The MCST/MEPA Environment challenge
The Malta Council for Science and Technology (MCST) and The Malta Environment and Planning Authority (MEPA) invite competitors to come up with creative ideas for apps that help solve environmental and socio-economic challenges in Malta. While an extensive list of relevant topics can be found here, the following are examples of such challenges:
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How to stop biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation?
(to start with, see pressure factors here)
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How to improve the protection of water in Malta? (inland surface water, groundwater, coastal waters)
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How to help improve citizens’ health?
NB.: the User Needs Scoping Session (see timeline) will help further clarify and focus on specific challenges.
The MCST/MITA StartAPP 2.0 challenge
Europe’s Copernicus Service makes available geo-spatial information about various interacting themes, among them vegetation, terrain imperviousness, woodland, water bodies, and high resolution images of land cover and urban land use. The Government of Malta operates a geo-portal that facilitates the sharing of local environmental spatial information both nationally and across Europe.
Currently, little use or re-use of these datasets, in combination with others, is made for commercial applications of tangible value to citizens and businesses in Malta. Among the problems cited are the notion that geo-spatial information is a niche requiring specialised skills not easily found, the insufficient demand for such data, or even an underestimation of the potential and benefits of applying geo-spatial data to new uses.
MCST/MITA invites competitors to come up with creative ideas about how to use such datasets and satnav/LBS to respond to untapped market needs.
More information about the MITA/MCST startAPP 2.0 Challenge available here.
NB.: the User Needs Scoping Session (see timeline) also welcomes competitors in the StartAPP 2.0 challenge
Want some more hints?
Go to Eurisy’s good practice database to see how other end-users are using satellite applications.
Check out 52 tips of things to do for biodiversity.
User Needs Scoping Session
The presentations from the User Needs Scoping Session that took place on 16 December 2015 are now available online.