BBC Inside Out films at DMCii

by | Jan 15, 2014

Guildford, United Kingdom, Jan. 10, 2014”The BBC visited DMCii recently to interview our Managing Director Dave Hodgson and our Imaging Campaign Manager Kimberley Wilson about the way that our satellite imagery, as part of the International Charter, has helped to the UK's Environment Agency monitor the recent UK floods.

The International Charter: Space and Natural Disasters was activated by the UK on the 6th January as a result of the tidal surge and the persistent storms, which have battered the UK over the Christmas and New Year period, causing wide spread flooding.

The UK's Environment Agency is using the satellite data received from Charter member agencies to monitor specific rivers and flood prone areas in addition to general flooded Agricultural Land and sites of special scientific interest (SSSI). Over 200 flood alerts were issued as of 06 January and more storms are forecast to bring further rain and coastal flooding along the south east and west of England over the coming days.

DMCii's wide-swath satellite imagery has proven to be extremely valuable in monitoring hotspots, allowing breadth and scale of flooding to be quickly assessed. Keys areas can be targeted for high-resolution imaging where addition information is required and change detection maps are created for comparisons year-on-year, or event-on-event.

The Charter allows charitable and relief agencies worldwide to access a pool of free satellite data to assist with immediate disaster relief operations, and for creating accurate maps of at-risk areas for future mitigation plans. Many space agencies are contributing members of the Charter, supplying satellite data with a range of resolutions and swath widths. DMCii is a contributor to the Charter, providing data from five spacecraft in the Disaster Monitoring Constellation.

Use of satellite remote sensing data provided by the Charter is becoming more common in the UK, with three activations for flooding in winter 2012 and 2013, and one already in 2014. Prior to 2012, the last UK activation for flooding was in 2007.

The interview aired on BBC Inside Out at 19:30 on Monday 13th January 2014.

For more information and images please visit: http://www.dmcii.com/?p=9896.

 

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