What's New @ Ramsar

European Space Agency invites tenders for studies on treaty support

We would like to inform you that the European Space Agency has now published an invitation to tender for studies investigating the future contribution from Earth Observation to support the implementation of international environmental treaties. The studies are collectively called TESEO (Treaty Enforcement Services using Earth Observation).

At least four projects will be started, each with a budget of maximum 250,000 Euros and duration of max. 15 months. Each project will correspond to a theme related to an international environmental convention. At least the four following themes and corresponding conventions will be covered:

Wetlands - Ramsar Convention;
Carbon - Kyoto protocol to the UN Framework Convention on Climatic Change;
Desertification - UN Convention to Combat Desertification;
Marine Pollution - MARPOL 73/78.

Other Themes may also be considered if properly justified and provided they are related to one or several environmental treaties of European interest.

In particular, the main goals to be achieved within each project are:

• Identification of the main national and international bodies involved in the implementation of the treaty and exhaustive collection of their needs in terms of information products, potentially based on EO.
• Identification of the potential and limits of existing and future (planned or not) EO technology to contribute to match end-users requirements.
• Definition of a set of novel EO-based products and services aimed at supporting the implementation of the treaty.
• Development of the technical capabilities (data analysis techniques) to provide novel EO-based products and services to end-users within the context of the considered international treaty.
• Development of at least two Prototype Products aimed at demonstrating the capabilities of existing and future EO technology to support end-users in the implementation of the main actions and policies foreseen in the considered treaty.
• Provide general recommendations for future European EO missions and programmes.

More information can be found on the TESEO Web pages: http://earth.esa.int/teseo

_____________________________________________

TESEO Info desk
Earth Observation Applications Department
European Space Agency
ESA-ESRIN
http://earth.esa.int/teseo

teseo@esa.int

For further information about the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, please contact the Ramsar Convention Bureau, Rue Mauverney 28, CH-1196 Gland, Switzerland (tel +41 22 999 0170, fax +41 22 999 0169, e-mail ramsar@ramsar.org). Posted 24 April 2001, Dwight Peck, Ramsar.