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The European Space Agency is hosting in his ESRIN establishgment on 3rd June 2003 a user workshop on "URBAN EXPANSION MONITORING", with the final presentation of the DUP URBEX project executed for the World Wildlife Fund (WWF-I

In the last decades, the Italian territory has lost several hectares of natural landscape due to the uncontrolled urban expansion, which is especially severe in coastal areas. In this context, the monitoring of the urban growth and protection of the coastal areas is placed with a high priority in the agenda of many non-governmental organisations, such as WWF. In particular, a WWF International Program is specifically dedicated to the protection of Mediterranean eco-region. The detection of illegal constructions, of ports and quays for tourists and the prevention of the degradation of the coastal natural landscape (e.g., wetlands, dunes) represent one of the main priorities for WWF. So far, this monitoring activity has been based on the in-situ work in-situ of local activists, or on the analysis of aerial photos, which is expensive in terms of time and economic cost and does not allow a continuous and repeatable monitoring at large scale. In this context, ESA and WWF joined their efforts in the UrbEx project in order to develop an information service, based on EO technology, being able to overcome the above limitations and provide WWF with accurate and repeatable information on the urban expansion at national scale.

In this context, the UrbEx project aimed at transferring previous research experiences into a user-oriented information service responding to real user needs. The project was funded by ESA within the framework of the Data User Programme (DUP) and was carried out by the Italian company Advanced Computer Systems (ACS).

This meeting, organised by ACS and hosted by the European Space Agency, aims at presenting the UrbEx Service to the user community, showing how the UrbEx service is used operationally by WWF and gathering the viewpoint of the user community about the information needs to monitor urban expansion and how Earth Observation technology may contribute.

Organisation

Date: Tue 3rd June 2003.

Place: ESRIN - Via G. Galilei - 00044 Frascati (Roma) – Italy.
Tel. +39 06 941801.
How to get to ESRIN near Rome.

The agenda of the briefing can be downloaded here.

For additional information please contact:
Ferdinando Iavarone(ACS). Tel.: +39 06 87090916.
Dr Diego Fernandez (ESA). Tel: +39 06 94180676.