), to support parametric loss adjustment and improve rebuild cost validation.
Generating Cartographic Data from Satellite Imagery
The BrightEarth web-based application generates cartographic data from high-resolution satellite imagery, including 3D vectors, GIS raster, and textured 3D building models, available on demand from anywhere in the world.
Monitoring Structural Failures in Bridges and Viaducts
The DINAMO project represents an operational tool designed for the early-warning and detection of possible structural failures in bridges and viaducts, utilizing a multi-sensor multi-temporal platform.
Tracking the Urban Green Revolution and Climate Change Adaptation
The “Enabling the Smart Green Cities of the Future” project aims to track the urban green revolution, adaptation to climate change, and liveability using satellite Earth observation data.
Automating Pavement Condition Monitoring
The ASPEN project is an affordable and reliable measurement tool for pavement condition monitoring, allowing road infrastructure authorities to gather high-quality data for maintenance planning using a smartphone app.
Transforming Port Operations and Environmental Impact
The Digital Port Platform is a hub of maritime modules that integrates space assets and other data sources to improve port operations and lower their environmental impacts, providing real-time situational awareness to solve major environmental and performance issues.
Improving Photovoltaic Plant Inspection Efficiency
The APPIDE AI-powered tool increases the efficiency of thermographic inspections of photovoltaic plants by generating detailed reports in a matter of hours, identifying performance problems, and allowing for more inspections with fewer human resources.
Delivering Scalable IoT Satellite Services
The Massive end-to-end IoT satellite services project offers fully operational GNSS-denied environment and robust services against jamming and interference for highly scalable applications in numerous verticals such as logistics, transport, agriculture/smart farming, maritime, environmental, mining/oil/gas, smart cities, smart building, e-health, utilities, and industry.
Fostering Green Transition and Decarbonization of the Economy
The project explores short and long-term actions that can be implemented to foster opportunities for the space sector in aiding the green transition and decarbonization of the economy, with a particular focus on the Buildings and Energy & Utilities sectors.
Improving Indoor Air Quality and Reducing Healthcare-Associated Infections
The PASTA solution aims to improve indoor air quality and minimize the risk of airborne pathogen infection in future hospital environments using low-temperature plasma technology, which is oriented from in-situ resource utilization in long-duration space missions and space propulsion.
Revolutionizing Ecological Surveys with AI and Remote Sensing
Gentian provides a solution that harnesses innovative AI technology and high-resolution Remote Sensing imagery to offer a fully remote, cost-efficient ecological survey without compromising on accuracy, to restore and protect biodiversity.
Detecting Anomalies in Energy Assets Using Thermal Imaging and Space Assets
ThermAleego is an AI-powered software that uses thermal imaging and space assets for precise anomaly detection, optimal maintenance, and cost savings in energy asset inspection.
Providing Emergency Alert Access in Environments Lacking Reliable GSM
The AROBS AlertBox aims to offer access to E-alert messages and 112 emergency service in environments that lack reliable GSM (Global System for Mobile Communication), connecting via the Iridium global satellite constellation system to the national emergency response systems in critical situations.
Validating Earth Observation Data for Compliance and Emerging ESG Regulations
The activity addresses compliance with auditing, legal standards, and emerging ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) regulations, offering end-to-end validation to ensure data security, compliance, immutability, and non-repudiation of Earth Observation data for various business clients, including large corporations and the financial sector.
Transforming Satellite Sensor and Spatial Data into Actionable Intelligence for the Oil & Gas Supply Chain
The Energy SCOUT™ service transforms daily and weekly feeds of raw satellite sensor and spatial data into a series of value-added information products, targeting different activities along the oil & gas supply chain.
Enhancing Safety at Rail-Road Crossings Using Space Assets and Cutting-Edge Technologies
This project aims to achieve higher safety standards for level crossing accident prevention through the design of a low-cost system based on space assets and cutting-edge informatic technologies.
Monitoring the Health Status of Trees in Parks and Historical-Cultural Areas
The S-2-3 project is a multi-scale/parametric system that aims to monitor the health status of trees within parks of historical-cultural or naturalistic interest, defending the beauty of the tree, archaeological and monumental heritage, monitoring the environment, and managing risks to people or property.
Providing Geofencing Data for the Shipping Industry
This geofencing database provides the shipping industry with container door opening event qualification, operational deficiencies tracking, container mishandling events locations, and CO2 shipment emission data tracking.
Reducing Inefficiencies and Maintenance Costs of High Voltage Power Lines
The SP4GO solution uses cost-effective and high-resolution satellite data to reduce inefficiencies and maintenance costs of high voltage power lines by detecting potentially dangerous situations related to the overgrowth of vegetation, the construction of new buildings that come too close to infrastructure, and detecting land terrain change.
Delivering Critical Information Directly to Users through Satellite Constellation
The AlertSat satellite constellation is designed to deliver alerts directly to its users through the AlertSat Portal when critical information has been detected and there is still time to act upon it.
Identifying Critical Issues and Cost-Effective Maintenance Investments
The SGAM project combines Earth Observation data, ground-based monitoring data, geohazard databases, and AI algorithms to identify critical issues and cost-effective maintenance investments, featuring techniques such as A-DInSAR and Photomonitoring™ for precise monitoring of surface changes.
Detecting Fraud and Identifying Missing Revenues for Local Authorities
The uSmart REVENUE project uses Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to process satellite imagery and link it with Non-Domestic Rates registers to determine whether building usage might have changed, enabling fraud detection and identification of potentially missing revenues to local authorities.
Increasing Access to Safe and Affordable Water in Water-Scarce Coastal Regions
The Ocean Oasis project is developing a wave-powered desalination technology, and Earth Observation data has been used to improve the accuracy of the analysis tool for efficient evaluation of the wave resource in specific locations, allowing for production forecasting and pricing.
Enhancing the Enjoyment of Cultural Heritage that is Not Easily Accessible
The VADUS project realizes a metaphorical safe “way” of a virtual nature that overcomes physical and cultural barriers related to difficult access, reduced comprehensibility, and the presence of hidden or difficult to interpret cultural aspects, providing tourists the opportunity to enjoy cultural heritage that is not easily accessible.
Revolutionizing Gas and Water Pipeline Management through Satellite Remote Sensing, Machine Learning, and Integrity Management Expertise
The Origin Orbit™ cloud-based B2B software platform aims to offer faster, more cost-efficient, and environmentally conscious solutions for gas and water pipeline management, in line with relevant regulatory and legislative requirements, vastly surpassing traditional survey and assessment methods.
Improving Safety and Efficiency for Railway Maintenance Teams through Satellite-Enabled Tracking
The Digital Worksite project develops a satellite-enabled solution to track people, vehicles, and equipment in real-time during railway maintenance worksites, improving safety and efficiency.
Providing Satellite-Enabled Smart Autonomous Micro-Particulate Analysis for Water Quality Monitoring
This project aims to develop a satellite-enabled smart autonomous micro-particulate analysis solution for real-time and remote water quality monitoring.
