The Baltic Sea region is warming twice as fast as the global average, placing increasing pressure on cities, agriculture, and forests to adapt to climate impacts.

Source : European Geosciences Union

The Baltic Green Transition Information Factory (GTIF) aims to respond to high-priority information needs for the green transition in the Baltic Sea region. During its first phase, it delivered targeted EO-based demonstration services in Lithuania, co-developed with a wide range of national stakeholders from urban planning, agriculture, forestry, and environmental agencies.

The project covers 5 domains :

1. Urban Heat Trends – Detecting Urban Heat Island (UHI) patterns and seasonal energy loss using satellite-based Land Surface Temperature (LST) analyses.

2. Building Thermal Efficiency – Downscaling LST using the ESTARFM algorithm and integrating MODIS data for better resolution insights on winter insulation.

3. Carbon Accounting in Agriculture – Supporting Natural Capital Shares (NCS) trading through new WebGIS tools and integration with LPIS datasets.

4. Resilient Food Systems – Monitoring crop lodging and flood-prone areas using Sentinel-1 polarimetric SAR and integrating this into the national SAGRIS system.

5. Adaptive Forestry – Detecting forest clear-cuts and regrowth using Sentinel-1 IWS RGD SAR data, processed by Geomatrix and tailored to local forest dynamics.

In the next phase, BGIF services will be expanded to Latvia, Estonia, Poland, and Germany, working with parallel stakeholder groups.