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Knowledge4Policy
KNOWLEDGE FOR POLICY

Knowledge Centre on Earth Observation

We enable the uptake of state-of-the-art knowledge from Earth Observation for EU policies and better regulation.

Topic / Tool | Last updated: 19 Apr 2021

EU policies and Earth Observation

Explore how EU policies can benefit from Earth Observation and maximize its uptake for better regulation.

Brief me

  • Several EU policy areas benefit from Earth Observation. This includes all policies dealing with land, atmosphere and marine domains (environment, air quality, urban monitoring, regional development), climate change, energy and transport, emergency, security, natural resources to mention a few. 

  • The increasing amount of EO data and information available are not yet exploited at their full potential in all domains, and there is an increasing awareness of their potential usefulness for the development, implementation and assessment of many EU policies. 

  • The domain that each Copernicus Service addresses (marine, land and atmosphere monitoring, emergency response, security and climate change) can serve many policy areas. Conversely, from a policy perspective, a given policy sector can benefit from different Copernicus services. 

  • In-depth understanding of the needs of EU Policies is a prerequisite for the translation of these into specific solutions, services and tailored products that Copernicus may deliver in the future, as well as for ensuring that existing solutions, products and services are fit-for-purpose.

 

To be most effective, existing needs and practices must be identified and analysed in depth along four key steps of the EO value chain which, viewed from a policy perspective, are: 

  1. Decision
  2. Application
  3. Data Production
  4. Sensing 

Each step entails both fitness for purpose assessment of available solutions, and identification of specific technical requirements to inform the space program for its efficient evolution.  

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Following this approach, KCEO is planning deep dives assessments on targeted EU policies, selected according to political priorities. In this section we provide a general overview of relevant EU policy areas from Earth Observation perspectives and show case the initial analysis of EO uptake in selected examples.

 

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