EO tools to power up the Green Transition

Green Transition Information Factories (GTIF) are a central component of the S4GF ambition. This is a cloud-based environment, fed by EO information as well as other data sources, where intuitive tools are provided to various users to discover the underlying challenges and opportunities of transitioning to carbon neutrality by 2050 using the power of Earth Observation, cloud-computing and cutting-edge analytics.

GTIF addresses the information needs of the Green Transition and enables users to inform themselves and participate in the process. For this, GTIF provides interactive tools, indicators and scientific narratives made available through a central environment producing actionable information for different users, including decision makers, industry and citizens.

The Austria demonstrator

While GTIF capabilities shall be eventually available for all of Europe to support specifically also the European Green Deal, a first demonstrator is now being developed for Austria.

The development begun in summer 2022 with requirements collection, definition, design and development of the first GTIF demonstrator.

The work has been involving many Austrian stakeholders – including ministries and agencies - and many Austrian (and some European) industrial partners, in a large and very time efficient coordination effort. National priorities towards a Green Transition have been initially identified along 5 main Green Transition domains: Energy Transition, Mobility Transition, Sustainable Cities, Carbon Accounting and EO Adaptation Services.

Today ESA is releasing the beta version of GTIF Austria accessible at gtif.esa.int.

What is featured in this beta release version?

The GTIF beta version offers access to many datasets produced by dedicated scientific teams and some initial interactive exploration tools.

For instance, under the Energy Transition domain is now possible to explore the suitability of different areas for wind or solar power installations at fine spatial detail, under consideration of constraining variables such as e.g., terrain, distance to the energy grid and to settlements, or presence of protected areas. Users can perform further investigations into related trade-offs with for example other land usages or soil quality.

Disclaimer

The beta release still has some limitations, and many changes, upgrades and new capabilities will become available in the near future.

Nonetheless we'd like to invite you to start exploring GTIF and get engaged from the very beginning in such an exciting and crucial transition towards a greener future!

Source: ESA