News

In preparation to a 1 MEURO Invitation To Tender, the European Space Agency (ESA) is organising a workshop on Service for Landslide Monitoring (SLAM) in its ESRIN establishment (Frascati – Rome) on 1st October 2002.

The SLAM workshop is open to key professionals and users that play an active role in the assessment and monitoring of Slope Instabilities Hazards. It is a key milestone in the preparation of a 1 MEURO Invitation to Tender (ITT) on a SLAM Service Development project that will be opened by ESA to competitive tender in November 2002.

The workshop is organized in the framework of the Data User Programme (DUP). The Landslide topic has been identified by the steering committee of the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) as one of the priority themes that still need development in order to lay the basis for a future GMES Service. The SLAM Service Development project intends also to contribute to the GeoHazards Theme recently approved by the Integrated Global Observation Strategy (IGOS) Partnership.

During the SLAM workshop, will be presented to the audience the results of four definition projects related to mass movements that have been funded by the European Space Agency in preparation to the SLAM Service Development project. During these definition projects, the Contractors have been required to carry out all the preliminary consolidation tasks that would build the foundation for the implementation of a “wide scale” information service demonstrator.

The SLAM ITT will be addressed to private companies and institutional organizations residing in the four ESA Member States that have declared their participation to the DUP Programme. It will not be restricted to the players of the SLAM definition projects and hence a participation of other companies from the DUP Participating States is strongly supported by the Agency.

The workshop will bring together all the players (i.e. Servicing Space Industry, Geological Surveys, Geo-information integrators and End-Users) that participated to the SLAM definition projects but also other key actors and users involved in mass movements. Participants to the workshop will share their experience on the identification of the major issues to be tackled regarding the organisation of a SLAM service development project that best meet the user expectations.

Some User Organisations have already confirmed their decision to participate to the SLAM service development project with in-kind resources by proving human efforts and by giving access to historical data and in-situ observations. The forthcoming SLAM ITT will be based on the user requirements that will be presented during the workshop. The workshop is also an opportunity for other users to express their interest in collaborating to the project.

The specific objectives of the workshop are multiple:

• to present and discuss the results of the SLAM definition projects;
• to capture the user expectations for a “large scale” SLAM Service Development project;
• to attract other user organizations that are willing to actively participate with committed resources to the SLAM Service Development project;
• to discuss key issues regarding user requirements, methodologies, technical and scientific solutions, data handling aspects, products and services;
• to outline the major elements of the SLAM Invitation To Tender.

The workshop is also an opportunity to meet and discuss with potential partners, to raise issues where priorities are to be placed and to influence the Agency in the organisation of the SLAM ITT.

Workshop Coordinator:
Francesco Palazzo
francesco.palazzo@esa.int
tel: +39 06 94180 682