Mott MacDonald selected to be part of Earth Observation Market Development Programme: Satellite observations in support of water

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Mott MacDonald has been awarded a contract to help develop the use of satellite Earth Observation (EO) information for the water management sector as part of the European Space Agency’s (ESA’s) Earth Observation Market Development (EOMD) Programme.

Mott MacDonald is to review sector-wide EO information requirements on the €250,000 project and use the results to run a series of trials relating to projects involving activities such as dam assessments, sewerage construction, land decontamination and water supply planning.

Mott MacDonald’s Information, Communications and Media specialists are collaborating with professionals in the company’s water, environment and infrastructure teams as well as subcontractors Golder Associates and NDConsult with the aim of developing EO-based products and services that will complement existing methods and can be easily adopted by professionals in the consulting field.

Alan Whitelaw, Mott MacDonald’s project manager explained, “We propose to investigate the contribution of EO techniques to all phases of work, from feasibility studies, through the development of the design and operational procedures, to monitoring the status and impacts of the resulting structures. By using satellite data and models to monitor the region, engineers and scientists will be able to spot changes in conditions in good time with fewer field visits and a better understanding of the processes driving these changes.”

Alan continued, “Through the trials we’ll be looking at how EO systems can be applied on real projects, enabling us to assess accurately how they may be used in the future.”

The proposed trials are:

· Glacial dams (Pakistan): Hazards arising from glacial lake outburst floods

· Water treatment (Mozambique): Development of water supply and sewerage systems

· Water treatment (Indonesia): Improved water resources management

· Decontamination (Vietnam): Rehabilitation of degraded forest and agricultural land

The trial findings will be used to refine future EO service concepts, understand the procurement and business processes from the proposal stage through to post-construction monitoring and be disseminated widely to promote the use of EO in the sector. It is hoped that EO will prove a cost effective way of increasing accuracy and efficiency, reducing costs and dangers of fieldwork and enabling more information to be consolidated in a single image.

Alan added, “Although Mott MacDonald’s project will concentrate on water management, the potential benefits of EO geo-information apply to many engineering and construction disciplines, for example to improve our understanding of climate change impacts. Making use of the space, water and environment expertise across the Mott MacDonald Group, we hope to show the benefits of using Satellite EO in these and related disciplines and ultimately embed it in the project procurement process.”

The first work package is set to begin in September, with the development and agreement of prototype EO services and an implementation plan.

Ends

1. For more information about Mott MacDonald’s ICM projects go to www.icm.mottmac.com or for more information about this particular project contact:

Helen Bloxham/Savannah Wiza

Firefly Communications

020 7386 1408

mottmacdonaldschemateam@fireflycomms.com

2. About the Mott MacDonald Group

Mott MacDonald is a global management, engineering and development consultancy with more than 14,000 staff, £1 billion turnover and work in 140 countries for the public and private sectors. The employee-owned company is ranked 5th in the 2009 Sunday Times 20 Best Big Companies to Work For survey. Mott MacDonald’s core business sectors cover buildings, transport, energy, water, environment, health, education, industry, oil and gas, communications and international development.

For more information about the Mott MacDonald Group go to www.mottmac.com or contact: pressoffice@mottmac.com

3 . About the European Space Agency (ESA) and its Earth Observation Market Development (EOMD) programme

The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. ESA is an international organisation including 18 European Member States with around 2000 staff and an annual budget in 2009 of €3591 million. The ESA programme for Earth Observation Market Development (EOMD) aims to foster the use of Earth Observation (EO) based geo-information services within new market sectors. EOMD supports and funds the EO service industry to grow their business by attracting new clients and encouraging partnership building.

For more information on EOMD go to www.eomd.esa.int