Gregory Giuliani

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Verified

Gregory verified their affiliation via an institutional email.

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• PhD
• Senior Lecturer at University of Geneva

Switzerland, renowned for its mountainous landscapes, holds nearly 10% of Europe’s water reserves, with 40% of its running waters originating from snowmelt. Snow plays a crucial role in the country’s water management, hydroelectric power, and alpine ecosystems. It supports freshwater supply, agriculture, and tourism, making accurate snow monitoring...

Despite the large availability of satellite and in-situ data on snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere, long-term assessments at an adequate resolution to capture the complexities of mountainous terrains remain limited, particularly for countries like Switzerland. This study addresses this gap by employing two products-the monthly NDSI (Normalized D...

Cold ecosystems are experiencing a warming rate that is twice as fast as the global average and are particularly vulnerable to the consequences of climate change. In mountain ecosystems, it is particularly important to monitor vegetation to understand ecosystem dynamics, biodiversity conservation, and the resilience of these fragile ecosystems to g...

In the face of climate change and population growth, Local Climate Zone (LCZ) maps have emerged as crucial tools for urban planners and policymakers to address Urban Heat Island (UHI) effects, thereby playing a significant role in mitigating climate change. This study presents a methodology for classifying major Swiss cities into LCZs, offering an...

The aim of the study was to find out how new technologies can reduce the negative effects of climate change in Switzerland and make our society and economy more resilient. The experts have high hopes for the latest developments in artificial intelligence (AI) and satellite-based earth observations to overcome the various climate challenges. In comb...

The Earth’s ecosystem is facing serious threats due to the depletion of natural resources and environmental pollution. To promote sustainable practices and formulate effective policies that address these issues, both experts and non-expert stakeholders require access to meaningful Open Data. Current Earth monitoring programs provide a large volume...

Advanced computing resources are necessary to efficiently and accurately process Earth Observation data for environmental monitoring. However, selecting the optimal infrastructure for distributed data processing can be costly and time-consuming due to the required historical simulation dataset. The article proposes the Earth Observation Cloud Simul...

The objective of this publication is to provide insight into advancing remote sensing techniques dealing with floods, droughts, landslides, earthquakes, permafrost-related hazards, glacial lake outburst floods, forest fires, droughts, tropical cyclones, climate resilience and COVID-19. This publication will incorporate the latest technologies and t...

The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) defines a disaster as a severe disruption of the functioning of a community or society resulting from hazardous events interacting with conditions of exposure, vulnerability, and capacity. This disruption leads to various losses and impacts, including human, material, economic, and envir...

Global demand for gold is growing through the manufacture of jewellery and electronic products. The growing demand for gold is met through both large and small-scale mining. Thus, there is also an increasing number of informal Artisanal and Small-scale Gold Mining (ASGM) activities in Africa, Southeast Asia, and South/Latin America. This paper, the...

The significance of earth observation data spans diverse fields and domains, driving the need for efficient management. Nevertheless, the exponential increase in data volume brings new challenges that complicate processing and storing data. This article proposes an optimized multi-modular service for earth observation data management in response to...

Accurate, consistent, and high-resolution Land Use & Cover (LUC) information is fundamental for effectively monitoring landscape dynamics and better apprehending drivers, pressures, state, and impacts on land systems. Nevertheless, the availability of such national products with high thematic accuracy is still limited and consequently researchers a...

Standard and easily accessible cross-thematic spatial databases are key resources in ecological research. In Switzerland, as in many other countries, available data are scattered across computer servers of research institutions and are rarely provided in standard formats (e.g., different extents or projections systems, inconsistent naming conventio...

Modern research applies the Open Science approach that fosters the production and sharing of Open Data according to the FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) principles. In the geospatial context this is generally achieved through the setup of OGC Web services that implements open standards that satisfies the FAIR requirements. Never...

The EuroGEO workshop held in Bolzano, Italy from October 2 to October 4, 2023, was a significant event that aimed to align European activities with the new strategy of the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) and support the coordination and interlinking of actions at national and Eu- ropean levels to contribute to GEO’s initiatives. This report serve...

The Local Climate Zone (LCZ) concept has emerged as a valuable classification system for climate-related studies. The World Urban Database and Access Portal Tools (WUDAPT) protocol provides a framework for generating a LCZ segmentation which relies on the supervised classification of multispectral imagery. However, since LCZ is based on the physica...

Air pollution significantly affects human health and the environment. It is caused by the emission of diverse pollutants into the atmosphere. Most of the measurements for air quality are done through on-ground sensors that are single points and do not cover well a given territory. Currently, there are space missions that are aiming to complement th...

