The Association of the Geological Surveys of the European Union

Honorable Delegates,

We would like to inform you of recent major achievements and deliverables of EuroGeoSurveys (EGS), the Geological Surveys of Europe, in support of GEOSS.

EGS’ flagship project, GSEU (Geological Service for Europe), funded under European Union’s Horizon Europe research programme, is beginning to see its first results being published a year since it was launched. The project is being implemented over 5 years, from 2022-2027, and is the outcome of many years of preparation for it to happen. The thematic work packages within the project include ‘Coastal vulnerability assessment & optimised offshore windfarm Siting’, which is particularly focused on helping governments, regional and local authorities, industry, cultural heritage organisations and the marine research community to make informed decisions about the sustainable development, management and protection of coastal areas and the seabed, integrating a combination of Earth observation and in situ data. Coastal areas are sensitive zones that require careful management due to increasing pressures from urbanisation, climate change (sea level rise) and extreme weather events. A detailed understanding of the current geological processes on the seabed and its subsurface geology is crucial for all stages of the planning process and subsequent site investigation for the development of offshore wind farms and associated infrastructure. During the project, experts will demonstrate how coastal vulnerability assessment and adaptation to climate change can be supported by geological and hydrogeological information in combination with EMODnet (European Marine Observation and Data network), Copernicus services and space geodesy. Coastal vulnerability assessment requires an interdisciplinary approach that considers the central role of geomorphology and surface geology in coastal evolution and associated risks.

The second big addition of EGS to GEOSS is the operational portal of the European Geological Data Infrastructure (EGDI) which is constantly being updated with the new data and currently is being further developed through the GSEU project. Data from many pan-European projects and from thousands of national datasets are already available in a common platform with more than 600 data layers, covering harmonised spatial information such as onshore and offshore geology, mineral and energy resources, geohazards, geochemistry or soil, groundwater and urban geology. Such data have high relevance to the Earth Observation community and they can serve as validation or ground truth data. The EGS Spatial Information Expert Group has been working on further data harmonisation to create pan-European data with integrated metadata. The data from the platform are also being used in the GSEU project.

Another point worth mentioning is the project European ground motion risk assessment tool (RASTOOL). It is funded by the European Commission through the Union Civil Protection Mechanism (UCPM). RASTOOL started on the 1st of April 2022 and will last for 24 months. RASTOOL proposes a set of tools which are targeting the preparedness against ground motion phenomena detectable by means of satellite interferometry. The tools are being (i) adapted to the volume, format and specifications of the EGMS, (ii) tested and internally quality controlled, (iii) distributed to the users and (iv) validated in multiple border regions. The outputs are intended for the use within the CP cycle, specifically in the preparedness and prevention stages; according to previous experience, the information provided, impact of geohazards and preliminary risk assessment, will be ready to be streamed down by stakeholders. The project aims to be a step forward on the ground motion hazards management addressing the following issues: (a) The active ground motion data can be overwhelming for users, thus specific experience is needed to handle it. RASTOOL is providing the users with easy-to-use tools able to generate derived products ready to be implemented in Civil Protection Activities (CPA) practices. (b) RASTOOL is designed to bridge the gap between the knowledge and trust of stakeholders in the satellite interferometric (InSAR) data and to demonstrate how primary to CPAs, InSAR products can have a real impact on every-day activities and are not a pure ground motion estimation. (c) RASTOOL will try to construct a continuous collaboration with stakeholders and end users. User needs were defined at the start of the project with the collaboration of the involved stakeholders and then re-evaluated at different stages of the project, e.g. after training events and workshops or after the delivery of user-oriented deliverables (e.g. the user manual). Two pilot cases will be organised, in Poland and Belgium, involving EGS members PGI-NRI (Poland pilot) and RBINS-GSB (Belgium Pilot).

EGS has also contributed recently to the GEO SPACE-SECURITY Pilot Initiative project “InSAR for underground water extraction impact on subsidence in vulnerable regions”, as well as the Horizon 2020 funded project “EuroGEO Showcases: Applications Powered by Europe” (e-shape) which ended this year.

The Earth Observation and Geohazards Expert Group (EOEG) of EuroGeoSurveys is leading the GEO community activity on Earth Observations for Geohazards, Land Degradation and Environmental monitoring: https://www.earthobservations.org/activity.php?id=88

Through this Community of Activity, the EOEG is sharing software tools, capacities and knowledge on the exploitation of Copernicus data for geological and anthropogenic hazard assessment and for environmental/mineral mapping. In this context, EOEG, through the H2020 U-GEOHAZ project (Urban Geohazards), has developed free EO processing tools of satellite radar data that permit to support geohazard detection, monitoring and evaluation in urban areas. Similarly, the QUANTool box free software has been released, permitting to process multi and hyperspectral Earth Observation data allowing for mineral mapping and classification.

Concerning raw materials: the EGS Minerals Resources Expert Group (MREG) contributes to mineral raw material data (for both primary and secondary resources) through support for the European Commission’s Raw Materials Initiative, the European Raw Materials Knowledge Base, and the DG Joint Research Centre’s Raw Materials Information System.

EuroGeoSurveys remains a committed and active member of the European GEO High-Level Working Group and EuroGEO, and a strong supporter of the global GEO community.

Thank you for your attention,

EuroGeoSurveys