As an immediate response to the devastating earthquake that hit Haiti on 12 January this year, the International Charter on 'space and Major Disasters" was activated. Among the various satellites that provided high resolution imagery through the Charter, GMES produced reference and assessment maps generated from optical satellite images. This was done through the SAFER emergency response and G-MOSAIC security projects, while the Joint Research Centre (JRC) was coordinating the response from the EU, by issuing early warning alerts and delivering updated situation maps.
Following the devastating 7.0-magnitude earthquake that hit Haiti on 12 January this year, the international community has joined its efforts for the rescue of the local population. In the case of such a powerful earthquake, Earth Observation (EO) satellite images can help the work of the rescue teams on the ground by providing updated views of how the landscape and the infrastructure have been affected. In the immediate aftermath of the earthquake, satellite data of the area were requested from the International Charter on 'space and Major Disasters", which aims at providing satellite data free of charge to those affected by disasters anywhere in the world.
Thus, very high resolution imagery was needed as quickly as possible, from various satellites with both optical and radar sensors, in order to meet the requirements of the rescue teams on the ground. Imagery acquired immediately after the event was used to generate emergency maps for an overview of the current state of the area, while the situation maps generated from archived satellite data could identify major changes on the ground caused by the disaster.
GMES was collaborating with the Charter to produce damage maps, generated from optical satellite images, for the use of international actors such as UNUOOSA, WFP, and the German and French Civil Protection authorities which were engaged on the ground. GMES produced maps of the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince as well as of surrounding urban areas through the SAFER emergency response and G-MOSAIC security projects. The maps showed heavy damage in south and central parts of the capital and gave at the same time an overview of the spontaneous gathering areas. Moreover, GMES maps identified damaged schools, medical centres and administrative buildings, and provided an overview and assessment of the state of larger infrastructure such as roads, bridges, ports and airports. Furthermore, GMES maps showed the epicentre of the earthquake and estimates of ground movements.
In the framework of the SAFER project, the first space-maps derived from crisis data acquired on 13 January were produced by SERTIT (a remote sensing and image processing service in Strasbourg, France) within 24 hours, using CNES's SPOT 5 satellite. These were rapid situation maps used to help locate damaged areas with up-to-date cartographic material. The German Aerospace Centre's (DLR) centre for satellite-based crisis information (ZKI) was also working on the provision of such maps using particularly data acquired by the TerraSAR-X satellite.
In the framework of the G-MOSAIC project, e-GEOS (Telespazio/Italian Space Agency company) was providing maps of road conditions in the Haitian areas of Jacmel and Léogâne, the earthquake's epicentre.
The Joint Research Centre (JRC) was supporting the European Commission's services in coordinating a response from the EU, by issuing early warning alerts and delivering updated situation maps. The Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System (GDACS), providing near real-time alerts about natural disasters and tools to facilitate response coordination, detected the first shock after 18 minutes and issued a red alert to 8500 users, mainly aid and first response organisations.
More information at:
http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/newsroom/cf/itemlongdetail.cfm?item_id=3994&tpa_id=141&lang=enhttp://www.dlr.de/en/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-1/86_read-22076/
http://www.gmes.info/pages-principales/projects/emergency-projects/gmes-services-for-haiti/
http://www.esa.int/esaLP/SEM5G7MJ74G_LPgmes_0.html