Feedback to Lorant on CEOS Disaster Response
2009-9-29
1. Overview of WGISS actions on GEO Disaster Tasks
WGISS has initiated a Disaster Response Interest Group to follow the related GEO disaster
management tasks, such as DI-09-02B, DI-06-09_7, AR-09-02c_2 and DI-09-02b_1. WGISS is
working on a disaster response technical platform and testbed, based on China earthquake
experience and grid technology. More than 10 practices on world wide flood monitoring have
been taken in the past two years.
Questions from WGISS Testbed Team address that they need space agencies’ arm to provide
operational data support in the flood disaster response testbed developed by Ukraine and China.
Ukraine colleagues also noticed that a limited funding should be fixed to support such research
work.
2. Relationship with International Charter
Discussion showed the importance to make clear the relationship between CEOS disaster response
platform and International Charter. Some differences have been addressed as following,
(1) User. (decision-maker for Charter, and image processor for CEOS action)
(2) Content. (EO image & thematic information for Charter, and raw EO image for CEOS action).
(3) Response speed. (weekly for Charter, and NRT 24~48 hrs for CEOS action)
(4) Technical platform. (call centre for Charter, and Grid for CEOS action)
(5) Level. (Political level for Charter to make collaboration agreement by agencies, and technical
level for CEOS action to implement the data collection and transferring)
3. Output from CEOS Disaster Response Action
The output from CEOS Disaster Response Action should be a technical platform, operational one.
WGISS will provide such prototype & demonstration in the first step, and WGISS will also help
certain communities & organizations to implement it. It can collect and storage the response data
from space agencies, and automatically manage these data, and publish them with web-service
based portal.
It can be the important component and implementation of Charter. Their collaboration can bring
and maintain a disaster data grid for emergency disaster mitigation. For each disaster call, all
responded data can be automatically collected, archived, managed and published with on-line
portal. It can support not only the emergency use, but also following disaster scientific research. It
can become the largest disaster data environment (warehouse).
4. Shift to operation
What WGISS should do in disaster response task? To find an effective technical method, or to
build and to maintain an operational technical platform.
We recognize that WGISS is a community to promote interagency cooperation and technical
innovation, rather than an entity to operate a facility. WGISS should find a partner to shift the
disaster response prototype to be an operational platform. International Charter has successfully
run for a long time, and it can be regarded as the ideal partner for WGISS.
There are also some problems have to overcome for the future operational global disaster response
platform. Recognized from WGISS prototype research, the most important factor is the agency
cooperation mechanism to guarantee the fast response for disaster call. Weekly delay from data
acquiring to data transfer is too long for such disaster events.
5. Recommendations
(1) To make clear the methodology of International Charter. Especially who will be in charge of
the Value added production processing in the workflow of Charter? There are a gap for
member agency’s data providing and final output of Charter.
(2) CEOS/WGISS Disaster Response action should work together with Charter.
(3) In CEOS plenary and UN-SPIDER workshop, to make communication with Charter for the
collaboration. (Charter looks not like a complete system to response the disaster. CEOS
Disaster Response Platform can be the implementation of Charter, to implement the data
transfer.)
(4) CEOS can help Charter to be promoted to be an effective on-line system, to become the
biggest global wide disaster data platform.
(5) CEOS, Charter and UNOOSA should work together to improve the mechanism of
inter-agency cooperate to fit the developing of global disaster response system.