Monitoring, supporting and feeding a growing population starts with EU Space
The global population is expected to swell to a whopping 9 billion people by 2037, just 15 years after it reached the 8 billion milestone. Not only does this rapid growth have a direct impact on the environment, climate change and resource scarcity, it has fundamentally transformed the planet.
One of the most visible transformations has been the significant increase in built-up areas worldwide. According to the Atlas of the Human Planet 2024, around 3.5 billion people now live in cities – nearly three times more than back in 1975. Put another way, today nearly half of the world’s population calls urban areas home.
The Atlas is based on data from the Global Human Settlement Layer (GHSL), a product of the Copernicus Emergency Management Service (CEMS). According to an article by the Copernicus Observer, GHSL datasets use information about built-up areas extracted from Copernicus Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 satellites images, which are combined with national census data to develop population density grids. These grids are then used to map settlement types, classifying areas into cities, towns and semi-dense zones, or rural regions.
Copernicus helps keeping cities cool
In addition to monitoring how populations and built-up areas evolve over time, Copernicus data can be used to help keep our growing population safe – especially in extreme heat waves.
City planners are already leveraging the data generated by the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) to reconsider the layout of cities to mitigate heat-related risks. For instance, the EUSPA-supported ECOTEN project is combining Earth Observation data with available socio-demographic data to create high-resolution maps that provide city planners with a real-time analysis of extreme heat vulnerability in a given urban area.
The project’s solutions were used in Vienna to map the vulnerability of each of the city’s electoral districts. What the maps revealed was that several heavily populated areas had an urban heat vulnerability index value of 0.9 on a scale where 1.0 implies a high vulnerability to an extreme heat event. The map also identified 10 ‘hot spots’, including areas with little to no green space or areas with a large concentration of young children and/or older adults, both of whom are at risk populations.
City planners can use this map, which was made possible thanks to Copernicus data, to adapt their urban planning to the realities of a warmer climate.
Some other examples of Copernicus-based projects include BUILDSPACE and 100KTREEs. BUILDSPACE is a EUSPA-funded project aiming to enhance urban resilience to climate change. It integrates Copernicus satellite data with aerial drone imagery and terrestrial building data to create "digital twins" of cities, which can be used to model different scenarios. One of the project's key services is a high-resolution urban heat analysis that, when combined with demographic data, helps calculate urban heat risk and assess social vulnerability to extreme temperatures.
100KTREEs aims to plant more trees in cities to mitigate urban heat islands and heatwaves, improve air quality in cities and reduce climate risks. Currently the project has involved Sofia in Bulgaria and Copenhagen in Denmark to gain a better understanding the challenges facing these cities while implementing a tree planting strategy.
More mouths to feed
Climate change’s impact is by no means restricted to those living in cities, it impacts the entire world population. For example, as climate change wreaks havoc on global food chains, figuring out how to sustainably feed a growing population becomes increasingly difficult.
Using GNSS for planting crops can determine where to apply fertilisers and pesticides, thereby reducing their use.
Galileo and Copernicus data are also behind key operational systems and tools such as farm machinery guidance, precision irrigation and variable rate application. These tools increase the productivity of agricultural cultivation by supporting informed management processes and optimising the use of land, seeds, plant protection agents and water.
As a key enabler of precision farming, Galileo and EGNOS allow farmers to optimise the space between planted seeds, which further boosts productivity and yields. Furthermore, data gathered by Copernicus, when combined with various ground measurements, allows researchers to monitor and verify soil conditions – information that can also help farmers increase yields and productivity.
“As the world looks for ways to sustainably support a growing population, space technologies is an extremely helpful ally,” concludes EUSPA Executive Director Rodrigo da Costa.
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