Saving Lives, One Pixel at a Time: End Users Share Their Stories
When torrential rains from hurricanes or cyclones flood cities and crops, first responders spring into action. Emergency planners gather food and water and determine where people can take shelter. Aircraft and watercraft are prepared to rescue those who are stranded.
Unfortunately, flooding swiftly reshapes landscapes. Roads are under water. Bridges are washed out, and soil saturated with water poses the danger of landslides. Electricity and communications infrastructure are often wiped out. How can emergency agencies know where it is safe to send rescue teams or to route precious supplies?
The International Charter: Space and Major Disasters was created for moments like these. The Charter supports emergency response agencies in the midst of disaster by collecting available Earth observing satellite data and mapping the aftermath as soon as possible.
Simply put, the assistance provided by the Charter helps save lives—not just during an event but in the critical days and weeks of recovery and damage assessment. The disaster response agencies that use the data often express gratitude for the Charter’s help.
For example, after the Charter was activated for Cyclone Chido in Mayotte, COGIC (Centre Opérationnel de Gestion Interministérielle des Crises), the French Interministerial Crisis Management Operational Center, expressed: "Many thanks and congratulations for the work you’ve done, which has enabled a large number of departments in mainland France and on the ground to work on the damage caused by the cyclone."
Now that the International Charter: Space and Major Disasters has been in operation for 25 years, the flow of usable satellite imagery has become increasingly smooth, from data contributors to end users. Countries and organizations continue to find better ways to get information to those who need it most.
From Activation to End User
The Charter activation after Cyclone Chido is a textbook example of how the process works. Mayotte is an overseas territory of France nestled between the northern tip of Madagascar and Mozambique on mainland Africa.
With a few days’ warning ahead of the storm, COGIC had already started sending aid in the form of supplies and personnel before Chido made landfall on December 14, 2024. The storm’s 200+-kilometer winds and torrential rains blasted the densely populated islands of Mayotte, flattening buildings and obstructing roads. A few days later, COGIC, as an authorized user, activated the Charter, and Mathias Studer of SERTIT was named as project manager. (Learn more about activating the Charter and about project managers.)
Almost immediately, data started flowing in from commercial contributors such as BlackSky, Maxar and Planet as well as from satellites operated by government agencies in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, the European Union, France, India and the United States. Value adders, including companies like Diginove, Predict, Civiteo and SERTIT, used the satellite data to create maps and decision support products for use by COGIC, which in this case was also the end user, to organize the ground response.
The value adders gathered pre-storm imagery of Mayotte along with post-storm imagery to create maps showing where aid was needed and how much damage was done. The contrasting images painted a devastating picture. More than 30 percent of the country’s roads were blocked by fallen trees and other obstructions. "Cyclone Chido was really a major disaster as almost all buildings were destroyed. There was impact on roads (linked to falling of vegetation/trees) and impact on rivers with debris jams," said Caroline Pilot, who works for TI2G, which supports COGIC activities for the Charter.
The human toll was also devastating, with at least 39 dead, more than 4,000 injured and tens of thousands homeless. "We work on almost all disasters, so we’re used to it, but this level of damage is very impressive," said Jérôme Maxant of SERTIT in one news report. "It’s complicated on the ground to have an overview, whereas on the satellite, we have a view of all the damage, so we can quickly provide information to size the damage and direct [the response] to the most affected areas."
Assessing the damage in order to restore basic services and rebuild is one key way that end users find Charter data beneficial. For example, "It was very useful to have damage analysis of satellite images on schools," Pilot noted. It took tremendous effort to bring everyday activity back to normal. According to one news story, it took one and a half months for schools to restart, and even three months after Chido, stable access to electricity and water remained elusive.
Ensuring Ease of Access for End Users
In India, cyclones and flooding are a fact of life for much of the country. More than half of its 28 states face flooding every year, with 20 to 25 major flood events occurring annually. "Some states like Assam, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh see prolonged floods for two or three months in a year," said Dr. K.H.V. Durga Rao, Director of the Disaster Management Support Group at the National Remote Sensing Centre, which is part of the Indian Space Research Organization.
Because flooding is so common in India, the Charter is activated only for the most extreme events, like the one that began on August 30, 2024, in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana states. Andhra Pradesh received 127% of its entire annual average rainfall in a two-day span, said one news source. It was a major disaster, with 48 deaths, more than 25,000 people rescued by emergency responders, massive electrical outages and thousands of acres of crops destroyed, in addition to road and rail line blockages.
As an authorized user (AU), Rao activated the Charter a few days after flooding began, and a member of his team, Dr. A.V. Suresh Babu, was named project manager. Their agency also acts as the value adder, making all satellite data available as quickly as possible on India’s centralized disaster portal, the National Database for Emergency Management (NDEM). Rao’s group is in charge of maintaining the portal.
The NDEM dashboard already contains layers of data before a disaster even strikes, including villages, roads, railways, relief shelters, rescue shelters and hospitals as well as resources available. "How many life jackets are there? How many vehicles? How many boats?" Rao said. "For example, if there is a flood in any village, I can click on the village if I want to know the number of hospitals in a 2-kilometer radius or a 5-kilometer radius." Other Government of India agencies and some state agencies are able to contribute data to the website, as well.
With the Charter information added in to show flooding extent, the NDEM becomes a powerful tool for end users like India’s National Disaster Response Force (NDRF). But with email or SMS alerts available and a web portal open to all, the NDEM essentially gives everyone the ability to be an end user on a personal level. "It’s a one-stop solution for all disasters," Rao said, pointing out that NDEM also covers fires, landslides, earthquakes, and other disasters. It also allows agencies to go back in history to previous Charter events, aiding in planning for future disasters.
Like in Mayotte, in India, Charter data were accessed after the September flood to evaluate the extent of damage, in this case by a Post Disaster Needs Assessment Committee aiming "to give a more accurate picture of the damage for the relief measures," Rao said.
Thankful for the Charter
France and India both have many years of experience with the Charter. But countries that are new at using the Charter also are pleased with their experience. "One thing we hear quite often is that they are surprised by the volume of data that is provided for a given event," said Mike Budde, the U.S. Geological Survey's liaison to the International Charter. "Another is that we often hear how appreciative end users are that the data and resulting products are provided at no cost."
In moments of crisis during a disaster, receiving no-cost data and the expertise of the value adders team is indeed valuable, as is the speed of the entire process.
Babu, the project manager for the India flooding event, summed it up like this in his feedback report: "Charter call submission and PM nomination were done by the AU on 03 September 2024. ECO Dossier validation was done on the same day. The credentials were provided soon. Afterwards, data was made available and value added products were being prepared. They were sent to end-users. The whole process was smooth and no difficulties were encountered. The interaction with AU was seamless and smooth. Communications were carried out in real time. The support was extensive and robust."
For 25 years, the Charter has connected space and people in their most difficult moments. Authorized users, project managers and value adders all work together to transform complex satellite data into maps that do not require specialized knowledge to understand. Those maps not only help end users respond quickly to save lives but also provide information about damage extent so they can send aid and help rebuild after the storm has passed. Feedback like Babu’s —"The support was extensive and robust"— validates the success of the Charter’s mission of helping communities cope with disasters.