Objectives of the service
The SatMRV service is intended to provide scalable, dependable, and cost-effective Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) sampling plans and maps for Soil Carbon MRV (monitoring, reporting, and verification) applications. The SatMRV service reduces the cost and heavy field effort associated with SOC sampling and monitoring by leveraging remote sensing and machine learning, while also supporting sustainable and regenerative agriculture. Our objective is to empower stakeholders with the tools they need to help change the agriculture industry from a CO2 producer to CO2 sink.
Users and their needs
SatMRV offers satellite-based soil organic carbon (SOC) mapping and monitoring solutions to a wide range of stakeholders in the agricultural and food sectors. Our primary clients include Carbon Farming (CF) project developers, farmer, food, and agribusiness companies, particularly in countries with advanced agricultural systems and strong environmental policies, such as North and South America, Australia, and Europe.
Soil carbon projects developers on the SatMRV service benefit from high-resolution, verifiable SOC data when designing, monitoring, and certifying carbon projects in accordance with international standards. Our platform provides the tools required for effective MRV (Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification), which allows for the creation of high-quality, protocol-compliant carbon credits. This provides a solid foundation for confidently accessing climate finance and participating in carbon markets.
Farmers gain access to clear, understandable information about their soil's carbon performance and overall health. Our solution enables them to track progress towards regenerative practices and participate in carbon programs. Farmers who increase soil carbon improve productivity and resilience while also gaining access to additional income streams through carbon credit generation.
Food brands and agribusiness companies use SatMRV to gain visibility into Scope 3 emissions from sourced commodities as well as to assess the climate impact of their supply chains. With accurate, up-to-date SOC data, these companies can help their suppliers transition to regenerative agriculture, reduce emissions across their value chain, and communicate their sustainability progress to customers and stakeholders.
User Needs:
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Accurate and up-to-date SOC measurements to track and reduce emissions across agricultural supply chains.
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High-quality SOC data at minimal labour and cost to support scalable, sustainable sourcing initiatives.
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A user-friendly, cloud-based platform to manage carbon projects efficiently across large geographic areas.
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A robust method for generating certified carbon credits, aligned with major carbon standards and protocols.
The SatMRV service enables all stakeholders—developers, growers, and food companies—to take measurable climate action in the soil. Supporting the transition to regenerative agriculture strengthens supply chains and enables businesses to lead with integrity in a low-carbon future.
Service/ system concept
The SatMRV service is delivered to end-users via a Web-app and API, allowing them to easily delineate or upload their AOIs, request the stratified soil sampling plan for an AOI and customize it based on their requirements and/or knowledge of the AOI, and finally map SOC for an AOI using a Machine Learning (ML) model that has been trained on a large SOC database and will continue its training incrementally on the SOC data returned from the soil lab. A key feature of the SatMRV service is its advanced stratified soil sampling planning, which uses a sensitivity analysis for the sampling plan's Minimum Detectable Difference (MDD), allows users to optimise the number of samples based on their SOC sequestration expectations. Furthermore, end-users can use a mobile app to accurately navigate to sampling locations.
Space Added Value
The SatMRV service is powered primarily by Earth Observation (EO) satellites (Sentinel-2, Sentinel-1, and Landsat-8/9) as well as a variety of Land/Environmental variables (such as elevation, topographic wetness, soil texture, weather variables, etc.) derived from high resolution Digital Elevation Models, Soil Databases, and Weather/Climate Models. The combination of all of these elements ensure accuracy and reliability of the soil sampling plans and SOC maps, as well as meeting the requirements of the CF Standards, which allow for the issuance and certification of carbon credits.
Current Status
Several workshops and interviews with users from Europe and the Americas were held to effectively gather user needs and requirements, with a focus on regenerative farming, food processing, and agricultural retailing businesses. We also attended numerous carbon farming-related conferences to meet with stakeholders and gather feedback. The service design process also included consultations with project developers, researchers, and farmers. The user requirements have been finalised.
The overall system architecture and individual components were successfully developed. Soil stratification maps, soil sampling plans, and SOC maps have been created for several pilot customers, and we are currently gathering feedback to improve the SatMRV service. We also created a mobile app to accurately locate sampling locations, which simplifies the soil sampling process. In addition, our system can now handle the samples' lab results.
We designed the app in response to our users' requests. The webapp currently allows users to create Soil Stratification and Soil Sample Designs. Users can make and save multiple versions of the sampling design. Our system automatically suggests the number of strata and soil sample plan in a few clicks based on statistical analysis. However, the user can change the stratification and sample design based on their local experience and needs.
The mobile app enables sample collectors to access sampling plans, simplifying their work and ensuring the samples are collected in the right spots. After collecting the samples, the sample collector may provide feedback such as "sample collected" and the web-based application provides the project manager with real-time updates on the sampling campaign.
We are currently running pilots with a number of project developers, farmers, and food companies who are using our platform to create soil sample designs, collect soil samples, and generate SOC maps for their AOIs. The pilot registration is still open for anyone interested in trying out our SatMRV services. The operational feedback from users is being collected to help improve the application further.
Prime Contractor(s)
