FAST project short description
FAST: Foreshore Assessment using Space Technology
In a future that includes sea level rise, climate change and increasing coastal populations, existing and planned shoreline defence strategies are going to become increasingly expensive.
Natural coastal ecosystems can provide protection against flooding and erosion, making them cost-effective, nature-enhancing complements to existing protection solutions.
To simplify the widespread adoption of nature-based shoreline protection, FAST is developing down-stream services based on the ambitious European Earth Observation Programme Copernicus (www.copernicus.eu) that will allow citizens to predict the coastal protection potential of their foreshore habitats using space technology.
To develop these services, FAST project is working on three main actions:
1. Developing the scientific basis to understand how specific properties of vegetated foreshores affect wave energy and erosion.
2. Deriving algorithms for the automated, remote detection of these biophysical properties using space technology.
3. Packaging all this know-how into easy-to use services to co-create economical and ecological value by facilitating nature-based engineering solutions.
FAST will have demonstrations on these services ready before end of 2017.
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