Objectives of the service
Urban and peri-urban small farmers, municipalities, and green infrastructure managers face major challenges in monitoring crop health, detecting stress or disease early, and quantifying environmental benefits such as carbon sequestration. Existing tools are designed for large-scale farms, lack spatial detail, and do not integrate local plant data with satellite information. SAT2LEAF addresses these gaps by combining satellite Earth Observation data from Sentinel-2 with smartphone-based leaf and crop monitoring through Agrobit’s iAgro mobile app. This fusion provides real-time, high-resolution insights into plant health, metrics, growth, and CO₂ absorption, enabling users to optimize irrigation, fertilization, and disease management in fragmented urban spaces. The activity will design, develop, and validate the SAT2LEAF service in selected Italian pilot sites, engaging farmers, city agencies, and advisors in co-design workshops. It will produce a working prototype integrating satellite indices, ground-based diagnostics, and spatial analysis for both individual and institutional users. The goal is to demonstrate how space-enabled, mobile-first precision agriculture can enhance food security, sustainability, and environmental reporting in urban and peri-urban contexts, paving the way for large-scale deployment across European cities.
Users and their needs
SAT2LEAF targets user communities engaged in urban and peri-urban agriculture in Italy (pilot phase) and, subsequently, other European countries. These include small urban farmers, community garden managers, municipalities, and agronomists involved in green infrastructure and local food production.
Users involved in the activity:
- Urban and peri-urban farmers managing rooftop, community, or school gardens.
- Municipalities and city agencies responsible for urban gardens and environmental monitoring.
- Agronomists and advisors supporting small-scale and fragmented farms.
- NGOs and educational groups promoting urban farming and sustainability.
Main user needs:
- Affordable, easy-to-use tools for crop health and disease monitoring.
- Spatially detailed data on plant growth and stress in small plots.
- Reliable estimation of CO₂ absorption and climate impact.
- Actionable recommendations for irrigation and treatment optimization.
- Integration of local field data with satellite insights for data-driven decisions.
Key challenges:
- Adapting satellite data to small, fragmented urban plots.
- Ensuring simplicity and usability for users with low digital literacy.
- Building trust and engagement among non-professional farmers and municipal actors.
- Providing accurate, localized analytics in heterogeneous urban environments.
Service/ system concept
SAT2LEAF provides users with real-time information on crop health, growth, and environmental performance in urban and peri-urban farms. Through the iAgro mobile app, users can 3D-scan plants using their smartphone to assess growth metrics (e.g., canopy volume, canopy height, leaf area, etc.) that lead to assess plant health and CO₂ absorption. The app combines this leaf-level data with satellite images from Copernicus Sentinel-2 data, which provide indicators like vegetation vigour (NDVI), chlorophyll content (TCARI/OSAVI), water stress (NDMI), and canopy development (LAI), and climate data like temperature, rainfall and solar radiation, to spatialize the plant-level information at a larger scale. These data are automatically processed in the cloud and displayed in-app as easy-to-read maps showing the condition of each orchard plot. Farmers and advisors can visualize problem areas, receive alerts, and access recommendations for irrigation, fertilization, or treatment. Municipalities and NGOs can see crop performance and estimated CO₂ absorption across their urban farming areas.
Space Added Value
SAT2LEAF provides users with real-time information on crop health, growth, and environmental performance in urban and peri-urban farms. Through the iAgro mobile app, users can 3D-scan plants using their smartphone to assess growth metrics (e.g., canopy volume, canopy height, leaf area, etc.) that lead to assess plant health and CO₂ absorption. The app combines this leaf-level data with satellite images from Copernicus Sentinel-2 data, which provide indicators like vegetation vigour (NDVI), chlorophyll content (TCARI/OSAVI), water stress (NDMI), and canopy development (LAI), and climate data like temperature, rainfall and solar radiation, to spatialize the plant-level information at a larger scale. These data are automatically processed in the cloud and displayed in-app as easy-to-read maps showing the condition of each orchard plot. Farmers and advisors can visualize problem areas, receive alerts, and access recommendations for irrigation, fertilization, or treatment. Municipalities and NGOs can see crop performance and estimated CO₂ absorption across their urban farming areas.
Current Status
SAT2LEAF is currently ongoing. Stakeholder engagement has begun, involving 3 target users’ representatives (urban/peri-urban farms and NGO managing public gardens in the city of Florence, Italy). The technical overall design of the service architecture with mock-ups has begun as well as market research and analysis of customer/user scenarios with associated needs and constraints.
