On June 20, 2026, the closing demonstration of the RESITEK project (\"Resiliente Technologien für den Katastrophenschutz\") took place on the former soccer field in the municipality of Altenahr in the district of Ahrweiler.
The goal of the RESITEK project is to bring together the expertise and technological capabilities of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in the fields of aviation, space, energy, transportation, and security. As part of the project, a modular and flexibly expandable data and visualization platform is being developed that enables both continuous situation monitoring and needs-based support for situation assessment, mission planning, and mission execution in the event of a disaster. This is intended to strengthen the decision-making and operational capabilities of authorities and organizations responsible for security, enabling them to manage hazardous situations more efficiently and effectively protect the public.
Scenario \"Flood\"
The past few weeks in western Germany have been very rainy. The ground is saturated with water, and water levels in local rivers are correspondingly high. Parts of Rhineland-Palatinate have experienced extreme rainfall, with local peaks of 200 l/m². Flooding is particularly severe along the Ahr River and has reached devastating proportions. Many emergency calls have been received. The situation is becoming increasingly unclear, and the area affected by the flooding is growing. Many municipalities have already requested assistance from outside their local area. The communications network has failed in large parts of the Ahr Valley.
The Bavarian Red Cross (BRK) has arrived and coordinated with local emergency response teams. The BRK’s Terrain/Infrastructure/Logistics/Transport (G.I.L.T.) team has already conducted a preliminary assessment on site.
The BRK’s Integrated Control Center (ILS) in Schweinfurt is requesting support from the DLR—specifically through the Center for Satellite-Based Crisis Information (ZKI) of the German Remote Sensing Data Center (DFD)—to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the situation and to assist with rescue operations.
In the field, the DLR, together with the BRK, the DRK Rhineland-Palatinate, and the Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW), carries out various coordinated search and rescue operations. The information gathered in the field is compiled and evaluated in the DFD-ZKI situation report and communicated to the emergency response teams.
Situation overview provided by the ZKI
The ZKI’s comprehensive situational overview brings together various types of geospatial data and analyses on a single platform, presenting them clearly in the form of multiple maps and visualisations. In addition to basic situational information such as the latest aerial photographs, the overview also covers complex topics such as power infrastructure, mobile phone coverage and AI-supported analyses, for example regarding the extent of (flood) water or automated object detection. The screen video shown above demonstrates some of the functions and visualisations of the comprehensive situational overview.
From the drone images captured by the Bavarian Red Cross (BRK) shortly before the exercise on 19 June 2026, both automated object detection and AI-based water segmentation were derived on site on the day of the exercise, 20 June 2026. The use of AI-driven methods enables the rapid analysis of large image datasets and helps emergency services to provide relevant information in the shortest possible time.
During the demonstration, the ZKI’s complex situational picture displayed the live positions of the drones from the Institute of Flight Guidance, Institute of Flight Systems and the vehicles from the Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics – including the SHERP, the Scout Rover and the ARDEA drone – in real time. In addition to the current positions, live image data recorded during the operation was also integrated directly into the situational picture and visualised on a live tracking dashboard. This made it possible to track the movements and sensor data of the various vehicles simultaneously and almost in real time.
To complement the complex situational picture, a virtual reality application was used to provide an immersive representation of the damage caused by the 2021 floods.
","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT172/","category":"Exercise","date":"2026-06-20T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Germany"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[12.64932,47.69718],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Wildfire on the Saurüsselkopf in Bavaria","id":"ACT171","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT171/ACT171_tn.jpg","products":["ACT171/P01","ACT171/P02","ACT171/P03","ACT171/P04","ACT171/P05","ACT171/P06","ACT171/P07","ACT171/P08","ACT171/P09","ACT171/P10","ACT171/P11","ACT171/P12","ACT171/P13","ACT171/P14","ACT171/P15"],"description":"Due to a forest fire on the Saurüsselkopf mountain near Ruhpolding, which is difficult to access, the Traunstein District Office declared a state of emergency on 4 May 2026. The surrounding Laubau drinking water protection area in particular is actively threatened by the fire. Numerous emergency services from the fire brigade, police and rescue service are fighting the fire on the ground and in the air with helicopters.
DLR's Centre for Satellite Based Crisis Information (ZKI) supports the authorities and emergency services involved in firefighting with up-to-date situation maps based on satellite and drone images. The ZKI map products provide a new perspective on the affected area and thus help to assess the danger situation. High-resolution satellite data was recorded and provided by European Space Imaging. A new drone system from the BRK's Research Unit is also in use, equipped with a Modular Aerial Camera System (MACS) from the DLR Institute of Space Research. The new camera technology makes it possible to integrate a live optical and thermal image directly from the drone into a digital situation picture. In combination with parallel mapping sections of the Copernicus EMS, a comprehensive visualisation of the situation based on remote sensing data is possible.
The DLR-ZKI has provided a web viewer that gives emergency services, humanitarian actors and authorities access to current, in some cases high-resolution satellite images and drone images as well as additional analyses. The application is regularly updated with new data. Users from authorities or aid organisations with a legitimate interest are welcome to contact zki@dlr.de to gain access to the web viewer.
