The Philippines and the European Union (EU) have launched the Copernicus Capacity Support Action Programme for the Philippines (CopPhil) on Monday, a first-of-its-kind space cooperation program in the area worth PHP610 million.
Copernicus is the EU's flagship earth observation initiative, providing free environment and climate data obtained from a constellation of satellites known as the Sentinels, which monitor the globe and its diverse ecosystems 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
CopPhil aims to assist Philippine authorities in developing national systems for utilizing data from EU earth observation satellites in disaster mitigation, climate change adaptation, and food security policies.
During the launch in Pasay City, Department of Science and Technology (DOST) Secretary Renato Solidum Jr. stated that an integrated systems approach to governance is required to be most effective in reducing disaster risk.
He went on to say that if the country could keep dangers from becoming disasters, it could also secure its future development and economic rewards.
According to Solidum, the desire for novel approaches to disaster resilience has increased.
He pointed out that the Philippines, for example, is continually confronted with climate and disaster threats and is sensitive to their consequences.
He also stated that the agency has used Sentinel databases for land cover mapping, aquaculture monitoring, and forest and watershed management monitoring throughout the Philippines.
Using the Copernicus data gathering system would help the Philippine government make decisions and evaluate policy implementation based on timely and reliable data, according to Solidum.
He also stated that the data would assist the government in gaining a better knowledge of dangers and risks in space, identifying obstacles, and identifying analysis tools to support planning and decision-making.
On his part, EU Ambassador to the Philippines Luc Véron stated that the cooperation initiative will result in "a stronger and more shock-resilient Filipino economy and society."
Véron also stated that the EU is looking into the prospect of establishing a network of Copernicus partners in the Asean of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region, in addition to other regions of the world.
Meanwhile, the relationship with the EU, according to Philippine Space Agency Director General Joel Marciano Jr., will improve the domestic space value chain, notably in the processing and use of satellite imagery and space data.
As an example, Marciano stated that PhilSA has delivered Copernicus Sentinel data to the Department of Agriculture for road network monitoring, cargo movement, danger mapping, and ship detection.
According to him, accessible data from Copernicus has also given access to critical data such as volcanic emission monitoring, canopy height mapping, and crop mapping, among other things.
