Did you know that satellites provide a cost-efficient and effective tool to monitor water quality?
01 october 2020
Did you know that satellites provide a cost-efficient and effective tool to monitor water quality?
A Gazelle observed from space – DHI GRAS awarded business growth award from Børsen
A Gazelle observed from space – DHI GRAS awarded business growth award from Børsen
23 OCTOBER 2020
We are proud to announce that DHI GRAS has received Børsen’s Gazelle prize 2020, in recognition of our continuous growth and development.
Each year, since 1995, Børsen has identified Denmark’s growth elite, and over time the gazelle has become part of the Danish language as a synonym for growth businesses. In short, a Gazelle is a business which has ’achieved a continuous growth in revenue for the last four financial years, and which has, in total, more than doubled the revenue in the period’.
First and foremost, the Gazelle prize reflects the dedicated efforts and hard work of our growing team, whose commitment to innovation and excellence defines our achievements of success. It is through their curiosity, creativity, and willingness to challenge status quo that we continuously transcend the limits of space data, by creating new products and services that creates real and positive impact on the ground.
However, our sustained growth is also a testimony to the maturity and value of the space sector and earth observation, which from its infancy, in the early days of DHI GRAS, 20 years ago, has developed from a niche to a mainstream technology. This transformation is not least facilitated through the deployment of increasingly more satellites in recent years, which has made earth observation data more accessible, affordable, and more usable than ever before. This foundation will only grow bigger, and so will the relevance and opportunities provided by the space sector and downstream service providers, such as DHI GRAS.
As a new Gazelle, DHI GRAS is experiencing a surge in our activities. New innovative products are created, new partnerships have been formed and new customers gained. We are excited about the future of DHI GRAS and have already set our target towards next year’s Gazelle award. We are ready to continue to drive change and innovation in earth observation!
Winning the Gazelle price is a tangible evidence of the growth and success of DHI GRAS - and we are extremely delighted to receive this award. It’s a testimony to the fact that the work we do creates real value and positive impact for our customers and clients. However, it goes without saying, that no company can grow in the long run without energized and passionate employees who believes in the mission and understand how to achieve it. So, while this award is an indicator of our financial growth, it’s a manifestation of the collective efforts of our fantastic team and I am very excited to share this award with them.
Rasmus Borgstrøm
Managing Director
Our beautiful planet as seen from space – how satellites help monitor earth’s vital signs
Our beautiful planet as seen from space - how satellites help monitor earth's vital signs
15 SEPTEMBER 2020
From natural disasters to a global pandemic, 2020 has been marked in history as a year of global extremes.
Let’s take a moment to distance ourselves from negative news and showcase the beauty and diversity of our planet, as seen from space.
‘Day-and-night, the entirety of our planet is surveyed by an ever-increasing number of Earth observation satellites that capture the astonishing beauty and dynamics of our planet. In DHI GRAS we get to appreciate this beauty daily, and today we want to share our world with you.
A satellite image is worth a thousand words. While the images below show the magnificence of our planet, they also contain critical data that can be used to synoptically map and monitor it's pulse.
A growing variety of sensor types and capabilities, as well as novel analytics tools and data processing techniques, have propelled satellite-based Earth observation into a new era.
The images below contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data [2020]
Image credits European Space Agency - ESA
Earth observation – the new frontier in coastal resilience planning
Earth observation - the new frontier in coastal resilience planning
06 AUGUST 2020
Healthy oceans and well-managed coastlines are key in ensuring that island and coastal communities are resilient to climate change impacts.
For agile and spatially-distributed response, data about changes, trends and environmental status in coastal areas is critical. However, comprehensive assessments of coastal zones are costly, complex and cumbersome to carry out.
Now you can take advantage of the latest satellite technology and machine learning algorithms to meet your monitoring needs – at a low cost.
