Fields of application

Energy industry

In the energy industry data of earth observation are mainly used for upstream activities of oil and gas companies. Given the market potential the added value could be higher. The intervening companies are generating most of their sales by using the copernius data for GIS applications and less by earth observation raw data.

Renewable energies

In the area of renewable energies EO data are mainly used for biomass and solar energy. The whole EO market is at less than 23 million Euro – Copernicus data have a market share of 10 per cent. This is also due to the fact that business applications are relatively new for intervening users. Even if the European market for renewable energies is very big (approx. 130 billion Euro), the added value for end users is rather low. Here EO data have only a small share, the share of copernicus data is by 0.001 to 0,1 per cent.

Mining – Post-mining

So far Copernicus data are only used experimental in post-mining. Especially for land monitoring it is necessary to prove their usability in general and to develop approaches. Application areas are monitoring and modeling technologies for observing and optimizing drainage, hydro geology, sensor technology as well as an appropriate geo data infrastructure.

Water economy

Water economy that means drink water supply and wastewater disposal are subject to permanent quality supervision and control. Long-term planning criteria, current information and forecasting systems require versatile and meaningful data. Here the Copernicus services consisting of satellite data and further in-situ components can provide a valuable basis. Combined with modern communication systems, cloud-based platforms and user specific applications future orientated developments can be composed.

Agriculture

In agriculture earth observation plays already an important role for a long time – especially in the field of precision farming. The Copernicus project offers huge potential in this field and new perspectives. By now already more than 13 per cent of the EO data come from the Copernicus satellite observation.

Forestry

Forestry differs from country to country. The forest areas are either mainly privately or publically owned. Thus the development of the added value through the Copernicus project is difficult to predict. Forestry EO data are mainly used by public institutes, there are only a few commercial applications. Similar to agriculture there is a multitude of intervening companies and research institutes. The Copernicus share in used EO data is approx. 12 per cent.