","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT171/","category":"Wild Fire and Burn Scars","date":"2026-05-06T08:00:00.000Z","country":"Germany"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[12.64932,47.69718],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Automated Drone Image Analysis and Processing for THW Emergency Forces","id":"ACT170","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT170/ACT170_tn.jpg","products":["ACT170/P01"],"description":"On 16 April, a major practical test took place at the THW training site in Hoya. The procedures developed in ADRET were tested directly on site, from recording to image analysis, together with THW emergency personnel and employees of DLR and THW Research. The individual components of the process and the interfaces developed can be viewed interactively in a DLR Story Map for the THW and are therefore also available to other emergency services.
The Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW) now deploys Unmanned Aerial Systems (UL) throughout Germany in order to be able to act quickly in scenarios such as floods, destroyed buildings, searches for people and forest fires. During missions, the drone pilots usually view the drone's live camera image in order to obtain localised situation information. The drone images are not usually analysed over a wider area. In the joint project ADRET (Automated Drone Image Analysis and Processing for THW Emergency Forces), methods from earth observation for crisis mapping and subsequent image evaluation were adapted to drone use. Together with selected THW drone teams, the methods were tested in practice and further developed. The results are modular practical guidelines for structured data acquisition, processing and AI evaluation for use. In future, AI models can be used independently on site by THW emergency services and support, for example, damage mapping in flood areas.
„The guidelines are easy to use and a great help for our operations“, was the feedback from one of the THW drone pilots involved.
","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT170/","category":"Exercise","date":"2026-04-16T08:00:00.000Z","country":"Germany"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[9.13828923,52.81009861],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"ZKI supports NATO Emergency Exercise 'Bulgaria 2025'","id":"ACT169","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT169/ACT169_tn.jpg","products":["ACT169/P01","ACT169/P02","ACT169/P03"],"description":"From September 7 to 12, one of the largest international exercises on civil protection and emergency management takes place in Montana, Bulgaria. The exercise, with over 1,200 participants from more than 40 countries, is coordinated by the EADRCC, NATO's most important instrument for rapid and effective response to civil crises. The DLR is supporting the exercise in the areas of damage assessment, accessibility of medical facilities, and different types of visualization (static, web-based, and 3D).
The aim is to quickly map buildings and infrastructure, an area in which the ZKI has many years of expertise. Based on this information, DLR employees can, for example, assess whether and how quickly hospitals or other facilities can still be accessed and how many people are affected. In addition, the scientists combine various data from exercise participants with additional geodata. From this, the researchers create exactly the products that are needed in specific situations and pass them on digitally, virtually in 3D, and as maps. A survey on the use of the data completes the exercise.
","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT169/","category":"Exercise","date":"2025-09-07T18:00:00.000Z","country":"Bulgaria"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[23.2335733,43.4078445],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"ZKI supports KIResQ drone exercise","id":"ACT168","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT168/ACT168_tn.jpg","products":["ACT168/P01"],"description":"The DLR-ZKI is involved as an associated partner in the KIResQ (AI-based evaluation of thermal images for faster location of missing persons) research project and was involved in the final exercise of the project on 25th April. During the extensive exercise in Schwangau, Bavaria, more than 100 rescuers from search and rescue teams from mountain rescue, BRK emergency services, police, Technical Relief (THW) and water rescue came together to test the tools developed in the project, such as a so-called mission board with integrated AI image analysis, under real operating conditions. To this end, drones from the various organisations used thermal cameras to take images in predefined search areas, which were then scanned by the AI. In this way, a total of seven of the nine people positioned in the challenging terrain were found.
The ADRET cooperation project between DLR and the THW is also currently underway in the area of drone data analysis, in which rapid crisis mapping and automated image analysis for THW drone teams is being developed.
","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT168/","category":"Exercise","date":"2025-04-25T16:00:00.000Z","country":"Germany"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[10.75616,47.5689],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"ZKI supports Saxony's state fire department and disaster control school during flood exercise in Freiberg","id":"ACT167","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT167/ACT167_tn.jpg","products":["ACT167/P01","ACT167/P02","ACT167/P03"],"description":"From October 28 to 30, 2024, the State Fire Brigade and Disaster Protection School of Saxony will conduct a large-scale exercise aimed at testing and solidifying the cooperation of special command centers (between the administrative staff and technical operations management) of the lower fire protection, emergency services, and disaster protection authority, for example, in the event of disruptions to critical infrastructure.
The emergency services will have to handle various realistic scenarios, such as a rescue operation in the teaching and experimental mine in Freiberg, which could arise as a result of flooding.
","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT167/","category":"Exercise","date":"2024-10-28T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Germany"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[12.9171223,50.8218656],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Flooding in East and Central Europe","id":"ACT166","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT166/ACT166_tn.jpg","products":["ACT166/P01","ACT166/P02","ACT166/P03","ACT166/P04","ACT166/P05","ACT166/P06","ACT166/P07","ACT166/P08"],"description":"A so-called Vb weather condition with extensive amounts of rain has been causing high water and flooding in parts of Europe since 12 September 2024. Austria, the Czech Republic and southern Poland are the countries most affected by the rainfall.
The ZKI supports the work of authorities and humanitarian aid organisations with various satellite data analyses as part of research projects. To derive the water surfaces, flood masks were derived over a large area from Sentinel-1 images using automated flood processors at DLR (see raster files for download below), calculated to the best of our knowledge and belief and within a very short time frame with the available material. Addtionally, maps of selected areas of interest are provided.
