Efficiency evaluation of satellite data products in environmental policy

Environmental policy requires increasing monitoring and reporting and Europe's GMES initiative offers good prospects in this regard. With this in mind, the potential to use remote sensing data for tasks mandatory for the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, and its assigned agencies was analysed. The general potential of satellite data applications was studied for a total of 13 departmental issues, concentrating on nine specific remote sensing products and services important to the agencies, with the emphasis on the monitoring of land cover and land use. Product costs were estimated for an efficiency analysis and an independent product appraisal was performed by thematic experts. The evaluation showed most products to be of paramount importance for mandatory tasks in the fields of environmental observation and the Federal Environmental Specimen Bank; soil protection; water management (implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive); and air pollution control (impacts on sensitive ecosystems). Concluding recommendations discuss the harmonisation, implementation and shared funding of a stock of satellite data for federal and state agencies, the German position on further implementation of GMES, and the continuity of data provision to be secured by operational satellite missions.