To support coastal resilience planning, we provide:
✔️Up-to-date data on coastline positions & assessments of erosion/accretion over time (Click here to learn more about our coastline mapping solution)
✔️Mapping & monitoring of the dynamics of submerged aquatic vegetation (Click here to learn more about our submerged aquatic vegetation solution)
✔️Mapping of land cover/land use in high spatiotemporal resolution (Click here to learn more about our land cover mapping solution)
✔️Near real-time mapping of flood extent & frequency (Click here to learn more about Flood Metrics)
✔️Near real-time monitoring of water quality & suspended sediment (Click here to learn more about our water quality solution)
✔️Up-to-date bathymetry in shallow waters in resolutions from 2-30 m (Click here to learn more about our satellite-derived bathymetry solution)
✔️The latest Very High Resolution (VHR) satellite imagery covering your project area (Click here to learn more about satellite imagery and acquisition prices)
WorldWater – Surface Water Dynamics
Why is it important?
Water is essential for life on Earth and a critical natural resource that underpins all social and economic activity. During the last century, water consumption has increased twice as fast as the world’s population, and today water scarcity affects more than 40 percent of people globally – a disturbing figure which is expected to rise if we do not change our habits and respond to climate change and future global warming. The need for proper and timely information on water (non-) availability is a critical requirement for water management activities.
The WorldWater - Surface Water Dynamics project aim to address the needs of authorities, at all levels, by developing EO tools and products to improve the ability of national and regional stakeholders to monitor the world’s inland water resources in both extent and volume.
Project highlights:
Developing robust and operational EO methods and tools for surface water dynamics monitoring, applicable at a global scale.
Integrating EO products and tools in a data analytics platform to foster the wider usage of EO data and surface water dynamics products for country and basin scale water resource monitoring and reporting
Building national capacities to better monitor and report on water resources using EO through user workshops, training courses and awareness events.
In more detail..
The dedicated goal on water in the 2030 agenda for sustainable development has brought a spotlight to water policy at global level and in national planning and representing a clear indication that countries worldwide recognises the ‘water crisis’, which has consistently been ranked by the World Economic Forum as one of the threats with the highest potential impact and likelihood. In fact, reality may have turned out faster than anticipated. Population growth, socioeconomic development and urbanization are all contributing to increased water demand, while climate change induced impacts on precipitation patterns and temperature extremes further exacerbate water resource availability and predictability. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially the goal on ‘clean water for all’ (SDG 6) and the ‘climate action goal’ (SDG 13) therefore need all the attention they can get to avoid an accelerating ‘water crisis’ towards 2030.
The use of EO data for monitoring water resources is increasingly being recognized and accepted as a viable source of information for practitioners and decision-makers. Through the lens of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6 and specific use case studies, the WorldWater - Surface Water Dynamics project will demonstrate how global coverage EO data can be used to systematically and accurately measure inland surface water resources. It will complement existing EO initiatives and projects (e.g. Global Surface Water Explore and the Copernicus global land services) by further developing EO tools and products to effectively use the most up to date, open and free satellite data, primarily from the Sentinel missions, for improved monitoring of the world’s inland water resources.
The project aim to enable national authorities and river basin organizations to apply EO data to independently monitor surface water dynamics at all scales in a robust way - thereby providing them with essential information for more evidence-based planning and management of water resources and an ability to efficiently report and act in response to the global water agenda.
DHI GRAS leads WorldWater in a consortium that also includes GeoVille GmbH (Austria), GISAT (Czech Republic), GRID-Arendal (Norway) and the technical university of Denmark (DTU).
European Space Agency:
The European Space Agency (ESA) is the European space programme and its mission is to explore Earth, its immediate space environment, our Solar System and the Universe.
ESA also works closely with space organisations outside Europe to develop satellite-based technologies and services, and to promote European industries.
Releasing Flood Metrics – High-quality and cost-efficient information for your flood monitoring needs
Flood Metrics - Introducing our new all-in-one interface for our satellite-based flood monitoring products:
20 July 2020
Flooding’s are one of the most common and devastating types of natural disasters – causing significant social, economic and environmental consequences. The impacts of these events are often exacerbated by lacking data and information to support informed emergency response and flood protection measures.