Various satellite data were used to derive the water surfaces. Large-scale flood masks were derived from Sentinel-1 images using automated flood processors at DLR (raster files available for download below), calculated to the best of our knowledge and within a very short time frame with the available material.
For more detailed analyses, high-resolution satellite data, such as Umbra radar data and optical data, was also provided by European Space Imaging as part of the IFAS project. Flood areas were also derived from this for individual hot spots.
","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT166/","category":"Flood","date":"2024-09-16T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Germany"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[13.74064596609421,51.05499392774576],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Exercise: ZKI maps used in various exercise scenarios at the Saxony State Fire Brigade and Disaster Control School","id":"ACT165","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT165/ACT165_tn.jpg","products":["ACT165/P01","ACT165/P02"],"description":"The Saxony State Fire Service and Disaster Control School is conducting a disaster control exercise between 27.08.2024 and 29.08.2024, in which the basic idea is that an administrative staff of a district, or as now a district-free city, jointly trains with its operational command. In particular, the focus is on communication between the two staffs. At the same time, a police staff is practicing at the same location. This means that 3 independent staffs are training in this framework exercise.
The following hypothetical weather situation is rehearsed: On 27.08.2024, an area of high pressure with very hot and dry air dominates the weather in the Chemnitz area. During the night of August 28, it will be only slightly cloudy with temperatures dropping to 25 to 23 degrees and a weak wind from the south. On the morning of August 28, initially a light wind from the south, but in the morning the wind will increasingly freshen and turn to the west, with gusts of 85 km/h. Accompanying the gusts of wind, an area of low pressure from western Poland will approach the greater Chemnitz area. According to the weather forecast, the low pressure area will bring heavy rainfall of up to 80 l/m2 in one hour.
General Situation, 1st Exercise Day. One of the largest festivals in the country will begin on 27.08.2024. The Capital of Culture Chemnitz 2025 is expecting over 70,000 visitors for the Kosmos Festival. The festival organization has already deployed several first aid units who are responsible for providing minor to moderate medical care. In the early afternoon of the second day of the event, a physical altercation broke out between 30 men on Schlossteich Island. It was only after the police intervened that this altercation could be broken up.
Alongside this, the 2024 German National Cycling Race (Bundesliga-Radrennen) is being held in and around Chemnitz. Due to several crashes and serious injuries in the past, several first aid units were requested by the organizers. In the early afternoon hours, a massive crash occurred at the traffic circle on Werner Seelenbinder Str., near BMW Autohaus Melkus. Some of the 50 people affected suffered moderate fractures, abrasions and lacerations.
General Situation, 2nd Exercise Day. On the morning of 28 August 2024, there is heavy rainfall. The festival organisational team meets in the morning and considers cancelling the festival due to the weather conditions. The reason for this is the massive amounts of water on and around the festival site, which would no longer guarantee the safety of the festival participants. At around 9.30 a.m., the FLZ reports a hazardous freight accident to the police on the A 72 federal motorway, on the A4. According to the police, this involved a collision between two cars and a lorry carrying hazardous freight. As a result of the violent collision, a substance with the identification X333 leaked at the scene of the accident. The FLZ also reports to the police that a kilometre-long traffic jam has already formed, in which several rear-end collisions have also occurred. The German Armed Forces Command reported that a military convoy had come to a standstill in the traffic jam at kilometre 77.0. The convoy consisted of 20 military vehicles with 40 people.
At 12.41 p.m., the hospital operations centre at Chemnitz Hospital reports a total failure of the entire digital data processing system. Due to the high capacity utilisation caused by the flu epidemic that has been going on for days, inpatient admission is no longer possible. The hospital can only be approached in the event of life-threatening emergencies by prior arrangement.
The groundskeeper of the Einsiedel Gymnasium reports that around 100 pupils who have spent the night in the youth centre (same location as the school) are currently unable to leave. Due to the heavy rainfall, streams and rivers in the Einsiedel area have flooded. It is impossible to drive on the only access road leading to the school. It is also reported that a 13-year-old pupil is complaining of severe lower abdominal pain. The flooding caused by the heavy rainfall has a massive impact on other neighbourhoods in the greater Chemnitz area. Reports of flooded basements, trapped people and heating oil leaks pile up.
On 28.08.2024, the IRLS Chemnitz receives an emergency call about heavy smoke in the underground car park of the \"Roter Turm\" shopping centre. Several callers now report a strong smell of burning up to the third floor. The shopping centre's emergency manager has already started the evacuation. According to reports, chaotic conditions prevail.
General Situation, 3rd Exercise Day. During the afternoon of 28 August, the shift supervisor on duty at the Chemnitz residual waste treatment plant reports that the fire alarm system has been triggered near the dedusting facility. After inspection by two employees, a fire is confirmed.
The Chemnitz police control centre recieved a call around 18:00 in the late afternoon. According to the caller, there was a hostage situation in the emergency room at the Chemnitz hospital. A male person loudly demands immediate treatment for his mother. The caller also stated that the person in question had already fired several shots from a firearm.
