Definiens Support the Planet Action Climate Change

20 May 2008, 5:16pm

Munich, May 20th, 2008 - Definiens, the number one Enterprise Image Intelligence™ company, today announced that it has joined Planet Action, a non-profit collaborative initiative which supports activities related to Climate Change. Definiens is contributing to the initiative by donating its image analysis software and by utilizing its long-standing experience gained in environmental projects. Planet Action’s mission is to encourage the earth observation industry and professional geographic communities in their efforts to help tackle climate change related issues.

Man-made climate change is one of the greatest global environmental challenges facing humankind today. It is manifested by adverse eco-system implications, serious social and economic dislocations already starting to appear, and life-threatening impacts that potentially affect every country, place, organization and individual on the planet in the short or long term. Man-made climate change is impacting global weather, including temperature, precipitation, wind patterns and the atmosphere. The dramatic pace of these new challenges to our societies and communities requires new cooperative approaches.

Planet Action was launched in June 2007 by Spot Image, a leading supplier of geospatial information products and services, and joined by international partners such as ESRI (Environmental Systems Research Institute) and UNESCO. It supports projects that assess the impact of climate change and propose plans of action. Its internet-based climate change knowledge exchange platform facilitates cooperation within and between project teams, local communities and global organizations. Planet Action focuses on five areas: human dimensions and habitation, drought and water resources, vegetation and ecosystems, oceans and ice and snow cover.

Definiens’ image analysis software is a critical component and the ideal match for the participating partners. Definiens’ software and expertise will help to extract information from satellite imagery and fuse it with GIS data for earth observation purposes. Spot Image contributes satellite imagery. ESRI is equipping Planet Action’s projects with geographic information system (GIS) software.

“At Spot Image we believe that earth imagery has a very powerful role to play in understanding what is currently happening and at what pace. The earth observation industry is uniquely positioned to contribute to the Planet Action initiative thanks to its huge image archive which has recorded changes and events for many years, said Hervé Buchwalter, CEO at Spot Image. Alone Spot Image has archives dating back 20 years; Landsat, the longest running program for acquisition of imagery of earth from space, has maintained records for 25 years. These records make it possible to demonstrate climate change impacts along various timelines.

Moreover, the earth observation industry has wide-reaching networks of scientists, scholars, teachers and researchers with great experience in analyzing and understanding earth images. “By providing its expertise and its image analysis software, Definiens will complement all partner activities and make a significant contribution to investigating and assessing climate change,” Hervé Buchwalter adds.

“The Definiens team is excited to join Planet Action and provide a key part in its success. All Planet Action project teams now have access to our image analysis expertise. Our software supports them in extracting information from satellite imagery and fusing it with GIS data. This will help Planet Action to obtain deeper insights into the impact of man-made climate change and to propose better plans of action,” said Rene Hermes, Vice President Marketing at Definiens.

What is Planet Action?

Planet Action is a non-for-profit collaborative initiative launched in June 2007 by Spot Image, a world leader in satellite imagery. Its purpose is to encourage the Earth Observation industry and geographic information professional communities to tackle the climate crisis by donating satellite imagery and GIS expertise to NGOs, institutions, and universities working on local projects.

Planet Action aims to increase knowledge and raise awareness about the impact of climate change on a global as well as local scale; facilitate cooperation between scientific, business and civil communities; and share and amplify information among decision makers and citizens worldwide.

Non governmental organizations, institutions and associations may benefit from Planet Action’s support. For more information: www.planet-action.org.

Spot the impacts, engage in action.

Definiens in Earth Sciences

Definiens enables organizations involved in Earth Sciences to quickly extract accurate geo-information, ready for use in GIS, from earth observation and remote sensing imagery. Definiens’ intelligent feature extraction capabilities accelerate mapping, change detection as well as object recognition and deliver standardized, reproducible image analysis results.

www.definiens.com

Geo: International