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Sentinel Asia: supporting disaster
management in the Asia-Pacific region
Mr Hideshi Kozawa and Mr Kazuya Kaku, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
T
he Sentinel Asia initiative is a new kind of collaboration
between space agencies and disaster management agen-
cies, applying remote sensing and Web-GIS technologies to
assist disaster management in the Asia-Pacific region. Its aims
are:
• To improve safety in society using ICT and space technology
• To improve the speed and accuracy of disaster preparedness
and early warning
• To minimize victims and social/economic losses.
Sentinel Asia 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 backbone, 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 has been adopted as follows:
Step 1
: Implementation of the backbone Sentinel Asia
data dissemination system as a pilot project, to show-
case the value and impact of the technology using
standard Internet dissemination systems (February
2006–December 2007)
Step 2
: Expansion of the dissemination backbone with
new satellite communication systems (2008 and onwards)
Step 3
: Establishment of a comprehensive disaster manage-
ment support system.
According to statistics, the Asia region has been seri-
ously damaged by natural disasters, compounded by its
high levels of population (close to three billion).
1
For
Joint Project Team (JPT)
Join Project Team consists of total 59
organizations including 51 agencies
from 20 countries and
8 international organizations
as of September 2007
Sentinel Asia
Space Community
APRSAF*
Satellite Image
Promotion of Utilization
Capacity Building
Digital Earth
Web-GIS Community
DIGITAL ASIA
Web-GIS Data/Meta Data Management
Digital Map;
Social/Economic Data
Satellite Image
Content
Disaster
Reduction Community
ADRC**
Member Countries
Disaster Information
Content
Utilization (User)
International
Community
International Cooperation
UN/ESCAP UN/OOSA
ASEAN AIT etc
*Asian-Pacific Regional Space Agency Forum
**Asian Disaster Reduction Center
Framework of Sentinel Asia Step 1
S
OCIETAL
B
ENEFIT
A
REAS
– D
ISASTERS