Earth Observation for Emergency Response and the International Charter on Space and Major Disasters. Case studies of the 2016 Alberta wildfires and 2017 Québec flooding Simon Tolszczuk-Leclerc 1, Brad Lehrbass 1, Vincent Decker 1 and Christine Giguère 2 1) Canada Centre for Mapping and Earth Observation, Natural Resources Canada 560 Rochester St., Ottawa, ON, Canada simon.tolszczuk-leclerc@canada.ca, brad.lehrbass@canada.ca, vincent.decker@canada.ca 2) Canadian Space Agency John H. Chapman Space Center, Saint-Hubert, Qc, Canada christine.giguere@canada.ca
The International Charter executes priority tasking of different EO missions in a rapid fashion; it is designed to address requests concerning major disasters caused by: Natural events Fires Floods Ice jams Landslides Tsunamis Ocean storms Volcanic eruptions Man-made events Earthquakes Oil spills Industrial accidents
Charter Members CSA Canada NOAA USGS USA ABAE Venezuela UKSA/DMC UK INPE Brazil CNES France DLR Germany ESA EUMETSAT Europe ROSCOSMOS Russia ISRO India CNSA China KARI Korea JAXA Japan CONAE Argentina
4 Emergency Geomatics Services Is a Value Added Service Provider for the Government of Canada for Charter Activations Receives the Charter datasets Generates and distribute value added products Part of Canada Centre for Mapping and Earth Observation, Natural Resources Canada Responds to emergency activations from the Government Operations Centre: An all-hazards integrated federal emergency response to events of national concern. Emergency mapping and monitoring of critical infrastructure
2016 Fort McMurray Wildfires: A Quickly Escalating Emergency 5 May 1, fire spotted: 2 hectares Two hours later: 60 hectares May 3: 2,600 hectares May 31: > 500,000 hectares Final burned area: 589,552 hectares Prince Edward Island: 570,000 hectares
International Response 6 NASA provided a value added product labelling active fires and burned areas (LANDSAT8, May 3)
International Response 7 RosCosmos provided a value added product labelling active fires and burned areas (Resurs-P, May 6)
8 International Response Tomnod campaign by DigitalGlobe, May 6 to 9 Crowd-sourced image interpretation for damaged buildings Images from WorldView-2 WorldView-3, and GeoEye-1 acquired May 4 and 5
9 International Response CNES/Airbus SPOT-7, May 6 Value added product showing damaged buildings and affected areas from TomNod Filtered by number of users in agreement and visual interpretation of ancillary data Smoke-free optical images were a challenge!
10 NRCan s Response Most products available to emergency services as Web Mapping Service and webmap Interactive tools provide multiple ways of understanding the data
11 NRCan s Response Earth Observation satellite provided timely situational awareness Helped decision makers understand the fire progression over time Enabling data driven decision making Energy Supply Disruption Emergency Infrastructure First Nations Reserves
2017 Flood Season Distribution of 377 RADARSAT-2 Acquisitions
Québec Flooding: Charter Data Timeline
Rigaud Flooding 14
Gatineau Flooding 1101 people evacuated Canadian army mobilised 900 Gatineau municipal employees and 1200 volunteers sandbagging 2 day shut down of federal and provincial offices
National Aerial Surveillance Program May 7 16, 2017 Transport Canada aerial surveillance aircraft were tasked to capture flood images along waterfronts stretching from Quebec City to Pembroke to Oshawa. Four flight zones were defined, with flights rotating through each of those zones over the 10 day period. Images were captured at a frequency of once every 5 seconds during flights. A total of nearly 14,000 photographs were taken during the period. 4
Online Interactive Maps for Aerial Photos
Crowdsourced Geographic Information Real time field observations Mapping validation Emergency response
Crowdsourced Geographic Information Real time field observation Mapping validation Emergency response
Maximum Flood Extent Map Flood extent for damage assessement https://www.emergencypreparedness.caltech.edu/about
Timely situational awareness Data driven decision making Great example of international cooperation For further information on our emergency mapping services: nrcan.egs-sgu.rncan@canada.ca
Charter Activation Process EMERGENCY ON-CALL OFFICER (ECO) ON-DUTY OPERATOR (ODO) MEMBER AGENCY MISSION PLANNING AUTHORIZED USER (AU) PROJECT MANAGER (PM) VALUE-ADDED PROVIDER (VAP) EGS DISASTER END USER (EU)
25 NRCan s Response Integrating web map service layers from other federal departments Hotspot detection from thermal sensors and fire perimeter estimation by Canadian Forest Service Wind direction from Environment Canada Maps created twice daily