We entered into a new era. Next to the European Sentinels fleet of satellites soon offering free and open access to high resolution optical data among others, a number of Earth Observation startups and the CubeSats are also changing the space industry. These new and future constellations of satellites are likely to greatly impact the availability of EO data in the coming years with several hundreds of imaging satellites to be launched in the next decade.
In order to seize the opportunity of this increased data access and manage this deluge of data from space, new strategies have to be developed and deployed. In this context, GIM leverages its in-depth expertise in Object-Based Image Analysis to automate to the best possible extent advanced image processing chains and unlock the value contained within high resolution imagery.
In the framework of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, GIM has thus demonstrated this capacity by processing in less than 6 months 100.000 km² of Pléiades data at 50 cm of resolution covering a very diverse territory in Northern Nigeria. Thanks to a robust and transferable information extraction process, various landscape features (e.g. individual buildings, settlements, roads, rivers, etc) were identified and mapped so as to support immunization campaigns. This unique resulting data set currently allows for reaching and vaccinating every last child and thereby contributes to stopping this terrible disease. Similarly this methodology can be applied to efficiently and consistently map “small landscape elements” or any other features of interest over an entire territory.