Satellite Oracle: Cardano-based Measurement, Reporting and Verification (MRV) Platform for Environmental Protection and Restoration

[GENERAL] Name and Surname of Main Applicant

Yosef Akhtman

[GENERAL] Email address of Main Applicant

ya@gamma.earth

Additional Applicants

Magnus Edvard Nielsen

Scott Poynton

Yoram Ben Zvi

[GENERAL] Please specify how many months you expect your project to last (from 2-12 months)

10

[GENERAL] Please indicate if your proposal has been auto-translated into English from another language.

No

[GENERAL] Does your project have any dependencies on other organizations, technical or otherwise?

No

[GENERAL] If YES, please describe what the dependency is and why you believe it is essential for your project’s delivery. If NO, please write “No dependencies.” in this field.

No dependancies

[GENERAL] Will your project outputs be fully Open Source?

Yes

[GENERAL] If NO, please describe which outputs are not going to be open source. If YES, please write “Project will be fully open source.” in this field.

Project will be fully open source.

[METADATA] Category of Proposal

Data, Explorers, Trackers

[METADATA] SDG rating

The nature of the envisioned projects lays itself to a particularly strong case for major contribution to the Green Deal across a list of sustainability objectives. In this section we focus on a number of key categories that allow for quantitative analysis, while broader impact is described in Section 4.10. Specifically, Open Platform for Global Environmental Intelligence has the potential to bring about a significant positive impact across the following Global Goals for Sustainable Development.

SDG 1 No Poverty: Global value chains are largely controlled by large international commercial organisations leaving local producers in the developing world on the brink of poverty. Access to timely environmental intelligence and market information will empower governments, corporations, as well as local communities and businesses to manage risks, increase profit margins, economic independence and their respective share of the generated wealth.

SDG 2 No Hunger: Both hunger and obesity can be regarded as undernourished conditions and represent major impediments for the betterment of global human wellbeing. Environmental intelligence will help predict and prevent major fluctuations in food supplies associated with drought, extreme weather patterns and climate change, significantly improving the efficiency and sustainability of food production systems and ensure stable access to high quality food.

SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation: Industrial production and agriculture in particular is currently responsible for 70% of all freshwater consumption on the planet. can facilitate significant optimisation and reduction in the use of this precious resource. A key factor for reduced availability of clean water is the massive deforestation caused by expanding agricultural production. GE can positively impact the situation by improving soil management and thus reduce the need for expansion.

SDG 13 Protect the Planet: Environmental Oracle aspires to make environmental data readily available for a wide range sustainability applications that require monitoring and validation. We are utilising sophisticated sensing and computational methods to enable feedback between our actions and the systemic traits of natural and agricultural ecosystems leading to a smarter and more sustainable use of natural resources.

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

The urgent need for sustainable solutions is driving a rapid adoption of smart environmental monitoring and diagnostics technologies that utilise spaceborne Earth Observation (EO) and climate data. Target applications encompass a wide range of commercial domains, such as natural resource management, disaster management, weather forecasting, precision agriculture, forestry, mineralogical prospection and global trade. Furthermore, the emerging market for carbon credits and other sustainability services, such as direct carbon capture, regenerative agriculture, reforestation and afforestation require careful monitoring and validation to achieve the desired level of credibility and trust.

Unfortunately however, multiple major technological bottlenecks continue to impede wide adoption and commercial utility of environmental sensing technologies beyond the limited scope of scientific research. We have conducted an extensive survey of multiple organisations that aim to promote and accelerate reforestation, afforestation and soil carbon restoration, including for example Open Forest Protocol (https://www.openforestprotocol.org/), Restore (https://restor.eco), The Pond Foundation (https://thepondfoundation.org/), Landano (https://www.landano.io/), Forest Conservation Fund (https://www.fundforests.org/) and Agora Carbon Alliance (https://agorocarbonalliance.com). 

