ESA opened a call for R&D applications with our 5 m Euro-Maps 3D DSM products under its Third Party Mission activities. This provides a great opportunity to start-ups in ESA-supported Business Incubation Centres and researchers to try our high-quality product free of charge. See the open call here.

GAF is presenting its Elevation Suite 3D products at the Bulgarian EU Council Presidency’s & ESA’s regional workshop entitled “Space-based services for regional strategies in the digital economy: Balkan & Black Sea perspective” in Sofia on 18thand 19th April 2018. The conference is being attended by numerous government officials, as well as representatives from public entities and agencies, research institutions and private sector companies. Interested parties can learn there about the unique capabilities and specifications of GAF’s digital elevation model products, and explore them interactively in a virtual 3D environment.

More information is available at:

Tampa here we come! This year, GAF will exhibit together with e-GEOS at the Geoint Symposium for the first time. Geoint is the preeminent event of the year for the defense, intelligence and homeland security communities. With a personal live VR 3D presentation of our new and innovative products, you can experience what virtual reality means in the world of GIS. We look forward to seeing you at booth 944!

More information is available at:
GAF e-GEOS booth 944 Geoint
http://www.e-geos.it/news-media/item/385-e-geos-at-geoint-symposium-2018.html

GAF, the exclusive supplier in Europe of optical Indian Remote Sensing data from several missions, continues the operational provision of ocean colour data from the Ocean Colour Monitor aboard the Indian Oceansat-2 in near real time to ESA to further promote scientific research and applications.

ESA and GAF agreed the continuation of the data acquisition from the Ocean Colour Monitor (OCM) aboard the Oceansat-2 Indian remote sensing (IRS) satellite until 31 Mar 2019. Part of the agreement is also an option to extend the operations up to 31 Mar 2020.

GAF has been awarded a contract to strengthen human and infrastructural capacities in the framework of the OSFACO (Spatial Observation of Forests of Central and West Africa) project. OSFACO aims to improve knowledge of land use dynamics in several African countries through the use of Earth Observation. This comprises the provision of high resolution satellite images, support of in-country land-use and land-use change mapping and promotion of satellite imagery use. GAF and its partner SIRS are now starting activities in the Central African Republic, Gabon and Guinea-Conakry. Focus is the delivery of remote sensing & GIS training for forest- and agricultural monitoring as well the provision of IT equipment.

GAF is proud to present its solution to map and monitor mining activities of industrial scale down to small-scale and artisanal operations. MonFrEx (Monitoring Framework for Extractives) is an enabler for resource-rich developing countries in the governance of their oil, gas and mineral resources so they are used sustainably and transparently. To achieve this objective, the MonFrEx is the solution for mapping and monitoring of virtually any mining activity. For more details

GAF currently completed an ESA funded project to support the African Mineral Geoscience Initiative (AMGI). The World Bank initiated AMGI Project is a pan-African initiative for the collection, consolidation, interpretation and effective dissemination of national and regional geological, geochemical, geophysical and mineral resource data through a geo-portal. It intends to develop a complete Geological Data Catalogue for entire Africa in relation to mineral resources.

One objective of this project was to test new public available Sentinel data and other satellite data (optical, radar and DEM) to produce improved geological maps in various climate zones and geologic settings; the envisaged scale was 1 : 50.000 and 1 : 25.000.

GAF provided technical assistance and its know-how to design and to develop an operational Forest Information Management System (SIGEF). SIGEF will support the Ministry of Forest Economy (MEF) in forest administration and monitoring. The system is based on open source and is a complete refurbishment of the precursor pilot system. In addition, a server based central data management has been introduced that facilitates the actualisation and data access for the different users. SIGEF is complementing the Ministry’s system for traceability and legality verification required for the issuance of FLEGT (Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade) licenses. As part of the technical assistance GAF has also provided training and capacity building to MEF.

GAF and partners successfully complete the first phase of the Project on "Earth Observation for Sustainable Development - Urban Development" and now are been awarded the contract for phase 2.

In phase 1 more than 200 geo-information products based on Earth observation for in total 16 Cities have been produced and have been provided to both users of the Multi-Lateral Development Banks and counterpart city authorities. In particular, all the products reached a high quality and overall accuracies to the full satisfaction of clients and users.

The Phase 2 will run for 2 years and will see a continuation of stakeholder engagement with the Banks and Cities in order to provide further high quality and high utility geo-spatial products for urban planning.

GAF has successfully delivered 84 000 sqkm of high quality topographic maps based on high resolution optical satellite data.

The maps follow the international standards and have passed independent quality checks.
They now serve as essential base information for the geological and mineral potential mapping.
A second phase contract of 49 000 sqkm additional mapping has now been awarded to GAF.

These topographic maps constitute an indispensable asset for all upcoming in-situ mining development activities under PROMINES (support to the mining sector project).

This project is funded and supervised by the World Bank, Washington.

GAF has presented its results on site in Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo.