An effective platform for the cognitive cloud-edge continuum must address a number of unsolved challenges, many of them derived from constrained resource devices, infrastructure heterogeneity, and the need to meet criteria such as performance, resilience, security, data sovereignty, and energy efficiency. A disaggregated architecture is required, making use of AI, automation, and portability to manage and adapt resources and workloads, and to respond in real time to possible incidents and security threats. Edge application developers willing to speed up computation, save energy, and cut costs will need a way to combine their edge devices with the many resources available across the cloud-edge continuum. This innovative approach requires computationally-intensive data processing functions to be easily executed outside edge devices, sensors, and actuators. It is with that vision in mind that this project proposes a new distributed Function-as-a-Service (FaaS) paradigm for edge application management and smart orchestration, which will change how applications and services are deployed and executed in the cloud-edge continuum. Our AI-enabled adaptive serverless framework will provide applications with secure and portable access to a continuous data processing environment that abstracts the large-scale, geo-distributed, and low-latency capabilities provided by the cloud-edge continuum. The Consortium combines innovative open source companies in Europe, high-impact research organizations, and several edge application providers. Our research will be validated in relevant application domains, and will establish an ecosystem with links to industrial initiatives. This project will be transformative for the emerging EU edge ecosystem, providing resources and knowledge for start-ups, SMEs, and industry leaders seeking to look beyond centralized platforms and hyperscalers. It will increase European autonomy not only in data processing but also in strategic edge technologies.

Forests play a key role in the Earth climate system as they cover about 30% of the land area. In the last decade they absorbed more than 7 Gt of CO2 contributing to reduce global warming and to buffer and mitigate increasing climate variability. The summers of 2018 and 2019 included some of the hottest and driest periods ever recorded globally, however the extent and severity of their impact is unknown due to lack of a comprehensive monitoring network, which generally does not include hard-to-reach areas characterised by strong logistic limitations. Therefore, novel technological solutions are urgently needed to monitor forest responses to climate change and related extreme events also in remote areas. Recent advances in Internet Of Things technology (IoT), satellite IoT connectivity and energy harvesting systems are opening unprecedented opportunities for the use of IoT devices in standalone experimental setups. In this context, the aim of the RemoTrees project is to design and build an innovative, autonomous in-situ monitoring system designed for remote forest areas and providing data via satellite communication to a dedicated RemoTrees platform. In this framework, RemoTrees will integrate existing and novel Earth Observation (EO) data with in-situ observations of Essential Climate Variables (ECVs: fraction of absorbed photosynthetically active radiation, leaf area index, soil moisture, biomass change) and other key variables including e.g. stem growth, stem moisture, sap flow, canopy transmittance, besides air humidity and temperature. RemoTrees will include study cases on interoperability with GEOSS (Global Earth Observation System of Systems), and on how in-situ data can support an improved understanding of the climate variability impact on forests. The reinforced in-situ component will be beneficial for Copernicus products validation and will enhance the assessment of climate change long-term mitigation and adaptation potential of forests, towards novel insights for climate-smart forest management.

The Open-Earth-Monitor Cyberinfrastructure will increase European capability to generate timely, accurate, disaggregated, people-centred, accessible (GSM-compatible) and user-friendly environmental information based on Earth Observation data. We will achieve this by building a cyberinfrastructure anchored in FAIR data principles, leveraging and improving our existing platforms OpenEO.org, Geopedia.world, GlobalEarthMonitor.eu, EarthSystemDataLab.net, OpenLandMap.org, OpenDataScience.eu, LifeWatch.eu, XCUBE and EuroDataCube.com. We do this in 3 phases: a) implementation of the computing engine and in-situ O&M data services; b) direct application of the Open-Earth-Monitor to support EU Green Deal and other strategic actions; c) dissemination and engagement of stakeholders & target users through series of open workshops, then revise the tools and adjust them to better fit their objectives and limitations. We specifically target contributing to: operational planning for planting 3 billion trees over the EU by 2030; achieving climate-neutrality by 2035 in the land sector; building back a net-zero GHG emission economy by 2050; achieving UN’s SDGs’; monitoring essential biodiversity indicators; compiling natural capital accounts for private / public sectors; enabling businesses to leverage competitive advantage through the EU Green Deal; increasing the quality of life for European Citizens. We will innovate: 1) implementation of original cloud-based solutions to seamlessly integrate in-situ (point, site) & EO data so that we can produce environmental information at analysis- and decision-ready levels; 2) implementation of fully-scalable Automated Mapping / AutoML frameworks; 3) user-experience-designed data provision and Apps possibly reaching millions of users across EU and globally; 4) financial assessment tools allowing users to directly quantify ecosystem services (SEEA methodology), to identify optimal environmental and climate solutions, & to build business solutions.