It's Earth Science Week, and election time. What do these two have in common? Lots of people go "Eh. So what?" And that's a problem. Folks who ignore elections may discover to their irritation policies affecting their lives in ways unanticipated. Folks ignoring earth science may awake one day to discover energy costs soaring, or learn their home faces cataclysm, or hear news of political unrest stemming from large scale environmental change. It's possible to ignore some subjects for a while, and pretend the world is a stable place … but certainly unwise and potentially perilous to do so. The theme for Earth Science Week this year is energy. Esri has put together some resources for educators to use in exploring energy. It can even be as simple as searching for "energy" within ArcGIS Online. Any results that are "web mapping applications" can be viewed directly in their apps; any results listed as "web maps" ((such as the "Wind Energy" map, below)) can be viewed using the ArcGIS.com Viewer.
In both earth science and politics, ignorance is not bliss; it's just ignorance. Part of the magic of GIS is that it helps people understand how seemingly disparate parts of the world relate to each other. As the drum beats loudly for STEM education across the US in preparation for careers, the role for GIS in education is ever more clear. Explore how energy, politics, and so many other aspects of the world affect your world today, using GIS. - Charlie Fitzpatrick, Co-Manager, Esri Schools Program       

8th of October 2010: Classification of European Biomass Potential for Bioenergy Using Terrestrial and Earth Observations

The CEUBIOM project is funded by the European Commission under the Framework Programme 7 "With the advent of Earth Observation (EO) techniques in natural sciences, an increasing interest has been documented by experts for using these approaches in order to estimate the potential of biomass production for specific areas. "The combined use of EO-derived data with in-situ measurements based on common agricultural and forestry survey practices can be a powerful tool for assessing biomass potential. "The ambition of CEUBIOM project is to develop a Platform and a self-sustained e-service that will directly assist and train professionals from the EO, agricultural and EO/biomass sectors about the new, common and harmonised applications of EO and a better understanding of each other's requirements."
Read the flier: here       

17th of September 2010: EARTH AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE JOURNAL OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF INDIA Volume 75, Number 1,

Digital mapping in structural geology - Examples from Namibia and Greece
Abstract
Many problems in geology, especially structural geology, can only be solved by detailed mapping. Presently, mapping is still mainly carried out on paper using techniques from the 19th Century. However, tools are now available to carry out most mapping tasks on microcomputers in the field without any need of paper. This speeds up geological mapping and reduces the errors involved in the mapping process. Digital mapping also allows work in featureless areas and areas of great structural complexity that would not be possible using paper maps. We present two practical examples of the new technology of digital mapping using microcomputers, from Namibia and Greece.
Read all about: here       

10th of September 2010:Stanford land-use expert brings satellite data down to Earth

