H2020 EOPEN Easing Copernicus Data & Services Exploitation

Pursuing Copernicus data and Service exploitation as part of the EO downstream sector requires innovative application of mature ICT solutions; they are essential to address the related “Big Data” issues involved in both EO and non-EO (such as meteorological data and data stemming from social media) data processing, also characterized by the Big Data four Vs: volume, velocity, variety, veracity.
Main objectives of EOPEN (EOPEN, 2019) include the provision of an easy to use environment to implement user services and capabilities to fuse Sentinel data with multiple, heterogeneous and Big Data sources; additionally, the involvement of mature ICT solutions in the Earth Observation sector addresses major challenges in effectively handling and disseminating Copernicus-related information to the wider user community, beyond the EU borders.
The EOPEN framework provides a scalable solution exploiting the back offices providing services to downstream service providers and consultancy organizations performing Big Data analytics. EOPEN is part of the Intermediate layer and complies with the DIAS requirements.
The EOPEN platform pilots comprise three Use Cases addressing crucial contemporary issues of flood risk assessment and prevention, food security and climate change. Practical examples related to the above topics have been considered for the implementation of the use cases, involving stakeholders for the definition of a supporting tool in the framework of a Joint Decision & Information Governance (JDIG) Architecture.
EOPEN is realized as a multi-platform layering framework to support public entities and decision managers aimed at scholars and professionals with various levels of expertise in usage of geospatial data as well as at the general public to assist them in their working activities. The capability of serving users in a wide range of diverse purposes resides in EOPEN’s intrinsic flexibility; developer support is provided for the implementation of a given application. Still, with appropriate training, applications can be managed with a reduced effort of both end-users and service providers - the latter being among the main candidates to benefit from the platform. Moreover, using a single interoperable tool reduces the effort needed when dealing with new application areas, favouring an interdisciplinary approach and cooperation.
EOPEN will deliver to the user community a core set of open source products and services. During the project, EOPEN can be made freely available to implement use cases.
The paper will present the agnostic nature of EOPEN with respect to data platform, cloud environment, and application requirements. The paper will also include examples of usage of EOPEN through the presentation of the EOPEN Use Cases. Details on the EOPEN platform, its architecture and applied ICT solutions and methods is the focus of an EOPEN dedicated (open) session.