Faster high-resolution satellite information in crisis situations: IFAS project successfully completed
February 18, 2025 | Final Demonstration
Faster high-resolution satellite information in crisis situations: IFAS project successfully completed
Crisis information in case of flooding
Screenshot of the web application with focus on the flood area (light blue), normal water level (dark blue), the affected population and relevant infrastructure in Regensburg
Credit:
DLR
Crises such as floods require rapid responses and the immediate provision of relevant information to emergency services. The improved availability of high-resolution satellite data opens up promising new possibilities. The IFAS project ("Indicator monitoring for the early recording of innovative satellite sensors during natural disasters") has taken up this challenge. In cooperation with DLR, European Space Imaging (EUSI) and the Bavarian Red Cross (BRK), a successful final demonstration took place in December 2024, simulating a flood event in Bavaria.
The aim of IFAS project was the faster provision of information products in the event of a crisis, exemplarily developed for flood events. To this end, an automated monitoring of free, heterogeneous data sources, such as official warning messages, was set up. In the event of indications of a possible flood event, the affected areas were promptly recorded by EUSI using very high-resolution sensors (WorldView, GeoEye, but also VHR SAR data such as UMBRA). Flood areas were derived semi-automatically from the satellite data recorded in this way and suitable archive data and made available to users as required in a viewer in combination with other information (e.g. affected population or critical infrastructure).
The process chain developed in the project was concluded by testing it under realistic conditions using a simulated flood event. After collecting and analyzing the satellite data, the data was integrated into a web viewer and made available to the BRK on the same day. The IFAS goal of improving the time from the onset of the crisis to the provision of information was thus achieved by automating relevant mechanisms.
The IFAS process chain was also used in actual crisis operations during the course of the project:
