LandSense

LandSense builds an innovative Citizen Observatory for Land Use & Land Cover (LULC) monitoring, by connecting citizens with satellite imagery to transform current approaches to environmental decision making. LandSense aims to uncover the collective potential of citizen science and Earth observation (EO) data to improve the way people see, map and understand the world. Citizen Observatories are community-driven mechanisms to complement existing systems for improved environmental monitoring. They are fostered through innovative and novel EO mobile applications, allowing citizens to not only play a key role in LULC monitoring, but also to be directly involved in the co-creation of such solutions. LandSense will deploy advanced tools, services and resources to mobilise and engage citizens to collect in-situ observations (i.e. ground-based data and visual interpretations of EO imagery). Integrating these citizen-driven in-situ data collections with established authoritative and open access data sources will help reduce costs, extend GEOSS and Copernicus capacities, and support comprehensive environmental monitoring systems. Policy-relevant campaigns will be implemented in close collaboration with multiple stakeholders to ensure that citizen observations address user requirements and contribute to EU-wide environmental governance and decision-making. Campaigns for addressing local and regional Land Use and Land Cover (LULC) issues are planned for select areas in Austria, France, Germany, Spain, Slovenia and Serbia. Novel LandSense services will be deployed and tested in these areas to address critical LULC issues (i.e. urbanisation, agricultural land use and forest/habitat monitoring). For example, local residents in the cities of Vienna, Amsterdam and Heidelberg will help cooperatively detect and map changes in land cover and green space to address key issues of urban sprawl and land take. Such campaigns are facilitated through numerous pathways of citizen empowerment via the LandSense Engagement Platform, i.e. tools for discussion, online voting collaborative mapping, as well as events linked to public consultation and cooperative planning. In addition to creating tools for data collection, quality assurance, and interaction with the public, the project aims to drive innovation through collaboration with the private sector. LandSense will build an innovation marketplace to attract a vast community of users across numerous disciplines and sectors and boost Europe’s role in the business of ground-based monitoring.

Aim

Within the EU’s Earth Observation (EO) monitoring framework, there is a need for low-cost methods for acquiring high quality in-situ data to create accurate and well-validated environmental monitoring products. The aim of the LandSense project is to build a far-reaching Citizen Observatory for Land Use and Land Cover (LULC) monitoring that will also function as a technology innovation marketplace. LandSense deploys advanced tools, services and resources to mobilise and engage citizens to collect in-situ observations (i.e. ground-based data and visual interpretations of EO imagery). Integrating these citizen-driven in-situ data collections with established authoritative and open access data sources will help reduce costs, extend GEOSS and Copernicus capacities, and support comprehensive environmental monitoring systems.

Needed equipment

Smartphone, computer and other tech equipment

Created March 25, 2020, 7:24 a.m.

Updated March 25, 2020, 7:24 a.m.

Keywords

Science Topics