UNOSAT Report on Rapid Mapping Activities 2012

February 2013

Overview of Rapid Mapping activities in 2012 The year 2012 saw an increase in requests and deliveries of UNOSAT Rapid Mapping services. A total of 35 events were supported by UNOSAT, primarily on requests from UN OCHA, UNHCR, UNICEF and the OHCHR. This is an increase of 25% from 2011 and illustrates both the high demand for UNOSAT services as well as the full integration of this type of knowledge in decision-making processes by humanitarian and human security actors. Figure 1 below shows the number of rapid mapping activities by year since start of the service in 2003. Table 1 shows a list of all activations in 2012, the type of disaster and the month the event was triggered for rapid mapping support.

Figure 1: Number of rapid mapping activities by year

With the numerous complex emergencies during 2012, UNOSAT saw an increase in requests for support to this type of disasters. This often includes monitoring the situation over time and thus requires additional support from UNOSAT compared to a typical sudden onset natural disaster. The evolution of IDP situations and assessments during conflict situations are examples of this. However, natural disasters still represents significant activities at UNOSAT – in particular flood events, which often includes a monitoring over time component. The capacity of providing frequent imagery analysis updates as situations unfold has become one of the key features of UNOSAT rapid mapping and shows that the service is fully operational and predictable. See Figure 2 for percentage breakdown of rapid mapping disaster type events supported in 2012.

UNOSAT has in 2012 made available maps, reports and GIS-ready data for sister agencies, Member States, Red Cross famility, international organizations and NGOs. See Figure 3 for percentage breakdown of requesting entities. OCHA and UNHCR are the entities requesting and benefiting the most from the rapid mapping service. The service is in high demand and much appreciated by humanitarian actors, both at field level and among senior management at headquarters. Products are fed into the cluster system, where in particular collaboration with the shelter cluster in the REACH web-based information

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management system is a cornerstone. This service is implemented in collaboration with the NGOs Acted and Impact Initiatives. UNOSAT coordinates rapid mapping via the Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System (GDACS) and facilitates event-based horizontal coordination and information sharing with the GDACS Satellite Mapping Coordination System (SMCS).

UNOSAT continues to benefit from satellite imagery support via the Space Charter as well as in-kind contributions from the US Department of State. Additional imagery is obtained via free open sources as well as from commercial vendors. The latter is particularly relevant when detailed images are required.

Table 1: List of rapid mapping activities in 2012

Country/region Disaster type Month Ethiopia Complex emergency 1 Libya Complex emergency 1 Somalia Complex emergency 2 Syria Complex emergency 2 Madagascar Storms 2 Kenya Fires 2 Sudan Complex emergency 2 Congo (Republic of) Technical/Chemical 3 Turkey Complex emergency 3 Mali Complex emergency 4 Pakistan Avalanche 4 Somalia Complex emergency 5 Syria Complex emergency 6 Peru Floods 6 Somalia Complex emergency 7 Senegal Floods 8 Algeria Fires 8 Somalia Complex emergency 8 Jordan Complex emergency 9 Pakistan Floods 9 South Sudan Floods 9 United Kingdom Exercise 9 Nigeria Floods 10 Chad Floods 10 Ivory Coast Complex emergency 10 Kenya Complex emergency 10 Syria Complex emergency 11 South Sudan Complex emergency 11 DRC Complex emergency 11 Somalia Complex emergency 11 Niger Floods 12 Philippines Storms 12 Samoa Storms 12 Fiji Storms 12 Syria Complex emergency 12

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Figure 2: Percentage breakdown by disaster type for rapid mapping activations in 2012

Figure 3: Percentage breakdown by entity requesting rapid mapping in 2012. Note: Only first requestor is featured here. Events often have multiple agencies requesting support.

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Examples from selected activations The 35 events covered in 2012 cannot all be described in detail here. However, in order to illustrate the variety of thematics and geographic distribution of events, some example products are provided below:

• Complex emergency in Syria

• Ammunition depot explosion in Republic of the Congo

• Complex emergency in Somalia

• Fires in Algeria

• Floods in Chad

These events are also good examples of the general trend towards diversifying delivery methods and constant push for increased efficiency of the service.

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The above satellite image derived damage assessment for Aleppo was carried out based on numerous requests from the humanitarian community. It is an example of the value of satellite image analysis as often the only objective source of information over no-access areas for humanitarian actors.

