Early Warning Systems

Risk & Recovery Mapping: Utilising EO data for risk and recovery mapping, is instrumental for identifying vulnerable areas, assessing potential hazards, and implementing risk reduction strategies before disasters strike. This proactive approach aids in minimizing the impact of disasters on communities.

Disaster Preparedness Guidance: Highlighting the importance of integrating disaster preparedness across humanitarian planning, EO data plays a crucial role in supporting preparedness measures. This includes planning for emergency responses and implementing community resilience-building activities.

Impact exposure analysis and proactive mitigation measure: EO data can assist in preparing for potential disasters by helping identify and monitor natural hazards, such as floods, wildfires, earthquakes and hurricanes, and map high-risk areas that may require special attention in disaster planning. 

Early warning emergency applications: EO technologies perform the systematic monitoring and alerting of various environmental hazards. This includes drought monitoring, early-warning surveillance of forest fires, landslides and terrain deformation monitoring, earthquake and tsunami monitoring, floods monitoring, storm surge monitoring, and volcanic activity monitoring. Leveraging EO technologies enables real-time data collection and analysis, enhancing the capacity for early detection, preparedness, and effective response to mitigate the impact of natural disasters and emergencies.

• Landslides and terrain deformation monitoring: EO data can be used to detect changes in the Earth’s surface that may indicate potential landslides and monitor ground displacement over time (in conjunction with similar applications in Infrastructure or Rail that are more specifically focused on the infrastructures themselves).

• Forest fire monitoring: EO thermal imaging can detect the heat signatures associated with active fires, as well as smoke and aerosols that may appear. As an early warning system, EO can provide a risk assessment and vulnerability mapping of forest fires by assessing land cover, vegetation types, and proximity to urban areas. 

• Earthquake and tsunami monitoring: EO satellites can detect and monitor surface deformations caused by tectonic activities, including land and coastal changes.

• Drought monitoring: In parallel to soil condition and vegetation monitoring applications used in Agriculture (that are more specifically focused on plant health), EO can also provide data to assess and manage drought conditions, including monitoring vegetation health, soil moisture, rainfall and water bodies and weather forecasts.

• Volcanic activity monitoring: EO can provide thermal imaging to monitor the movement and temperature of lava flows and volcanic gasses and ash clouds.

• Flood monitoring: EO can provide critical data for flood prediction, early warning, and response efforts. EO can provide flood extent mapping and damage assessment, as well as weather forecasts and water bodies and coastal monitoring.

• Storm surge monitoring: EO satellites can track the formation, movement, and intensity of storms, as well as changes in ocean temperature and levels, to mitigate storm surge events.

• Monitoring of vector-borne diseases: EO can provide environmental data monitoring temperature, humidity, precipitation, vegetation cover and other factors that may influence the spread of vector-borne diseases.

• Monitoring of locust swarms: EO satellites can detect the presence of locust swarms and track changes in vegetation cover, as well as monitor environmental conditions that influence movement and breeding patterns.

Disaster Response and Recovery

Rapid Mapping Service: EO enables rapid mapping, which provides geospatial information within hours of a disaster occurring. This service is crucial for emergency responders assessing damage, identifying accessible routes for delivering aid to affected areas, and locating suitable sites for temporary shelters, planning interventions, and allocating resources effectively.

Damage Assessment: High-resolution satellite images are used to assess damage to infrastructure and settlements post-disaster. This rapid assessment helps to prioritize response efforts and allocate resources efficiently.

Population displacement monitoring: Monitoring of displacement patterns due to conflict or disaster aimed at, for example, planning humanitarian responses. EO data can be used to monitor migration routes, as well as for the identification of temporary dwelling structures.

Remote Health Assessments: In the aftermath of disasters, satellite data can help identify outbreaks of diseases by monitoring conditions conducive to their spread, such as water stagnation.

Humanitarian Aid

Refugee Camp Planning and Monitoring: EO data is vital for planning and monitoring refugee camps, providing insights into camp layouts, population densities, and the surrounding environment. This information is critical for ensuring the well-being and safety of displaced populations.

Infrastructure and Supply Chain Restoration: Satellite imagery and analysis assist in monitoring the recovery progress, including the restoration of infrastructure and supply chains disrupted by disasters. This aids in rapidly re-establishing essential services and economic activities in affected regions.

Logistics and Asset Management: For humanitarian aid operations, EO data facilitates efficient logistics planning and asset management, enabling aid organizations to deliver assistance effectively, even in challenging terrains or in the aftermath of disasters.