Immediate surveillance & damage assessment following natural disasters

2004 - 2010

Funder: Foundation for Research, Science and Technology
Contact: Phil Glassey

This programme addresses the need for reliable and robust delivery of intelligence during and following natural disasters.

This programme aims to:

• provide a prototype system to enable near real-time, reliable, and robust delivery of intelligence during and following natural disasters.
• design an infrastructure to enable an immediate observational response capability during and following natural disasters in New Zealand - via acquisition, georeferencing and interrogation of remotely sensed data, and conversion into an intelligence product which is delivered to emergency management as quickly as possible.

We will identify the infrastructure necessary to deliver near real-time intelligence derived from aerial and satellite data to central government, MCDEM, and local and regional emergency management groups via standard geographical information systems (GIS).

Programme Objectives

1. Processing, interpretation and intelligence. This objective aims to identify the most appropriate data types and processing techniques for mapping and monitoring the effects of natural hazards.
2. Airborne and satellite data acquisition. Here we are acquiring imagery for the purposes of creating a baseline database for comparative purposes with imagery acquired post hazard event
3. GIS integration and data delivery. The final stage of this project addresses the integration of remote sensing with other spatial data sets and looks at techniques to effectively provide hazards based information products.

For more information on mapping and monitoring the extent of natural hazards, download our remote sensing flier (pdf).