Cities all over the world are entering a new era. The concept of smart cities that encourages the digital transformation of many city sectors, has been gaining popularity globally. A smart city is defined as a city which merges traditional infrastructure with Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in order to promote innovation and provide useful [...]
With support of PARSEC, Mundi now follows the trend towards actionable datacubes offering analytics, visualization, and fusion service in the Mundi marketplace, linked into the EarthServer federation. Mundi is one of the European DIAS services tasked with providing Sentinel satellite data. The Mundi Marketplace comprises a one-stop shop for Earth Observation services on top of [...]
Insurance is a millennial practice for transferring or distributing risk, to protect from financial loss. As an Earth Observation (EO) market, Insurance is traditionally a small one, but an emerging approach called parametric insurance recently opens new opportunities for EO service providers. If traditional insurance products indemnify for an actual loss sustained, parametric insurance contracts offer a means [...]
Wildfires are a menace that gained much of public attention during recent years' summer seasons. Images of swaths of Australian bush ablaze in January and February 2020 caught public attention as brave firefighters were carrying koala bears from the inferno. The Australian fires were followed by an exceptionally disastrous fire-season in the Western United States. [...]
Traditionally, energy savings has been a driver for building management globally. Gradually, energy benefits are becoming secondary to operational efficiency and non-energy benefits such as occupancy analytics, air quality and worker productivity. In this sense, space utilization is becoming the significant differential metric particularly in the commercial building market. As employees increasingly work from home, [...]
Citizen engagement is a complementary aspect of smart cities related to the support of greater engagement in an attempt to tap into the collective intelligence of cities as well as better understanding their daily acts and needs. Currently, a bigger priority in energy efficiency-oriented training and promotion activities is given to the implementation of modern [...]
Smart cities are based on well connected, sustainable, and resilient technologies allowing the information to be available and findable. Significant amounts of data are generated and two key trends make this data collection and availability possible: Internet of Things (IoT) and Open Data. All the smart solutions in smart cities are based on IoT where [...]
Autonomous driving, connected vehicles, electrification, ride-sharing, and mass-transit systems are set to change the face of mobility in cities 11. Zero-emission vehicles are attributed to the transportation options not resulting in harmful emissions during vehicle operation. Typical examples are electric (battery-powered) vehicles and trains, hydrogen-fuelled vehicles, and human/animal powered transportation. The battery technology for electric [...]
The environmental change affects cities and their inhabitants more regularly, bringing new challenges for city planners. Among those, there is a need to improve air and water quality and control noise pollution looking to create a healthy and enjoyable environment for city inhabitants. For that, environmental monitoring and management is gaining importance, as understanding and [...]
What is smart specialisation (strategy), and why is it important? The Smart Specialisation Strategy (S3) is a policy concept developed as an instrument for boosting national or regional innovation, specifically focused on the strengths and the competitive advantages of a region, through enhancement of partnerships between businesses, public entities, and knowledge institutions. Registered countries and [...]
