The Big Earth Data Analytics department of ECoE focusses on research, developments and ECoE maintained systems to enable the management, exploitation and the analytics of large amounts of geoinformation data derived from space borne satellite images as well as from GIS and socioeconomic sources. Therewith the department performs basic research on the topic as well as supports the other departments with appropriate big data solutions, solutions which – in form of internet portals based on ECoE infrastructure- can also be accessed and used by academic and institutional partners as well as the general public. The research and development portfolio of the department includes:

• The Geoinformation data management cares for the development and customization of software and IT systems to access, catalog, store and distribute Earth observation and other geoinformation data, to be used by ECoE and its parters as well for external users. For the latter, developments such as data cubes and data portals will be conducted in close cooperation with the ECoE infrastructure set up.
• The research on information extraction is using and developing methods such as machine learning and artificial intelligence to extract geoinformation and socioeconomic parameters from multi-scale Earth observation data. It also deals with appropriate training and reference data for the ML/AI approaches.
• The research on data merging develops methods on amalgating layers of data derived from various sources, including data from internet (i.e. crowd souring and social media), navigation, communication and socio-economy to calibrate, validate and generate valuable geoinformation
• The research and development in visualization aims to use and enhance these technologies to better exploit multidimensional Earth observation and Earth science data in order to support the scientific analysis and the public outreach of achievements of ECoE.