  By integrating remote satellite imagery with revelations from door-to-door interviews, Stanford University geographer Eric Lambin and his colleagues are exploring the complex conditions that give rise to a broad range of land-use challenges - from the reforestation of Vietnam to the spread of Lyme disease in Belgium.
For decades, orbiting satellites have peered downward to gather information about the surface of the Earth, giving scientists an unprecedented view of the planet. Using this data, researchers have created maps of deforestation and other land-use changes over time.
Satellites are precise tools, able to measure the rate of photosynthesis in a tiny clump of trees in the heart of the Amazon Basin. But satellite technology reveals little about the people living beneath the canopy who decide the fate of the trees around them. For a deeper understanding of how and why humans alter their environment, researchers need to talk face-to-face with the people who live there. "We really need a meeting between land-use studies and these new sources of information, like digital satellites," said Lambin, a professor of environmental Earth system science and a senior fellow at Stanford's Woods Institute for the Environment.
Through surveys and interviews, Lambin has uncovered the political, economic and social forces that contribute to the protection or destruction of forests and deserts across the globe.
"I develop integrated approaches to study land-use change by linking remote sensing and socioeconomic data," said Lambin, who divides his time between Stanford and the University of Louvain in Belgium, where he is a professor of geography. "To what extent do people have the technology or the knowledge to make the right land-use decisions? You can only answer that sort of question by interviewing people on the ground. You can't see that by satellite." Reforestation and the secret furniture trade
Lambin has recently focused on land-use success stories - countries that have fostered the growth of forests or other wild spaces within their borders. "As you focus on the good news, you can find some political lessons that can be really useful for other countries," he said.
He first cast his magnifying glass on Vietnam. In the early 1990s, after an intense period of deforestation, a net reforestation occurred in the mountains that cover two-thirds of the country.
At the local level, the return of woodlands often stems from environmental awareness, Lambin said. "Farmers clear a watershed, then their fields get flooded, so they quickly understand the need to maintain forest cover," he explained. "Interviews with farmers in several Vietnamese villages revealed that land scarcity provided a strong incentive for the sound management of forests on hillsides." On a larger scale, a suite of economic and social variables - not conservation ethics - gives rise to reforestation, he said. For example, when a country undergoes industrialization, farmers leave their paddies to find work in city factories. Soon, trees return to the abandoned farms.
While studying reforestation trends in Vietnam, Lambin read in a newspaper article that the country's furniture exports had quintupled from 1987 to 2006. He was mystified how a country with so little logging could produce so many couches and chairs.
He soon discovered that Vietnam wasn't using less wood overall, just less native wood. It turned out that most Vietnamese timber was coming from neighboring countries, such as Laos or Cambodia, where environmental laws are more lax. And nearly half of Vietnam's lumber imports were illegal, making them difficult to track and regulate, he said. Global warming tools
The results of the Vietnam forestry study could have a significant impact on international efforts to combat global warming, Lambin said. The United Nations has proposed using "forest credits" as a tool to curb greenhouse gas emissions. The program would allow industries to emit carbon dioxide if they agree to fund the protection of woodlands in the developing world. The ability to understand subtle land-use complexities, such as Vietnam's illegal lumber trade, may determine whether such programs succeed, Lambin said. "Land- use change is increasingly controlled by global forces, which are not completely controlled by individual countries," he added. Even if two countries adopt the same environmental policies, they don't necessarily get the same results, he said. Differences in ecology, economic trends or even the motivation of individual farmers can mean that one country's forests flourish while the other's dwindle. "Policymakers like simple, neat solutions," he said. "They tend to assume that one issue is caused by one set of factors, and, therefore, you need to apply the same remedies in all situations." Disease in a changing world
Lambin has taken his research a step further by exploring the relationship among land, humans and disease-carrying parasites, such as ticks and mosquitoes. In Belgium, Lyme disease is common among the urban middle class but rare among the rural poor, Lambin said. The ticks that carry Lyme disease run free in parks and forests where people jog or bike but not in farmlands. However, Belgian farmers are more likely to contract a type of Hantavirus that lies in wait in soil dust, he added. In northern Thailand, when loggers chop down trees, the forest opens and the puddles that breed malaria-causing mosquitoes evaporate, he said. When the deforested areas are converted into fruit orchards, the malarial mosquitoes are replaced by a different species that carries dengue fever - the leading cause of hospitalization and death among Thai children. Using satellite land-cover maps, epidemiological data and surveys of farming households, Lambin and his colleagues concluded that the shift from malaria to dengue fever was in large part caused by the presence of fruit workers in what had been a remote forest. "As you change land use, you're changing the habitat of the mosquito," he explained. "But most importantly, you're changing where people go and at what time of the day." For Lambin, diseases are one more example of the complexities hidden within the static pixels of satellite images. "When you have so many variables interacting, the outcome is always contextual," he said. "The time is ripe for an overarching theory of land change that explains the behavior of people as well as land use."
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This article was written by Daniel Strain, a science-writing intern at the Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford University.

27th of July 2010: Implementation of imprinting and promotional services, in digital format, of the insfracture of municipality of Peta by using satellite technologies

       Aratos Technologies S.A. has implemented and given to use at the Municipality of Peta which belongs to the county of Arta, thematic maps (web application) where technical or not technical infrastructure is depicted. The technical dpt. of our company cooperated with the staff of the municipality and gathered considerable archival and photographic data to capture accurately the history and evolution of every infrastructure in the area. You can visit the application here.
      

26th of March 2010:Press release - March 2010

 

8th of March 2010:Aratos Disaster Control system version 2.0.4 is here !

You can now be further informed by Aratos Disaster Control system v.2.0.4 with three new levels.The new levels are:

• Absorbed solar energy by plants
• Area's cover by plants
• Area's cover by leaves   

10th of Februaqry 2010: Aratos Technologies S.A. stands in the estimated risk of flooding in Bulgaria and Evros

       Aratos Technologies S.A. offers its sytem of Management Disasters, Aratos Disaster Control, free of charge for ten days at the regions of eastern Macedonia and Thrace in order to help them with the estimated risk of flooding in these areas. These areas are in danger of flooding due to river overflowing and snow melting. Aratos Disaster Control offers them monitoring of their areas.       

31st of January 2010: Publication of Aratos Technologies SA in EO Magazine

       EO Magazine has published an article for Aratos Technologies S.A. and our products. EO Magazine is powered by EARSC(The European Association of Remote Companies). You can see the article here       

10th of January 2010: Participation of Aratos Technologies S.A. in Seoca Project

       Aratos Technologies S.A. participates in an other project funded by the European Union, Seoca (GEO capability building initiative in Central Asia). This project aims to bring together the countries of Central Asia and to incorporate the respective organizations taking part in project activities of the GEO(Group on Earth Observation).       

