Space-Based Technology For Ground-Based Regeneration
Summary
This session at ITB Berlin 2026, titled 'Space-Based Technology For Ground-Based Regeneration,' was moderated by Dr. Tarek Habib (Chairman and CEO, Murmuration) and featured Peter Vaník (Market Development & Entrepreneurship Consultant, EU Agency for the Space Programme / EUSPA) and Guy Bigwood (CEO and Chief Changemaker, Global Destination Sustainability Movement / GDS Movement). The panel explored how free, openly accessible satellite data from the EU's Copernicus Earth observation programme can be applied practically to sustainable and regenerative tourism.
Peter Vaník introduced the four pillars of the EU space programme managed by EUSPA: satellite navigation (Galileo and EGNOS), Earth observation (Copernicus), satellite communication (GOVSATCOM and IRIS²), and space situational awareness. He detailed how Copernicus satellites go beyond optical imagery to use spectrometers, altimeters, and multi-wavelength cameras, enabling monitoring of biodiversity, vegetation health, bird nesting proxies, water quality, algal blooms, air pollution (e.g., nitrogen dioxide), urban analytics, flood and wildfire extents, land and sea surface temperatures. He emphasized that these datasets are entirely free and open, and that EUSPA can fund small proof-of-concept or pilot studies connecting tourism stakeholders with Earth observation experts. EUSPA also supports startups through the European Commission's Cassini initiative, which is funded by more than 1 billion euros and supports the full business journey from hackathons (including a travel and tourism-focused hackathon in November of the previous year) through accelerators to investor scaling. EUSPA holds annual User Consultation Platform meetups for stakeholders across industries, with tourism included for the first time in 2026.
Dr. Tarek Habib presented Act 2, describing how Murmuration has spent more than seven years transforming raw satellite pixels into actionable destination insights. The platform uses AI algorithms—not generative AI but pattern-learning algorithms applied to large historical datasets—to enhance satellite data to 2.5-metre local resolution accuracy and increase temporal frequency to hourly pollution data from daily satellite passes. The historical archive extends at least 10 years globally, and in most places 20–30 years, enabling trend analysis and future projections. Use cases include biodiversity assessment and carbon sequestration quantification, EU regulatory compliance (EU Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition / MCO directive, EU CSRD physical risk resilience requirements, EU Green Taxonomy infrastructure lifetime assessments), environmental carrying capacity calculations, and benchmarking of destination sub-areas against each other and against global peers. Practical examples shown included a southern France destination with protected area mapping, ecosystem health monitoring, and endangered fauna/flora assessment, as well as traveller-facing tools in Malta giving weekly activity recommendations aligned with current environmental conditions.
Guy Bigwood presented Act 3, focusing on the trust and accountability dimension. He cited EU research finding that more than 50% of sustainability claims were false or unsubstantiated, driving the EU MCO regulation coming into force on 27 September 2026, which requires all environmental claims to be specific, evidence-based, objective, and verifiable. The GDS Movement has run the GDS Index since 2015, benchmarking destinations across social, environmental, supply chain, and DMO management dimensions across approximately 151 destinations worldwide. Since 2024, GDS began a pilot collaboration with Murmuration to integrate Copernicus satellite data (climate, green space, and air quality layers) into the GDS Index. Only about 5% of GDS-indexed destinations currently measure environmental carrying capacity or conduct climate risk analysis, highlighting the scale of the adoption gap. Bigwood presented a case study from the northeast of England—one of the UK's poorest regions, with high unemployment and receiving only 3% of UK tourism—where a regenerative tourism framework was co-created with hundreds of stakeholders. The framework layers satellite climate data, jobs modelling, public transport mobility data, and resident sentiment data to inform major infrastructure decisions such as siting a new hotel and convention centre. Bigwood's core thesis is that satellite and AI data tools make destination sustainability monitoring substantially less expensive and less time-consuming than traditional manual methods, freeing resources for actual regenerative action.
Key Takeaways
- •The EU Copernicus programme provides entirely free, openly accessible Earth observation data that tourism destination managers, certification bodies, and private operators can use today — yet EUSPA's Peter Vaník characterised not using it as 'a real shame,' underscoring how underutilised the resource remains in the tourism industry.
- •Murmuration has been operationalising satellite data for tourism for more than seven years, applying AI algorithms to raise raw Copernicus data to 2.5-metre local resolution accuracy and generate hourly air pollution maps from daily satellite passes — demonstrating that space-based environmental monitoring is already production-ready, not experimental.
- •The historical satellite archive extends at least 10 years globally and up to 20–30 years in most locations, enabling destinations to build a longitudinal 'environmental signature' and project future trajectories — a capability that manual ground surveys simply cannot replicate at scale or cost.
- •The EU MCO (Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition) directive takes effect on 27 September 2026 and requires all environmental claims to be specific, evidence-based, objective, and verifiable. EU research found more than 50% of existing sustainability claims were false or unsubstantiated, making satellite-backed evidence a legal necessity, not just a competitive differentiator.
- •Guy Bigwood warned that the MCO regulation 'will cause some kind of shifts and green washing' as currently non-compliant claims are exposed — positioning destinations and operators that have already built satellite-verified data pipelines as significantly ahead of those relying on narrative or self-reported metrics.
- •The GDS Index has benchmarked approximately 151 destinations worldwide since 2015 across social, environmental, supply chain, and DMO management dimensions, but only about 5% of those destinations currently measure environmental carrying capacity or conduct climate risk analysis — revealing a massive adoption gap that both Bigwood and Habib acknowledged requires a 'mindset shift, skill set shift, and tool set shift.'
- •In 2024, GDS Movement and Murmuration launched a first-year pilot integrating Copernicus climate data, green space data, and air quality data directly into the GDS Index, allowing destinations to track and verify the actual environmental impact of stated sustainability strategies rather than relying on self-reported policy adoption.
Transcript
[applause] Thank you. Leading with heart. Uh that was an intense session. We earlier had of course the topic of listening with our hearts. So this is also part of the sustainability track here at the responsible tourism track at ITV convention 2026. I know you have to catch your next arrangement and the next program. Um next on the next momentum when we are here back on stage we will talk about spacebased tech for groundbased regeneration. So we will look uh into the space and we will see what w...
