This paper provides an overview of the main activities and results of HYPERHEALTH project (funded by the Italian Space Agency). Specific focus of this paper is hyperspectral PRISMA data exploitation, mostly as regards PRISMA-based atmospheric constituent estimation and allergenic vegetation monitoring.

In the era of Space Economy, satellite services represent a key element that must be valued and promoted by institutions at local and global level, because they can ensure sustainable economic development and generate benefits for citizens and society. For this reason, they have been recognized among the top strategic priorities of the Italian Space Agency, which deals with the implementation of national space policies.With the main objective of stimulating the growth of the national downstream ecosystem, the Agency has proposed and started the I4DP – Innovation for Downstream Preparation program, which, through cyclical initiatives, offers support to public and private users for the creation of innovative space solutions helping the processes of management and development of the territory and its resources. This work aims to provide a complete picture of the state-of-the-art of the I4DP program and its future prospects, showing the potential effects to support the entire Italian community along the entire value chain of space services and the downstream economic sector, with a focus on selected projects within some identified topics of particular interest such as infrastructure monitoring, the fight against climate change and the adaptation to its effects, precision farming, the sustainability of cities.

The downstream space sector in Italy is confronted with distinctive challenges, marked by a fragmented landscape, inadequate stakeholder interactions, underdeveloped business planning, and a critical need for improved industrial and financial acumen. In response to these challenges, the Italian Space Agency has taken a central role in addressing these issues through the establishment of the Downstream and Integrated Application Unit. The primary objective of this unit is to elevate the competitiveness of national Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), industries, and academia operating in the space sector. Within this strategic framework, the PRISMA SCIENZA program emerges as a pivotal initiative, aiming to harness the scientific data generated by the PRISMA mission for the improvement of the Italian Community. Specifically, the program is designed to facilitate the complete exploitation of mission data while concurrently fostering the advancement of Italian expertise in the hyperspectral remote sensing sector.By operating within this comprehensive framework, the PRISMA SCIENZA program contributes to the overarching goal of addressing challenges within the Italian downstream space sector. It not only serves as a mechanism for maximizing the utilization of mission data but also plays a vital role in promoting the growth and proficiency of the Italian space industry, aligning with broader strategic objectives set forth by the Italian Space Agency.Aim of this paper is to analyze the effects the PRISMA SCIENZA program brought to the Italian industrial and scientific communities.

Land cover, or the biophysical cover of the earth's surface, plays an essential role in climate and environmental dynamics. Processes involving land cover change, are among the factors that most threaten the ecosystems sustainability and services. The objective of the work is to explore the potential of the PRISMA multi-temporal hyperspectral imagery in generating new EO products to complement/improve the products provided by Copernicus' Land Monitoring Service for the analysis and monitoring of complex and fragile ecosystems such as the coastal Metaponto (Southern Italy) by estimating of the land biological and economic productivity loss and land degradation vulnerability. Preliminary results showed that an improvement in ecosystem mapping is supported by the use of Artificial Neural Networks (ANN), k-Nearest Neighbors (KNN) and Support Vector Machines (SVM) and a hybrid approach to define the vegetation trait, leads to significant improvement in the damage assessment and land degradation assessment.

The paper presents the activities of the TUS:CAN project, funded by ASI, the Italian Space Agency, and focuses on the experimental results obtained at the end of the first year. A Google Earth Engine implementation has been designed for spaceborne image collection and handling, spatial resolution enhancement, classification, and cross-validation with airborne hyperspectral image data and in situ spectral signature acquisitions. Initial trials using Sentinel-2 multispectral imagery over a 95 km2area validate the reliability and consistency of a technique to categorize and quantitatively assess natural and man-made land covers, aimed at updating maps and promoting sustainable land use.

HYPERHEALTH project is co-funded by Italian Space Agency (ASI) in the framework of the "PRISMA Scienza" program. The program supports R&D projects proposed by experts in hyperspectral remote sensing sector from national public research institutions to industries, also in the framework of international partnerships. The aim is designing, developing and testing innovative methods, techniques and algorithms for exploitation of hyperspectral data, with reliable perspectives as to engineering and pre-operational development, thus contributing to the improvement of socio-economic benefits of the end-user community. This paper outlines HYPERHEALTH main goals and activities.