Risk Wise

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Sentinel Asia – the next step

Kazuya Kaku, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency

he Sentinel Asia (SA) initiative is a collaboration between

space agencies and disaster management agencies, apply-

ing remote sensing and Web-GIS technologies to assist

disaster management in the Asia-Pacific region. It aims to:

• Improve safety in society by ICT and space technology

• Improve speed and accuracy of disaster preparedness and early

warning

• Minimize the number of victims and social/economic losses.

SA is a voluntary initiative led by the Asia-Pacific Regional Space

Agency Forum (APRSAF) to share disaster information in near-real

time across the Asia-Pacific region, using primarily the Digital Asia

(Web-GIS) platform. Its architecture is designed to operate initially

as an Internet-based, node-distributed information distribution back-

bone, eventually distributing relevant satellite and in situ spatial

information on multiple hazards in the Asia-Pacific region.

A step-by-step approach for implementation of this dissemination

system was adopted as follows:

Step 1 – Implementation of the backbone Sentinel

Asia data dissemination system as a pilot project, to

showcase the value and impact of the technology using

standard Internet dissemination systems (2006-2007)

Step 2 – Expansion of the dissemination backbone

with new satellite communication systems (2008-2012)

Step 3 – Establishment of a comprehensive disaster

management support system (2013 onwards).

SA Step 1 has achieved its overall goals. The Sentinel

Asia website has operated since October 2006. It has

served as a good demonstrator project, to share disas-

ter-related information obtained by several Earth

observation satellites such as Advanced Land Observing

Satellite (ALOS), Indian Remote Sensing satellites (IRS),

Multi-functional Transport Satellite 1R (MTSAT-1R),

Terra and Aqua. It also demonstrates recent advances in

web-mapping technologies and ICT systems.

Sentinel Asia website

Sentinel Asia provides disaster-related information such as satellite imagery and satellite data products through its website

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