In one of our first sessions, we had to pick a satellite photo and present it in class. I picked an area damaged by flooding of a tsunami, which woke my interest in the natural hazards in the field of remote sensing. Since there are so many natural disasters, it was difficult to pick one. Luckily, I found a table that gives a great overview of the hazards and what remote sensing has to offer.
Table 1: Ways remote sensing can help disaster management (Lewis, 2009)
| Disaster | Mitigation | Preparedness | Response | Recovery |
| Cyclone | Risk modelling; vulnerability analysis | Early warning; long-range climate modelling. | Identifying escape routes; crisis mapping; impact assessment; cyclone monitoring; storm surge predictions. | Damage assessment; spatial planning. |
| Earthquake | Building stock assessment; hazard mapping | Measuring strain accumulation. | Planning routes for search and rescue; damage assessment; evacuation planning; deformation mapping. | Damage assessment; identifying sites for rehabilitation |
| Fire | Mapping fire-prone areas; monitoring fuel load; risk modelling. | Fire detection; predicting spread/direction of fire; early warning. | Coordinating fire-fighting efforts | Damage assessment |
| Flood | Mapping flood-prone areas; delineating flood-plains; land-use mapping. | Flood detection; early warning; rainfall mapping. | Flood mapping; evacuation planning; damage assessment. | Damage assessment; spatial planning. |
| landslide | Risk modelling; hazard mapping; digital elevation models. | Monitoring rainfall and slope stability. | Mapping affected areas; | Damage assessment; spatial planning; suggesting management practices. |
| Volcano | Risk modelling; hazard mapping; digital elevation models. | Emissions monitoring; thermal alerts. | Mapping lava flows; evacuation planning. | Damage assessment; spatial planning. |
| Drought | Risk modelling; vulnerability analysis; land and water management planning. | Weather forecasting; vegetation monitoring; crop water requirement mapping; early warning. | Monitoring vegetation; damage assessment. | Informing drought mitigation. |
The table is split into four different parts of a so-called disaster cycle. Mitigation shows the long-term efforts of preventing hazards, preparedness presents the planning, response shows the immediate plans afterwards and recovery is the final step of restoring the destroyed area.
Some satellites even carry tools, which can be very useful for disaster management. Some thermal sensors are able to detect fire, infrared sensors can detect flooding and microwave sensors on the other hand are able to measure the changes of earth before and during volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. It is possible to see how incredibly much remote sensing has to offer regarding this topic. Without Remote Sensing, many people would suffer more intense from the hazards (Lewis, 2009).
Source:
Lewis, S. (2009) Remote Sensing for natural disasters: Facts and Figures. SciDevNet (available at https://www.scidev.net/global/earth-science/feature/remote-sensing-for-natural-disasters-facts-and-figures.html?__cf_chl_jschl_tk__=fec36c0d388a01a965f3adb4a21e3b91e5a2c2f5-1579137782-0-ASjDnL0EQlGsITqOymfqhxZFUAYzH_XYgqL3Rn7pznUfWWDQii7In48LWZravrH8zBeiJKKDnX216oH8odok293TwkibgGjqaajfTgCNei1oRke_Hehsv72mM1JA847Rc2EpDQjy7r1SRiXiG62FUASZW2paqWDgwDi_djH04Y13lkU-8yhagrG4RCPclQblYbp2ns5N1rXmq5YRczSkK9zb3YU5vTCrSkJViqVaZui13-jyWHVsfBwBLUii43qx5DHwZbM1njiDiy3zPbEb-OjP1E4dj5GDBuvGP03Jhz1BcyYV74hvqC0ozFh5gEWlVlGxppjkZdJuRkdNVZHq4vHTcZxqzqPIE7J1cIP8TdRwTFtv0Q9vxfRyeLw_SoeqiA)
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