Company Profile

Latitudo 40 is an innovative start-up in the field of Earth Observation, born from the passion, expertise, and experience of a team united by a common goal: to improve the planet through satellite technologies.

Founded in 2017 as a spin-off from the University of Naples Federico II, Latitudo 40 has focused on a challenge from the start: to provide companies, government agencies, municipalities, and urban planners with a highly automated, easy-access cloud platform, powered by cutting-edge artificial intelligence algorithms.

Our technology enables cites to make informed, valid, and sustainable decisions by developing and enhancing the value of an informative heritage of data that encourages the adoption of new operational models based on sustainability and resilience.

Data from Earth Observation satellites are integrated with contextual data from other sensors and models, such as weather, population distribution, and open data.

Vision 

Latitudo 40 with its cohesive team of multidisciplinary experts, is united by the vision of leveraging technology, especially satellite technology, to enhance life on our planet. We simplify the use of geospatial data and actionable insights, making them easy, quick, and effective for everyone.

From urban planning and precision agriculture to climate change, infrastructure monitoring, and disaster response, we’re committed to ensuring everyone has the right information to make impactful decisions for ourselves and future generations.

Our primary vision is to positively impact society and, above all, to make a tangible difference in society, the economy, and the environment.

Solutions 

Urban planning activities require advanced, technological and modern tools to obtain innovative and sustainable results to lead cities to rapidly evolve into smart cities.

Through a “no-sensors” approach, exclusively based on data analysis, acquired from satellite imagery, Latitudo 40’s platform provides concrete support, on a scientific basis, for urban planning. Latitudo 40’s solution will help cities to:

• Monitor the entire urban area by identifying areas most exposed to environmental risks;
• Identify areas that need priority action, based on population concentration or specific economic activities, with a numerical index;
• Plan mitigation actions and monitor KPIs over time, including for those interventions that have already been made;
• Simulate future results of urban planning actions.

The goal is to make fair, intelligent and sustainable decisions to develop urban planning as best as possible.

Preparing cities for the challenges of the future, by shaping liveability and sustainability in urban areas, is never easy. This challenge is entrusted to urban designers, whose role is to create liveable, sustainable and ideal communities through urban planning, making decisions about:

• Land Use;
• Use of Nature Based Solution to mitigate Climate Risks;
• The design of buildings and public spaces;
• The supplying of essential services for humans, such as transportation, water and energy management.

Technology

The data analytics platform is based on satellite images and artificial intelligence, providing economically sound and sustainable decision-making. A flexible, zero-code approach allows for the creation, deployment, and scaling of geospatial applications.

Data: Latitudo 40 offers multispectral, radar, and hyperspectral images from global satellite operators, ready for use.

Analytics Algorithms: Ready-to-use analysis and processing algorithms are tested and validated on large datasets and real-world scenarios.

Model & Visualize: Users can create custom interactive maps, visualize geospatial data, and perform ad-hoc analyses without specialized expertise or coding.

Integrate: Connectors and SDKs enable the creation, deployment, and scaling of location-centric data services and complex analyses within enterprises without coding.

Latitudo 40 has integrated catalogues from major satellite operators and promising start-ups in Earth observation. Their acquisition engine automatically finds and cuts out the required image portions for specific analyses. Continuous monitoring activities involve automatic tasking on multiple satellites without human intervention, connecting to partners’ planning systems. The company collects petabytes of images from various sensors and constellations, ensuring the highest level and quality of services for customers.

1/ Land Cover

The Land Cover layer provides a comprehensive overview of the Earth’s surface, classifying it into 11 classes. These categories include urban areas, forests, water bodies, croplands, and more.

The layer has been meticulously crafted utilizing exclusively Sentinel-2 satellite imagery, among other topographic layers. Advanced Deep Learning algorithms were applied to obtain this dataset, ensuring a precise representation of the global landscape.

Use Cases:

• Urban Planning: Enhance city development strategies with insights into urban expansion, green spaces, and infrastructure planning.
• Agriculture: Optimize land use by identifying crop
  areas, aiding in crop management and yield estimation.
• Environmental: Monitor changes in natural habitats, aiding in biodiversity preservation and protected area management.
• Climate: Analyze land cover changes to understand climate change impacts on ecosystems better.
• Infrastructure: Plan roads, buildings, and utilities more effectively by considering existing land cover.

2/ Surface Urban Heat Island

The Surface Urban Heat Island layer assesses the UHI effect, highlighting areas that become warmer than surrounding rural areas due to human activities like transportation and urbanization.
By analyzing ground temperature data, an index from 0 to 100 is generated, where higher values indicate greater UHI exposure, pinpointing critical zones.

Use cases:

• Healthcare: Use the layer to predict areas of potential heatrelated health risks, guiding medical preparedness and public health campaigns.
• Transportation: Planning heat-resistant infrastructure, minimizing road and track degradation in heat-prone zones.
• Energy: Utilize the layer to forecast peak energy demands in heat-affected areas, ensuring grid stability and efficient distribution.
• Retail & Commerce: Integrate the layer to decide on optimal locations for businesses, considering foot traffic in relation to urban heat comfort.

3/ Tree Cover Density

The Tree Cover Density (TCD) layer depicts the percentage of tree canopy cover across a range of 0-100%. It can be used to identify regions exhibiting varying levels of tree canopy cover and thus aid in evaluating deforestation or reforestation patterns in rural areas. The product has a spatial resolution of 10 meters, and it’s generated via Machine Learning and Sentinel-2 MSI.

Use Cases:

• Urban Planning: Evaluate tree canopy’s density and distribution to guide city development and green infrastructure monitoring.
• Real-Estate: Analyze areas with significant tree cover to assess land value and potential for premium property developments.
• Agriculture: Monitor tree density in agricultural zones to understand the balance between open farmland and tree-covered areas.
• Climate: Understand tree distribution patterns related to local climate variations and adaptations.

4/ Place Simulator Tool

Latitudo 40 Place Simulator is a tool capable of simulating and evaluating future urban scenarios using exclusively satellite images. It allows you to objectively compare design and strategic alternatives in order to evaluate the best one. It therefore allows you to test urban solutions in a virtual way, thus avoiding very expensive and time-consuming modifications and field tests, measuring the environmental benefits and the impact on the area under consideration. Latitudo 40 Place Simulator significantly supports urban planning and the sustainable management of cities and territories.