EO4SURE Strengthens Collaboration with APA to Advance Water Sustainability
On October 31, 2025, the EO4SURE project held a Living Lab session with the Portuguese Environment Agency (APA) and its Algarve Regional Directorate to discuss how Earth Observation (EO) can support Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) indicators 6.4.2 (water stress) and 6.6.1 (extent of water-related ecosystems).
Portugal, particularly Algarve region, is increasingly affected by prolonged droughts, growing agricultural demands, and rising tourism pressure, factors that intensify the challenges of freshwater availability and ecosystem protection. The Living Lab focused on identifying opportunities to integrate EO-based tools into APA’s work to better quantify and monitor these evolving pressures.
The session gathered technical experts from APA alongside representatives from the EO4SURE consortium, including the AIR Centre and Indra Deimos. Discussions centred on existing data collection systems, data gaps, and institutional priorities, helping to shape the co-design of EO pipelines that can enhance spatial and temporal monitoring capacity.
EO4SURE aims to combine satellite data with in situ measurements to generate reliable, consistent information that can be used to support environmental management and national SDG reporting. APA underlined the importance of improving the timeliness and geographic detail of available data to better support both national-level reporting and local decision-making.
The event also marked a step toward future collaboration with APA in the validation and operationalisation of EO products, helping to strengthen Portugal’s environmental data infrastructure. This Living Lab highlighted EO4SURE’s commitment to ensuring that the solutions being developed are aligned with institutional needs and national sustainability objectives.
