The ITC faculty of University of Twente maintains a number of earth observation sites to support research and education. These earth observation sites are part of a global network: the ‘Global Earth Observation System of Systems’ (GEOSS).
These sites are part of our effort to guarantee ITC’s successful and sustained contribution to GEOSS and contribute to two competencies:
- Conduct fundamental research using both space-based and in situ sensors to further relevant ITC expertise and application areas meeting GEOSS needs (e.g. disasters, water cycle, climate change, ecosystems, agriculture, and biodiversity, relevant to ITC’s expertise).
- Offer advanced earth observation courses as requested in the GEOSS social benefit areas.
The general goals of the earth observation sites and related education and research activities are to strengthen the capability of our students and staff, consistent with the objective of GEOSS capacity building initiative, to:
- Use earth observation data and products (i.e. process, integrate, model, etc.) in a sustainable, repeatable manner (both space-based and in situ sensors), with results or outputs that are consistent with accepted earth observing standards
- To contribute in situ observations to global networks, and access and retrieve relevant data from global data systems useful for in situ applications
- Analyse and interpret data (both in situ and space-based) to derive nationally, regionally and globally relevant information and provide decision-support systems and tools useful to decision-makers.
- Integrate earth observation data and information with data and information from other sources for a comprehensive and holistic view and understanding of problems in order to identify sustainable solutions.
An impression of the sites we are operating can be found below:
