Geospatial Technologies in Crisis Response: Analyzing the 2024 Floods in Valencia, Spain

Abstract. Earth observation (EO) satellites provide near real time, comprehensive, synoptic and multi-temporal coverage of inaccessible areas at frequent intervals, which is required support for a quick response and planning of emergency operations. Owing to their merits, satellite images have become an integral part of disaster management and are being extensively used globally for mapping, monitoring and damage assessment of extreme disaster events. During major disaster, information derived from satellite observation is not only highly useful, it may at times be indispensable because of the unfavourable weather conditions, collapse of communication systems and inaccessibility to the area. Satellite images help in identifying the location of the disaster, its severity and the extent. The International Charter "Space and Major Disasters" has been the major sources of satellite data, in times of catastrophic disasters, due to availability of data from large number of sensors (with 15 organisations as signatories), which can be planned with the required temporal frequency and spectral range to cover a disaster event. During last three years, International Charter has been activated regularly, during major disasters in India. Satellite data from different sensors is obtained and was used for improving the frequency of observations, and extracting detailed information. This is used during floods in Assam (2012), floods in Uttarakhand (2013), cyclone Phailin (2013) and floods in Jammu and Kashmir (2014). The present paper discusses the role of International Charter in effective flood disaster management in India during recent past.

Geospatial technology is now a standard part of most forestry and natural resource operations. Geospatial hardware includes global positioning systems (GPS), digital measurement instruments, remote sensing platforms, and other digital devices. Geospatial software includes GIS, image processing, and other spatial analysis tools. Gaining and maintaining competency with technological tools is challenging given that technological advancements are ongoing and new tools and techniques are frequently being developed. The primary provider of forestry and natural resource geospatial education programs in the United States is the higher education system. In this article, we examine the perceived importance of geospatial skills in the workforce and summarize the geospatial course offerings of the top-ranked higher education forestry programs in North America. We also more closely examine how one forestry curriculum and home university provides geospatial technology instruction to undergraduate, professional certificate, and continuing education students. We also identify potential challenges that geospatial education programs may encounter and describe some technological developments that can make teaching activities more efficient for instructors and more accessible for students. We found that geospatial skills are currently in demand and that demand appears likely to increase in the future. In addition, geospatial technology coursework is required by the majority of the top forestry programs, and their associated universities also offer a variety of geospatial technology courses. Like many skills, competence with geospatial technology grows with practice. A logical hierarchy of classes builds with introduction to geospatial technology in the lower division classes with professional applications in the upper division classes.

Sea fog detection (SFD) presents a significant challenge in the field of intelligent Earth observation, particularly in analyzing meteorological satellite imagery. Akin to various vision tasks, ImageNet pre-training is commonly used for pre-training SFD. However, in the context of multi-spectral meteorological satellite imagery, the initial step of deep learning has received limited attention. Recently, pre-training with Very High-Resolution (VHR) satellite imagery has gained increased popularity in remote-sensing vision tasks, showing the potential to replace ImageNet pre-training. However, it is worth noting that the meteorological satellite imagery applied in SFD, despite being an application of computer vision in remote sensing, differs greatly from VHR satellite imagery. To address the limitation of pre-training for SFD, this paper introduces a novel deep-learning paradigm to the meteorological domain driven by Masked Image Modeling (MIM). Our research reveals two key insights: (1) Pre-training with meteorological satellite imagery yields superior SFD performance compared to pre-training with nature imagery and VHR satellite imagery. (2) Incorporating the architectural characteristics of SFD models into a vanilla masked autoencoder (MAE) can augment the effectiveness of meteorological pre-training. To facilitate this research, we curate a pre-training dataset comprising 514,655 temporal multi-spectral meteorological satellite images, covering the Bohai Sea and Yellow Sea regions, which have the most sea fog occurrence. The longitude ranges from 115.00E to 128.75E, and the latitude ranges from 27.60N to 41.35N. Moreover, we introduce SeaMAE, a novel MAE that utilizes a Vision Transformer as the encoder and a convolutional hierarchical decoder, to learn meteorological representations. SeaMAE is pre-trained on this dataset and fine-tuned for SFD, resulting in state-of-the-art performance. For instance, using the ViT-Base as the backbone, SeaMAE pre-training which achieves 64.18% surpasses from-scratch learning, natural imagery pre-training, and VRH satellite imagery pre-training by 5.53%, 2.49%, and 2.21%, respectively, in terms of Intersection over Union of SFD.

