Earth Observation Services
The CopernicusLAC EO Services activities include the development of innovative services for disaster risk reduction (DRR) based on Copernicus Sentinel satellite data. These services will be integrated into the CopernicusLAC Panama Centre, which will provide users in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) access to the information, services, and processing capabilities established by the Centre in the region.
The EO services are the result of an intensive phase of interviews and meetings with stakeholders across the LAC region, culminating in various agreements and collaborations to jointly co-develop the services with key institutions.
This preliminary phase served to introduce the CopernicusLAC Panama Centre to regional stakeholders, actively involve various actors in the development of the proposed services, and support these stakeholders in leveraging Copernicus satellite data. This phase has increased ties within the regional disaster risk reduction (DRR) and Earth Observation (EO) ecosystems for promoting research and generating new products and services based on satellite imagery.
The project portfolio includes pre-operational applications of the developed services in selected areas throughout the LAC region for the purpose of demonstrating and testing their capabilities and potential.
The services and demonstrations, or ‘use cases’, are organised within four thematic areas: Hydrometeorological Hazards, Wildfires, Geological Hazards, and Exposure.
The services will be made available as open-source resources and implemented at the regional level (for the entire LAC region) in their operational phase for long-term exploitation.
More details about the EO Services are available in the CopernicusLAC EO Service Platform.
An overview of the EO Services Co-Development activity is provided in the documents attached below.
Hydrometeorological Hazards Theme
The hydrometeorological hazards theme focuses on leveraging Copernicus Sentinel data for flood and drought in the LAC region.
Ten services will be developed dedicated to flooding and one service to drought. The corresponding use cases will be tailored according to the specific needs of the geographic area of application. Use cases include topics on flooding dynamics, Copernicus Sentinel data merging with hydraulic modelling, past events cataloguing for hurricane preparation, and drought index customisation.
Wildfires Theme
The wildfires theme focuses on leveraging Copernicus Sentinel data for wildfire assessment and preparedness in the LAC region.
Services provide insights on burned area, fire danger, and post-fire recovery mapping, among other topics. The corresponding use case is tailored according to the specific needs of the geographic area of application.
Geological Hazards Theme
The geohazards services support landslide preparedness and hazard assessment by mapping the intrinsic likelihood of slope failure and detecting and monitoring ground deformation. The landslide‑susceptibility service applies machine‑learning methods to Sentinel‑2 NDVI, local geology, and past landslide records to estimate where slope conditions are more likely to permit future failures, providing detailed maps that inform planning and preparedness actions. In parallel, three InSAR‑based terrain‑motion services measure vertical and horizontal deformation rates and full displacement time series with millimetric precision, offering evidence of active subsidence, uplift, or lateral movements. Integrating susceptibility outputs with InSAR‑derived ground‑motion products produces a landslide hazard layer that identifies zones where predisposition and observed deformation jointly indicate elevated hazard.
Exposure Theme
The exposure services provide detailed spatial information on people, assets, and natural capital that may be affected by hazardous events. One service estimates the economic value of exposed artificial assets and four categories of ecosystem services using dasymetric techniques and country‑level or local-level aggregated economic statistics. Another service uses AI together with multiple open-data layers to assess the population potentially exposed to disasters, drawing on DLR’s WSF Tracker, WSF Imperviousness, and WSF 3D products to capture settlement presence, land sealing, and vertical structure. Together, these services offer high‑resolution exposure mapping that supports disaster management by providing a clear picture of the elements at risk.
User Communities
