Greenovate! Europe member ATLANTIS Environment & Innovation last week signed a contract with the European Space Agency (ESA) to develop and test a Geographical Information System (GIS) based platform to assess and map desertification and land degradation risk.
The development of the ‘EDAFOS’ platform will be based on the evolution of the DWEIS and Medalus methods and will have an open architecture to allow the seamless expansion and deployment of the Tool at large geospatial scales. EDAFOS will enable the seamless processing of satellite and ground observation data sets for the calculation of desertification and land degradation risk and the in-depth analysis of human-induced and natural pressures contributing to land degradation.
The Platform will also enable scenario analysis and visual imaging of results. It will therefore assist in the correlation of human-made and natural pressures to selected risk indicators and will facilitate the design of measures for combating desertification and land degradation and will enable the development of management and mitigation plans. Among others, the EDAFOS Platform will support National Competent Authorities in the implementation of the desertification directive and the development of desertification and land degradation management and mitigation plans.
The project is implemented in collaboration with the Eratosthenis Excellence Centre.