期刊名称:GI_FORUM - Journal for Geographic Information Science
电子版ISSN:2308-1708
出版年度:2015
页码:384-390
DOI:10.1553/giscience2015s384
出版社:ÖAW Verlag, Wien
摘要:The protraction of crises, civil wars, and conflicts cause countless humanitarian disasters,on the level of individuals, families, and society as a whole. Technological innovation,including the optimisation of information flows in crisis situations, is a critical asset in thehumanitarian domain, while the ultimate benchmark of the usefulness of any new ‘gadget’will be its effectiveness on the ground, and the very fact of whether it saves lives in the longrun. Humanitarian aid organizations do play a critical role in this respect; they are the onesto adopt, test, improve, and further develop any new technology, in close collaboration withthose providing it. Over recent years, projects and initiatives have been brought up, whereresearch institutions and humanitarian actors share both technological and practical experiencein mutual exchange. Satellite Earth observation (EO) and Geographical InformationSystems (GIS) were recently adopted by the humanitarian action community to cope withthese challenges, and to close the information gap. The special session EO4Hum focuses onthe potential of EO data and technologies to support humanitarian action in crisis and disasterresponse. Turning satellite data into relevant geospatial information products for humanitarianactors remains a great challenge therein.