","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT165/","category":"Exercise","date":"2024-08-28T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Germany"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[12.9171223,50.8218656],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Exercise: Final demonstration of the AHEAD/MaiSHU project in Nordheim am Main","id":"ACT164","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT164/ACT164_tn.jpg","products":["ACT164/P01","ACT164/P02","ACT164/P03"],"description":"On 25 June, the final demonstration of the MaiSHU project (Multimodal perception and human-machine interfaces of semi-autonomous intelligent systems for humanitarian aid in unsafe and unstructured environments), a follow-up project to AHEAD, took place at the German Federal Armed Forces training area in Nordheim am Main, near Würzburg. The aim of the project is to develop innovative technologies for the assisted teleoperation of amphibious SHERP vehicles for humanitarian aid and the delivery of goods in difficult, unstructured environments.
In a first scenario, the World Food Programme (WFP) used the SHERP to deliver food to a village in South Sudan that had been cut off by persistent rain and flooding. The SHERP navigated the dangerous and inaccessible route without a driver, controlled by the Local Mission Operation Centre (LMOC), which worked closely with the Global Mission Operation Centre (GMOC).
In the second scenario, the Bavarian Red Cross (BRK) coordinated the operation of SHERP to evacuate people from a flooded and landslide-affected area. GMOC/ZKI provided the BRK with several situation maps as well as the GMOC web application with crisis information for a comprehensive overview of the situation so that a safe evacuation could be ensured through the use of the SHERP.
The successful project demonstration shows the potential of teleoperated systems in humanitarian aid and disaster relief. Based on satellite, airplane and drone imagery (created by the Earth Observation Research Cluster, University of Wuerzburg), the ZKI has supported and carried out the pre-planning of the mission, the overall management of the operation, as well as the evaluation of the missions in the global control centre. For this purpose, the ZKI has developed an interactive 3D situation awareness application with various functions, such as the creation of viewsheds, the drawing of new routes or the export of planned route sections. The GMOC will provide mission coordinators and teleoperators with all relevant geoinformation of the target area. The displayed information includes an overview of the region's topography, characteristics of potential routes, radio coverage and semantic data, e.g. crisis information (floods) and relevant objects along the truck route (obstacles, houses or bridges).
","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT164/","category":"Exercise","date":"2024-06-25T12:00:00.000Z","country":"Germany"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[10.191525,49.861994],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Flooding in Southern Germany","id":"ACT163","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT163/ACT163_tn.jpg","products":["ACT163/P01","ACT163/P02","ACT163/P03","ACT163/P04","ACT163/P05","ACT163/P06","ACT163/P07","ACT163/P08","ACT163/P09","ACT163/P10","ACT163/P11","ACT163/P12","ACT163/P13","ACT163/P14","ACT163/P15","ACT163/P16","ACT163/P17","ACT163/P18","ACT163/P19","ACT163/P20","ACT163/P21","ACT163/P22","ACT163/P23","ACT163/P24"],"description":"Since 30th May 2024, prolonged and heavy rainfall has caused water levels to rise sharply in southern Germany, especially in the border region of Baden-Württemberg and later in Bavaria. The resulting floods were spread over a large area, especially in Swabia and in the Danube region, so that numerous emergency measures were necessary, including by the Bavarian Red Cross (BRK), the THW, the DLRG and the German Armed Forces. The work of the authorities and aid organisations continues, as the water is still causing prolonged flooding in some regions, while clean-up and drainage work is already underway in others. ZKI continues to support the work of the authorities and aid organisations with various products.
Due to the long-lasting and dense cloud cover in the flood areas, no optical satellite images were available for the acute crisis situation. DLR therefore carried out airborne flights on Monday, 3th June 2024 and Tuesday, 4th June 2024 to record aerial image data. The DLR images with a resolution of approx. 10 cm were recorded with the 3K Camera of the DLR Remote Sensing Technology Institute (IMF) in cooperation with the Institute of Flight Experiments (FX). The data was processed in near real time and could be made available as a map and in the web viewer the following day at the latest.
Various satellite data were used to derive the water surfaces. Large-scale flood masks were derived from Sentinel-1 images using automated flood processors at DLR (raster files available for download below), calculated to the best of our knowledge and within a very short time frame with the available material.
For more detailed analyses, high-resolution satellite data, such as umbra radar data and optical data, was also provided by European Space Imaging as part of the IFAS project. Flood areas were also derived from this for individual hot spots.
The DLR-ZKI has provided a web viewer that gives emergency services, humanitarian actors and authorities access to current satellite images, some of which are high-resolution, and DLR aerial images as well as additional analyses. The application is regularly updated with new data. Users from authorities or humanitarian aid organisations with a legitimate interest are welcome to contact zki@dlr.de to obtain access to the web viewer.
","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT163/","category":"Flood","date":"2024-06-03T12:00:00.000Z","country":"Germany"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[11.49139,48.59659],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Exercise: ZKI supports BRK Water Rescue during flooding exercise in Munich","id":"ACT162","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT162/ACT162_tn.jpg","products":["ACT162/P01"],"description":"From 4 - 5 May 2024, the Munich Water Rescue and the Munich Mountain Rescue of the Bavarian Red Cross organised a large-scale flood exercise in the Langwieder Seenkette and Riemer See areas. A total of around 100 volunteer members from the Feldmoching, Lohhof, München Mitte, Riem, Unterföhring and Unterhaching local groups and the Munich Mountain Rescue took part in the intensive exercise, which lasted over 24 hours. The emergency services had to deal with various realistic scenarios, including the evacuation of a campsite using rescue boats, a search for missing persons with several drone groups on land and the rescue of several people from a floating house roof using a helicopter.
