ESA BalticAIMS
EO Applications for Integrated maritime and territorial spatial planning in the Baltic (BalticAIMS)
The ESA funded BalticAIMS project demonstrates the added value of combining Earth Observation, in situ data, GIS materials and models for achieving the Baltic Earth “Grand Challenge 6 - Multiple drivers of Earth system changes in the Baltic Sea region” goals.
The countries surrounding the Baltic Sea have not yet achieved the goal of reaching good ecological status in their coastal and inland waters as set by European directives such as the Water Framework Directive and Marine Strategy Directive.
Spatial planning is a process that aims for the mitigation of the impacts of human activities and eventual improvement of the state of the environment through coordination and implementation of various practices and policies. This planning requires reliable information, and our goal is to develop an integrated data approach to obtain a full view of the essential processes of land and coastal water areas by combining various currently available satellite data sources, in situ observations and model predictions about dynamic landcover and water quality characteristics.
During the 1st phase (2021 - 2023) of the BalticAIMS project the team concentrated on the following tasks:
- Identify suitable environmental data and GIS materials.
- Integrate, process and store thematic information.
- Create the data access, visualization and analysis systems and tools.
The results of the work are available in the project website.
In the second phase (2024-2026) the team continued the service development and provision by adding more service areas, use case examples and technical elements. The project also demonstrates a service where ICEYE SAR data is used for sea ice monitoring in the Baltic. This includes development of data processing and distribution methods.
The project is under ESAs EO4society programme (contract number 4000133565/20/I-NB) and part of the Baltic Regional Initiative activities. The project is supported by ESA Network of Resources Initiative.
