The Austrian Space Application Program (ASAP25) flagship initiative ClimateLENS - Prototyping a GHG emission and climate protection EO-indicator Monitoring Reporting and Verification (MRV) system in Austria.
Co-funded by the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (Österreichische Forschungsförderungsgesellschaft - FFG) was successfully kicked off on 22nd of October 2025 sponsored by the Austrian Federal Ministry for Innovation, Mobility, and Infrastructure (Bundesministerium für Innovation, Mobilität und Infrastruktur - BMIMI) at the Urban Vienna Innovation Laboratory, with a total of thirty two onsite/online participants including the seven Consortium partners: private Earth Observation (EO) companies GeoVille (lead), LETO SPACE, SISTEMA, FloodLight, Word Data Lab, scientific partners GeoSphere and University of Vienna, representatives of FFG, BMIMI, The Environment Agency Austria (Umwelbundesamt - UBA) LULUCF and remote sensing teams, advisory board members from the Province of Upper Austria (Amt der Oö. Landesregierung - Abteilung Umweltschutz), EUMETSAT, CAMS-ECMWF and ESA-DG CLIMA fostering European connectivity and scalability.
Building on the achievements of the former precursor research ASAP18 GHG-KIT project (Link) , the scope of ClimateLENS starting October 2025 until March 2028 (30-month duration) is to prototype an EO-integrated GHG emission and climate Monitoring Reporting and Verification (MRV) Information Communication and Technology (ICT) system, with two main components:
Pillar 1 features four main activities: LULUCF activity data backward extension 1990-2015 based on Landsat heritage, atmospheric modelling of CH4, CO2 & NOx and sector-based GHG accounting at national and subnational levels, as well as concept and testing for the integration of the upcoming CO2M expansion mission. A special focus will be on the Viennese use case with the planning of a dedicated GHG-SAT drone campaign as a supplement to ground based measurements.
Pillar 2 will address more specifically the challenge of GHG emission calculation and source allocation at city scale, the assessment of carbon sequestration of biomass from tree crown cover in settlements using VHR and innovative synthetic data, as well as the development of climate mitigation and adaptation EO-indicators (e.g., land surface temperatures, heat islands, vegetated rooftops, cooling potential of urban green and blue infrastructures) associated with transition path scenarios in support to a more sustainable and resilient urban planning of selected pioneer cities.
Austria stands at the forefront of European countries for the integration of EO-MRV methodologies in support to global and European climate policies (Paris Agreement, LULUCF-R, CRCF) and subnational voluntary climate action plans.
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