The created map product shows the fictitious flood situation during the exercise at the Langwieder lakes in the west of Munich. The flood area is a simulation of a flood mask derived from satellite data, as can be provided by DLR's ZKI® during real operations.
","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT162/","category":"Exercise","date":"2024-05-04T12:00:00.000Z","country":"Germany"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[11.41691,48.19705],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Wildfires in Chile","id":"ACT161","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT161/ACT161_tn.jpg","products":["ACT161/P01","ACT161/P02"],"description":"After days of intense summer heat, devastating fires broke out in the Valparaíso region of central Chile. The wildland fires destroyed thousands of homes and claimed several casualties and injuries.
The Center for Satellite-based Crisis information (ZKI) of DLR created maps for this disaster, based on data of the German hyperspectral satellite mission EnMAP in the frame of the International Charter of Space and Major Disaster.
These map products illustrate the detected burnt area extent as seen on February 06, 2024 and a temporal evolution of the active fires between February 02, 2024 and February 06, 2024 based on satellite information for the area east and south of Valparaìso and for the area east of the City of Navidad, Chile.
The burnt area extent is derived from data of the German hyperspectral satellite mission EnMAP using an adaptive region growing approach based on near-infrared information. The hotspot detection of active fires is based on thermal anomalies from the MODIS and VIIRS sensors.
","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT161/","category":"Wild Fire and Burn Scars","date":"2024-02-09T12:00:00.000Z","country":"Chile"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[-71.6,-34],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Forest Fires Around the Mediterranean Sea: ZKI Supports with Information on the Development of Fire Areas","id":"ACT160","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT160/TeasBild_FireMonitoring.png","products":["ACT160/P01"],"description":"The wildfires in the Mediterranean region were exceptionally intense in July 2023, causing devastating damages. According to the European Copernicus Program EFFIS, the burned area is nearly nearly twice as large as the long-term average. A web service provided by the EOC (Earth Observation Center) shows daily updates on the fire's development. Evaluations from the Center for Satellite-based Crisis Information (ZKI) provide information about the extent of the damage, including data from the German hyperspectral satellite EnMAP.
Significant fire events of catastrophic magnitude occurred particularly in Greece, Italy, Tunisia, and Algeria. To assess and compare the environmental impacts, temporal dynamics, and size of such disasters over extended periods of time, researchers at EOC utilize optical satellite images from the European Sentinel satellites 3A and 3B, as well as data from their American counterparts Aqua and Terra. Equipped with instruments for broad-scale observation of land and ocean surfaces, these satellites capture the Earth's surface multiple times daily from altitudes of 700 to 800 kilometers with a ground resolution of 250 to 300 meters. The high temporal frequency of these images allows for filling data gaps. Unlike radar satellites, optical instruments cannot see through smoke columns or clouds. Therefore, the various images are continuously and automatically aligned with each other over several days using a processor developed by the EOC. They are recalculated and reviewed repeatedly to refine the results and close data gaps.
These analyses are consolidated in the ZKI web service at the EOC. There, the development of burned areas over the past days and weeks can be monitored. The upper screenshot displays the web application \"ZKI Fire Monitoring System\" as of July 31, 2023. It shows all areas with burned areas for the month of July 2023. All results can be obtained through the EOC's geoservice and used for both current situational assessments and multi-year time series analyses. The lower screenshot exemplifies the temporal progression of the devastating fire in Algeria between July 25th and July 31st, 2023, approximately 30 km west of the city of Béjaïa (with around 200,000 inhabitants). In total, an area of more than 15,000 hectares was burned, equivalent to more than 20,000 football fields or twice the size of Lake Chiemsee.
In addition to the broad-scale analyses, the German hyperspectral satellite EnMAP (Environmental Mapping and Analysis Program) observed the damaged area in Algeria in detail on July 26, 2023. With its 224 spectral channels in the wavelength range between 420 and 2450 nanometers and a ground resolution of 30 meters, very accurate analyses are possible. The following map from DLR-ZKI displays the burned areas analysis for the area west of the city of Béjaïa (Algeria), created as part of the \"International Charter - Space and Major Disasters.\" Based on the evaluations, statements about the settlements and roads affected by the fire can be made. The mountainous, forested area along the Mediterranean coast is also used for agriculture and has been repeatedly affected by wildfires in recent years.
","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT160/","category":"Wild Fire and Burn Scars","date":"2023-08-01T12:00:00.000Z","country":"Algeria"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[4.740257,36.788569],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Flood in Somalia","id":"ACT158","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT158/ACT158_tn.jpg","products":["ACT158/P01"],"description":"After heavy rainfalls between March and May 2023, Somalia was hit by widespread floods. According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), more than 460,000 people have been affected within the last two months by this disaster.
The Center for Satellite-based Crisis information (ZKI) of DLR created a map for this disaster, for the first time based on data of the German hyperspectral satellite mission EnMAP in the frame of the International Charter of Space and Major Disaster.