Our findings show that at this time the vast majority of monitoring and validation for such projects relies on labour-intense, expensive, time-consuming and often unreliable ground samples and manual inspection. Significant efforts have been invested into automation of monitoring and validation using remote sensing technology, but the scalability and efficiency of such methodology is currently limited by the following factors:

• Commercial high-resolution EO imagery is far too expensive for most environmental monitoring projects and applications, while the spatial resolution of the low-cost EO imagery is too coarse for most such applications.
• Challenging atmospheric conditions, such as obstruction by clouds and cloud shadows, make the availability of high-quality data highly irregular and temporarily incoherent.
• Monitoring often requires high-quality historical imaging data that is often unavailable, or too expensive.
• Each EO system is designed to address a specific segment of use cases using a specific combination of technical characteristics, such as revisit time, number of spectral bands, spectral range and spatial resolution, thus making automated assimilation of data from multiple such systems difficult, or impossible.
• Radiometric calibration, and thus the stability and reliability of collected data varies drastically between different systems and continues to present a major and largely unsolved technological challenge.

Significant attention has been recently raised by the Dynamic World by Google (https://www.dynamicworld.app/) – “A near real-time land cover dataset for our constantly changing planet”. This system clearly demonstrates the immense potential of remote sensing for environmental monitoring applications. The system addresses the very important challenge of global coarse land-cover classification into nine major types, however it does not provide the means to understand the local environmental dynamics for a specific project or use case.

Our vision

The proposed project will develop and deploy an Satellite Oracle that will offer a consolidated source of regularised multi-modal multi-scale (spatial, spectral and temporal) environmental data required for implementation of low-cost, scalable monitoring and validation solutions for carbon capture and ecological restoration projects and DApps. The proposed data structure will include a fusion of spatial, spectral and temporal features specifically designed and optimised for training of analytical and predictive ML models.

The information aggregated by Satellite Oracle will act as a form Environmental Passport for any target plot of land that will both record all changes of status, as well as provide a source of objective data for the analysis of dynamics, performance and health indicators.

Figure 1. H3: Uber’s Hexagonal Hierarchical Spatial Index

The proposed Satellite Oracle will utilise Uber’s Hexagonal Hierarchical Index (H3) for multi-scale indexing and access to consolidated environmental data. The system will provide access to the following data types in the form of regularised and consolidated multi-layer multi-modal data cubes:

• Instant
• Radiometrically calibrated, cloud-free multi spectral satellite imaging data at 1m/px spatial resolution
• Short-term cycle – 12-month time series at 5 days revisit rate
• Reflectance spectrum
• Climate data
• Temperature (max/min/5-day average)
• Precipitation (5-day average)
• Cloud cover (5-day average)
• Long-term cycle – 12-year time series at 60 days revisit rate
• Vegetation index
• Climate data
• Temperature (max/min/60-day average)
• Precipitation (60-day average)
• Cloud cover (60-day average)

Figure 2. Ecomandala visualisation of the information features constituting the Satellite Oracle multi-modal spatial-spectral-temporal dataset.

The resultant consolidated source of environmental data will be deployed on Cardano blockchain and will be made available through a standardised API which will significantly streamline and simplify access to such data for developers of environmental monitoring and validation applications, as well as a wide variety of sustainability focused DApps. Some examples of such DApps could include DeFi support of regenerative agriculture, agriculture supply chains, forest conservations and tree planting projects.

As part of our future work, we are planning the development and release of an Ecomandala NFT that is a dynamic visualisation of the aggregated and regularised environmental data detailed in Figure 4. Ecomandala will represent the historical record and the current state of any given plot of land in an information-rich and visually compelling form allowing for interactive and engaging exploration of environmental data.

Figure 3. Original Sentinel-2 L2A scene (left) and processed scene with the clouds and cloud shadows removed using the proposed data fusion method (right).

