Analysts predict that the market for satellite data services will grow more than fourfold by 2031. This increase in demand could potentially be driven by an imposed obligation on a large portion of businesses, including agricultural producers, to report environmental impact. Satellite data are a valuable tool not only for businesses, but also for urban planners and local government officials. They provide millimetre-precise details on phenomena such as land subsidence, thus enabling early decision-making on key infrastructure upgrades.
“Satellite data provide us with a great opportunity to monitor the surface of the Earth and everything we do on it. We’re talking about everything we create, for instance infrastructure, buildings, and everything that is part of the Earth, like forests, whether our soil is shifting, what its quality is, and whether there are changes in the Earth’s crust. We can gain all this information through satellite data,” said Weronika Borejko from the European Association of Remote Sensing Companies at the Earth Observation Forum.
This is particularly crucial from the perspective of the agricultural industry. Under the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) adopted in 2022, a significant number of businesses, including agricultural producers, will have to report the environmental impact of their operations from 2025 onwards. They will need to compile and publish ESG (environmental, social and governance) reports. Satellite data can be an invaluable tool in aiding their generation.
“Satellite data enable us to examine whether the substances that farmers use and the way they cultivate land have an impact on soils. Similarly, we can monitor our impact on mining or the extraction of raw materials,” Borejko added.
Satellite Earth observation also plays a significant role in monitoring safety, such as early detection of threats and prevention from natural disasters, biological pollution in rivers, or building catastrophes.
“An intriguing application of satellite data for Earth observation is examining our infrastructure and how the land beneath it behaves. We can detect millimetre-accurate changes on a yearly scale, determining if a certain building or road is shifting or if any engineering work is required. One particular project we at EARSC are involved in discovered that one district of Sofia is slowly subsiding. This wasn’t detected by any on-site sensors or studies. It was only the satellite data that revealed that not only buildings but a entire part of the city had been subsiding over several years,” pointed out the expert.
In Europe, the most popular source of satellite information is Copernicus – an Earth observation programme carried out by the European Commission in partnership with entities such as the European Space Agency, the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), and the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts. It was created to support environmental protection, population protection, and security efforts. It is Europe’s contribution to building the Global Earth Observation System of Systems.
“From our annual Industry Survey at EARSC, we see that land and terrain services are the most popular, indicating that they are widely used in Europe. When we engage with cities and regions, their representatives often tell us that they need this kind of information, that they mainly rely on archives and books, and don’t have any mapping that could be based on satellite data,” says Weronika Borejko.
She emphasises that satellite data offer vast potential for city and regional services.
“More and more services are being offered by the private sector in Europe or are available through the Copernicus programme and various EU projects. Cities need access to the information delivered by satellite data to change how they are managed, to be better prepared for climate change. Cities need to do more in this direction to mitigate the impact of climate change,” the EARSC expert appraises.
According to Skyquest report, in 2022, the global market for satellite data services has reached $7.85 billion in revenue; by 2023, it is forecasted to reach $9.39 billion. By 2031, sales are projected to grow up to $39 billion.
