Earth Observation for SOS Children’s Villages: Deployment of cutting-edge technology to support a humanitarian NGO in emergency

Abstract

More than 1.5 million children and their families in over 130 countries around the world are currently receiving support from the humanitarian relief organisation SOS Children's Villages International. The Department of Geo-Risks and Civil Security at the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) has been supporting the organisation in the use of Earth Observation technology in order to develop a comprehensive emergency and disaster management concept. The study focused on disaster preparedness and early warning, emergency mapping, and humanitarian technologies as a whole. Pre-operational emergency mapping services, as well as automated services for satellite-based fire and flood information, were developed and tested. Our use case concentrates on the emergency mapping activation for tropical cyclone DINEO, which destroyed one SOS children’s village in Mozambique in February 2017, and the related satellite-derived damage assessment.