IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Magazine - December 2020 - 10

SURVEY DESIGN AND DATA COLLECTION
The survey was performed online in early June 2018, targeting
all HR-satellite-image users identified from the GEOSUD/Theia
platform. To be able to download the images, users must be registered on Theia's web portal; this feature allowed us to access
all of the 979 direct users of these images. Data were collected
through a questionnaire survey that consisted of five sections:
1)	 the type of sector/usage category of the HR satellite images
2)	 the WTP for HR satellite images
3)	 the WTP for a membership to an HR-image pooling system/the number of images above which users are willing
to pay for each additional image
4)	 preferences regarding payment terms
5)	 the impact of a price imposition on the requested number
of images.
The respondents had several options for answering the questions in sections 1, 4, and 5. With respect to the usage category
in section 1, respondents could choose more than one usage.
An additional choice, " Other, " was also included for free responses. However, in sections 2 and 3, with the assumption
that users are limited to their current budgets (those of the
project or their organization), respondents were asked to state
their WTP for satellite images and a membership fee. Since
GEOSUD data sampling captures the range of satellite-image
users (research and education public organizations, state services, local authorities, nonresearch public institutions, NGOs,
and others), integrating this assumption into the questionnaire emphasized the fact that the amount to be paid differs
from a usual household budget constraint. The questions in
these two sections (2 and 3) were as follows:
◗◗ Question A, WTP for an HR satellite image: " Would you be
willing to pay an amount of x euros for an HR satellite
-image (60 # 60 km2), which is equal to €(x/3,600)/km2 ? "
◗◗ Question B, WTP for a membership fee: " Would you be willing to pay an amount of y euros to adhere to an HR-image
pooling system? "
◗◗ Question C, volume of images: " After free acquisition of z
images (60 # 60 km2) at HR, are you ready to pay for each

and a web portal for accessing images and associated services.
The GEOSUD SDI is part of the broader framework of Theia,
which aims to progressively build up an ecosystem of innovation in the field of satellite imagery for EO. In fact, the
number of satellite-image direct users who have opened accounts through this SDI platform has reached approximately
1,000 members, with 517 entities having free access to satellite images:
◗◗ 162 research and education public organizations, composed
mainly of experts in remote sensing and other research fields
(e.g., archaeologists, economists, and geographers)
◗◗ 139 state services at the regional and departmental levels,
mostly from ministries of agriculture and environment
with staff trained in geographic information systems
◗◗ 105 local authorities at the regional, departmental, and local levels, mainly concerned with land-planning and sustainable-development projects, with staff having the same
skill profiles as in the ministries
◗◗ 44 nonresearch public institutions, such as the state agencies
in charge of natural-resources management (e.g., water and
biodiversity), national or regional natural parks, and so on
◗◗ 67 nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and associations.
From the beginning of the GEOSUD project until the end
of 2018, GEOSUD members downloaded more than 15,000
images covering 55 million km2, half of which are represented by the HR images (Figure 1). A brief analysis of the acquired data shows that old MR images continue to be downloaded (e.g., 1.4 million  km2 of RapidEye 2011 images were
downloaded in 2017). However, it is recent HR images that
are most downloaded, as shown by these values for SPOT
6/7 images in 2017: 0.6 million  km2 of images in 2014,
1.2 million km2 in 2015, 3.1 million km2 in 2016, and
2.6 million km2 in 2017). In addition to the annual national
coverage (550,000  km2 ), since 2015, the GEOSUD SDI has
responded to more than 150 requests for SPOT 6/7 images
worldwide (single or multisite; single or multidate; single, bi-,
or tri-stereo), covering an average of 1 million km2 /year.

Surface Downloaded (Thousand km2)

10,000
9,000

MR Images (RapidEye, SPOT 5 ) (Acquired 2006-2014)

8,000

HR Images (SPOT 6/7 ) (Acquired 2014-2018)

7,000

5,980

6,000
5,000

4,244

5,905

8,292

8,755

5,791
5,520
4,111

4,027

4,000
3,000
1,717

2,000

901

1,000

1

0
2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

Access Year
FIGURE 1. The MR and HR satellite images accessed from the GEOSUD archives.

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IEEE GEOSCIENCE AND REMOTE SENSING MAGAZINE

DECEMBER 2020
IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Magazine - December 2020

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