56
Chapter 7
Disaster management is a complex endeavor, which requires the
participation of many institutions in its various phases. Decisions have to be
made on the basis of information that may be incorrect, unreliable, not
delivered fast enough, or not provided to the appropriate user. In emergency
situations, the value of information decreases exponentially with time. For
instance, recent studies show that the information generated by a forest fire
detection system is particularly valuable within the first 15 minutes after fire
initiation, and decreases very rapidly to become useless after an hour. The
acquisition, processing, analysis and interpretation of critical information, as
well as its rapid dissemination are thus essential. Clearly, this type of user
requirements has direct implications on the choice of applicable technologies
since repeated observations at such high frequency can only be achieved
with geostationary satellites or clusters of multiple sensors.
An additional constraint, although not directly related to remote sensing,
is that such information must be unambiguous and clearly understandable by
the intended recipients in conditions of severe stress.
From the point of view of the disaster managers, the main requirement is
that accurate and reliable information be received at appropriate temporal
and spatial resolutions. Information on rapidly changing situations must be
updated frequently and provide enough detail to allow informed decisionmaking. Remote sensing can thus be expected to play an important role in
disaster management.
3.
CONTRIBUTION OF REMOTE SENSING TO
THE MANAGEMENT OF NATURAL HAZARDS
Space based sensors can provide useful information to prevent and
monitor natural disasters, or to support relief operations. To be effective,
however, such information must be reliable and timely. Ideally, an early
warning system should be able to acquire data anywhere in the world, to
process them very quickly, and to deliver high level products to the
authorities concerned, both in the field and at centralized facilities. A wellorganized processing center or disaster management group should include
personnel, hardware and software capable of integrating not only data
streams from various sources, including remote sensing data from various
sensors, but also ancillary data such as topography, climate, land cover, etc.
It should be able to integrate these data layers in a Geographical Information
System (GIS), for instance, and deliver synthetic information to the decisionmakers. This may imply the installation and operation of receiving stations,
processing chains, and dedicated algorithms for the rapid analysis of large
Chapter 7
Disaster management is a complex endeavor, which requires the
participation of many institutions in its various phases. Decisions have to be
made on the basis of information that may be incorrect, unreliable, not
delivered fast enough, or not provided to the appropriate user. In emergency
situations, the value of information decreases exponentially with time. For
instance, recent studies show that the information generated by a forest fire
detection system is particularly valuable within the first 15 minutes after fire
initiation, and decreases very rapidly to become useless after an hour. The
acquisition, processing, analysis and interpretation of critical information, as
well as its rapid dissemination are thus essential. Clearly, this type of user
requirements has direct implications on the choice of applicable technologies
since repeated observations at such high frequency can only be achieved
with geostationary satellites or clusters of multiple sensors.
An additional constraint, although not directly related to remote sensing,
is that such information must be unambiguous and clearly understandable by
the intended recipients in conditions of severe stress.
From the point of view of the disaster managers, the main requirement is
that accurate and reliable information be received at appropriate temporal
and spatial resolutions. Information on rapidly changing situations must be
updated frequently and provide enough detail to allow informed decisionmaking. Remote sensing can thus be expected to play an important role in
disaster management.
3.
CONTRIBUTION OF REMOTE SENSING TO
THE MANAGEMENT OF NATURAL HAZARDS
Space based sensors can provide useful information to prevent and
monitor natural disasters, or to support relief operations. To be effective,
however, such information must be reliable and timely. Ideally, an early
warning system should be able to acquire data anywhere in the world, to
process them very quickly, and to deliver high level products to the
authorities concerned, both in the field and at centralized facilities. A wellorganized processing center or disaster management group should include
personnel, hardware and software capable of integrating not only data
streams from various sources, including remote sensing data from various
sensors, but also ancillary data such as topography, climate, land cover, etc.
It should be able to integrate these data layers in a Geographical Information
System (GIS), for instance, and deliver synthetic information to the decisionmakers. This may imply the installation and operation of receiving stations,
processing chains, and dedicated algorithms for the rapid analysis of large