The current Copernicus evolution aims to meet horizontal users’ needs in order to widen uptake of the Copernicus monitoring products by non-traditional users. In 2019, the European Commission initiated a coordinated action to evaluate the current and potential uptakes of Copernicus products, and for the monitoring and protection of European Cultural and Natural Heritage in a future climate change scenario. An interaction matrix was developed, circulated to and fulfilled by users in order to collect their needs and identify the main gaps in terms of monitoring data and information. The results show what users require from Copernicus to face the daily challenges of preserving and protecting CH features. Moreover, the interaction with users identified a data and information access model that best maximizes uptake by the users. The present work illustrates the user requirement coordination mechanism adopted by the European Copernicus Cultural Heritage Task Force; synthesises the results achieved in terms of gap analysis; and assesses the current and potential uptake of Copernicus data, services, and products in support of the monitoring and protection of European cultural heritage. It also provides recommendation about the implementation of infrastructural solutions to improve Copernicus services data and information access by cultural heritage users.

Here we take the example of Italy to demonstrate a country-level approach to the design of a sustainable system of Earth Observation (EO)-based products to match the demand/supply for monitoring coastal zones and to guide the development of new products based on national/local users’ needs complementary to Copernicus Core Services products and its future development. With support from the Coastal Thematic Consultation Board of the Italian Copernicus User Forum, we applied a standardized methodology involving elicitation, selection, analysis, validation, and requirement management. Our findings reveal a strong national need in EO-based products for coastal monitoring and services provision. The survey results offer insights into how existing products and services meet user needs on the national scale, for monitoring several parameters pertaining to four classes, biological, geomorphological, physical, and chemical, highlighting additional demands and integration opportunities with the evolving European Copernicus Coastal Hub. The innovation of this work lies in the design of a foundation for a holistic approach to complement European and national EO systems, both in terms of data to be acquired with synergistic satellite missions and in situ infrastructures and in terms of the development of sustainable products, models, and algorithms for downstream value-added services.

During the last decades, there has been quickly increasing awareness of the need for efficient, science-based tools, to be used to monitor and protect cultural and natural heritage. Indeed heritage assets are increasingly at risk because of the impact of natural and anthropogenic hazards, the frequency and intensity of which continue to be amplified and worsened by climate change. The protection of archaeological sites and monumental complexes in the age of mass tourism and climate change represents a growing challenge that can only be addressed by integrating management models and best practices. In this context, the innovative application of remote sensing technologies and Copernicus data and information could certainly constitute a turning point as demonstrated in other transversal areas. Sites and monuments are affected by various anthropogenic environmental pressures, acting in synergy, that impact them with varying frequency and intensity both in space and time. Therefore, long-term monitoring of prioritised environmental and climate parameters and indicators, at proper spatial and temporal resolution, is a key requirement for setting up action plans and strategies of sustainable management. This monitoring should rely on the integration of data from remote sensing and in situ measurements, along with climate modeling and forecasting outputs.  The present paper aims to summarize the work and outcomes conducted by the Task Force Copernicus Cultural Heritage (CCHTF) to evaluate the uptake extent in the field of Cultural Heritage management by the Copernicus Committee. The objective of CCHTF was to assess the current and future potential of Copernicus data, services and products uptake by users, and identify the possible Copernicus architectural solutions to support data and/or information access. The CCHTF was composed by the Member States’ (MS) national experts, from both the Cultural Heritage and Earth Observation domains, officially coordinated by Italy and chaired by the Italian Ministry of Culture. The CCHTF included an extended range of stakeholders (research and business communities, public authorities, policy and decision makers, operational bodies and social players), who provided a set of users’ needs, extending across the different cultural heritage disciplines. The interaction with the Copernicus Entrusted Entities responsible for the Service, Space and in-situ component developments resulted in the identification of a number of further Copernicus products, suitable for support of CH users’ activities; these mostly stem from the Global Land Component, Atmosphere, Climate Change and Marine monitoring Services, as well as Emergency and Security. At the end of the users consultation phase, 41 specific requirements were identified. After that, the matching of the identified requirements with the Copernicus capacity was addressed, identifying 31 requirements partially or completely satisfiable by the current Copernicus products. As general outcome we can say that cultural heritage sector stands to benefit greatly from an increased use of remote sensing technologies. It is also expect that the use of Copernicus capabilities by cultural heritage stakeholders will produce innovative new methods and approaches to cultural heritage protection and management. This importance must urgently be reflected by substantial and sustainable investment into all of the EU’s relevant technological programs.

Copernicus, the Earth Observation component of the European Union Space Programme, plays a key role in monitoring planetary health and informing global sustainability agendas. Enhancing its uptake offers a strategic opportunity to translate climate information into actionable knowledge for sustainable institutional governance. This study examines how data visualization, translating complex climate information into context-relevant formats, can strengthen the uptake of Copernicus Climate Change and Atmosphere Monitoring Service by national institutions. Using the Italian initiative for the National Collaboration Programme of the Copernicus Climate Change Service as an empirical setting, we adopt a mixed-method design to bridge expert visualization practices with institutional stakeholders tasked with sustainability transitions. The findings show that users widely recognize the value of Copernicus. Nonetheless, uptake depends largely on how easily visual outputs can be integrated into workflows and decision procedures. By linking uptake to visualization practices, the study reveals a previously underexplored user–expert gap between production and use contexts. We introduce “adaptive translation” as a framework to align scientific integrity with usability through progressive disclosure, defensibility-oriented design, and iterative feedback loops. The results provide context-sensitive guidance for designing “workflow-ready” visual products in similar national institutional settings, enhancing the capacity of institutional actors to design the climate-resilient actions that are essential for a sustainable future.