New satellite data, novel image processing methods and state-of-art machine learning algorithms have propelled satellite-based flood mapping into a new era, providing a time-critical resource to address this data gap, as a fast, efficient and accurate tool for mapping water on terrain and flooded areas.
Our novel image processing methods, advanced machine learning algorithms and automated processing workflows of best in class satellite imagery has fueled a new generation of low-cost operational flood monitoring products to provide timely, accurate and reliable data on flooding events.
Our new Flood Metrics portal provides an all-in-one interface to this state-of-the-art product line, allowing users to search, explore and receive instant price ranges for 3 different products (Flood extent, Digital Elevation Models and Flood frequency).
Visit floodmetrics.dhigroup.com/home for more information or click the button below to access Flood Metrics directly.
WindSight – input for wind resource assessments
Why is it important?
Accurate estimations of wind energy resources are highly complex and time consuming - ultimately relying on consistent, accurate and timely input data. Yet, in many cases such data is inaccessible or simply not available and this may impact the ability of wind modelers to accurately assess wind resources.
How can it help?
The WindSight data package provides a new generation of satellite-based information products to improve wind resource assessments.
WindSight includes 5 different high-quality and high-resolution data products on land cover, key forest characteristics, historical and future changes, topography and surface roughness. The core of the product suite includes the novel forest products which provide detailed inside on current and historical forest height and forest density, in grid sizes of 20 meters. Together with an improved 10 meter land cover product, these provide the backbone of the surface roughness product that provides accurate insight on roughness length - directly compatible as input for a wide range of software and modelling methods including WindPRO, WaSP and CFD tools.
What you get!
5 different high-quality and high-resolution data products – tailored for wind sites anywhere in the World.
Analysis ready data compatible with WindPRO, WAsP, CFD tools and standard GIS software.
Accurate, timely and low cost information on forest height and forest density, replacing the needs for most LIDAR campaigns.
Typical customers?
Wind energy developers use the data products for preliminary screening of wind site suitability for planning and prospecting.
Wind modellers use the advanced surface roughness data products in flow models, for improved accuracy of wind resource assessments. Testing at 10+ global wind energy sites has shown an improved accuracy of the modelled Annual Energy Production (AEP).
Specifications
Typically 10 meter resolution
Data can be obtained for any onshore wind site in the world
Cover large areas instantaneously to complement field data
Go 40 years back in time to estimate long-term forest changes
Monitoring information can be provided on a weekly basis
Data available in a ready to use format for easy incorporation into existing GIS systems and databases
Price list
Contact us for a quote
Releasing WindSight: Our new satellite-based data product suite to improve wind resource assessments
WindSight - Our new satellite-based data products to improve wind resource assessments:
16 JUNE 2020
Accurate estimations of wind energy resources are highly complex and time consuming - ultimately relying on consistent, accurate and timely input data. Yet, in many cases such data is inaccessible or simply not available and this may impact the ability of wind modelers to accurately assess wind resources.
As a result of three years’ development efforts alongside VESTAS, Vattenfall, EMD International A/S and the Technical University of Denmark (DTU), we are excited to unveil a new generation of satellite-based products to adress this data gap and underpin and improve the accuracy of wind resource assessments. Our new WindSight data package is a new generation of detailed, accurate, reliable and timely satellite-based data information products to improve, and complement, existing data used in wind models.
The services and products of the WindSight package were developed by DHI GRAS through Innowind: an Innovation Fund Denmark partnership from 2017-2020 with VESTAS, Vattenfall, EMD and DTU that aimed to improve the accuracy and coverage of map layers that are used as input to state-of-the-art flow models.
WindSight includes 5 different high-quality and high-resolution data products on land cover, key forest characteristics, historical and future changes, topography and surface roughness - tailored for wind sites anywhere in the World.
WindSight includes 5 different high-quality and high-resolution data products on land cover, key forest characteristics, historical and future changes, topography and surface roughness. The core of the product suite includes the novel forest products which provide detailed inside on current and historical forest height and forest density, in grid sizes of 20 meters. Together with the improved 10 m. land cover product, these provide the backbone of the surface roughness product that provides accurate insight on roughness length - directly compatible as input for a wide range of software and modelling methods including WindPRO, WaSP and CFD tools.
