The technology advantage: how UNOSAT Humanitarian Rapid Mapping Service has become a UN standard in less than 10 years

Seen from 2012, this evolution seems all too natural, but bringing satellite applications down to the ground, closer to where they would make a tangible difference in the work of humanitarian personnel, was a relentless job in itself and one for which no precedent had been set, no example to follow was available. When UNOSAT maps started to be disseminated on the internet so that field staff could access them as soon as they were finalised in Geneva, it became obvious that the relationship with users was going to be of vital importance. On one side the UNOSAT centre at CERN, with imagery analysts and geo-database engineers working their night shifts to produce information as disasters unfolded; on the other side, in the field, OCHA and other UN colleagues, NGO staff and volunteers, national authorities and the civil protection, sending feedback, additional information, new requests. Making sense of such a varied group and finding, each time in a different crisis context, a way to work together as one team has been the biggest success of the humanitarian rapid mapping service. When positive feedback started to flow in, it was like in the e-mail from a US Red Cross staff who said: “This data is fantastic, it’s precisely what we were looking for. We can’t thank you enough for your timely response and accurate data.”

 

No wonder that after the first 3 experimental tests in 2003, the “activations” of this new service grew each year, reaching a stunning 47 by 2007. The financial support of farsighted donors made this possible. Without this support the UNOSAT team could not have realized the leap from high-quality products to reliable service. Frequently, UNOSAT relies on satellite images that must be bought from commercial resellers. Depending on the type and urgency, its cost may vary from hundreds to several thousand dollars. Monitoring campaigns require multi-month planning and resources in the tens of thousands of dollars. The support UNITAR receive from donors guarantees that the UNOSAT support service comes at no cost to the end user, the international humanitarian community. Behind this support lies also a general interest in making humanitarian assistance more effective and decision making more reliant on objective information. At the same time, the integration of hedge technology into the work of the UN is an additional benefit.

 

Since the first years of the UNOSAT rapid mapping service, several other international initiatives spearheaded by various space agencies and the European Space Agency (ESA) in particular, have contributed to raising awareness of the societal benefits of space technology and satellite applications in particular. This scientific promotion and the research launched by ESA and the European Commission with various projects have created an international environment more conducive to democratising the use of satellite derived mapping in various areas, not only in emergency response. In 2003 the International Charter Space and Major Disasters opened its doors to the UN system, making it possible for UNOSAT to access free data from a wide range of satellites owned by the Agencies part of this new mechanism established in 2000. Yet what changed the reputation of satellite applications in the minds of the general public and also decision makers in the UN and in donor countries was the appearance of Google Earth. The “Google effect” literally opened the eyes of millions to the incredible potential and detail of satellite imagery. Still today UNOSAT experts have to stress the difference between image and imagery analysis, between what one can see in a photo taken from space and the information generated by expert analysis and time series. 

 

Nearly each week a new natural disaster causes humanitarian consequences to which the UN is called to respond. Complex emergencies and conflicts require impact assessment and humanitarian coordination over period of months. Areas of difficult and dangerous access for the UN become populated with displaced or threatened groups that UN agencies try to estimate and reach. Unforeseen situations arise on which the UN needs objective and rapid information. The information to support these processes has to be reliable and verified and here lies also the importance of having within the UN a specialised centre like UNOSAT accountable to the values and mission of the United Nations. At the height of the Libya crisis, when no UN agency had access to the country and those in need of relief trapped within its borders, a WFP Officer wrote to his colleagues “Do you guys get these emails from UNITAR? They have a load of sat maps on their website for Benghazi and Tripoli town, and also for the border crossings in Tunisia and Egypt. We should use the town maps for Benghazi and Tripoli as base layers to plot logs info on when we eventually get in there.”

In almost ten years of activity the Humanitarian Rapid Mapping Service of UNOSAT has become a standard and a reference for groups of researchers well beyond the UN system. UNOSAT has shared its vector layers, the product of its analysts and cartographers, with all UN agencies and as publicly as possible, reaching out to member states of the UN. The Programme has a learning and capacity development function that has taught UNOSAT rapid mapping methodology for years to hundreds of experts in tens of countries as well as to the students of the Master of Disaster Management of the Universities of Copenhagen and Lund. One of the 2012 students said: “I came with nothing on GIS and I am leaving with a lot to take home and share”. Another, talking of the experience of spending three weeks of intensive training at UNOSAT, said: “Now even when I look outside a plane window, I see the world differently”.

 

All UNOSAT achievements have one element in common: it is the use of innovation and technology by expert staff in a mix prepared with the sole intent of solving practical problems and providing a missing piece of information that is needed by UN colleagues at headquarters and in the field so that they can do better what is expected from them. This process was first applied to the rapid mapping in support to humanitarian relief and coordination and has since proven effective throughout years of operational work and across the entire spectrum of emergency situations that the UN is confronted to. This is not to forget that emergencies and disasters occur in member states and that helping countries in emergency and developing capacity where needed is of paramount importance. In several instances UNOSAT experts have received tangible positive feedback from government officials. During the important floods that affected Pakistan in 2011, for example, one Officer involved in the response sent this message: “We in Pakistan greatly appreciate the maps being posted by UNOSAT. These are being used by many for planning relief activities and to assist the effected people. Please keep up the noble work which you are doing and be blessed by the prayers of the sufferers."

 

The result has been simply that the outcome meets the expectations of the UN user: as one officer with the UN Department of Safety and Security put it: “Most useful. Thank you very much for developing this”. Today this methodology is at the core of a professional workflow that is gradually being applied to additional areas of the UN mandate, including human security and human rights. Here too the help of farsighted supporting member states can make the difference and guarantee that the UN can perform at its best and benefit from technology and innovation in facing the challenges of the 21 century also by using 21 century tools. 

 

 

IMAGES (all UNITAR/UNOSAT)

 

Image 1: The evolution of the number of activations of UNOSAT Rapid Mapping Service since 2003

Image 2: Activations of the service by requesting agency

Image 3: Example of emergency flood mapping based on time series analysis