Earth Observation for Early Warning of Land Degradation at European Frontier

Soil erosion by water and wind. Soil salinisation. Erosion. Land use/cover change. Agricultural abandonment. Deforestation and urbanisation. Grazing intensification. Drought. All these issues have one thing in common. They are all driving factors behind land degradation, which is a major environmental challenge affecting the environment, agriculture and our overall well-being. Early actions can benefit communities struggling with land degradation and contribute to long-term prevention. In this context, the MSCA project EWALD will develop an innovative framework to provide an early warning system and responses to the land degradation threatening the EU from beyond its borders. It will use multi-source and multi-scale Earth observation data. Researchers will work with big data management, smart computation and risk analysis computing.