International financial institutions (IFI) provide financial support and professional advice for development activities on local to regional scale in developing countries. Their activities are generally organized in dedicated projects financed by long-term loans or grants covering social and economical development aspects in a wide range of fields. For certain fields Earth Observation (EO) products and services have been identified as a useful tool to support the monitoring and management of IFI projects, to improve the efficiency of the investments made and finally to assess the impact and social benefits of the financed development activity.
ESA, as part of its Value Adding Element (VAE) programme, has been interacting with the IFI and their stakeholders to understand their working environment and information requirements in particular for EO services. Especially with WB, ESA started a partnership program named eoworld in 2010. Within this programme, first dozen of Bank teams from across a variety of sectors and representing all regions were selected through a competitive process to receive assistance of ESA to apply Earth Observation services in selected operations.
"The main aim of the eoworld initiative is to demonstrate the value of European and Canadian satellites, both ESA and national missions, and the capabilities of specialised value-adding companies that can provide information services to benefit the World Bank’s operations," said Stephen Coulson, ESA’s Head of Industry Section.
This process has resulted in dedicated service specifications for World Bank, which have been put out for tender. GAF has been awarded with the MONITORING OF WATER QUALITY AND LAND USE CHANGES IN THE LAKE TITICACA BASIN project, which is directly driven by the requirements of the supported WB project and its local stakeholders in Bolivia.
During a 2 days meeting in April at WB’s headquarters in Washington DC, together with ESA, WB and EOMAP, all service products have been finalised. For an area of about 47 000 km² in Bolivia and Peru (Lake Titicaca sub-basin), together with EOMAP GAF will provide dedicated state of the art EO products which have been customised to meet the specific user requirements of WB best possible. Including Water Quality products such as information on Turbidity, Suspended Matter and Chlorophyll-A as well as mapping products on Land Use/Land Cover and Land Use/Land Cover Change, the service will deliver products for environmental monitoring of Lake Titicaca between the years 2003 and 2010. All delivered products will be validated together with the service performance by WB and local stakeholders. The benefit of the information service will be assessed relatively to the objectives of the project as well.
Project activities started in April 2011 and will be concluded in February 2012.
For more detailed information, please consult the news section of ESA’s website (Link: http://www.esa.int/esaEO/SEMV5HZ57NG_index_0.html) or the EOWORLD project website from WB (http://go.worldbank.org/7OKCI75M90).
About World Bank – Washington DC/USA
The World Bank is a vital source of financial and technical assistance to developing countries around the world. Our mission is to fight poverty with passion and professionalism for lasting results and to help people help themselves and their environment by providing resources, sharing knowledge, building capacity and forging partnerships in the public and private sectors.
We are not a bank in the common sense; we are made up of two unique development institutions owned by 187 member countries: the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Development Association (IDA).
Each institution plays a different but collaborative role in advancing the vision of inclusive and sustainable globalization. The IBRD aims to reduce poverty in middle-income and creditworthy poorer countries, while IDA focuses on the world's poorest countries.
Their work is complemented by that of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) and the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID).
Together, we provide low-interest loans, interest-free credits and grants to developing countries for a wide array of purposes that include investments in education, health, public administration, infrastructure, financial and private sector development, agriculture and environmental and natural resource management.
The World Bank, established in 1944, is headquartered in Washington, D.C. We have more than 10,000 employees in more than 100 offices worldwide.
About ESA / ESRIN – Frascati/Italy
ESRIN, known as the ESA Centre for Earth Observation, is one of the five ESA specialised centres situated in Europe. Located in Frascati, a small town 20 km south of Rome in Italy, ESRIN was established in 1966 and first began acquiring data from environmental satellites in the 1970s. Since 2004, ESRIN has been the headquarters for ESA's Earth Observation activities.
ESRIN acts as an interface between ESA and those who use its services. The centre has close links with European industry, the European Union and the civil protection, agriculture and environment ministries within ESA Member States. ESRIN also cooperates with international organisations including UN agencies and the European Commission, and plays an important role in many international projects. More on the ESA programme Value Adding Element: http://www.eomd.esa.int/index.asp
About GAF AG – Munich/Germany
GAF AG, an e-GEOS, Telespazio company, is globally active and has an international reputation as a competent provider of project design, management and implementation services in the fields of geo-information, satellite remote sensing and GIS consultancy to private and public clients. Within the past 25 years, GAF has been active in more than 100 countries throughout Europe, Africa, South-America and Asia. More on GAF: www.gaf.de
To obtain more information, please contact:
GAF AG, Tel. +49 (0) 89 12 15 28 0, www.gaf.de, info(at)gaf.de
About EOMAP GmbH&Co.KG – Gilching/Germany
EOMAP is a private enterprise and worldwide active for the offshore industry, environmental agencies and research organizations. EOMAP is specialized in coastal and inland water monitoring services, e.g. high resolution water quality monitoring and water depth mapping. Using an operational physical based processing approach, EOMAP offers the best possible temporal and spatial resolution with manifold sensors.
More on EOMAP: www.eomap.de