If you want to know more about WindSight, visit windsight.dhigroup.com/ and sign up to join our launch webinar on Thursday September 3 from 10:00 to 11:00 CET here.
Novel satellite-based solutions to underpin irrigation management
Monitoring evapotranspiration from space
14 July 2020
Water scarcity challenges, extreme drought and increasing competition for water are frequently featured in news headlines – a testimony to, and constant reminder of, the urgency of addressing global water issues. This urgency is further recalled by the United Nations through the adoption of the sustainable development framework in 2015, which includes a dedicated goal (SDG # 6) on water issues.
Tools to underpin optimisation of water use productivity are thus instrumental in order to secure sustainable water resource management and ultimately achieve SDG 6. DHI’s satellite-based methodology to derive reliable and timely evapotranspiration estimations at field level provides a vital instrument to support informed decision making of critical water resources. Our novel tool delivers essential information to support water use efficiency within several domains, including irrigation management, by providing an indication of areas where crops experience water stress, as well as water licensing schemes by providing a cost-effective and efficient means to do water accounting.
As a primary outcome of the development efforts conducted through the European Space Agency funded project Sen-ET, we are further evolving our evapotranspiration and crop water needs products into robust applications for water resource management. In a new EU funded project ‘NextLand’ we are exploring new innovative and operational services to strengthen the entire value chain of the agricultural and forestry sector. Through ET4FAO, funded by the @European Space Agency, we are demonstrating the use of our evapotranspiration tool to provide a robust and operational monitoring solution of agricultural water use at continental, national and local levels.
Concurrent to the implementation of Nextland and ET4FAO, we are exploring a number of commercial partnerships with major information providers to the agricultural industry as well as leading irrigation equipment producers.
DHI GRAS to lead efforts to develop global level EO tools and data to strengthen water resource management
DHI GRAS to lead efforts to develop global level EO tools and data to strengthen water resource management
29 APRIL 2020
We are delighted to announce that DHI GRAS has been contracted by the European Space Agency (ESA), to lead a consortium consisting of GeoVille GmbH (Austria), GISAT (Czech Republic), GRID-Arendal (Norway) and the technical university of Denmark (DTU), in a large new application project: “WorldWater - Surface Water Dynamics”.
Water is essential for life on Earth and a critical natural resource that underpins all social and economic activity. During the last century, water consumption has increased twice as fast as the world’s population, and today water scarcity affects more than 40 percent of people globally – a disturbing figure which is expected to rise if we do not change our habits and respond to climate change and future global warming.
The dedicated goal on water in the 2030 agenda for sustainable development has brought a spotlight on water policy at global level, and in national planning, to avoid an accelerating ‘water crisis’ towards 2030. However, a ‘water crisis’ is ultimately a management crisis, that can be solved through the application of sound water management policies and initiatives. The need for proper and timely information on water (non-) availability is a critical requirement for water management activities. In large, remote and inaccessible regions, in-situ monitoring of inland waters is sparse, and hydrologic monitoring can significantly benefit from information extracted from satellite earth observation (EO).
Through the lens of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6 and specific use case studies, the WorldWater project will demonstrate how global coverage EO data, can be used to systematically and accurately measure inland surface water resources. WorldWater will complement existing EO initiatives and projects (e.g. Global Surface Water Explore and the Copernicus global land services) by further developing EO tools and products to effectively use the most up to date, open and free satellite data, primarily from the Sentinel missions, for improved monitoring of the world’s inland water resources in both extent and volume.
WorldWater is, therefore, a crucial project aiming to address the critical needs of authorities, at all levels, to adapt and formulate water policies, and report on water resources, in a timely manner and based on valid scientific information. More specifically, WorldWater will provide essential tools and information to strengthen evidence-based planning and management to support authorities in addressing the global ‘water crisis’.