Responding to catastrophic natural disasters requires critical information. When lives and everyday activities are interrupted by crises such as earthquakes, landslides, volcanoes, hurricanes, and floods, timely satellite imagery and aerial photographs become invaluable tools in revealing post-disaster conditions and in aiding disaster response and recovery efforts. An international group of satellite data providers manages a cooperative program to provide emergency response satellite data to communities affected by major natural and anthropogenic disasters. The International Charter ‘Space and Major Disasters’ (“Charter”) draws on the capabilities and resources of fifteen space agencies and a number of cooperators to quickly provide imagery and supplemental information for relief efforts in response to major disasters. Repeatedly, the Charter and its resources have provided valuable assets in assisting with global disaster recovery activities.

Cyclonic catastrophes frequently devastate coastal regions of Bangladesh that host around 35 million people which represents two-thirds of the total population. They have caused many problems like agricultural crop loss, forest degradation, damage to built-up areas, river and shoreline changes that are linked to people’s livelihood and ecological biodiversity. There is an absence of a comprehensive assessment of the major cyclonic disasters of Bangladesh that integrates geospatial technologies in a single study. This study aims to integrate geospatial technologies with major disasters and compares them, which has not been tried before. This paper tried to identify impacts that occurred in the coastal region by major catastrophic events at a vast level using different geospatial technologies. It focuses to identify the impacts of major catastrophic events on livelihood and food production as well as compare the impacts and intensity of different disasters. Furthermore, it compared the losses among several districts and for that previous and post-satellite images of disasters that occurred in 1988, 1991, 2007, 2009, 2019 were used. Classification technique like machine learning algorithm was done in pre- to post-disaster images. For quantifying change in the indication of different factors, indices including NDVI, NDWI, NDBI were developed. “Change vector analysis” equation was performed in bands of the images of pre- and post-disaster to identify the magnitude of change. Also, crop production variance was analyzed to detect impacts on crop production. Furthermore, the changes in shallow to deep water were analyzed. There is a notable change in shallow to deep water bodies after each disaster in Satkhira and Bhola district but subtle changes in Khulna and Bagerhat districts. Change vector analysis revealed greater intensity in Bhola in 1988 and Satkhira in 1991. Furthermore, over the years 2007 and 2009 it showed medium and deep intense areas all over the region. A sharp decrease in Aus rice production is witnessed in Barishal in 2007 when cyclone “Sidr” was stricken. The declination of potato production is seen in Khulna district after the 1988 cyclone. A huge change in the land-use classes from classified images like water body, Pasture land in 1988 and water body, forest in 1991 is marked out. Besides, a clear variation in the settlement was observed from the classified images. This study explores the necessity of using more geospatial technologies in disastrous impacts assessment around the world in the context of Bangladesh and, also, emphasizes taking effective, proper and sustainable disaster management and mitigation measures to counter future disastrous impacts.

In a contemporary era transformed by computers and the Internet, geospatial sciences and space technologies will undoubtedly continue to play an increasing role in understanding and preserving archaeological histories. Particularly since the early 1990s, advances in air and spaceborne technologies, image availability, hardware and software have contributed new, substantially more effective means of archaeological research and heritage management. Geospatial technologies have begun to transform many fields, from engineering and environmental studies to health and earth sciences, and they are having similarly broad impacts in archaeology. Applications encouraged by the availability of inexpensive Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers, satellite imagery, and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software, have reached near ubiquity in archaeological field research, yet there are few advanced introductions to space technologies tailored to the needs of archaeologists.KeywordsGlobal Position SystemGlobal Navigation Satellite SystemGlobal Navigation Satellite SystemGeographic Information SystemArchaeological SiteThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

