Which neighborhoods sink millimeter by millimeter, what air each district breathes, and how monuments age: three planning questions that free European services can answer today.
EGMS: millimeter subsidence · annual updates · free
From the ground below to the air above, the city is already measured by public services: subsidence and heat islands can be analyzed for free with Sentinel data. What is usually missing is someone who turns those layers into a planning tool:
The European Ground Motion Service measures ground motion across the EU with millimeter precision from Sentinel-1 InSAR, with annual updates and free access. Urban planning and subsidence are among its declared applications.
covers EU-27 + UK, Norway, Iceland
The European urban development and cultural heritage catalog includes monitoring monuments against subsidence and pollution by combining InSAR and CAMS, with alerts sent to site managers. Spain, with 49 UNESCO sites, is the natural use case for this service.
49 UNESCO sites in Spain
Sentinel-5P monitors air quality with daily global coverage since 2018, and the EEA API (CC BY 4.0) serves per-station series since 2013 in near real time: the basis for low-emission-zone dashboards and citizen apps.
LEZ declared in 150+ municipalities
Sentinel-2 supports the urban digital twins in the European catalog; the JRC GHSL provides population at 100 m (1975-2030 series) and built-up data with anonymous download, and the Spanish PNOA LiDAR (5 or more points/m²) enables rooftop 3D and change detection.
GHSL: population at 100 m · 1975-2030
We bring these layers into real planning: the viewer that combines EGMS with the parcel map, the per-district air quality panel for the low-emission zone, or the periodic alert to a monument manager when its surroundings move more than expected. Open European data, custom software, and the exact status of every source, always stated.
EGMS uses InSAR (a radar that compares satellite passes to work out how much each point on the ground rises or sinks) to measure millimeter subsidence across the city. We cross those points with the parcel map and set a threshold per area. This reveals which blocks give way faster, so inspection of buildings and utility lines goes where it is really needed, backed by years of history.
EGMS · InSAR · mm/year per point
With Sentinel-2 (10 m per pixel) and the GHSL layers we detect change between dates and separate sealed soil (land covered by asphalt or concrete, which no longer absorbs water) from green soil. The comparison measures how much land was consumed between plan reviews and locates unplanned growth, so planning rests on data instead of impressions.
Sentinel-2 · 10 m · sealed soil
Over a monument and the streets around it, we track ground motion with InSAR and changes in the surroundings with Sentinel-2. We define what is normal for that site and what is not. When the surroundings move or change more than expected, the site manager gets a regular alert to act in time, without relying on the occasional visit.
InSAR and Sentinel-2 · monument surroundings · manager alert
Tell us about your municipality or your monument. We will tell you what European services already see on it, and how to turn that into planning.
Talk to the team