This map product illustrates the flooding along the Shebelle river on May 29, 2023 in the Hirshabelle State of Somalia. The flood extent is derived from data of EnMAP using a deep learning-based methodology. EnMAP data also serve as backdrop of the map.
","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT158/","category":"Flood","date":"2023-05-31T12:00:00.000Z","country":"Somalia"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[45.427953,4.205356],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Exercise: ZKI presents new methods for situational awareness during large live exercise in Salzburg","id":"ACT159","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT159/ACT159_tn.jpg","products":["ACT159/P02","ACT159/P04"],"description":"In the context of a large international civil protection exercise at the 29. April 2023 in which over 800 rescue forces from the Bavarian Red Cross (BRK), the Austrian Red Cross (ÖRK) and the Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW) participated, the final demonstration of the AIFER project took place in Salzburg.
In a fictional scenario a flooding caused heavy damage in different areas. Among the exercise tasks were the search of multiple persons in a collapsed building or the rescue of inhabitants from floating roofs, which were specially created for this exercise. The ZKI of the DLR supported the emergency forces with up to date earth observation data and with analysis results from AIFER integrated in crisis maps and web applications.
Before the exercise took place high resolution optical satellite imagery was acquired for the different scenario areas. Even floating roofs in the Wallersee near Salzburg were captured from space in order to gain realistic insights of the made-up crisis scenario. Together with local rescue forces additional drone flights were coordinated above the scenario areas. In a next step the captured drone images were processed by the ZKI to georeferenced orthophotos. These images were then used as the input for the in AIFER developed AI algorithms which detected the position of buildings and vehicles. In preparation to the live exercise the captured satellite imagery, orthophotos and object detection results were integrated in situational awareness maps and a multimodal web application. During the exercise these products were available for the central coordination center and participating emergency forces in the field. Results from the research project FOPOS made it possible to apply new methods for the 3D reconstruction and visualization in the disaster context. As an outcome, a high detailed 3D model of a collapsed building could be created with the captured drone imagery and additionally integrated in the web application. Geodata from the City of Salzburg could also be added and made it possible to compare the area before and after the crisis event in 3D.
During the large scale exercise the staff in the central coordination center could access the collected situational awareness data with printed out maps and through the web application. Especially useful was the possibility to visualize and interact with the 3D situational awareness model on a touch-table, which was made available by the University of Salzburg. The large surface of the table made an intuitive interaction with the collected geodata possible and gave a deep insight in the crisis situation. For emergency coordinators the exploration of the generated 3D model of the collapsed building in the application was a perfect tool to gain situational awareness on site. In the application the integrated tools allowed for a precise measurement of distances and areas, which can be helpful for the planning of medical infrastructure in the vicinity of the crisis site. Additional to the prepared geodata, single images which were taken on site, were also integrated and gave more insight of the current situation.
Demonstration of the 3D web application. Quelle: @DLR 2023
As example, two ZKI-maps are available here. We are happy to provide more ZKI-products and the access to the mentioned web application to civil protection authorities and organizations. Please contact us via E-Mail (zki[at]dlr.de) or call us directly.
","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT159/","category":"Exercise","date":"2023-04-29T12:00:00.000Z","country":"Austria"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[13.039162,47.823652],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Floods in Mozambique: ZKI supports with information on flood duration","id":"ACT157","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT157/2022-2023_South-West_Indian_Ocean_cyclone_season_tn.png","products":["ACT157/P01"],"description":"Since October 2022, the cyclonic season impacted thousands of people across Mozambique. After storms and heavy rain, coastal areas of southern Mozambique were hit by severe floods, especially the province Maputo. Roads have been cut and houses damaged. Cyclone Freddy could exacerbate this situation.
DLR scientists calculated the total flood duration between January 1, 2023 and February 22, 2023. The flood duration product is based on flood masks extracted automatically from 62 Sentinel-1 images acquired in this time frame. By computing the duration of the flood over a period of several weeks, it is possible to identify areas that are affected by long-lasting flood-water.
The analysis is complemented by a seasonal reference water product based on Sentinel-1 time series data (994 scenes), visualizing the usual water extent during non-flood situations in February.
","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT157/","category":"Flood","date":"2023-02-23T12:00:00.000Z","country":"Mozambique"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[32.437,-25.778],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Earthquake in Turkey and Syria","id":"ACT156","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT156/ACT156_tn.jpg","products":["ACT156/P01","ACT156/P02","ACT156/P03","ACT156/P04"],"description":"On February 6, 2023, an earthquake with a magnitude 7.8 occurred in the Gaziantep region of southeastern Turkey, followed by numerous aftershocks up to magnitude 7.5. Many regions and cities have been affected, especially in the Turkish-Syrian border area. The total number of casualties is still unknown as cleanup efforts are ongoing.
The DLR-ZKI provides a web viewer, where first aid responders, humanitarian actors and governmental agencies for public safety can receive high resolution satellite imagery and DLR-MACS drone data (2-10 cm) as well as their analyses. The application is regularly updated with new data. Users with legitimate interest are invited to contact zki@dlr.de for access to the webviewer.
In addition, DLR-ZKI also prepares selected map products (listed below) and applies the latest research findings in cooperation with other DLR employees, such as AI-based building detection.