The proposed project will invoke the latest developments in the area of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to enable coherent fusion of multiple sources of environmental data, including European Space Agency (ESA) Copernicus Sentinel 1 and 2, as well as the corresponding climate data in order to obtain regularised, cloud and cloud shadow-free time series of satellite imaging data.

The satellite imaging data will be further super-resolved to the spatial resolution of 2 m/px, significantly expanding the range of target monitoring and verification applications.

Figure 4. x10 super-resolved images generated by Gamma Earth S2DR model. Sentinel-2 RGB 10 m/px (left), S2DR RGB 1 m/px (center) and Google Maps RGB 30 cm/px (right).

For more information on Sentinel-2 Super-Resolution please see here: https://medium.com/@ya_71389/sentinel-2-deep-resolution-2-0-c3d530d9bdf8

[IMPACT] How does your proposed solution address the challenge and what benefits will this bring to the Cardano ecosystem?

The envisioned Satellite Oracle will help resolve multiple major technological bottlenecks associated with the challenge of sourcing, accessing and processing relevant environmental data required for monitoring, auditing, and validation of carbon capture, ecological protection and restoration projects. It will enable the development and deployment of a new class of high impact DApps on Cardano blockchain positioning Cardano as a platform of choice for in environmental monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) applications.

Satellite Oracle will constitute a platform and an integration layer enabling further development and deployment of monitoring and validation solutions for specific DApps on Cardano ecosystem. We therefore inspire to

• Showcase the methodology of low-cost scalable monitoring and validation of ecological restoration projects
• Standardize, streamline and simplify access to consolidated environmental data
• Attract the developers of monitoring and validation solutions for carbon capture and ecological restoration projects to Cardano ecosystem

Our solution will further promote collaboration, synergy and interoperability between Cardano projects by leveraging the achievements of the recent Fund 8 “Oracle Development Portal” project: https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/400771 (which is not a related project but we will be happy to collaborate in order to maximise the impact of both projects).

Examples of funded and submitted Cardano Ideascale projects with direct synergy potential to the proposed Satellite Oracle

• Decentralised digital field boundary repository https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/107444
• 21st century Agri supply chain https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/403695
• Oracle Developer Portal https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/400771
• Indigenous Land Rematriation https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/398750
• Open ledger for agricultural land https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/400812
• Protecting wildlife & Maasai, Kenya https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/399158
• Landano: Cardano land registry Dapp https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/381957
• Community validation Dapp https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/421218

[IMPACT] How do you intend to measure the success of your project?

The team has established several key metrics and indicators to measure the success of the project. These metrics are aligned with the project's goals and objectives and serve as benchmarks for evaluating its effectiveness as follows:

1. Accuracy and Performance: One of the primary measures of success for the Satellite Oracle project is the accuracy and performance of the system
2. User Feedback and Satisfaction: The team will actively gather feedback from users of the Satellite Oracle platform
3. Adoption and Engagement: The level of adoption and engagement with the Satellite Oracle platform will serve as an important measure of success
4. Impact on Decision-Making: The team aims to assess the project's impact on decision-making processes related to environmental issue
5. Collaboration and Partnerships: The team will measure the success of the project by evaluating its ability to foster collaboration and partnerships with relevant stakeholder
6. Academic Recognition: The team intends to measure the success of the project through academic recognition and contribution to the scientific community
7. Long-Term Sustainability: The team will assess the project's long-term sustainability by evaluating its ability to maintain and improve the Satellite Oracle platform beyond the initial implementation phase

By regularly monitoring and evaluating these metrics throughout the project's lifecycle, the team will be able to assess the success and impact of the Satellite Oracle project and make necessary adjustments and improvements as needed.

[IMPACT] Please describe your plans to share the outputs and results of your project?