Environmental changes are significantly modifying terrestrial vegetation dynamics, with serious consequences on Earth system functioning and provision of ecosystem services. Land conditions are an essential element underpinning global sustainability frameworks, such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), requiring effective solutions to asses...

Timely and reliable Land Use and Cover change information is crucial to efficiently mitigate the negative impact of environmental changes. Switzerland has the ambitious objective of being a sustainable country while remaining an attractive business location with a high level of well-being. However, this aspiration is hampered by increasing pressure...

Earth observation (EO) satellite data is essential to environmental monitoring. At a national and regional level, the open data cubes harness the power of satellite data by providing application programming interfaces and services to the end-users. The volume and the complexity of satellite observations are increasing, demanding novel approaches fo...

The concept of Digital Earth (DE) was formalized by Al Gore in 1998. At that time the technologies needed for its implementation were in an embryonic stage and the concept was quite visionary. Since then digital technologies have progressed significantly and their speed and pervasiveness have generated and are still causing the digital transformati...

Snow cover extent and distribution over the years have a significant impact on hydrological, terrestrial, and climatologic processes. Snow cover mapping accuracy using remote sensing data is then particularly important. This study analyses Landsat-8 NDSI snow cover datasets over time and space using different NDSI-based approach. The objectives are...

Over the last few decades, numerous geological studies have been carried out in the South Shetland Islands, which have greatly contributed to a better understanding of its geological evolution. However, few attempts have been conducted to correlate the geological units throughout this archipelago. We present herein a review of the literature availa...

The objective of this report is to encourage each GEO community to share, improve or start their developments on EVs and to adopt a coherent common framework. Experts from every GEO Societal Benefit Areas (SBAs) describe the level of development of EVs in their field. The relationship with transversal policy needs is analyzed from different angles....

Long-term evolution of the Earth from the base of the mantle to the top of the atmosphere: Understanding the mechanisms leading to 'greenhouse' and 'icehouse' regimes. See more: https://sites.google.com/view/base-top-earth/phd-positions. Summary Earth's climate has undergone many changes during the last billion years, including periods with extende...

In recent decades, developing countries have experienced a widespread population increase. On one hand, this has resulted in a disorganized urban expansion, problems with fast land-use change and the related threats to natural resources. On the other hand, the increase of the population and the progressive urban expansion have caused the conversion...

Coastal management has a critical role in estimating the coastal environmental and socio-economic dynamics, providing various vital regional and local services. Remote sensing earth observations are essential for detecting and monitoring shorelines. UAVs combined with satellite remote sensing address the shoreline delineation problems to detect the...

The Alps have historically been crossed by populations moving between northern and southern Europe for various purposes. Testimonies of such human presence were long preserved from decomposition being covered and protected by perennial ice and snow. However, with ongoing climate change, large portion of these permanent snowed and frozen areas are b...

The rapid growth of remote sensing big data (RSBD) has attracted considerable attention from both academia and industry. Despite the progress of computer technologies, conventional computing implementations have become technically inefficient for processing RSBD. Cloud computing is effective in activating and mining large-scale heterogeneous data a...

Interoperability standards from the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) shape a backbone within the OSGeo community by defining a pathway to software implementation toward the standardization of geospatial information and related services ensuring interoperability between FOSS4G software. In 2016, the OGC has initiated the creation of a new generation...

The technological landscape for managing big Earth observation (EO) data ranges from global solutions on large cloud infrastructures with web-based access to self-hosted implementations. EO data cubes are a leading technology for facilitating big EO data analysis and can be deployed on different spatial scales: local, national, regional, or global....

Land degradation has been recognized as a critical issue requiring urgent actions to cope with climate change and biodiversity loss impacts. The Sahel is probably among the most severely affected region in the World by land degradation, impacting many ecosystem services that are critical for wellbeing and livelihoods. In response to this issue, 11...

This paper discusses opportunities to use remote sensing (RS) technologies in addressing the persistent global challenges related to the artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) sector. The paper uses a systematic literature review to identify, analyze, and synthesize various uses of RS on the detection and monitoring of ASGM activities across...

Monitoring changes in Annual Net Primary Productivity (ANPP) is required for reporting on UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Indicator 15.3.1: the proportion of land that is degraded over the total land area. Calibrating time-series observations of ANPP to derive Water Use Efficiency (WUE; a measure of ANPP per unit of evapotranspiration) can mi...

During the past two centuries, the world has undergone deep societal, political, and economical changes that heavily affected human life. The above changes contributed to an increased awareness about the deep impact that policy decisions have at the local and the global level. Therefore, there is a strong need that policy-making and decision-making...

Several holistic approaches are based on the description of socio-ecological systems to address the sustainability challenge. Essential Variables (EVs) have the potential to support these approaches by describing the status of the Earth system through monitoring and modeling. The different classes of EVs can be organized along the environmental pol...