","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT156/","category":"Earthquake","date":"2023-02-07T12:00:00.000Z","country":"Turkey"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[36.903,37.1477],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Exercise: ZKI operation during drone exercise with emergency workers in the Ahr Valley","id":"ACT155","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT155/ACT155_tn.jpg","products":["ACT155/P06","ACT155/P07"],"description":"On October 28 and 29, 2022, a drone exercise took place for the second time in the Ahr Valley under the joint management of the Bavarian Red Cross (BRK), Department Rettungsdienst – Sicherheitsforschung and the DLR/ZKI.
Four different drones from four different research projects were operating in the villages of Altenburg, Altenahr, Reimerzhoven, Rech and Dernau. During the exercise, data was recorded via pre-planned flight routes and handed over directly afterwards to the colleagues of the ZKI for ad-hoc analysis and current situation assessment.
The ZKI team used the generated drone images to create digital orthophotos on site and automatically detected buildings and vehicles using artificial intelligence (AI) methods. The use of automated AI methods is an important step toward being able to derive information from satellite, aerial photo and drone data quickly and for large areas. In this manner, for example, exposed objects such as buildings or vehicles and changes such as building damage can be derived from the image data. The newly acquired drone data thus also serve as a basis for the further development of automatic image evaluation in case of disasters.
The ad-hoc generated situation information was integrated into maps and compared with images taken before and after the flood. The newly created map products were printed out on site and distributed to the emergency forces involved. A major challenge was the transmission of large amounts of data in a short time. For this reason, various transmission methods (exchange via hard disk, telecom and Starlink communication) were successfully tested in the field. The detailed analyses (of response times, data volumes, etc.) will be carried out after the exercise.
In a follow-up to the exercise, among other things, terrain models and 3D models are created from these data in order to gain further information on the local conditions and to be able to present a more detailed situation picture. In this new complex situation picture, it will also be possible in particular to compare the various images taken at different points in time and to detect changes - both damage and reconstruction work.
The drone flight took place within the framework of the German-Austrian joint project AIFER (Artificial Intelligence for Emergency Response). AIFER develops machine learning methods to automatically extract and intelligently fuse information from satellite, aerial photo and drone data as well as geo-social media. Specifically, hazard areas (for example, flood plains), exposed objects (for example, buildings or vehicles), and changes (for example, building damage) are derived from the image data. The information is integrated into maps and web applications and linked to form a comprehensive and highly up-to-date situation picture. This forms a basis for targeted decision support for authorities and organizations with security tasks and rescue forces on site.
The data and information collected in the exercise will be integrated into ZKI maps and combined into a comprehensive situation picture within a ZKI web application. As an example, 2 ZKI map products are available. Further ZKI maps as well as access to the ZKI web application are available to authorities and organizations with security tasks as well as to other emergency forces from civil protection and disaster control. Please contact us by e-mail (zki[at]dlr.de) or by telephone.
","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT155/","category":"Exercise","date":"2022-10-28T12:00:00.000Z","country":"Germany"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[6.987313,50.515925],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Floods in Chad: ZKI supports with information on flood development","id":"ACT154","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT154/ACT154_tn.jpg","products":["ACT154/P01","ACT154/P02","ACT154/P03"],"description":"Persisting heavy rainfalls since August led to severe flooding in southern and central Chad. In addition to the exceptionally high rainfall, the country has been partially affected by storms and flash floods. According to the United Nations, this affected more than 1 million people and destroyed nearly 500,000 hectares of agricultural land.
The government of Chad declared a state of emergency due to the devastating consequences of the floods and is currently trying to provide shelter, food and sanitation to the population. However, Chad is one of the poorest countries in the world and the majority of the population relies on agriculture for their livelihood. The impact of the floods will exacerbate the already existing food insecurity.
The analyses were carried out within a few hours at the request of the German Foreign Office and forwarded to various institutions such as different embassies in Chad as well as UN agencies.The ZKI derived flood information for the affected regions in Chad from satellite data (Sentinel-1) using automated methods for different points in time. Additionally, the duration of the flood was assessed for the time from July to October. The generated water masks and flood duration information, which illustrate the extent of the water areas, are available for download below.
The German Foreign Office and DLR-ZKI are already working together on information about the region as part of the joint IF-Bund project 'Anticipation of Conflicts using Information from Satellites' (ACIS).
","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT154/","category":"Flood","date":"2022-10-24T12:00:00.000Z","country":"Chad"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[15.96,10.84],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Floods in Pakistan: ZKI supports with information on flood duration","id":"ACT153","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT153/ACT153_tn.jpg","products":["ACT153/P01","ACT153/P02"],"description":"After heavy monsoon rains since mid-June, Pakistan was hit by severe floods. This historic event caused large parts of the country to be submerged, leaving houses, infrastructure and cropland washed away. The affected population is currently lacking access to medical treatment and healthcare, hundreds of medical facilities were damaged.
This map illustrates the flooded areas and additionally the total flood duration between August 1, 2022 and September 5, 2022. The flood duration product is based on flood masks extracted automatically from 117 Sentinel-1 images acquired in this time frame.
By computing the duration of the flood over a period of several weeks, it is possible to identify areas that are affected by long-lasting flood-water and are therefore more exposed to vector-borne disease outbreaks.
The map is complemented by a seasonal reference water product based on Sentinel-1 time series data, visualizing the usual water extent during non-flood situations in August.
