The main activities in the E-MAN pilot project include:

Investigation of potential services:

This focus of this activity is to study previous and on-going EM activities abroad, providing an overview of the EM services where EO could best contribute.

Analysis of organizational and market conditions:

For each of the EM services identified in the above activity, it should be clarified which authorities have EM-related responsibilities, which information is needed for each EM service, and the market potential nationally and internationally.

Clarification of technical requirements:

The main objective of this activity is to study and document the relevant techniques available in literature for each of the EM services identified. The main aim is to identify potential algorithms that can be used, the degree of automation of such algorithms, the types of EO data that can be used, which information can be extracted, and indicative accuracies that can be expected.

Test and demonstration of selected algorithms:

A variety of experiments will be conducted for a few promising EM types. This will likely lead to a demonstration prototype that illustrates the potential of the EO to support EM services. The selected cases will also be used to assess the technical and practical challenges inherent in the development of such services. The demonstrations will be conducted with the involvement of the relevant authority(/ies).

Plan for and work towards services:

Assuming that the above activities conclude that there are both market and technological conditions for the development of EM services based on EO, a plan should be made on how to provide such services. The plan shall include an overview of what needs to be done in terms of technical preparation (e.g. adaptation of the algorithms), which technologies need to be developed for delivery of the services, and what should be done to develop the necessary market instruments.