ESA Open Invitation to Tender AO10631
Open Date: 03/03/2021
Closing Date: 07/05/2021 13:00:00

Status: ISSUED
Reference Nr.: 20.155.21
Prog. Ref.: EarthScience Block 4
Budget Ref.: E/A105-01 – EarthScience Block 4
Special Prov.: AT+BE+CZ+DK+FI+FR+DE+GR+HU+IE+IT+LU+NL+NO+PL+PT+ES+SE+CH+GB+RO+SI+LV+CA
Tender Type: C
Price Range: > 500 KEURO
Products: Satellites & Probes / Other
Technology Domains: Others
Establishment: ESRIN
Directorate: Directorate of EO Programmes
Department: Science, Applications & Climate Dep.
Division: Data Applications Division
Contract Officer: Boisard, Nathalie
Industrial Policy Measure: N/A – Not apply
Last Update Date: 03/03/2021
Update Reason: Tender issue

Rangelands cover vast expanses of the terrestrial land surface and provide important ecological functions e.g. for carbon sequestration or to prevent land degradation. In Africa, rangelands provide the basis for many livelihoods and are closely coupled to food security and conflict, especially in arid and marginal agro-ecological conditions. Earth Observation (EO) based monitoring of rangeland extent and condition has considerable potential but it is complicated by several factors, including erratic responses of vegetation to highly variable rainfall patterns or the challenge of separating vegetative time series signals from plant compositions able to provide nutritious forage to grazing animals. With the unprecedented observational capabilities offered by the Copernicus Sentinelmissions, especially S1 SAR and S2 multi-spectral, new opportunities arise to improve EO based information for rangeland monitoring. The „Rangeland Monitoring for Africa using Earth Observation” (RAMONA) activity aims at developing a monitoring approach that results in a set of rangeland specific information products at continental scale and 10m spatial resolution for Africa. The specifications will be driven by the information needs and specific requirements of key user organisations such as e.g. GEOGLAM RAPP. The project shall effectively exploit the Sentinel data record and exploit synergies between sensors in multi-source and multi-scale monitoring approaches. This activity is conceived as a Continental Demonstrator of the ESA EO AFRICA program line and shall ensure capacity building and technology transfer for improved continental rangeland monitoring.