High spatial and thematic resolution of Land Use/Cover (LU/LC) maps are central for accurate watershed analyses, improved species, and habitat distribution modeling as well as ecosystem services assessment, robust assessments of LU/LC changes, and calculation of indices. Downscaled LU/LC maps for Switzerland were obtained for three time periods by...

Cloud computing facilities can provide crucial computing support for processing the time series of satellite data and exploiting their spatio-temporal information content. However, dedicated efforts are still required to develop workflows, executable on cloud-based platforms, for ingesting the satellite data, performing the targeted processes, and...

Solid waste management constitutes a major concern and unresolved problem in most parts of the world, particularly in developing countries where solid waste is disposed in unregulated dumpsites in the public spaces. This practice can lead to contamination of environmental compartments such as soil, surface and groundwater which could negatively imp...

Since the opening of Earth Observation (EO) archives (USGS/NASA Landsat and EC/ESA Sentinels), large collections of EO data are freely available, offering scientists new possibilities to better understand and quantify environmental changes. Fully exploiting these satellite EO data will require new approaches for their acquisition, management, distr...

Exacerbated by climate change, Europe has experienced series of hot and dry summer since the beginning of the 21st century. The importance of land conditions became an international concern with a dedicated sustainable development goal (SDG), the SDG 15. It calls for developing and finding innovative solutions to follow and evaluate impacts of chan...

Coastal management has a critical role in estimating the coastal environmental and socioeconomic dynamics , providing various vital regional and local services. Earth observations and remote sensing are essential methods in coastal observation for studying and monitoring coastlines. UAVs combined with remote sensing address the shoreline delineatio...

Urban sprawl has a strong impact on the provision and use of green spaces and, conse- quently, on the benefits that society can derive from these natural ecosystems, especially in terms of public health. In looking at the Sustainable Development Goals and other regional policy frameworks, there is a strong need for quantifying access to green space...

Coastal management has a critical role in estimating the coastal environmental and socioeconomic dynamics , providing various vital regional and local services. Earth observations and remote sensing are essential methods in coastal observation for studying and monitoring coastlines. UAVs combined with remote sensing address the shoreline delineatio...

The numerous processes implicated in the rapid and profound climate-driven changes that are underwayacross the world’s mountains must be well monitored, understood, and—as far as possible—accurately pro-jected. However, not only are the available environmental data upon which such activities hinge oftenseverely limited, but interdisciplinary consen...

The air temperature is a critical factor in many societal challenges to protect human health and the environment. Moreover, a vital climatic parameter, the temperature has a direct impact on evaporation, frost, and snow melting. Temperature predictions are based mainly on numerical and statistical models. Sometimes it is a challenge to improve the...

Ecosystem Services Web Services (ESWS) are new web-based approaches to quantifying the benefits that humans derive from nature. Specifically, ESWS are the application of open web standards to ecosystem service assessment to facilitate creation, iteration, and dissemination in a seamless way. This integration streamlines collaboration, automation, a...

Environmental scientific research is highly becoming data-driven and dependent on high performance computing infrastructures to process ever increasing large volume and diverse data sets. Consequently, there is a growing recognition of the need to share data, methods, algorithms, and infrastructure to make scientific research more effective, effici...

Geospatial data is used not only to contemplate reality but also, in combination with analytical tools, to generate new information that requires interpretation. In this process data users gain knowledge about the data and its limitations (the user side of data quality) as well as knowledge on the status and evolutions of the studied phenomena. Kno...

Small-scale placer mining in Colombia takes place in rural areas and involves excavations resulting in large footprints of bare soil and water ponds. Such excavated areas comprise a mosaic of challenging terrains for cloud and cloud-shadow detection of Sentinel-2 (S2A and S2B) data used to identify, map, and monitor these highly dynamic activities....

Cities are recognised as key enablers for the world’s sustainable future. Urban sprawl and inefficient use of land are important issues significantly impacting the provision and use of open green spaces. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) indicator 11.7.1 aims at globally monitoring the amount of land that is dedicated by cities...

The essence of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted by the United Nations is described in 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). SDG 15 focuses on Life on Land, in other words, terrestrial biodiversity and ecosystems, as well as their services. Land degradation is a severe anthropic and natural phenomenon that is affecting land use...

Environmental sustainability is nowadays a major global issue that requires efficient and effective responses from governments. Essential variables (EV) have emerged in different scientific communities as a means to characterize and follow environmental changes through a set of measurements required to support policy evidence. To help track these c...

Pressures on natural resources are increasing and a number of challenges need to be overcome to meet the needs of a growing population in a period of environmental variability. The key to sustainable development is achieving a balance between the exploitation of natural resources for socioeconomic development and maintaining ecosystem services that...

