Background
EPSILON Italia, the leader of the partnership proposing the project, is a SME, located in Calabria, specializing in the delivery of advanced services for the protection and management of natural resources, with a high standard of quality and technological content. The SME is also actively involved in the development and implementation of new technologies and in R&D activities conducted both in their own and in partnership with universities and research centers. Within the MIRASAT Project, EPSILON Italia has launched a partnership with the Department of Soil Protection of the University of Calabria and the CNR-IRPI of Cosenza, with the intent to further specialize in satellite remote sensing, using the know-how in areas related to environmental risk management.
Purpose
The main goal of the “MIRASAT” project was to develop a methodology based on the processing of remote sensing data from satellite, for the identification and the estimation of environmental risk indicators, with particular attention to the risks related to geo-hydrological phenomena and to soil degradation, caused by both natural and anthropogenic factors. By means of the project it was possible: a) to acquire knowledge for the development of a service sector in the use of innovative technologies for environmental protection and territory management/development; b) to improve the strategic positioning of the enterprise, leader of the partnership, within the regional and national market of high-tech services; c) to increase the technological know-how of the enterprise; d) to qualify the human resources employed in the project.
Methods
During the project it has been made an extensive use of vegetation indices and of their various combinations. In particular, the VI (Vegetation Idex) and its derivatives (NDVI – Normalised Difference Index – and TVI – Transformed Vegetation Idex), being easily correlated to the biomass content, represent good indexes of the crop vigor. In addition, the index LAI (Leaf Area Index), together with the mentioned vegetation indices, can also be correlated to the deficiencies of water and of plant nitrogen.