Following a forceful ammunition depot explosion in Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo, the UN Disaster Assessment and Coordination Team (UNDAC) as well as other humanitarian actors were deployed to assist the government with damage assessments and coordination. UNOSAT supported this effort through satellite image analysis. The above map was one of the products produced showing destroyed houses in red. This information was also provided as a web-map and GIS ready data shared with numerous NGOs and sister agencies.

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This update of the IDP situation in Mogadishu was done upon request from UNHCR. It is part of a longer report produced by UNOSAT including statistics and full city overview. The information also fed into the

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REACH service for the shelter cluster and again illustrates how UNOSAT provides up-to-date information in areas that can be difficult to access due to field staff security concerns.

Wildfires endured for several weeks in Algeria during the summer of 2012. UNOSAT supported the Government of Algeria with satellite image derived updates and comprehensive reports, like the above, including spatial distribution of events as well as statistics.

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Chad and Cameroon saw large scales floods in 2012 and UNOSAT was called by UNICEF to map the situation. UNOSAT has a long-term project in Chad and staff on the ground in N’Djamena. This further facilitated the update of UNOSAT products among the humanitarian community and was highly appreciated also by the UN Recident Representative / Humanitarian Coordinator.

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Outreach Awareness raising about UNOSAT rapid mapping is close to a daily undertaking. Numerous visitors, including ambassadors and ministers visited UNOSAT’s office at CERN in 2012 and received detailed presentations of the activities.

In addition, UNOSAT and Esri organized the GIS4UN event, gathering over 200 humanitarian and development professionals gathered in Geneva at WMO’s offices to learn of the latest developments in GIS for global challenges, including in natural disasters and emergencies. The conference keynote address was delivered by US Ambassador King.

UNOSAT and the City of Bergen in Norway arranged an international symposium on the Interplay between climate change, development and human rights. A core feature of this was the use of satellite imagery and data sharing among a wide range of actors at the local level.

UNOSAT’s capacity was for the second time invited to present at the international symposium on earth observation business in Paris, thus being able to discuss requirements by the humanitarian community directly with the private sector and satellite owners to further improve the rapid mapping service.

In collaboration with the Government of Poland, UNOSAT presented its rapid mapping service to 20 EU member states in Geneva, an event that was much appreciated by decision makers and new EU member states. Numerous presentations were provide to the Inter Agency Standing Committee (IASC) and Red Cross Family.

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Trends The main trend in 2012 is that of a strong increase in demand and support to complex emergencies. The long-duration Somalia IDP situation and conflict in Syria with related refugee flows into neighbouring countries are examples of this. UNOSAT has increased its support to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), as well as the Human Rights Council and its Commissions of Inquiry. This is a spin-off of the more traditional humanitarian rapid mapping service and an activity that will need to be further strengthened financially as the demand is considerable. It should be noted that need for UNOSAT assistance during natural disasters remain very high as it was in 2011.

The trend of sharing satellite image derived GIS data, such as flood extents and damage assessments for inclusion in sister agencies’ mapping efforts has seen much interest and will continue in 2013. The value of this is that UNOSAT products are integrated with agency specific data, for example hospital locations with WHO or school locations with UNICEF, for rapid thematic assessments by respective sister agencies supporting their core mandates. Such strong synergies contribute to cost efficiency as well as timely and accountable information for informed decision making.

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Quotes from beneficiaries of 2012 rapid mapping service To illustrate the diverse user base and feedback from the UNOSAT community, a small selection of feedback received in 2012 is provided below

“I wish to thank you for sending me links to UNOSAT production web page regularly. The products are of high quality and are very useful for us. The latest application about Syria Uprising is amazing.” Ales Florjanc, Senior advisor, Government of Slovenia

“Thanks for all the efforts for Lebanon. This will be tremendously useful for [us] in [our] response efforts. » Guillaume Simonian, Information manager, UNICEF

“First of all, thank you for your continuous flow of information with excellent products. I was a big fan of your agency's PDF products and now, with this viewer you are providing a very valuable interactive tool. Flex technology, ESRI Backgrounds and Time-Slider are all excellent choices in terms of using the industry standards. Viewer is fast, informative and has enough span to cover neighboring areas of interest. Hopefully your team will continue to expand the coverage other events in the neighboring countries..” Burhan Girgin, GIS Manager, US Government

Satellite imagery used in this report were provided by DigitalGlobe and GeoEye, unless otherwise stated. All image analysis was carried out by UNOSAT.

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