Application of Remote

Sensing in

Disaster Management

Karim Hamidov
Chingizkhan

INTRODUCTION
DISASTER MANAGEMENT
CYCLE

Outli
ne

REMOTE SENSING AND GIS

ROLE OF REMOTE SENSING
IN:
CYCLONES
EARTHQUAKE
FLOOD
OTHER DISASTERS
REMOTE SENSING- GLOBAL
ISSUES
CONCLUSION

Introduction
Disaster is a natural or man-made (or technological)
hazard resulting in an event of substantial extent causing
significant physical damage or destruction, loss of life, or
drastic change to the environment. It is a phenomenon
that can cause damage to life and property and destroy
NATURAL
MAN-MADE
DISASTER
the
economic,DISASTER
social and cultural
life of people.

TERRORISM
CYCLONE

VOLCANOES

WAR
FLOODS

EARTHQUAKES

Disaster
Management

Natural events can't be prevented, but potential

disasters can be 'managed' to minimise loss of life
through a four-part cycle of mitigation, preparedness,
response and recovery

Remote sensing in GIS

Remote sensing the science of acquiring information
about the Earth using remote instruments, such as
satellites is inherently useful for disaster management.
Satellites offer accurate, frequent and almost
instantaneous data over large areas anywhere in the
world. When a disaster strikes, remote sensing is often
the only way to view what is happening on the ground.

Geographic Information System (GIS) is a

computer based application of technology
involving spatial and attributes information to act
as a decision support tool. It keeps information in
different layers and generates various
The
data required
for disaster
is coming
combinations
pertaining
tomanagement
the requirement
of the
from different scientific
disciplines,
and should be
decision
making.
integrated.
Data integration is one of the strongest points of GIS. In
general the following types of data are required:
Data on the disastrous phenomena (e.g. landslides, floods,
earthquakes), their location, frequency, magnitude etc.
Data on the environment in which the disastrous events might
take place: topography, geology, geo-morphology, soils,
hydrology, land use, vegetation etc.
Data on the elements that might be destroyed if the event takes
place: infrastructure, settlements , population, socio-economic
data etc.

Remote sensing in
MITIGATI
RESC RECOVE SATELLITE
S USED:
Cyclones
ON
RY
UE
PREPAREDN
ESS

Risk
modellin
g;
vulnera
bility
analysis
.

Cyclone Lehar by

Early
warning;
longrange
climate
modellin
g

Identifyin
g escape
routes;
crisis
mapping;

Damage
assessm
ent;
spatial
planning
.

KALPANA1;
INSAT-3A;
QuikSat
radar;
Meteosat

Cyclone Helen by Mangalayan

Remote sensing in Earthquakes

MITIGATIO
N

PREPAREDN
ESS

RESCUE

RECOVERY

SATELLITES
USED

routes
Damage
Building
PALSAR;
Measuring Planning
for search and
assessment;
stock
IKONOS 2;
rescue;
strain
identifying
damage
assessment;
In SAR;
accumulat
assessment;
sites for
hazard
SPOT; IRS
evacuation
rehabilitation.
The
World
Agency
of
Planetary
Monitoring
and
Earthquake
Risk
ion.
planning;
mapping.

Reduction (WAPMERR) uses remote

sensing to improve knowledge of
deformation
mapping.
building stocks for example the
number and height of buildings. High
resolution imagery can also help hazard mapping to guide building codes and
disaster preparedness strategies.

Remote sensing in Floods

MITIGATI
ON

PREPAREDNE RESCUE RECOVE

SS
RY

SATELLITES
USED

Flood
Tropical
Damage
Flood
mapping;
assessment Rainfall
detection;
evacuation
Monitoring
;
planning;
Mission;
early
spatial
damage
AMSR-E;
planning.
warning;
assessment.
KALPANA I;
Asia
a team of 51
organisations from 18 countries
rainfall
delivers remote
sensing data via the Internet as easy-to-interpret
information formapping.
both early warning and flood damage assessment

Mapping floodprone areas;

delineating
flood-plains;
land-use
mapping.
Sentinel

across Asia. It uses the Dartmouth Flood Observatory's (DFO's)

River Watch flood detection and measurement system, based on
AMSR-E data, to map flood hazards and warn disaster managers
and residents in flood-prone areas when rivers are likely to burst
their banks.

ood In Uttarakhand

Flood In Assam

DISAST MITIGATI
ON
ER
DROUG Risk
modelling;
HT
vulnerabilit
y analysis;
land and
water
manageme
nt
planning.

PREPAREDN
ESS

RECOVE RESC
RY
UE

SATELLITE
S USED

Weather
forecasting;
vegetation
monitoring;
crop water
requirement
mapping;
early warning.

Monitorin
g
vegetatio
n;
damage
assessme
nt.

Informi
ng
drought
mitigati
on.

FEWS
NET;
AVHRR;
MODIS;
SPOT

Damage
assessm
ent;
spatial
planning
.

MODIS
and
AVHRR;
Hyperio
n

VOLCANO

Risk
modelling;
hazard
mapping;
digital
elevation
models.

Emissions
monitoring
;
thermal
alerts.

Mapping
lava
flows;
evacuatio
n
planning.

FIRE

Mapping fireprone areas;

monitoring
fuel load;
risk modelling.

Fire
detection;
predicting
spread/direct

Coordin Dama MODIS;

ating
ge
SERVIR;
fire
assess Sentinel

Remote sensing : Global

Several initiatives are working to provide equal access to the
issues
process and services of remote Sensing for all countries
irrespective of their financial status.
The International Charter helped with floods in Senegal on 2
September and those in Burkina Faso on 17 September this year.
Both emergency requests received near-immediate data from
RADARSAT and SPOT.
The Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS),
managed by the intergovernmental Group on Earth Observations
(GEO), supports satellite access at all stages of the disaster
management cycle. It provides data from various satellites
including Meteosat, Geostationary Operational Environmental
Satellite (GOES), Terra and SPOT to regional centres in Europe,
Africa and Asia via a small receiving station.
Sentinel Asia and SERVIR are other major components of GEOSS.
And GEO has done much to convince individual space agencies
to release their data for free.
Emerging from a GEO ministerial summit in Cape Town late last

Conclusion
Hazards, especially natural hazards are an inevitable
occurrence which has never been nor will ever be in
control of humans. Humans can only try their best to
prevent it from becoming a Disaster.
Remote Sensing and GIS can play a very important
role in this endeavour and hence preventing the loss of
millions of innocent lives and billions of dollars worth of
properties.
Its highly prerogative that we must focus Remote
Sensing methods more on mitigation and preparedness
rather than rescue as it is rightly said Prevention Is
Better Than A Cure.