Space for Cities


The Eurisy Initiative

At Eurisy, we work to foster uses of satellite applications that can improve our life. As growing urbanisation is challenging the way we live and interact with the natural environment, Eurisy launches an initiative to promote the use of satellite applications to make our cities healthier, cleaner, safer, and more efficient.

The initiative aims to:

  • Highlight success stories from cities relying on innovative satellite-based services;
  • Foster  the exchange of expertise and know-how among city managers, SMEs and stakeholders;
  • Identify challenges faced by local administrations and SMEs to access and use satellite data and signals;
  • Assess the needs of local administrations for which satellite-based services can contribute to the solution;
  • Make recommendations to service providers, space agencies and stakeholders on how to facilitate the use of satellite-based services at the city level.

We will use our website and social media to raise awareness on cities' success stories. We will also organise a series of workshops to allow local administrations and stakeholders to share their experiences, assess their needs and inform them of funding and support opportunities to use satellite-based services.

Why satellite applications for cities?

Satellites alone cannot fight global warming or inequalities, but they offer data and signals that can be used to improve the life of those inhabiting urban areas. Satellite applications are already part of our daily lives. Without us noticing, we use them when choosing what to wear in the morning, how to reach our destination, and even which restaurant we will go to in the evening.

Satellite imagery allows for an integrated view of land uses and infrastructures. It is already employed by city managers, for example to target soil and infrastructure maintenance works where they are most needed, or to decide on where to build a new park. Earth Observation also provides information on air temperature and quality, which helps local authorities to identify urban heat islands, to make predictions about the impact of different traffic scenarios on air quality, and to intervene on areas where construction materials retain too much heat.

Satellite navigation is also a precious tool to improve city management, in particular to monitor and optimise public and private transport. Indeed, satellite navigation has today a crucial role in providing real-time information on public transport and in the implementation of intermodal transport systems in cities and their hinterlands. Numerous apps use satellite navigation signals, e.g. to help persons with disabilities in their daily movements or to enable residents to access information about public services and provide feedback to their local authorities. 

Satellite communication is also used in cities, to connect rescue teams when other connections are down, or to perform health checks in public spaces, among others.

These are just a few of the many existing applications of satellite data and signals which can help building safe, inclusive and resilient cities, as envisaged by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 11.

Seizing the impacts of satellite applications on urban areas is just a first step to envisage the full exploitation of these tools to build sustainable cities. The new constellations of satellites and services deployed by single governments and by the European Union (Galileo, Copernicus and EGNOS) will provide us with additional tools to enhance economic, social and environmental well-being in cities.

It is hence fundamental that cities are prepared to profit from these resources and that their needs are carefully assessed and considered when developing new products and services based on satellite applications. 

To find out more about what satellite applications can do in cities, have a look at the infographic below.

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