APPLYING COMMUNITY REMOTE SENSING TO THE DISASTER MITIGATION, RESPONSE AND RECOVERY COMMUNITY

At the current time, taken as a whole, the world community operates sufficient numbers and varieties of Earth observations and other satellite systems such as GPS and telecommunications to make enormous contributions to improving human security and to make a striking positive difference in the lives of billions of people around the world. The benefits to the geosciences community, geosciences education and to society worldwide are potentially very great.

If scientists, local communities and individuals are to realize the full benefits possible from Earth observations, they will need to have the tools to use them effectively. For the broader community to benefit, they need to be able to contribute local information to the publicly available resources. Such local information can provide much greater analytic depth to the overhead imagery, improving the capabilities of Earth observations to contribute to human and environmental security. Such inputs have been termed Community Remote Sensing (CRS) (http://www.igarss2010.org/).

The greatest benefits of citizen information inputs could well accrue to the private sector with applications associated with individual safety, disaster response, etc. Fortunately, the development of modern communication tools developed for the consumer market such as smart phones, netbooks, and other wi-fi and internet devices provide the new information tools needed to improve citizen inputs to information derived from Earth observation data. CRS also encompasses new opportunities for sensing, analyzing, validating, and sharing remotely sensed information of all kinds.

As a case study, this paper examines the potential role of CRS in contributing to the mitigation, response and recovery from natural disasters. It explores solutions to some of the current hurdles that impede the delivery of services to people. Finally, it discusses the role that CRS can play in making Earth observations truly responsive to general human needs at the local level.