What does GMES data mean and why should I care

GMES APP-CAMP, Observe and LearnJune 22, 2012

Team Members

Graham LancashireSwift Management AG

Sebastian Höbarth University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria

Michal WojtysiakPoznan University of Technology

Jaroslav Ozevic

IGTS

Introduction

GEO Life is a friendly introduction to earth observation for citizens. By showing the direct impact on their everyday lives they see the benefits for them personally. The target audience are adults and children from 12 onwards.

The core of the application consists of 3 main parts: multimedia educational content, real environment data for user location and social functionalities. The application is modular, so additional content can be added easily.

Target audience

GEO Life targets a broad audience without any special technical background that want to understand what data can be provided by earth monitoring systems and how this can impact their on everyday life.

Information presented in application can be easily understood by secondary school students as well as elderly people. The initial focus of GEO Life is on Europe, however global coverage of GMES-like services avails fast extension to other parts of the world.

Overview of the Application

GEO Life is a tablet application to allow for greater ease of use and clarity of presentation. This in conjunction with non technical texts makes is ideal for educational use.

We have written the texts to make them easy to understand for ordinary citizens. We have incorporated GMES material where it adds to the

understanding without being overly technical.

Once the user has chosen a topic he is shown a short explanation what the topic is a about. We have integrated the very accessible GMES videos which he can watch directly on the device.

If you choose the “Sunburn Risk” case you see the current UV Index for your location with a clear explanation of what it means for you: what sun protection should YOU use.

To give you an idea of how your location relates to others you can view the UV index of your friends and popular European capitals. You would be able to add further locations and invite friends to share their values with you.

Current implemented use cases use the UV Index (Temis) and the Sealing Percentage (GMES test data).

Relevance to the GMES program● Show the citizens and policy makers what earth observation can do for

them in their everyday lives.● Take the concept “Create information from data” a step further by

creating information a normal citizen understands and can relate to.● Present the core topics that GMES covers in an interesting and accessible

way.● Increase the general awareness of the benefits of technology

Potential future evolution● Develop a companion application for phones as an environmental

dashboard● Develop further use cases containing sensor data from the Sentinel

Satellites with direct relevance for the user● Tight integration with social platforms● Support for other mobile platforms● Enhance the educational content● Adding news related to use cases

GEO Life static data and multimedia is based on ESA portal thus can be considered as an integral part of ESA. Such an approach greatly simplifies the IPR constraints.

ConclusionTying educational content to real data and exploiting the power of existing social media creates a engaging and dynamic learning experience. In addition to the primarily educational role the application acts as an easily accessible, comprehensive and powerful forecast and environment dashboard.

We want to make citizens interested in the real life applications for the GMES data, make them care.