The team has devised a comprehensive plan to share the outputs and results of the project with various stakeholders. The key aspects of the sharing plan are as follows:

1. Web-based Platform: The Satellite Oracle will have a dedicated web-based platform where users can access the system's outputs and result
2. Stakeholder Engagement: The team recognises the importance of engaging with stakeholders throughout the project
3. Media and Communications: The team will leverage various media and communication channels to disseminate the project's outputs and results to a broader audience
4. Collaboration and Partnerships: The team will actively seek collaboration and partnerships with relevant organisations, institutions, and initiative
5. Documentation and Reports: The team will prepare comprehensive documentation and reports summarising the project's outputs, findings, and recommendation
6. Open Source: The platform will be realised as open source to the community including access API, web platform, blockchain integration and oracle implementation. Please note that some of the core background IP including the super-resolution, cloud removal and other analytical models will not be open-sourced.

By employing a multi-faceted approach that includes a dedicated web platform, stakeholder engagement, media and communications, collaboration and partnerships, and comprehensive documentation, the team aims to effectively share the outputs and results of the project with a wide range of stakeholders.

[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] What is your capability to deliver your project with high levels of trust and accountability?

The team has implemented several measures to ensure high levels of trust and accountability in delivering the project as follows:

1. Expertise: The team comprises individuals with extensive expertise in various fields relevant to the project, including remote sensing, machine learning, AI, environmental monitoring, sustainable development, ecological restoration projects, blockchain development, and geographic information system
2. Track Record: The team members have a proven track record of successfully delivering projects in their respective domain
3. Transparency: The team is committed to maintaining a high level of transparency throughout the project
4. Accountability Framework: The team will establish an accountability framework that clearly defines roles, responsibilities, and deliverables for each team member
5. Quality Assurance: The team will implement rigorous quality assurance practices to ensure the accuracy, reliability, and validity of the Satellite Oracle
6. Compliance and Ethical Considerations: The team will adhere to relevant legal and ethical guidelines in data collection, processing, and storage
7. External Validation: The team plans to engage external experts and stakeholders for validation and feedback on the Satellite Oracle's functionality, accuracy, and usefulness

By combining their expertise, experience, transparency, accountability framework, quality assurance practices, compliance with regulations, and external validation processes, the team aims to deliver the project with high levels of trust and accountability.

[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] What are the main goals for the project and how will you validate if your approach is feasible?

1. Develop a Satellite Oracle platform: The project aims to create a consolidated source of multi-modal, multi-scale environmental data for low-cost, scalable, and dependable monitoring, reporting and verification application
2. Enable sustainable monitoring and validation: The project seeks to address the current challenges and bottlenecks associated with monitoring and validation of sustainability project
3. Facilitate data-driven decision-making: The Satellite Oracle will provide users with regularized, high-quality environmental data, including satellite imaging, climate data, and vegetation indice
4. Foster transparency and credibility: Through the use of advanced technologies and standardized data structures, the Satellite Oracle intends to enhance transparency and credibility in environmental monitoring and verification
5. Position Cardano as a leader in environmental monitoring applications: By deploying the Satellite Oracle on the Cardano blockchain, the project aims to showcase the capabilities of Cardano's infrastructure in supporting sustainable development initiatives

Overall, the project's goals are centered around leveraging technology to address the challenges in monitoring, reporting and verifying sustainability projects, enabling data-driven decision-making, and promoting transparency and trust in environmental initiatives.

[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed breakdown of your project’s milestones and each of the main tasks or activities to reach the milestone plus the expected timeline for the delivery.

Milestone 1: System Development

Duration: 5 months

Key Activities:

1. Develop the Satellite Oracle platform architecture and infrastructure
2. Design and implement data ingestion and assimilation pipelines for multi-modal environmental dat
3. Integrate remote sensing data sources, such as Copernicus Sentinel 1 and 2, for data acquisition
4. Implement machine learning models for data fusion, cloud masking, and super-resolution

Success/Acceptance Criteria:

• Satellite Oracle platform architecture and infrastructure developed.
• Data ingestion and assimilation pipelines implemented.
• Integration of remote sensing data sources and machine learning models completed.