29th of November 2010: A dynamic presence of Aratos Tecnologies S.A. at the Polis 2009 exhibition

       Aratos Technologies S.A. participated in Polis 2009 exhibition: the 7th International Exhibition of Local Authorities, public-social sectors and private companies, that took place in Thessaloniki 26 to 29 November. Aratos Technologies S.A. had the opportunity to inform Local Authorities immediately and validly for its systems       

27th of November 2010: Aratos Technologies S.A. member of EARSC

       Aratos Technologies S.A. became member of the European Association of Remote Sensing Companies (EARSC).       

24th of November 2010:Aratos Technologies participates in Polis 2009

       Yesterday, 26th of November, just started Polis 2009 exhibition: the 7th International Exhibition of Local Authorities, public-social sectors and private companies, that takes place in Thessaloniki and it will be carried out until 29/11. Aratos Technologies with its participation, aspires and hopes to inform immediately and validly for the systems that concern the Local Authorities.       

Press Release 17/11/2009 :s Polis 2009

       Visit us at the kiosk 8 - stand 17 from 26 to 29 November 2009 in Polis 2009 exhibition. Aratos Technologies S.A. will participate in Polis 2009, the 7th International Exhibition of Local Authorities, public-social sectors and private companies, which takes place in the International Exhibition Center of Thessaloniki. The exhibition is about modern services and products which aim at a better quality of life of the citizens.       

1st of November 2010:Aratos Technologies S.A. reseller of Cartosat-2 for the region of Greece.

       Aratos Technologies S.A. is reseller of Cartosat-2 satellite images for the region of Greece thanks to its cooperation with Antrix Corporation Limited , the Indian Department of Space.       

30th of October 2010:Participation of Aratos Technoloiges S.A. in UN-SPIDER Workshop

       Aratos Technologies S.A. had participated in this year's UN-SPIDER Workshop which took place from 21 to 23 October and focused on the ways in which concepts could be implemented as projects and actual applications. Climate change and desertification received particular attention during the workshop seeing that they pose special challenges to the disaster management community. Some considerable weight was also placed on the use of space applications in the health sector.       

27th of October 2010:New commercial agreement for Aratos Technologies S.A.

       Aratos Technologies S.A. is now resellers in Greece of the Antrix Corporation Limited, the Indian Department of Space, and its satellite images.       

Additional information that can be used in land cover maps.

      Additional basic and spatial information that the digital map of the regions can include is:

• Electrical Network
• Road Network
• Railway Network
• Critical plants such as Electrical Company's Stations,Telecommunication's Stations, tanks of water, reservoirs of oil etc.
• Buildings of public organisations and other institutions
• Hotels etc.
• Squares
• Special points such as parks, underground crossings, bridges etc.
• Hypsometric data
• Borders
• Cities
• Airports
• Coastlines
• Rivers/Lakes
• Soil erosion from water
• Protected regions according to the Natura European Standards.

      This information plays very important role in better treatment and recovery of land cover/land use maps but also in urban planning.

Categorization of areas in Aratos Land Use/Land Cover System

       The categorization of areas is under the European Standards which are used by the official products of the European Union . These categories are :

• Residential areas, Industrial Areas
• Non-irrigated cultivated areas
• Irrigated cultivated areas
• Rice crops
• Vineyards
• Fruit trees
• Olive
• Pasture
• Annual crops compared with permanent crops
• Compound farming
• Forestal areas
• Broadleaf forests
• Coniferous forests
• Mixed Forests
• Natural grass areas
• Sclerophyllous Vegetation
• Transitional heaths forestal areas
• Beaches, dunes, sandy areas
• Rocks
• Areas with sparse vegetation
• Burnt areas
• Permanent ice and snow
• Fens
• Fens with salt
• Lagoons
• Tidal levels
• Water departments
• Coastal lagoons
• Estuaries
• Sea and Ocean

Applications of Aratos Land Use -LAnd Cover System

      Aratos Land Use and Land Cover System uses advanced remote sensing techniques and GIs applications. Remote sensing covers all techniques that are relevant to the analysis and use of elements, images, satellite data. Aratos Technologies has a special satellite data receiving station and specialized server to process of received data. GIS are used in automated storage systems, process, analysis and information recovery, and are equipped with hardware and software, specially designed to process spatial geographical data.

The company undertakes data treatment and by combining the characteristics of the area of interest, products interactive and thematic land cover maps, which are available via the World Wide Web.

Aratos Land Use Land Cover can be applied in the following cases which are briefly presented:

Evaluation of urban and rural landscapes

• Maintenance of recreation areas and attracting of agricultural tourism
• Evaluation of rural and municipal needs
• Improvement of rural and urban environment
• Management of predetermined regions and planning of infrasctures
• Studies for quality of life improvement
• Surveillance of cultural heritage
• Surveillance and maintenance of recently made infrasctures
• Urban restitution plans and parks'surveillance
• Planning and land management at local level