Planning of conservation measures for watershed management and development is the method of preparing and implementing plans in different projects to maintain and raise watershed management functions which otherwise affect the plants, animal and human communities inside watershed boundary. The geospatial technologies like remote sensing and GIS, GPS are useful for fast and cost effective study of different applications with accuracy in planning. It also gives a good quality perspective for understanding the problems and therefore useful for planners for better result for sustainable water resource development and management. The main focus of the study is to develop the land and water resource development plan and environmental management for groundwater recharge development using Geospatial technology in Patur watershed which is situated in Akola district of Maharashtra. In this study various types of thematic maps have been generated from satellite images using remote sensing and GIS technology. These thematic maps were prepared from different types of data sets like IRS- LISS-III multispectral images, SRTM data with 30 m resolution and Survey of India Toposheet. The thematic maps for GIS analysis were created by image processing of the raw data using geospatial technology. A particular importance is laid on the planning of conservation measures for land and water resources management plan mainly based on the land use/ land cover, geology, geomorphology and slope of the Patur watershed area. The planning conservation activity should be important for ecological development and management at the forest area in the Patur watershed. From the final output of these study different conservation measures/structures like recharge wells, farm ponds, CNB, gully plug, CCT and other soil and water conservation structures have been suggested for groundwater recharge development, environmental management and to control soil erosion from the watershed area with reference to remote sensing and GIS data compared with ground truth.

The Sinai Peninsula constitutes an important district of the Egyptian lands where it forms a triangular portion in northeastern Egypt. The southern Sinai metamorphic complexes are the northern uppermost part of the Arabian–Nubian Shield revealing the upper and middle crust from the East African Orogeny, in which they tectonically evolved. The Feiran–Solaf metamorphic complex (FSMC) of Sinai, Egypt is one of the highest grades metamorphic complexes of a series of basement domes that trends NW and crops out throughout the Arabian–Nubian Shield. The main aim of the present study is to apply the geospatial technology and to represent the capability of the geospatial technology to estimate the combined influence of lithology and structure studies, and to construct the lithological and structural maps of FSMC. Furthermore, detailed structural analysis is carried out to reveal the different ductile and brittle deformational events and proposed the tectonic evolutionary model for the study area. Mainly geospatial technology and structural analysis software have been used to go well with the aim of the present study. Developing specific image processing of satellite images and structural analysis were succeeded to discriminate the various lithological rock units, and the geological structural features of the FSMC, using geographic information system tools to construct the different thematic maps, were extracted. The present detailed investigations of the enhanced satellite images, structural analysis, and field verification reveal that the FSMC reached its present tectonic setting through more than four deformational phases concluding that the Pan-African Najd Fault System continued in Sinai and was reactivated during Red Sea tectonics as indicated by the dextral shear zone (Rihba) bordering the northern side of the FSMC.

Within this paper activities of the International Charter ‘Space and Major Disasters’, an international consortium of space agencies and satellite operators are described, and related contributions in terms of rapidly delivered satellite imagery and supporting services are presented. In particular, the role of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) is outlined, which became a member of the International Charter ‘Space and Major Disasters’ in October 2010.

This article reports on the application of satellite-based Earth observation in the management of major natural or man-made disasters, such as earthquakes, floods, forest fires, landslides, or oil spills. Activities of the International Charter ‘Space and Major Disasters’, an international consortium of space agencies and satellite operators are introduced, and related contributions in terms of rapidly delivered satellite imagery and supporting services are illustrated. In particular, the role of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) is outlined, which became a member of the International Charter ‘Space and Major Disasters’ in October 2010.

In the recent past, there have been large emphasis on extraction of geospatial information from satellite imagery. The Geospatial information are being processed through geospatial technologies which are playing important roles in developing of smart cities, particularly in developing countries of the world like India. The study is based on the latest geospatial satellite imagery available for the multi-date, multi-stage, multi-sensor, and multi-resolution. In addition to this, the latest geospatial technologies have been used for digital image processing of remote sensing satellite imagery and the latest geographic information systems as 3-D GeoVisualisation, geospatial digital mapping and geospatial analysis for developing of smart cities in India. The Geospatial information obtained from RS and GPS systems have complex structure involving space, time and presentation. Such information helps in 3-Dimensional digital modelling for smart cities which involves of spatial and non-spatial information integration for geographic visualisation of smart cites in context to the real world. In other words, the geospatial database provides platform for the information visualisation which is also known as geovisualisation. So, as a result there have been an increasing research interest which are being directed to geospatial analysis, digital mapping, geovisualisation, monitoring and developing of smart cities using geospatial technologies. However, the present research has made an attempt for development of cities in real world scenario particulary to help local, regional and state level planners and policy makers to better understand and address issues attributed to cities using the geospatial information from satellite imagery for geovisualisation of Smart Cities in emerging and developing country, India.

