Fostering Cooperation between Spain and Portugal

Framework Partnership Agreement on Copernicus User Uptake is the EU-funded project that aims to enhance the user uptake of Copernicus data and products. Direção Geral do Território (DGT) of Portugal and Instituto Geográfico Nacional /Centro Nacional de Información Geográfica (IGN/CNIG) of Spain participated in the project with a particular action to promote dialogue and user uptake in the Copernicus Land domain between relevant agents and responsible national institutions in both countries.

Among other objectives, this action looks for a better coordination and articulation between Copernicus and national LCLU products in Portugal and Spain, including an exchange of experiences and best practices on the uptake of Copernicus land monitoring services and Sentinel images and its relationship with national initiatives on land cover/land use monitoring at national level.

Despite the COVID pandemic, that forced the schedule and main objectives to be adapted, the results are overall satisfactory. We worked side by side, with our Portuguese colleagues, in several projects related to three main Copernicus Programme subjects: Land Cover/Land Use, Hydrography and Remote Sensing. We focused on the state-of-the-art topics as well as identifying potential improvements of the Copernicus products, to meet the national user standards.

Finally, a series of online and onsite events, gathered the community of Copernicus users in Spain and Portugal, from National institutions to Municipalities and Small Enterprises. With a double target: for newcomers, to disseminate Copernicus products among them; for the experts, to collect their needs, requirements and opinions about them.