A Belgian start-up company, supported by ESA Space Solutions, is researching ways to use satellite imagery to help increase the amount of carbon held in soil, in turn significantly reducing the effects of climate change wrought by agriculture. ScanWorld will use the data gathered to help the new breed of carbon farmers speed up the process of soil sampling, reducing their costs and increasing carbon capture.

Conventional farming is under scrutiny. Practices such as widespread use of fertilisers, monocultures and leaving soil bare in winter damage ecosystems and drive climate change. Vegetation is also under pressure from extreme weather events, soil erosion and the constant potential for new diseases to emerge. Meanwhile, the growth in world population is putting further strain on agriculture – by 2050 it is estimated that 60 per cent more food will be required to feed the world, yet simultaneously crop yields will be decreasing under pressure from global warming. This has led to the rise of new forms of sustainable agriculture, a subject discussed in depth at the recent COP26 climate summit in Glasgow.

One technique is carbon farming which aims to increase the amount of carbon in soils, and one which Belgian start-up ScanWorld intends to make much less onerous from now on. Atmospheric carbon is a well-understood cause of climate change. The good news is that soils can store up to three times more carbon than the atmosphere and increasing soil organic carbon (SOC) also improves the health and resilience of ecosystems, and protects against both drought and flooding. This realisation is now driving changes in agricultural practices as numerous initiatives from the private and public sectors are helping farmers transition away from conventional methods to carbon farming.

The EU carbon farming action plan recommends paying farmers for every additional tonne of carbon sequestered in their soil, above baseline levels, and some governments are already offering similar incentives. But the system is reliant on accurate measurements of SOC. Until now this has relied on farmers walking their fields, identifying key areas for testing, collecting samples, and sending them to laboratories, a time-consuming and expensive process.

ScanWorld, supported by the ESA Space Solutions’ Kick-Start programme, is hoping to make life easier for carbon farmers. In its recently concluded research project it worked closely with carbon farming experts to discover if hyperspectral imagery provided by satellites could improve the efficiency of the field-sampling process. Using the spectrum of light, hyperspectral imagery allows direct measurements of water and dry matter content in foliage, crucial for identifying the chemistry of vegetation and its surrounding land.

The company’s CEO Guerric de Crombrugghe says: “ScanWorld delivers Level 2 hyperspectral imagery, twice a week, for any point of the globe. This enables a wide range of applications including estimates of SOC, but also early disease alerts, and water and fertiliser management.”

ScanWorld has entered into a collaboration with Australian company CarbonSync to produce computer models that can transform how carbon farmers work by providing local information on a global scale. The models bring simple and affordable tools to farmers and agronomists allowing informed decisions to be made locally, helping farmers identify areas on their land where sampling would be most beneficial, minimising the number they need to take, increasing efficiency and reducing costs.

“The breakthrough we are aiming for is to build models for each individual farm, a trove of information so that your decisions can be supported by data generated on your farm,” says CarbonSync’s CEO, Louise Edmonds. “Satellite-based imagery has been on our radar for a long time, but we have found it hard to bridge the gap between the data and the need for actionable insights for the farmers. ScanWorld’s team was a great partner to tackle this challenge.”

In addition to their work with agriculture, ScanWorld also supports other markets and activities including environmental monitoring, energy leak detection and mining.

The European Space Agency (ESA) and the UN Global Compact CEO Water Mandate have signed a Memorandum of Intent (MoI) to promote the development of space-enabled applications to support purposeful innovation addressing water challenges. The new partnership was signed on 10 Nov by Jason Morrison, President of the Pacific Institute and Head of the UN Global Compact CEO Water Mandate, and Elodie Viau, Director of Telecommunications and Integrated Applications at ESA, at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow.

The worst impacts of the climate crisis will be felt through water. Although water covers over 70% of our planet, only a very small fraction is fresh water with 97% being saline and ocean based. This fresh water is being threatened by significant forces, like overdevelopment, pollution, and climate change. Presently, two billion people around the world are living in water-stressed areas, and the same will be true of more than half the world’s population by 2050 if no action is taken. Based on projected demand, the world will face a 40 per cent shortfall in freshwater supply within 10 years. With urgent action, the world’s water crises can be alleviated. But it will take leadership from industry and partnership from expert communities, governments, NGOs, and others.

The corporate water stewardship strategy of the UN Global Compact CEO Water Mandate mobilises business leaders of more than 200 member companies on water, sanitation, and the Sustainable Development Goals. To do so, the CEO Water Mandate works with a wide range of government, UN agencies, and civil society partners to strengthen its research and guidance and to help ensure its work is implemented meaningfully on the ground, to address water-related challenges. One of its initiatives, the Water Resilience Coalition (WRC), unites CEOs committed to accelerating collective action in water-stressed basins with ambitious goals that could benefit water security for more than 3 billion people.

“At the core of the Water Resilience Coalition is the understanding that no stakeholder can face the water crisis alone. Entering into a formal partnership with ESA will bring innovative space-enabled applications addressing water challenges and contributing to advance Sustainable Development Goals. This partnership will increase the speed at which we move to revitalise 100 of the most water-stressed basins in the world and achieve WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) access for at least 100 million people,”  says Jason Morrison, President of the Pacific Institute and Head of the CEO Water Mandate.

As set out in its recently released vision for European space activities, ESA is stepping up its efforts to use space to combat the climate crisis through Agenda 2025. "Space offers a vast untapped potential to ramp up the fight for a green future and tackle global climate change” says ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher. "It is now time to translate great ideas into concrete actions and leverage their economic potential."

ESA has launched three accelerators to unite European space actors to collectively put their strengths and excellence to work to solve crises on Earth caused by natural or human-made disasters: “Rapid, resilient crisis response”, “Space for a green future” and “Protection of space assets”, which will make the difference when dealing with climate change and geopolitical instabilities. 

Through its Business Applications programme, ESA’s Telecommunications and Integrated Applications (TIA) Directorate is supporting businesses from every area of the economy in driving green innovation. With the aim of strengthening the joint efforts on space-based applications, digitalisation and technology enablers, the MoI with CEO Water Mandate focuses on supporting purposeful innovation addressing water issues, while supporting Water Resilience Coalition member companies in their commitment to achieve Net Positive Water Impact in water-stressed basins.

 

‘’COP26 is an essential platform in addressing environmental challenges like these. I’m pleased to announce this cooperation with Water Mandate which realises the potential of space to drive commercial solutions for a green economy. This is a great example on how ESA is using space technologies and applications for Net Positive Water Impact,’’ says Elodie Viau, Director of Telecommunications and Integrated Applications at ESA.