Copernicus in Support of Monitoring, Protection, and Management of Cultural and Natural Heritage

The current Copernicus evolution aims to meet horizontal users' needs in order to widen uptake of the Copernicus monitoring products by non-traditional users. In 2019, the European Commission initiated a coordinated action to evaluate the current and potential uptakes of Copernicus products, and for the monitoring and protection of European Cultural and Natural Heritage in a future climate change scenario. An interaction matrix was developed, circulated to and fulfilled by users in order to collect their needs and identify the main gaps in terms of monitoring data and information. The results show what users require from Copernicus to face the daily challenges of preserving and protecting CH features. Moreover, the interaction with users identified a data and information access model that best maximizes uptake by the users. The present work illustrates the user requirement coordination mechanism adopted by the European Copernicus Cultural Heritage Task Force; synthesises the results achieved in terms of gap analysis; and assesses the current and potential uptake of Copernicus data, services, and products in support of the monitoring and protection of European cultural heritage. It also provides recommendation about the implementation of infrastructural solutions to improve Copernicus services data and information access by cultural heritage users.