Abstract. In the recent past, there have been large emphasis on extraction of geospatial information from satellite imagery. The Geospatial information are being processed through geospatial technologies which are playing important roles in developing of smart cities, particularly in developing countries of the world like India. The study is based on the latest geospatial satellite imagery available for the multi-date, multi-stage, multi-sensor, and multi-resolution. In addition to this, the latest geospatial technologies have been used for digital image processing of remote sensing satellite imagery and the latest geographic information systems as 3-D GeoVisualisation, geospatial digital mapping and geospatial analysis for developing of smart cities in India. The Geospatial information obtained from RS and GPS systems have complex structure involving space, time and presentation. Such information helps in 3-Dimensional digital modelling for smart cities which involves of spatial and non-spatial information integration for geographic visualisation of smart cites in context to the real world. In other words, the geospatial database provides platform for the information visualisation which is also known as geovisualisation. So, as a result there have been an increasing research interest which are being directed to geospatial analysis, digital mapping, geovisualisation, monitoring and developing of smart cities using geospatial technologies. However, the present research has made an attempt for development of cities in real world scenario particulary to help local, regional and state level planners and policy makers to better understand and address issues attributed to cities using the geospatial information from satellite imagery for geovisualisation of Smart Cities in emerging and developing country, India.

In the case of a major disaster, information derived from satellite observation is not only highly useful, it may at times be indispensable because of the damage caused by the disaster to ground infrastructure. The International Charter ‘Space and Major Disasters’ (‘the Charter’) has been one of the primary sources of satellite data for the past 11 years to cover events like floods, fires, tsunamis, ocean storms, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and oil spills. With the growing membership of the Charter, an increasingly large number of sensors are now available, which can be planned with the required temporal frequency and spectral range to cover a disaster event. Some of the type Charter activation cases are reported in this article to demonstrate the innovative use of multi-satellite imagery for disaster response.

Introduction The International Charter on Space and Major Disasters (the Charter) has been signed in October 2000 by CNES, CSA and ESA. Since then, ISRO, NOAA and CONAE have joined the Charter. The objective of this global initiative is to provide free of charge access to space system products to authorities concerned with catastrophic events in the form of data and information products obtained from the various space borne sensors for situations where human life is in danger or when substantial damage on infrastructure or resources are expected. Using guidelines put together by application experts from the various space agencies, the 24-hours-a-day stand-by officer is able to efficiently task the available sensors to obtain the most relevant data in the shortest delays. The Charter is the first multi-agency, multi-mission, multisensor operational service available to the international community. The members participate on a voluntary basis with no exchange of funds. The interoperability of the tasking system has proven its efficiency. As of March 1, 2004, the Charter has been Charter team. The Charter web site provides more details on its functions and operations [1]. Charter Operation The operation flow chart of the Charter is presented on Figure 1. To activate the Charter, an Authorized User needs to prepare a User Request Form providing details on the event. This request is received by the On-Duty Operator (the ODO), located in ESA's offices in Frascati, Italy. The ODO then contacts the Emergency On-Call Officer (the ECO) who is a representative of one of the Participating Agencies. The ECO 24-hour a day support task rotates from one agency to the other on a weekly basis. The ECO has a thorough knowledge of the technology made available by the Participating Agencies and of the requirements for the various classes of disasters. The ECO then has to task the appropriate sensors according to the type of events in the shortest delays. Meanwhile, the Executive Secretariat of the Charter has to look for a Project Manager (PM) who is an expert knowledgeable of the area and of the type of emergency and who can take over the project until its conclusion. Once the PM is confirmed, the ECO passes over the Dossier and the responsibilities of the project. The PM has to interact with the

The International Charter 'Space and Major Disasters' is an initiative on the part of the European, French, Canadian and Indian space agencies as well as the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to pool together their space and ground resources in response to natural and technological disasters. Since the start of the Charter operations on November 1, 2000, it has been invoked several times to cover such events as a landslide in Slovenia, earthquakes (and resulting landslides) in El Salvador and India; oil spills off the coasts of Galapagos, Lebanon and Denmark; flooding in France, Germany, eastern Siberia and Indonesia; and volcanic eruptions in Italy and Congo. In all these cases, multi-satellite data and products were delivered to users to assist them in their relief efforts. The following is an account of the Charter operational procedure and brief descriptions of the various disasters for which satellite data was requested under the Charter.