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Activities
Sentinel Asia consists of two kinds of activities. One is
to provide disaster-related information in the Asia-
Pacific region, such as satellite imagery and satellite data
products through a website. The other is a capacity
building project to develop human resources and a
human network to utilize the information provided by
the website.
The main activities of Sentinel Asia are as follows:
• Emergency observation by Earth observation satel-
lites in case of major disasters, via the observation
requests of JPT and ADRC members
• Wildfire monitoring and flood monitoring
• Capacity building for utilization of satellite images
for disaster management.
Current status
Sentinel Asia Step 1 began in October 2006 with the
opening of its website.
2
The JPT consists of 51 organi-
zations from 20 countries and eight international
organizations. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
(JAXA) is a secretariat of the JPT.
Currently, a website dedicated to Sentinel Asia is open
to the public, providing five areas of information and
resources: recent disasters and emergency observation;
hotspot data for wildfire monitoring; accumulated
precipitation data for flood monitoring in cooperation
with the Global Flood Alert System (GFAS); MTSAT
imagery in cooperation with the Japan Meteorological
Agency (JMA), and capacity building.
example, the number of disasters in Asia is 37 per cent of those
across the world, whereas the region has 57 per cent of the global
fatalities associated with such disasters, and victims amount to 89
per cent.
In view of these circumstances, APRSAF proposed a new project
called Sentinel Asia (SA) in 2005, to showcase the value and impact
of Earth observation technologies, combined with near real-time
Internet dissemination methods and Web-GIS mapping tools for
disaster management support in the Asia-Pacific region. The
APRSAF was established in 1993, in response to the declaration
adopted by the Asia-Pacific International Space Year Conference
(APIC) in 1992, to enhance the development of each country’s space
programme and to exchange views toward future cooperation in
space activities in the Asia-Pacific region. APRSAF was originally
designed to provide opportunities for regional space agencies and
associated governmental bodies to exchange technical views, opin-
ions and information on national space programmes and space
resources.
Framework
Sentinel Asia is promoted under cooperation among the space commu-
nity (APRSAF), international community (UN/ESCAP, UN/OOSA,
ASEAN and AIT etc.), disaster reduction community (Asian Disaster
Reduction Center and its member countries) and the digital Asia
community (Keio University etc.). To support the implementation of
the Sentinel Asia project, a joint project team (JPT) was organized.
Membership of the JPT is open to all the APRSAF member countries,
disaster prevention organizations and regional/international organiza-
tions that are prepared to contribute their experience and technical
capabilities and wish to participate in technical aspects of disaster infor-
mation sharing activities.
Observation
More satellites to observe
Observation data archived data
Value-added products
Utilization
Disaster Management Organization
Value added products
Disaster Information
Transmission
(for specific user)
E-mail, Telephone, Fax, Website
WINDS
Disaster Information
Sharing
Website, Web-GIS
Capacity Building
Outreach
Governmental
Organization
(ADRC
members)
Local
Governmental
Organization
User Expansion
NPO
Residents
Concept of Sentinel Asia Step 2, to expand utilization
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