NEOS-QUICK Overview

The Kyoto Protocol, an international and legally binding agreement to reduce greenhouse gases emissions world wide, became effective on 16 February 2005.

The project NEOS-QUICK responded to the need for improved Earth Observation (EO) based services for Kyoto Protocol reporting. It was aligned with other activities performed under Europe's Global Monitoring for Environment and Security programme GMES. The aim of NEOS-QUICK was to explore the capabilities and limitations of novel EO systems for mapping Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) parameters as specified by the reporting standards of the Kyoto Protocol.

An important objective of NEOS-QUICK was to strengthen the capacity of Austrian EO service providers to develop state-of-the-art and sustainable solutions for satisfying national and international Kyoto reporting obligations.

NEOS-QUICK combined the forces from Austrian public entities, industry and research to develop the Kyoto LULUCF products. The expertise was provided by a project consortium which included GeoVille GmbH (coordinator), the Vienna University of Technology/ Institute of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, ARC Seibersdorf research GmbH and ARC systems research GmbH. Further contributions were provided from the German partner Infoterra GmbH. The development was driven by user requirements. Therefore, the public organisations responsible for Kyoto reporting in Austria and a regional forest enterprise supported and participated in the project. These are the Federal Environment Agency (Umweltbundesamt), the Austrian Federal Office and Research Centre for Forests (Bundesamt und Forschungszentrum für Wald) and the provincial forest management enterprise Stand Montafon. The scientific verification concept was defined by the International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) which is also based in Austria.

The project NEOS-QUICK (Ref. ASAP-CO-002/03) has been undertaken within a two year time period (June 2003 - Mai 2005) under the Austrian Space Applications Programme (ASAP) managed by the Austrian Research Promotion Agency/ Agency for Aeronautics and Space (FFG/ALR, former Austrian Space Agency ASA) and financed by the Federal Ministry of Transport, Innovation and Technology (BMVIT).