Moderated Relief for Natural Disasters
Moderated Relief for Natural Disasters
February 5, 2008: The CSIRO says the initial roll-out of the Earth observation network for monitoring natural disasters in the Asia-Pacific region has been activated for 10 emergencies from 7 countries, over the last 12 months.
The network known as Sentinel Asia was spawn off the Australian bushfire tracking system developed by the CSIRO, Geoscience Australia and the Australian Defence Imagery during the 2003 Canberra bushfires.
In 2003, linking data from what were then mostly US satellites allowed emergency workers to pinpoint the progress of the fires and the subsequent relief process.
Since then, the Australians have been working with other space and emergency agencies in the Asia Pacific region to develop a more comprehensive system. By late 2004, a deal had been brokered for the project at the annual Asia Pacific Region Space Agencies Forum. A month later on the 26th December, the region was dealing with the devastating impact of the Asia Pacific Tsunami.
Dr Alex Held, head of Australia’s input and senior CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research scientist, says Australia’s role in the system benefits billions of people in the region by improving our assisting authorities in a recovery response.
As the impact of natural disaster are often observable, Dr Held says it makes sense for orbiting and geostationary Earth observing systems to monitor Progress.
“When efficiently combined with modern information-distribution methods, this data can be sent rapidly to affected communities and local disaster agencies in some case as early warning before the disaster occurs, or post-disaster maps, to assist in recovery operations,” he says.
Sentinel Asia delivvers real-time information on bush fires, flooding, drought and landslides to a number to a network of webGIS services, like the Australian Sentinel Hotspots system.
The data generated enables emergency workers to pinpoint locations, estimate damage and determine access routes. “In the case of a flood or tsunami the imagery could be processed to show the damage caused, crops ruined, buildings underwater,” says Dr Held.