- A consortium led by Starion and supported by the European Space Agency (ESA) has given a second live demonstration of the SAFEPLACE platform, focusing on its use in wildfire crisis management.
- The demo in Valencia, presented by Starion in collaboration with partners Vodafone Business and Wireless DNA, was attended by end-users, institutional representatives and members of industry.
- The SAFEPLACE platform is designed to support fast, informed decision-making during complex emergencies such as wildfires, floods, toxic chemical spills and earthquakes.
In November 2025, the Starion España team demonstrated the SAFEPLACE crisis management platform at a live event in Valencia, Spain, using real data from historical wildfire events in the country. An audience of around 50 attendees, including end-users, institutions and industry, witnessed demonstrations of three main functions: wildfire detection and follow-up; fire risk mapping and fire spread simulation; and a fire crisis assistant (chatbot). Following the success of this demo in Spanish, over 30 additional people attended a similar online demo in English a week later.
SAFEPLACE is designed to support civil protection and emergency response organisations by providing near real-time, actionable information during crises. It is being developed under the ESA’s Civil Security from Space (CSS) programme.
The platform integrates a wide range of data sources – including satellite communications, Earth observation (EO) imagery, Internet of Things (IoT) devices and a network of in-situ sensors – to create a comprehensive situational awareness environment. By fusing diverse data into a unified interface, SAFEPLACE will allow first responders and crisis managers to access critical information without the need for technical data expertise.
Sara de la Fuente, Project Manager of the Spanish component of the SAFEPLACE project, said: “This demo was a really good opportunity to show the capabilities of SAFEPLACE in a live environment to people who will actually benefit from the platform in future. Using data from real wildfire scenarios, we demonstrated how the platform can bring the benefits of space assets to emergency responders in a way that is easy to use: for example with the crisis assistant, which is a chatbot-style service. Time and resources are critical in emergency situations, so our solution is designed to be straightforward and effective.”
Attendees included staff from ESA, the Spanish Space Agency (AEE) and the Institute of Space Studies in Catalunya, along with users including the Valencian Agency for Security and Emergency Response (GVA), the Valencian Department of Emergencies and Interior, and representatives from firefighter and ranger agencies in Catalunya and Valencia.
Demonstration using historical wildfire cases
The demonstration used data related to two wildfire cases that occurred in the Valencia region in 2022. The first, which happened in July, lasted 3 days and burned around 1,300 hectares. The second, in August, burned approximately 20,000 hectares, forcing the evacuation of 1,500 people from four villages and resulting in injuries to several passengers on a train passing through the affected area. Both fires required mobilisation of hundreds of ground responders and 30-40 air assets, with the Valencia Fire Brigade and Military Emergency Unit also involved in the first case.
The Starion-led team focused on several scenarios during the demo:
- Wildfire early detection using ground-based lightning data and risk assessment using mapping capabilities; this included data based on Vodafone’s ‘network as a sensor’, which leverages the company’s vast mobile network infrastructure to provide localised environmental monitoring
- Wildfire early detection using satellite-based fire risk maps, based on space data only
- Wildfire follow-up using low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite imaging data, including demonstrating the capability of getting recommendations of EO images via the crisis assistant
- Wildfire follow-up using a fire spread simulator, including how to run the simulation and see the results in a report and a map, with a time animation
- Wildfire early detection and follow-up data analysis.
The last of these showed an end-to-end case study, based on the August event, starting from a fire risk map alert from the location where the fire started. The crisis assistant was asked to retrieve images of the area to confirm the wildfire had occurred and then run a simulation to show the evolution of the fire on a map over time. Finally, images of the map were requested after the fire was over to compare the actual burned area with the prediction.
Panel session
The demonstration was followed by a panel session featuring representatives from national and regional institutions, industry, users and emergency responders:
- Nicolás Martín, Director of Users, Services and Applications at AEE
- Raúl Quíles, Director General of Innovation and Emergency Response at GVA
- Estefanía Blanch, Innovation Project and Services Manager at the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC)
- Sara de la Fuente, Project and Services Manager at Starion
- Carlos Medel, Commercial and Marketing Director at Telespazio
- Paula Martí, Project Manager and Earth Observation Expert at Indra
- Javier García, Partnership Manager at Open Cosmos
The panel addressed a range of areas of interest for institutions and industry including innovation, governance, commercial and next steps. There was a clear consensus on the need for innovation in leveraging space assets and artificial intelligence (AI) for the management of crises. In addition, several problems came to light that will require further discussion and attention in future activities.
Following on from the panel session, AEE will organise a workshop dedicated to emergencies and safety at its premises, mainly to collect the needs and requests by governmental users involved in emergency management. The workshop will invite the most relevant stakeholders, including not only end-users but also New Space industry introducing use cases, scientists and Spanish public institutions involved in mapping and assessing disaster impacts. Expected outcomes from the workshop include a list of requirements and a feasible roadmap for the implementation of the Spanish Emergencies node as an official initiative inside the Spanish Sentinel Collaborative Ground Segment.
Raul Quilez, Director-General of Innovation in Emergencies of Generalitat Valenciana, said: “During the demonstration held on 12 November 2025 at the headquarters of the Valencian Agency for Safety and Emergency Response to showcase the development status of the SAFEPLACE project, it was possible to verify how the functionalities incorporated into the project can speed up the acquisition of real-time information that helps reduce uncertainty and the time required to make operational decisions during emergency management.”
Hanna-Miina Sihvonen, Head of the Civil Security from Space Programme Office at ESA, added: “The emerging technology developed through the SAFEPLACE project has the potential to enable a much more rapid and effective response to critical situations such as wildfires; we are thrilled to see the keen interest from end-users in this demo and look forward to their continued engagement in the development and uptake of new space-enabled solutions.”
