Paving the Way towards an Armenian Data Cube

• Published in: Data (Basel) Vol. 4; no. 3; p. 117
• Main Authors: Asmaryan, Shushanik, Muradyan, Vahagn, Tepanosyan, Garegin, Hovsepyan, Azatuhi, Saghatelyan, Armen, Astsatryan, Hrachya, Grigoryan, Hayk, Abrahamyan, Rita, Guigoz, Yaniss, Giuliani, Gregory
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01-09-2019
• Subjects: Algorithms; analysis ready data; Archives & records; Armenian DC; Best practice; big earth data; Decision making; Earth observations (from space); Environmental conditions; Environmental impact; Environmental monitoring; International organizations; Knowledge management; Landsat; Landsat satellites; Natural resources; Paving; Remote monitoring; Satellites; sentinel; Software; sustainable development goals; swiss DC; Armenia; Australia; Switzerland
• ISSN: 2306-5729; 2306-5729
• DOI: 10.3390/data4030117

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 minimize the time and scientific knowledge needed to access, prepare and analyze a large volume of data. EO Data Cube (DC) is a new paradigm aiming to realize it. The article presents the Swiss-Armenian joint initiative on the deployment of an Armenian DC, which is anchored on the best practices of the Swiss model. The Armenian DC is a complete and up-to-date archive of EO data (e.g., Landsat 5, 7, 8, Sentinel-2) by benefiting from Switzerland’s expertise in implementing the Swiss DC. The use-case of confirm delineation of Lake Sevan using McFeeters band ratio algorithm is discussed. The validation shows that the results are sufficiently reliable. The transfer of the necessary knowledge from Switzerland to Armenia for developing and implementing the first version of an Armenian DC should be considered as a first step of a permanent collaboration for paving the way towards continuous remote environmental monitoring in Armenia.