Till a few years ago, very few specialists were working on the analysis and use of satellite images. However, for the past 15 years, a niche area has developed of those experts who are using satellite data for disaster management. Tracking these developments over the past decade and a half is an article titled “Global trends in satellite-based emergency mapping,” published in the latest issue of the prestigious Science Magazine (15 July 2016).
Among the authors is a scientist from the Asian Institute of Technology
(AIT), Dr. Manzul Kumar Hazarika, who serves as Director (Project
Operations) at AIT’s Geoinformatics Center (GIC).
More than 1000 major disaster situations from 2000-2014 were analyzed
where satellite monitoring was employed. An international team of 17
experts analyzed the historical development of satellite-based
emergency mapping, and presented global patterns alongside historic and
emerging trends in this field.
Says Dr. Hazarika: “We have provided a synthesis of spatial patterns
and temporal trends in global satellite emergency mapping, and our
results indicate that satellite-based emergency mapping is most
intensively deployed in Asia and Europe.” Our paper also presents an
outlook on the future use of Earth observation technology for both
disaster response and mitigation," he says.
AIT has also been very active in using satellite data for disaster
mapping with the Geoinformatics Centre acting as the Principal Data
Analysis Node (P-DAN) of Sentinel Asia, and it was only natural that we
were asked to collaborate in this exercise, Dr. Hazarika adds.
The paper also pinpoints important landmark events that have
accelerated the use of satellite imagery for disaster management. The
Indian Ocean tsunami (2004), Wenchuan Earthquake (2008), Haiti
Earthquake (2010), Pakistan flood (2010), and the Great East Japan
Earthquake (2011) were identified as five major events that stand out
in the context of satellite-based emergency mapping.
The paper concludes by saying that the scope of satellite-based
emergency mapping should be broadened to include drought, extreme
temperature events, global pandemics and other slow onset events. “In
the coming years, government and public commercial sectors will have
greater capacity for imagining through satellite communications,” the
paper adds.
The team of scientists who contributed to this paper includes top
scientists and specialists from leading space organizations and
research institutions from all over the world -- DLR Earth Observation
Center, Information Technology for Humanitarian Assistance, Cooperation
and Action (Italy), Human Rights Watch (Switzerland), European
Commission - Joint Research Centre (Italy), U.S. Geological Survey
(USA), Gulich Institute ‐ Córdoba National University/CONAE
(Argentina), Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (Japan), Asian
Institute of Technology (Thailand), UN Office for Outer Space Affairs
(Austria), National Disaster Reduction Center of China (China), Geneva
International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (Switzerland), National
Space Research and Development Agency (Nigeria), Centre National
d'Études Spatiales (France), Regional Centre for Mapping of Resources
for Development (Kenya), European Space Agency (Belgium), and
Université Catholique de Louvain (Belgium).
http://science.sciencemag.org/content/353/6296/247.full
News about this research paper has also been published in various
portals and news sites:
DLR: http://goo.gl/xoaGpR
Research in Germany: http://goo.gl/yhdpaB
EI Journal: http://goo.gl/QpFlL5
Infosat :
https://goo.gl/FStHwP
GIS Resources: http://goo.gl/FcDhwI