From Reality 2010 to Future Vision 2020

1. From Reality 2010 to Future Vision 2020 Ray A. Williamson, rwilliamson@swfound.org Secure World Foundation

2. Outline • Vision 2020—My vision for 10 years hence • Potential impediments • Positive trends • Reality 2010—the reality and promise of spaceborne systems and other technologies • Situational awareness • The wider context • Secure World Foundation

3. Questions to Answer • Where would we like to be in 10 years? • Where could we be? • Are we making effective use of today’s resources? • Are we integrating new technologies and methodologies into practice sufficiently quickly? • Are the supporting institutions moving with the technologies? • What impediments do we face in reaching the vision?

4. 2020 Space and Air Resources • The use of remote sensing (space and air) is a routine and cost-effective means of support to disaster response and recovery • RS data are routinely and quickly georeferenced and analyzed; resultant information delivered to first responders within 24 hours of collection • Satellite telecommunications are used to deliver information to response and recovery teams throughout the recovery process.

5. Vision 2020—Situational Awareness • Response and recovery teams, in turn, use the latest in smart phones and other related devices to deliver information back to coordinating organizations. • This “closes the gap” between space and aircraft and Earthbound response & recovery teams • Updates the situation on the ground quickly with precise small scale geo-referenced data; results to be compared to any new RS data; provides initial ground-truth • Assists in maintaining safety of life, both for afflicted populations and for response and recovery teams

6. Vision 2020 Requirements • Vastly improved use of current and immediate future satellite and aircraft resources • Vastly improved geographical and temporal in-situ situational awareness • Vastly improved international organizational and institutional structures • Standard information formats • Organizations work together smoothly and routinely within and across national and institutional borders

7. The Opportunity Often Falls Short of Reality • Too often the benefits of geospatial data & tools do not reach broadly enough, especially in developing countries • Failures often stem from uncoordinated government policies at different levels of government • Restrictive data policies • More training needed • More scientific, technical education needed • Most important, however, citizens need to become involved in their own future by using tools developed for them and also by them

8. Other Impediments to Progress • Institutional inertia • No clear pipeline for institutionalizing new methods • National security concerns • Some data sources off limits • Profusion of aid groups • Standards for data/information formats, types, etc? • Standard working methodologies? • Customs, immigration barriers

9. Positive Trends • Many more countries and groups becoming familiar with RS methods • Google Earth and Bing have made the information potential of RS data and concepts much more accessible to the average computer user than ever before • More countries are developing their own satellite systems • Many more organizations are using RS methods to address disaster response and recovery issues • Volunteer analysts willing to pitch in with analysis

10. Most RS Satellites Fly in Polar Orbit DMC constellation Credit: SSTL Polar Orbit

11. Available Space Systems • Many more remote sensing resources than ever before • Many operating satellite systems internationally • Electro-optical • Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) (all weather coverage) • Constellations • Improved position, navigation and timing (PNT) systems • GPS • Galileo • GLONASS • Mobile satellite communications

12. Other Important Technologies • Airborne remote sensing • Electro-optical cameras; vertical and side view • SAR (all weather coverage) • Lidar (Detailed surface topography) • Powerful analytic software (proprietary & open source) • Image processing • GIS • Automated change detection • PNT capability embedded in many new mobile technologies • Phones, tablets, cameras

13. Highest Resolution Satellites • GeoEye, U.S. (commercial) • .5-m panchromatic and 1.65-meter multispectral resolution • Digital Globe, U.S. (commercial) • .5-m panchromatic and 1.84-m multispectral resolution • TerraSAR, Germany • Resolution: 1 m, dual-use • Radarsat II, Canada • Resolution: 1 m/ 3 m

14. Constellations • RapidEye, Germany (private) • Five 6.5 m multispectral EO satellites in constellation • Daily imagery across the globe • Cosmo-SkyMed, Italy • Four SAR satellites at maximum 1m resolution • Digital Globe (quasi-constellation) • Three satellites (all different resolutions & other characteristics)

15. Situational Awareness • Response and recovery crews need better situational awareness • Understand where is the greatest need for assistence • Have a clear idea of the dangers they might face, from damaged structures , the environment, and from the local population • Need to be able to communicate that information back to assisting agencies

16. Community Remote Sensing Is… • “a new field that combines remote sensing with citizen science, social networks, and crowd-sourcing to enhance the data obtained from traditional sources. • It includes the collection, calibration, analysis, communication, or application of remotely sensed information by these community means.” • IGARSS brochure for the 2010 IGARSS conference in Hawaii

17. Community Remote Sensing • Satellite remote sensing services tend to be delivered top-down—with experts developing services to meet a perceived need: • CRS works in the other direction—individuals contributing data and adding valuable information to satellite or aerial data • CRS enhances the value of RS data to benefit the community • CRS works by involving the community, whether geographical or disciplinary, in the enhancement of information to benefit the community as a whole

18. Making CRS Work: Smart Phone Application http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4UAO_i1S7Y Courtesy of International Space University students Space Studies Session 2009

19. The Wider Context • Disaster response and recovery fits into a much wider picture than presented here • To achieve the vision presented here will require operational improvements in many areas of human endeavor: natural resource management and protection; pollution reduction and control, etc. • My wider vision is a world where individuals and community groups have routine access to satellite and aerial data and use CRS methods to improve their own quality of life

20. Advertisement Imaging Notes Magazine http://www.imagingnotes.com

21. Secure World Foundation Secure World Foundation (SWF) is a private operating foundation dedicated to the secure and sustainable use of space for the benefit of Earth and all its peoples.

22. What does the Foundation do? • Engages with academics, policy makers, scientists and advocates in the space and international affairs communities to support steps that strengthen global space sustainability.  • Promotes the development of cooperative and effective uses of space for the protection of Earth’s environment and human security.  • Acts as a research body, convener and facilitator to advocate for key space security and other space related topics and to examine their influence on governance and international development.

23. Key Governance Focus Areas • Space sustainability • Protection of continued utility of space resources • Policy development in Emerging Space States • Human & environmental security • Development and disaster assistance • Environmental change • Planetary threats • Mitigating the threat of collision from a Near-Earth Object (NEO) through the establishment of effective international governance for response

24. Questions?

25. Thanks!