SMURBS Midterm (MTR) Milestone Meeting, hosted by our partner SRI, was successfully held in the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (NASU), Kiev, on 3-4 June 2019! What have we achieved since our PM1 in Athens? What does it still take for the last mile of this journey? These key questions were answered during the workshop.

Representatives from all, but a few, SMURBS participants attended this event, allowing for an enthusiastic and committed working group composed of more than 20 people!

We were keen to deliberate the progress of all SMURBS smart EO products and solutions, and all discussions gave rise to new synergies and replications. The portfolio includes integrated air quality monitoring systems engaging multiple EO platforms currently under construction, soon to be exporting targeted, real time and forecast information to policy makers and the public. Remote sensing and crowdsourcing are combined in order to optimize land use and land cover information for timely flood risk assessments. A set of city-scale indicators to detect land surface differences over time is already as a ‘beta’ product, envisaged to stand as a homogeneous classification system for Urban Growth metrics.

Enlightening presentations of SMURBS’ contribution to monitoring Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and to Essential Urban Variables (EUVs) inspired fruitful discussions, along with SMURBS plans on the forthcoming Health and Migration Case Studies were considered and set, which will culminate in the form of White Papers.

All in all, it was a pleasure getting the direct feel of each of us on SMURBS’ progress and seeing familiar faces!

All MTR presentations can be found here.