Projected Cost: ₳180,000

Milestone 2: Platform Deployment and Testing

Duration: 2 months

Key Activities:

1. Deploy the Satellite Oracle platform on the Cardano blockchain
2. Develop a web portal for data visualization and access
3. Test the platform's performance, scalability, and reliability
4. Conduct user acceptance testing and gather feedback for improvement

Success/Acceptance Criteria:

• Satellite Oracle platform deployed on the Cardano blockchain.
• Web portal for data visualization and access developed and functional.
• Platform successfully tested and validated.

Projected Cost: ₳72,000

Milestone 3: Documentation and Dissemination

Duration: 2 month

Key Activities:

1. Prepare technical documentation for the Satellite Oracle platform
2. Create user guides and tutorials for platform usage
3. Develop marketing materials and communication strategies for project dissemination
4. Publish research papers and case studies showcasing the project's outcome

Success/Acceptance Criteria:

• Technical documentation, user guides, and marketing materials prepared.
• Research papers and case studies published.

Projected Cost: ₳72,000

Milestone 4: Project Evaluation and Review

Duration: 1 month

Key Activities:

1. Evaluate the overall project outcomes and impact
2. Collect user feedback and assess platform performance and user satisfaction
3. Conduct a comprehensive project review, identifying strengths, weaknesses, and lessons learned
4. Identify opportunities for further development and collaboration

Success/Acceptance Criteria:

• Project evaluation and review conducted.
• User feedback and platform performance assessed.
• Lessons learned and opportunities for future development identified.

Projected Cost: ₳36,000

Project Management Approach:

• The project will be managed using an Agile methodology, specifically Scrum.
• Regular meetings and communication channels will be established to ensure effective collaboration and progress tracking.
• A project manager will oversee the overall coordination, resource allocation, and timeline adherence.
• Tasks will be assigned to team members based on their expertise and availability.
• The project will follow an iterative development process, with regular reviews and adjustments to ensure alignment with project goals.
• Documentation, including project plans, progress reports, and meeting minutes, will be maintained for transparency and accountability.
• Risks and challenges will be identified, assessed, and mitigated throughout the project lifecycle.
• Continuous communication with stakeholders, including project sponsors and users, will be maintained to gather feedback and ensure project alignment.

[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] Please describe the deliverables, outputs and intended outcomes of each milestone.

Milestone 1: System Development

Deliverables:

• Satellite Oracle platform architecture and infrastructure
• Data ingestion and assimilation pipelines
• Integration of remote sensing data sources
• Implemented machine learning models

Intended Outcomes:

• Functional Satellite Oracle platform with robust architecture
• Efficient pipelines for data ingestion and assimilation
• Integration of reliable remote sensing data sources
• Machine learning models for data fusion, cloud masking, and super-resolution

Measurement of Progress:

• Completion of the Satellite Oracle platform architecture and infrastructure
• Successful implementation of data ingestion and assimilation pipelines
• Integration of remote sensing data sources validated
• Machine learning models trained and tested

Milestone 2: Platform Deployment and Testing

Deliverables:

• Deployed Satellite Oracle platform on the Cardano blockchain
• Web portal for data visualization and access
• Tested and validated platform performance
• User feedback and acceptance report

Intended Outcomes:

• Live deployment of the Satellite Oracle platform on Cardano blockchain
• User-friendly web portal for data visualization and access
• Reliable and high-performing platform based on successful testing
• User feedback collected to improve the platform

Measurement of Progress:

• Successful deployment of the Satellite Oracle platform on the Cardano blockchain
• Functional web portal accessible for data visualization and access
• Completion of platform testing and validation
• User feedback and acceptance report gathered

Milestone 3: Documentation and Dissemination

Deliverables:

• Technical documentation for the Satellite Oracle platform
• User guides and tutorials for platform usage
• Research papers and case studies showcasing outcomes
• Marketing materials and communication strategies

Intended Outcomes:

• Comprehensive technical documentation for the Satellite Oracle platform
• User guides and tutorials to facilitate platform usage
• Published research papers and case studies demonstrating project outcomes
• Effective marketing materials and communication strategies for project dissemination

Measurement of Progress:

• Completion of technical documentation for the Satellite Oracle platform
• Availability of user guides and tutorials for platform usage
• Publication of research papers and case studies
• Development and distribution of marketing materials

Milestone 4: Project Evaluation and Review

Deliverables:

• Project evaluation and review report
• User feedback analysis and platform performance assessment
• Lessons learned and opportunities for future development

Intended Outcomes:

• Comprehensive evaluation and review of the project outcomes and impact
• Assessment of user feedback and platform performance
• Identification of strengths, weaknesses, and lessons learned
• Identification of opportunities for further development and collaboration

Measurement of Progress:

• Completion of the project evaluation and review report
• Analysis of user feedback and assessment of platform performance
• Documentation of lessons learned and identified opportunities

To track the project's progress, the following measurements will be used:

• Completion of deliverables within the specified timeline
• Achievement of milestones as per the defined success/acceptance criteria
• Documentation of project-related outputs and reports
• User feedback and acceptance assessment
• Evaluation of platform performance and functionality
• Publication and dissemination of research papers and case studies

These measurements will enable the project team to assess the progress made at each milestone and ensure alignment with the project's objectives and intended outcomes.

[RESOURCES & VALUE FOR MONEY] Please provide a detailed budget breakdown of the proposed work and resources.

Budget Breakdown:

Milestone 1: System Development

• Satellite Oracle platform architecture and infrastructure: ₳40,000
• Data ingestion and assimilation pipelines: ₳40,000
• Integration of remote sensing data sources: ₳40,000
• Implemented machine learning models: ₳40,000
• Project management: ₳20,000

Total Cost: ₳180,000

Milestone 2: Platform Deployment and Testing

• Deployed Satellite Oracle platform on the Cardano blockchain: ₳20,000
• Web portal for data visualization and access: ₳20,000
• Tested and validated platform performance: ₳10,000
• User feedback and acceptance report: ₳10,000
• Project management: ₳12,000

Total Cost: ₳72,000

Milestone 3: Documentation and Dissemination

• Technical documentation for the Satellite Oracle platform: ₳20,000
• User guides and tutorials for platform usage: ₳20,000
• Research papers and case studies showcasing outcomes: ₳10,000
• Marketing materials and communication strategies: ₳10,000
• Project management: ₳12,000

Total Cost: ₳72,000

Milestone 4: Project Evaluation and Review

• Project evaluation and review report: ₳20,000
• User feedback analysis and platform performance assessment: ₳10,000
• Project management: ₳6,000

Total Cost: ₳36,000

Total Project Budget: ₳360,000

[RESOURCES & VALUE FOR MONEY] How does the cost of the project represent value for money for the Cardano ecosystem?

The cost of the project represents value for money for the Cardano ecosystem due to several factors:

1. Expertise and Experience: The project team consists of highly skilled professionals with extensive experience in remote sensing, environmental monitoring, sustainable development, blockchain development, and geographic information system
2. Complexity of the Project: The proposed project involves the development of an Satellite Oracle that integrates various data sources, implements machine learning algorithms, and leverages blockchain technology
3. Market Rates and Industry Standards: The cost breakdown of the project takes into account market rates and industry standards for services such as software development, web design, and blockchain integration
4. Projected Impact and Value: The project aims to address critical challenges in environmental monitoring and validation for sustainability initiative

The cost estimation for each work package and resource is based on a thorough understanding of the project's requirements, the expertise and experience of the team members, and market rates for relevant services. The budget has been carefully calculated to ensure the successful delivery of the project while maximizing the value and impact generated within a reasonable and justifiable cost framework.

[IMPORTANT NOTE] The Applicant agreed to Fund10 rules and also that data in the Submission Form and other data provided by the project team during the course of the project will be publicly available.

I Accept