Wetlands Management via satellite

Atlantis Scientific Inc. from Nepean, Ontario, Canada has been awarded EUR1,000,000 (1.6 million CND) by the European Space Agency (ESA), under the Data User Element (DUE) Program, to execute the Global Wetland Information Service (GlobWetland) Project over the coming 2 years. The Atlantis led consortium (joined by Wetlands International – NL, Synoptics – NL and Remote Sensing Solutions GmbH – DE) won the contract, and the project was officially kicked off by ESA on November 20th,, 2003.

The potential of earth observation to provide products and services in response to the RAMSAR convention priorities was successfully demonstrated through the Treaty Enforcement Services using Earth Observation (TESEO) program in 2002. Globwetland was designed to expand on the successes of TESEO is focused on end-user requirements from 17 national focal points in Africa, Europe, and North and Central America.

The GlobWetland project will develop and implement suitable information products and services based on earth observation tools and techniques to support continued environmental stewardship and conservation of wetlands for over 50 sites distributed across Africa, Europe, and North and Central America.

“Winning the GlobWetland project is an excellent opportunity for ASI to continue developing its ability to deliver information to the end user community”, said Patrick McConnell, President of Atlantis. “ASI has successfully developed information products for other sectors, bringing the benefits of advanced earth observation technology to end users in operational management of oil fields. Demonstrating the operational capability of earth observation to the international wetland management community will position ASI to provide it with operational products and services, as well as other related sectors in the future.”

In Canada, the successful execution of this project will be made possible by the active participation of Environment Canada who will contribute baseline information and resources to help in the analysis, validation and definition of the information products generated through the GlobWetland Project. The Canadian Space Agency, involved in wetland management from space through its co-investment with Environment Canada in the National Wetland Inventory project, has agreed to contribute Radarsat 1 data for use in the project.

About Canada and the European Space Agency (ESA)
The European Space Agency is composed of 15 Member States: Canada is a Cooperating Member and the only non-European country to participate directly in programs in Earth Observation, telecommunications and technology development. Under the terms of the Canada-ESA Cooperation Agreement, CSA’s contributions to ESA programs are returned in the form of contracts to Canadian industry.

About Atlantis-Scientific Incorporated (ASI)
Since its incorporation in 1981, Atlantis Scientific Inc. (ASI) has established itself as a world leader in the areas of signal processing, radar remote sensing, and related software development. Today ASI develops and markets a variety of COTS software packages for radar data processing. In addition, the company’s service department EOServ provides value-added support to clients that choose not to invest in the software itself. Products available through EOServ include digital elevation models, land subsidence maps, wetlands mapping and a variety of other Remote Sensing derived information products.

Links
ESA Press Release:

http://www.esrin.esa.int/export/esaCP/SEM0PFXLDMD_index_0.html

RAMSAR Web site

http://www.ramsar.org/

Atlantis-Scientific Inc.

http://www.atlantis-scientific.com/