Report of the APRSAF/SAFE Executive Board Meeting Online

< Last Update: Sep. 25, 2025 >

The APRSAF/SAFE Executive Board Meeting was held online on August 27, 2025. It was co-chaired by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). The main topic of meeting was progress reports of SAFE Projects (SAFE Rice Monitoring and SAFE CH4Rice). The participants shared the current status of the projects as well as their future plans. Also, the details of next APRSAF-31 Cebu, Philippines meeting to be held in November was announced in the meeting. 38 participants from Asia-Pacific region joined the meeting.

Group Photo




Result of the APRSAF/SAFE Executive Board Meeting

1. Rice Monitoring Project

    Summary
    • The project's progress was presented, with multilateral cooperation.
    • Confirmed capacity building on rice mapping for MoA officers using a data analysis platform, in collaboration with AFSIS and MAFF/Japan.
    • Confirmed the demonstration of the utilisation of SAFE rice mapping software by private company for agribusiness.
    • Confirmed the good progress of a JAIF (Japan-ASEAN Integration Fund) proposal titled 'Improvement of Paddy Rice Area Statistics and Damage Assessment using Earth Observation Satellite for ASEAN,' led by GISTDA.

    Discussion and Future Plan
    • The accuracy of crop area mapping (JAXA's INAHOR) estimates is assessed by comparing a part of the training data and national statistics - this method will be further refined to improve accuracy.
    • Sharing the information on ISRO's rice mapping tool (SASYA, VEDAS) at the next opportunity for cross-calibration and validation.
    • Additional data will be ingested into the VEDAS tool for rice monitoring, including ALOS-2 (and ALOS-4 in the future), as well as NISAR when available.

2. CH4Rice Project

    Summary
    • Presented the progress of each study area for the collection of field survey data including water-level and CH4 fluxes.
    • In-situ water-level measurements are being compared with ALOS-2 PALSAR-2 full-pol data.
    • Confirmed the discussions between the public and private sector stakeholders at GISTDA HQ in January 2025.
    • Confirmed the preparation of papers for submission to the Remote Sensing Special Issue, with inputs provided by November 2025.
    • Welcomed EOS/NTU (Singapore) to the CH4Rice project

    Discussion and Future Plan
    • Preparing to submit papers to the MDPI Remote Sensing Special Issue.
    • A mid-October session in Bangkok will be held in conjunction with Thailand Space Expo and AO-GEO TG5.
    • ALOS-4 data observation has been requested for study areas, which will be shared after an amended agreement with JAXA.
    • In the future it would be interesting to look at the utility of NISAR S-band data (currently only India and partially Bangladesh) for this application. Data should be available after the validation period of three months.
    • NovaSAR S-band data can also be made available via CSIRO and PhilSA, subject to the confirmation of coverage area.
    • Welcome the EOS/NTU Singapore team to the CH4Rice project. EOS/NTU shared the proposal submitted to the Singapore Government for the paddy field inundation mapping. Feedback is requested to EOS on the IoT sensor development.

3. AOB

    • The next APRSAF meeting will be held in Shangri-La Mactan, the Philippines, from 18-21 November 2025. The meeting will be co-chaired by Ariel Blanco (PhilSA) and Hironori Maejima (JAXA). The draft agenda will include reports from Sentinel Asia, SAFE, Multi-GNSS Asia activities, the public and private sector, and a local host organized session.
    • On the 17 November 2025, a SAFE EBM will be held.

>>Agenda