Decision Support on Monitoring and Disaster Management in Agriculture with Copernicus Sentinel Applications

The successful implementation of the European Commission’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and the insurance coverage in case of a natural disaster requires precise and regular mapping of crop types and detailed delineation of the disasters’ effects by frequent and accurate controls. Free and open access policy to Copernicus Sentinel data offers a big volume of data to the users on a consistent and complete basis. Today, the Sentinels are involved in an increasing number of agriculture applications, but their effective exploitation is still being investigated and the development of efficient tools, aligned to the user’s needs, is yet to be realised. To this end, the DiAS (Disaster and Agriculture Sentinel Applications) project proposes methods for decision support in agriculture using Sentinel data for crop type mapping, as well as mapping of the extend of fire and flood effects in agricultural areas. The DiAS Decision Support System (DSS) is designed in consultation with potential users in participatory approach and aims to provide a prototype tool, which provides assistance to the responsible paying agencies and insurance organizations to make decisions on farmers’ subsidies and compensations. The DiAS DSS prototype and its functionalities are presented in this paper and its use is demonstrated through example applications for two test sites in Greece. The DiAS DSS demonstrates the necessity for the development of similar tools, as this emerges from the user’s requirements, and wishes to stimulate and inspire further research and development.