ECONOMIC BENEFITS EXPECTED FROM EARTH OBSERVATION APPLICATIONS. THE CASE OF THE EU FP7 ITACA PROJECT

摘要

This paper offers a contribution of how Earth Observation Applications can give economic benefits to the community of End Users. A short overview of EO benefits is given with specific reference to cultural heritage applications. In particular, the paper focuses on the case of a EU FP7 Project ITACA (Innovation Technologies and Applications for Coastal Archaeological sites), which started in January 2014 and it is currently underway. The paper briefly describes the ITACA project and its aims. During the project an economic impact assessment is carried out, initially from a qualitative point of view, through the submission of a questionnaire to the partners involved in the project. The same questionnaire was given also to identified End-Users in order to investigate the precise stakeholders' nature and behaviour and the likely economic modifications they will undergo once the project takes shape and new technical propositions are made potentially available also by way of different service models. Factors affecting positively and negatively the various stakeholder's communities will be listed and discussed in full. Next stage is involving the quantification of potential benefits ITACA project may produce. Therefore, an evaluation of effects on economic activities of the areas and on communities the archaeological sites is being made. Once qualitative and quantitative assessments are completed, a business plan outlining also the appropriate road/roads to market is going to be prepared and suggestions will be made about which organizational/governance model best fit the expected results. This paper also deals with considerations about strength, weakness, opportunities and threats before during and after project's deployment. The paper presents all preliminary results to be discussed with the scientific community. EU FP7 ITACA project is coordinated by Planetek Hellas E.P.E. (GR) and includes the following institutes and companies: Kell Srl (IT), NAIS Srl (IT), DHI GRAS (DK), I.EN.A.E (GR), FFCUL (PT), ANESTI Ltd (UK), Regione Sicilia (IT), ALMA Sistemi Sas (IT), CODEVINTEC Srl (IT), SME4SPACE VZW (BE).