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CONTINUES

to play an important international role

in supporting disaster management and risk assessment

activities. Policy-based drivers and the capabilities offered

by advanced technology developments ensure that we must

better monitor, understand and respect the environment in

which we live. It is envisaged that such advancements in moni-

toring and understanding will enable us to better understand,

predict and react to disaster phenomena and identify those activ-

ities that adversely affect our environment.

The British National Space Centre (BNSC), a partnership

between UK Government departments and organizations with

interests in civil space, supports many activities that help to

develop systems and services directly and indirectly associated

with disaster management and humanitarian aid.

International policy evolvement is based in part on enhanced

technology developments and a better understanding and inter-

pretation of the data received. Recent initiatives based on policy

requirements such as Global Monitoring for Environment and

Security (GMES) – a joint European Commission (EC) and

European Space Agency (ESA) initiative; the Group on Earth

Observation (GEO) – a politically driven international initiative;

and the Galileo satellite navigation programme are all driving the

development of new technology to meet new requirements. As

the number of instruments and satellite missions increases we

gain improved global coverage, frequency and timeliness of revis-

its, providing us with a continuous stream of data with which to

monitor the Earth.

In January 2005 a high-level UK Natural Hazard Working Group

was established, by the chief scientist in the UK at the request of

the Prime Minister, to advise the Government on the mechanisms

that could and should be established for the detection and early

warning of global physical natural hazards. The UK working group

endorsed the view expressed at the Kobe World Conference on

Disaster Reduction (January 2005) that there is a clear need for a

sustainable and effective global, multi-hazard early warning system,

building on existing capabilities and frameworks.

BNSC assists UK organizations to collaborate internationally in

many fields, and this has resulted in a major success in expanding

the potential for current and future low-cost satellite missions that

can provide disaster reduction services. In October 2005, a fifth

spacecraft – ‘Beijing-1,’ the China DMC+4 enhanced micro satel-

lite of the disaster monitoring constellation (DMC) –was launched.

This satellite joins four others already in orbit and owned by Algeria,

Nigeria, Turkey and the UK respectively. Together, the satellites

provide the opportunity to cooperate and provide daily imaging of

any part of the world when required. Currently, on-board instru-

ments provide multi-spectral images of the ground with a resolution

of 32 metres; while Beijing-1 and other, future satellites also offer

4-metres panchromatic imagery. This constellation not only

provides the opportunity to supply ongoing monitoring informa-

tion as problems develop, but can also provide information direct

to land-based teams in a crisis situation. The DMC satellites have

already been used to provide rapid response imaging data to

humanitarian aid and relief organizations on more than 20 occa-

sions since launch.

Disaster management demands frequent monitoring, as

natural catastrophes can occur at any time and anywhere in the

world. To help coordinate satellite mission response to such

disasters, the International Charter ‘Space and Major Disasters’

(the Charter) was set up following the UNISPACE III conference

held in Vienna, Austria in July 1999.

At the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS)

plenary meeting in London during November 2005, the UK

Government (on behalf of the DMC Partnership) formally joined

the world’s major space agencies in adhering to the Charter,

which aims to provide a unified system of space data acquisi-

tion and delivery to those affected by natural or man-made

disasters through authorized users. Each member agency has

committed resources to support the provisions of the Charter

and thus is helping to mitigate the effects of disasters on human

life, property and the environment.

Coordination of the DMC for Charter activations and disaster

response is undertaken by DMC International Imaging (DMCii),

based in the UK, which also provides a specialized 24-hour

emergency satellite planning service to task the Charter satellite

fleet as emergency on-call officers. In joining the Charter, the

DMC is already providing thorough broad daily image coverage

during disasters such as Hurricane Katrina and the Indian Ocean

tsunami. DMC has also supplied data in non-natural disasters

for mapping applications, for example to the UN for Internally

Displaced People (IDP) camp placement in Darfur, Sudan. The

DMC is also used to monitor slow onset environmental disasters

such as deforestation over large areas like the Amazon basin and

Cameroon.

In addition, the UK designed and built the compact high reso-

lution imaging spectrometer (CHRIS) demonstrator, which is

the highest resolution hyperspectral instrument currently flying

and has been operating on the ESA PROBA platform since

October 2001. The CHRIS instrument is now one of ESA’s third-

party missions (data acquisition from external Earth observation

missions) and also supports the Charter. Today, over 80 images

have been supplied ranging from the tsunami to volcanic erup-

tions and earthquakes. The instrument was designed and built

by the Sira Space Group (now part of SSTL), a British private

Review of UK space activities in support of

disaster reduction: an update

Mark Churchyard and Ian Downey for the British National Space Centre