OSR Toulouse

The Regional Spatial Observatory (OSR), labeled in 2007 by the National Institute of Sciences of the univers (INSU), is supported by the Center of Spatial Studies of the BIOSPHERE (CESBIO, OMP)

The mission of the OSR aims at documenting on the long term the effects of the climate change and the increasing anthropogenic pressures on the hydrologic and agro-ecologic evolutions in the South-West of France, for various spatial and temporal scales.

The strength and the strategy of OSR remain on a multi-scales monitoring network with (1) continuous long and mid-term monitoring of experimental plots (crop and snow sites), (2) about 500 plots annually monitored for surface state, land cover, etc., (3) experiments conducted on wider scales (watershed) with reinforced observations on several crop plots and (4) added value products and mapping coming from remote sensing data with wide spectral ranges from optical to microwave, at moderate and high spatial & temporal resolutions. The organization and distribution of those data lean on the development of an Environmental Information System (SIE).

Besides inventories aspects, the characterization of the evolution of the states of surfaces (reflectances, temperature) allows the development of treatment algorithms for land use and biophysics products mapping. Those products resulting from the remote sensing serve to force and/or validate the models developed by the CESBIO and the other laboratories to study surface processes involved in vegetation dynamic, energy, water, and greenhouse gases fluxes.

The data collected and internationally shared through OSR (in ICOS, JECAM, OZCAR, ZA PYGAR) help in: (1) Investigating  the interactions between climate and anthropic pressure on agronomical and environmental services of ecosystems from plot to regional scale, (2) demonstrating the high potential of combining remote sensing, modeling, partnership and in situ data for interdisplinary research themes covering: physics, ecology, meteorology, hydrology, agronomy, (3) showing the contribution of scientific innovation in the elaboration of territorial and resources management strategies to answer the societal expectations in relation to the global changes.