Envision

Innovative tools for monitoring farm management activities.

Description:

ENVISION contributes in the achievement of CAP’s environmental objectives, offering the tools for the continuous, large scale and uninterrupted monitoring of farm management activities with regards to sustainability. These tools reinforce the monitoring of of environmental- and climate-friendly agricultural practices stemming from EU policy ensuring that the agricultural activities do not severely impact the climate and nature.

Data and Data Products:

ENVISION fully exploits the wealth of data made available through GEOSS and Copernicus and its synergetic use with other data to develop data products such as: Cultivated crop type maps; Soil Organic Carbon; Distinction of organic – conventional farming; Grassland mowing/ploughing; Soil erosion.

It makes use of heterogeneous types of available data (EO-based, in situ, open data, and historical on-field check data) and state-of-the-art technologies and methodologies (automatic pixel/texture/object oriented change detection and classification methods, machine learning, data fusion, multi-source and multi-temporal data management) for providing a fully-automated and scalable toolbox of services, built in close interaction with its future customers.

Services:

The toolbox of services addresses existing gaps in compliance and monitoring processes of agri-environmental and climate rules for CAP post-2020 era while facilitating farmers towards more sustainable agricultural practices. Therefore, the ENVISION toolbox is a concrete set of tools that PAs & CBs can provide to farmers for adhering to environmentally friendly agricultural practices, as well as an Add-on Development Tool that can be used by third-party developers to extent ENVISION functionality. The ENVISION monitoring service identifies unsustainable agriculture practices that can result to the following interrelated environmental impacts: Soil degradation; Biodiversity loss; Landscape degradation; GHG emissions; Water pollution.

Business Cases:

ENVISION develops services that best fit the needs of PAs and OCBs helping them to master the complex processes of monitoring farmers’ performance in relation to the environmental rules stemming from EU policy. These services will be tested and validated in an operational environment not only by the project pilot partners but also by a group of Lighthouse Customers. A market analysis, business model experimentation techniques and appropriate decision-making tools will determine the commercially viable business models for the services and products of ENVISION, and define alternative business models, understand their implications and identify those that will create the greatest value.