From Reality 2010 to Future Vision 2020

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From Reality 2010 to Future Vision 2020

• Ray A. Williamson, rwilliamson_at_swfound.org
• Secure World Foundation

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Outline

• Vision 2020My vision for 10 years hence
• Potential impediments
• Positive trends
• Reality 2010the reality and promise of
  spaceborne systems and other technologies
• Situational awareness
• The wider context
• Secure World Foundation

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Questions to Answer

• Where would we like to be in 10 years?
• Where could we be?
• Are we making effective use of todays resources?
  
• Are we integrating new technologies and
  methodologies into practice sufficiently quickly?
• Are the supporting institutions moving with the
  technologies?
• What impediments do we face in reaching the
  vision?

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2020 Space and Air Resources

• The use of remote sensing (space and air) is a
  routine and cost-effective means of support to
  disaster response and recovery
• RS data are routinely and quickly georeferenced
  and analyzed resultant information delivered to
  first responders within 24 hours of collection
• Satellite telecommunications are used to deliver
  information to response and recovery teams
  throughout the recovery process.

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Vision 2020Situational Awareness

• Response and recovery teams, in turn, use the
  latest in smart phones and other related devices
  to deliver information back to coordinating
  organizations.
• This closes the information gap between space and
  aircraft and Earthbound response recovery
  teams
• Updates the situation on the ground quickly with
  precise small scale geo-referenced data results
  to be compared to any new RS data provides
  initial ground-truth
• Assists in maintaining safety of life, both for
  afflicted populations and for response and
  recovery teams

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Vision 2020 Requirements

• Vastly improved use of current and immediate
  future satellite and aircraft resources
• Vastly improved geographical and temporal in-situ
  situational awareness
• Vastly improved international organizational and
  institutional structures
• Standard information formats
• Organizations work together smoothly and
  routinely within and across national and
  institutional borders

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The Opportunity Often Falls Short of Reality

• Too often the benefits of geospatial data tools
  do not reach broadly enough, especially in
  developing countries
• Failures often stem from uncoordinated government
  policies at different levels of government
• Restrictive data policies
• More training needed
• More scientific, technical education needed
• Most important, however, citizens need to become
  involved in their own future by using tools
  developed for them and also by them

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Other Impediments to Progress

• Institutional inertia
• No clear pipeline for institutionalizing new
  methods
• National security concerns
• Some data sources off limits
• Profusion of aid groups
• Standards for data/information formats, types,
  etc?
• Standard working methodologies?
• Customs, immigration barriers

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Positive Trends

• Many more countries and groups becoming familiar
  with RS methods
• Google Earth and Bing have made the information
  potential of RS data and concepts much more
  accessible to the average computer user than ever
  before
• More countries are developing their own satellite
  systems
• Many more organizations are using RS methods to
  address disaster response and recovery issues
• Volunteer analysts willing to pitch in with
  analysis

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Most RS Satellites Fly in Polar Orbit
DMC constellation Credit SSTL
Polar Orbit
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Available Space Systems

• Many more remote sensing resources than ever
  before
• Many operating satellite systems internationally
• Electro-optical
• Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) (all weather
  coverage)
• Constellations
• Improved position, navigation and timing (PNT)
  systems
• GPS
• Galileo
• GLONASS
• Mobile satellite communications

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Other Important Technologies

• Airborne remote sensing
• Electro-optical cameras vertical and side view
• SAR (all weather coverage)
• Lidar (Detailed surface topography)
• Powerful analytic software (proprietary open
  source)
• Image processing
• GIS
• Automated change detection
• PNT capability embedded in many new mobile
  technologies
• Phones, tablets, cameras

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Highest Resolution Satellites

• GeoEye, U.S. (commercial)
• .5-m panchromatic and 1.65-meter multispectral
  resolution
• Digital Globe, U.S. (commercial)
• .5-m panchromatic and 1.84-m multispectral
  resolution
• TerraSAR, Germany
• Resolution 1 m, dual-use
• Radarsat II, Canada
• Resolution 1 m/ 3 m

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Constellations

• RapidEye, Germany (private)
• Five 6.5 m multispectral EO satellites in
  constellation
• Daily imagery across the globe
• Cosmo-SkyMed, Italy
• Four SAR satellites at maximum 1m resolution
• Digital Globe (quasi-constellation)
• Three satellites (all different resolutions
  other characteristics)

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Situational Awareness

• Response and recovery crews need better
  situational awareness
• Understand where is the greatest need for
  assistence
• Have a clear idea of the dangers they might face,
  from damaged structures , the environment, and
  from the local population
• Need to be able to communicate that information
  back to assisting agencies

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Community Remote Sensing Is

• a new field that combines remote sensing with
  citizen science, social networks, and
  crowd-sourcing to enhance the data obtained from
  traditional sources.
• It includes the collection, calibration,
  analysis, communication, or application of
  remotely sensed information by these community
  means.
• IGARSS brochure for the 2010 IGARSS conference in
  Hawaii

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Community Remote Sensing

• Satellite remote sensing services tend to be
  delivered top-downwith experts developing
  services to meet a perceived need
• CRS works in the other directionindividuals
  contributing data and adding valuable information
  to satellite or aerial data
• CRS enhances the value of RS data to benefit the
  community
• CRS works by involving the community, whether
  geographical or disciplinary, in the enhancement
  of information to benefit the community as a whole

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Making CRS Work Smart Phone Application http//w
ww.youtube.com/watch?vz4UAO_i1S7Y
Courtesy of International Space University
students Space Studies Session 2009
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The Wider Context

• Disaster response and recovery fits into a much
  wider picture than presented here
• To achieve the vision presented here will require
  operational improvements in many areas of human
  endeavor natural resource management and
  protection pollution reduction and control, etc.
• My wider vision is a world where individuals and
  community groups have routine access to satellite
  and aerial data and use CRS methods to improve
  their own quality of life

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Advertisement

• Imaging Notes Magazine
• http//www.imagingnotes.com

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Secure World Foundation

• Secure World Foundation (SWF) is a private
  operating foundation dedicated to the secure and
  sustainable use of space for the benefit of Earth
  and all its peoples.

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What does the Foundation do?

• Engages with academics, policy makers, scientists
  and advocates in the space and international
  affairs communities to support steps that
  strengthen global space sustainability. 
• Promotes the development of cooperative and
  effective uses of space for the protection of
  Earths environment and human security. 
• Acts as a research body, convener and facilitator
  to advocate for key space security and other
  space related topics and to examine their
  influence on governance and international
  development.

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Key Governance Focus Areas

• Space sustainability
• Protection of continued utility of space
  resources
• Policy development in Emerging Space States
• Human environmental security
• Development and disaster assistance
• Environmental change
• Planetary threats
• Mitigating the threat of collision from a
  Near-Earth Object (NEO) through the establishment
  of effective international governance for
  response

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Questions?
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Thanks!