Avoiding, reducing and reversing land degradation and restoring degraded land is an urgent priority to protect the biodiversity and ecosystem services that are vital to life on Earth. The latest Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) Landmark Assessment Report highlighted that land degradation throu...

Forests play major roles in climate regulation, ecosystem services, carbon storage, biodiversity, terrain stabilization, and water retention, as well as in the economy of numerous countries. Nevertheless, deforestation and forest degradation are rampant in many parts of the world. In particular, the Amazonian rainforest faces the constant threats p...

Land degradation is a critical issue globally requiring immediate actions for protecting biodiversity and associated services provided by ecosystems that are supporting human quality of life. The latest Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Landmark Assessment Report highlighted that human activities are c...

To tackle Big Data challenges such as Volume, Variety, and Velocity, the Earth Observations Data Cube (EODC) concept has emerged as a solution for lowering barriers and offering new possibilities to harness the information power of satellite EO data. However, installing, configuring, and managing an EODC instance is still difficult requiring specif...

Satellite Earth observation (EO) data have already exceeded the petabyte scale and are increasingly freely and openly available from different data providers. This poses a number of issues in terms of volume (e.g., data volumes have increased 10× in the last 5 years); velocity (e.g., Sentinel-2 is capturing a new image of any given place every 5 da...

Measuring the achievement of a sustainable development requires the integration of various data sets and disciplines describing bio-physical and socioeconomic conditions. These data allow characterizing any location on Earth, assessing the status of the environment at various scales (e.g. national, regional, global), understanding interactions betw...

Avoiding, reducing, and reversing land degradation and restoring degraded land is an urgent priority to protect the biodiversity and ecosystem services that are vital to life on Earth. To halt and reverse the current trends in land degradation, there is an immediate need to enhance national capacities to undertake quantitative assessments and mappi...

Information gathered on past flood events is essential for understanding and assessing flood hazards. In this study, we present how citizen science can help to retrieve this information, particularly in areas with scarce or no authoritative measurements of past events. The case study is located in Yeumbeul North (YN), Senegal, where flood impacts r...

Earth Observation Data Cubes (EODC) have emerged as a promising solution to efficiently and effectively handle Big Earth Observation (EO) Data generated by satellites and made freely and openly available from different data repositories. The aim of this Special Issue, “Earth Observation Data Cube”, in Data, is to present the latest advances in EODC...

The emerging global trend of satellite operators producing analysis-ready data combined with open source tools for managing and exploiting these data are leading to more and more countries using Earth observation data to drive progress against key national and international development agendas. This paper provides examples from Australia, Mexico, S...

This poster has been prepared for an event at the Federal Office for the Environment

Mountainous regions are particularly vulnerable to climate change, and the impacts are already extensive and observable, the implications of which go far beyond mountain boundaries and the environmental sectors. Monitoring and understanding climate and environmental changes in mountain regions is, therefore, needed. One of the key variables to stud...

The increase of artificial light in recent decades has led to a general awareness of the harmful consequences of light pollution on biodiversity. The artificial light is however rarely taken into account in the principles of developing ecological networks. There is currently no standardized method for integrating this darkness factor into ecologica...

Environmental issues become an increasing global concern because of the continuous pressure on natural resources. Earth observations (EO), which include both satellite/UAV and in-situ data, can provide robust monitoring for various environmental concerns. The realization of the full information potential of EO data requires innovative tools to mini...

Earth observations data cubes (EODCs) are a paradigm transforming the way users interact with large spatio-temporal Earth observation (EO) data. It enhances connections between data, applications and users facilitating management, access and use of analysis ready data (ARD). The ambition is allowing users to harness big EO data at a minimum cost an...

The practice of raw material extraction has a high impact on the environment and represents a potential threat to the health and thriving of local communities. The concept of Extractive Essential Variables (EEVs) are explored in order to propose variables that can be used to quantify the environmental footprint of mineral extraction. Considering th...

This study aims at assessing the feasibility of automatically producing analysis-ready radiometrically terrain-corrected (RTC) Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) gamma nought backscatter data for ingestion into a data cube for use in a large spatio-temporal data environment. As such, this study investigates the analysis readiness of different openly av...

Essential Climate Variables (ECVs) are geophysical records generated from systematic Earth Observations associated with climate variations, changes, and impacts. ECVs products support the data and information needs of international frameworks and policies such as the work of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the...

Information gathered on past flood events is essential for understanding and assessing flood hazard. In this study, we present how citizen science can help retrieving this information, in particular in areas with scarce or no instrumental measurements on past events. The case study is located in Yeumbeul North (YN), Senegal, where flood impacts rep...