Spotlight: What can we do with EnMAP data?

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Analyzing Land Cover Changes & Monitoring Climate Change Impact

Vegetation, deserts, water, and urban areas all reflect light in different wavelengths and intensities. By analyzing these data, we can get a detailed image of the Earth’s surface and even understand what has changed over time: Have urban areas or agricultural areas expanded? Is desertification increasing? How have coastlines and forests developed over time?

This helps us to monitor impacts of changing land use and climate change – but also to actually measure visible impacts of mitigation efforts!

Monitoring Biodiversity

Every plant has a unique “wavelength-footprint” that we can analyze. This means: We can see, how many different species a certain ecosystem is made of, and if this diversity is changing. We can even see migrating patterns of certain species! This helps us to understand, how ecosystems are evolving and what we can do to keep them stable and healthy.

Information-Based Agriculture

Climate change poses a significant challenge for agriculture: Many crops produce lower yields. EnMAP data provides us with detailed information on crops, for example their level of chlorophyll and water. By applying advanced algorithms and machine learning, we can assess plant variables on a large scale, such as essential nutrients like nitrogen and carbon.

This knowledge helps farmers to make informed decision, manage plant health, as well as optimize the fertilization and irrigation – leading to higher yields!

Other Possibilities

EnMAP also allows us to monitor water availability and quality: For example, the data contain information on algae growth or pollution. In general, the variety of EnMAP data can help us to assess environmental disasters such as landslides, droughts and floodings – and be a fundamental element of increasing resilience!

Curious about more EnMAP applications? Visit EnMAP’s website: EnMAP Science and DLR’s EnMAP Project.