MURMURATION’s objective is to place the environmental dimension at the core of every decision. In order to do so, the company has developed a methodology that combines data from Earth observation satellites, such as the Copernicus satellites, with in-situ data and socio-economic statistics, to assess the state of an ecosystem anywhere in the world. Using this capability, they provide information to a wide range of users, including policy makers, decision-makers, and the general public.
Interview with Cathy Sahuc, COO of Murmuration.
Easy Engineering: A brief description of the company and its activities.
Cathy Sahuc: An important aspect of our work is to link environmental observations to anthropogenic activities. We have been able to develop several use cases in different domains based on these data. We can mention for example:
- To support the Green Deal initiative and environmental policies with up-to-date scientific data
- Providing public authorities with a decision-making dashboard presenting historical analyses and forecasts of climate change impacts on their territory.
- Climate change mitigation actions through improved management of terrestrial ecosystems..
- Scientific evidence to support climate change mitigation and adaptation actions.
For the development of our services, we use technologies such as remote sensing, data processing, data calibration, and data fusion, image processing algorithms, classification algorithms, and machine learning. The technologies described above are part of a broader “big-data” approach that allows us to analyze large amounts of data and extract all the relevant information.
Essentially, our innovation consists in our ability to process different satellite images (optical, radiometric, altimetric, etc.) to extract a set of relevant indices and indicators. Once integrated into the user’s environment, these indicators allow the identification of trends to prepare for the future.
E.E: What are the main areas of activity of the company?
C.S: Tourism is the first human activity we want to address, as it has a strong impact, both positive and negative, on the environment. For this reason, we have developed services tailored for this industry and meeting the needs of all stakeholders: institutions, private actors, and the general public.
We create dashboards to understand the environmental status of an area, for decision support and for monitoring actions.
MURMURATION is engaged in the evaluation and management of actions promoting the ecological transition in the upstream phases of strategy development and in the downstream phases of management and monitoring.
E.E: What’s the news about new products?
C.S: We are working on 3 new products:
- An environmental load capacity calculation tool for a territory: a threshold beyond which the number of people in a place has an impact on the environment.
- A simulation tool for assessing the quality of practicing a tourist activity based on climate projections.
- The integration of a sustainable tourism indicator per country on the Flockeo platform, aimed at the general public
E.E: What are the ranges of products?
C.S: Depending on the needs of the territories and their expectations, Murmuration can provide several types of deliverables:
Expertise reports
Documents containing all the measurements and results with their interpretation.
Visualization interfaces
Online dashboards that allow users to explore and visualize data in an interactive manner. Dashboard functionalities are tailored to the project. Furthermore, the data is updated on a daily or monthly basis.
Raw data
We can also provide the data in Excel, CSV, SHP or API format, which can then be integrated into the partner’s interface.
A simple warning system
A last possibility is to send an alert, by email for example, when a threshold is exceeded. We could imagine a use case for air quality, where an alert would be sent when the air quality index would exceed the levels recommended by the WHO.
E.E: At what stage is the market where you are currently active?
C.S: Tourism at the crossroads:
Pressure on the environment and conservation potential
Problem
- 8% of GHG and 70% of international air traffic
- Pressure on local resources
- Increased pollution
- Biodiversity losses
- Lack of accurate quantitative and qualitative metric data on the effects of tourism on sustainability (EU parliament, March 2021)
Opportunity
Impact – 10% of world GDP – 1 in 11 jobs across the globe
Stakeholders – 250000+ potential target clients across the globe
Timing – On the 25th of March 2021, the European adopted a text to Strengthen: transition to sustainable, responsible and smart tourism
Easy Engineering: What can you tell us about market trends?
C.S: If well managed, tourism has the potential and can serve as one of the vehicles for countries to make progress towards the SDGs by generating economic growth, creating jobs, reducing inequities and promoting cultural and environmental sustainability
The role of the sector in progressing the SDGs has been recently recognized by the United Nations General Assembly. Resolution 77/178 of 14 December 2022 on the “Promotion of sustainable and resilient tourism, including ecotourism, for poverty eradication and environment protection” encourages all member states to design and implement recovery strategies to accelerate progress towards the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
E.E: What are the most innovative products marketed?
C.S: Our data visualization allowing:
- Customized to support reporting and monitoring of achievement of the UN-SDGs
- Maps to relevant standards:
- WHO air quality standards
- WFD water quality
- Biodiversity challenges
- Climate projections based on the IPCC scenarios
- Integrates multiple data sources, including users own data
With our tools:
- We help tourism stakeholders to understand the environmental situation on their territory and subsequently allow them to optimize the use of their resources with the objective of increasing opportunities.
- We enable tourism stakeholders to anticipate the impacts of climate change on their destinations and territories.
- We help them to reinforce their competitiveness and resilience on the medium to long term.
E.E: What estimations do you have for 2023?
C.S: After the recognitions received from UNWTO (Awake tourism) and EUSPA in the first semester of 2023, our ambition is to be recognized in the European tourism market for providing environmental indicators and climate projections in Europe.”