","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT153/","category":"Flood","date":"2022-09-08T12:00:00.000Z","country":"Pakistan"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[68.96593,26.78096],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Storms and heavy rain cause floods in Western Germany","id":"ACT152","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT152/ACT152_tn.jpg","products":["ACT152/P01V2","ACT152/P02","ACT152/P06","ACT152/P03","ACT152/P04","ACT152/P05","ACT152/P07","ACT152/P16","ACT152/P17","ACT152/P26","ACT152/P27","ACT152/P28","ACT152/P29","ACT152/P30","ACT152/P31","ACT152/P32"],"description":"In western Germany, prolonged heavy rain caused numerous floods. People lost their lives, numerous buildings and infrastructures were destroyed. Places in North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate are particularly affected. ZKI is supporting the emergency and rescue teams with a range of activities: satellite data and DLR aerial photographs are evaluated within a very short time and processed into maps, for example.
The ZKI passes on the situation information to the Federal Office of Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance (BBK). Official emergency forces are welcome to contact GKT(at)bbk.bund.de for access.
The ZKI has derived flood information for regions in western Germany from satellite data (Sentinel-1) using automated procedures. The generated water masks, which illustrate the extent of the water areas, are available for download below. In addition, the ZKI shows particularly affected regions, which were defined together with the local rescue forces, in up-to-date situation maps. For this purpose, DLR aerial imagery with resolutions of ten to 15 centimetres were captured with a camera from the Remote Sensing Technology Institute (IMF). The flights were spontaneously realised in cooperation with partners.
For situational awareness in the disaster area, DLR's own developments of the Remote Sensing Technology Institute (IMF) '3K camera' on the DO 228 aircraft and its successor, the '4k camera system' on an EC 135 helicopter were used as aerial cameras. These are 3-head camera systems which, thanks to the combined nadir and side-view arrangement of the cameras, can image a large area perpendicular to the direction of flight and thus cover large-area target areas even at high resolution with only a few passes. The 4k camera system also offers in-flight processing of aerial image data through its built-in onboard computer unit. In this process, georeferenced and orthorectified aerial images are calculated directly in the helicopter from the captured images, which are then immediately processed into map products by ZKI on the ground. In the future, these pre-processed aerial images will be transmitted to the ground in real time via LTE in order to provide rescue and emergency forces with up-to-date situation maps at all times. The aerial survey with the DO 228 was carried out by DLR Flugbetrieb. The helicopter was provided by Helicopter Travel Munich GmbH.
The images and maps are produced as part of the AIFER research project in close cooperation with the Bavarian Red Cross (BRK) and the German Red Cross (DRK). AIFER develops artificial intelligence (AI) methods that automatically recognise and fuse information from satellite data, aerial images and media. The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) is funding the project.
On July 20, the flooded areas in Rhineland-Palatinate, including the entire Ahr valley from Müsch to the mouth in Sinzig, were again photographed by DLR. The aerial camera system MACS (Modular Aerial Camera System) from the Institute for Optical Sensor Systems in Berlin was used. It is equipped with several sensors in the visible and near-infrared spectral range, allows flexible recording configurations and delivers high-resolution image data even under difficult lighting conditions. The integrated data processing unit generates georeferenced images in real time, which are directly processed into different geodata products after landing.
The aerial survey was carried out spontaneously at the request of the BBK. The company BSF provided an airplane (Cessna 206), in which MACS was installed within one hour. As a result of the aerial survey, extensive maps of the flooded areas were created, which will be integrated into the information systems of the ZKI and BBK.
The flight was carried out within the framework of the Helmholtz Innovation Lab OPTSAL, whose goal is to transfer optical technologies for situational awareness into operational applications.
","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT152/","category":"Flood","date":"2021-07-15T12:00:00.000Z","country":"Germany"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[6.87,50.72],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Tornado in South Moravia, Czech Republic","id":"ACT151","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT151/ACT151_tn.jpg","products":["ACT151/P01","ACT151/P02"],"description":"An unusually strong tornado by European Standards, reaching category F3/F4, passed through the South Moravian region of the Czech Republic on June 24, 2021. The tornado claimed several casualties and more than 200 injuries. Seven villages located between Břeclav and Hodonín were devastated by the destructive winds with speeds between 254 and 332 km/h accompanied by hailstones of above-average size. Besides severe damages to buildings, uprooting trees, overturning cars and damage of power transmission infrastructure were also reported.
The DLR/ZKI map shows the damage situation on 28 June 2021. By comparing very high-resolution satellite image scenes before and after the event, it is possible to identify the areas severely damaged by the storm.
In addition to this manual analysis by experts, the data will be used to validate and further improve new artificial intelligence algorithms developed at DLR. The AI approach has been trained to detect complete or partly destroyed buildings using real crisis scenario data. These will support rapid mapping activities in the future to accelerate the mapping process.
","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT151/","category":"Severe Storm and Hurricane","date":"2021-06-24T12:00:00.000Z","country":"Czechia"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[48.83,17.06],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"DLR supports detection of Cyclone Eloise’s impacts on Eswatini","id":"ACT150","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT150/ACT150_tn.jpg","products":["ACT150/P01","ACT150/P02"],"description":"Several Southern African countries were hit by Cyclone Eloise, which made landfall near Beira, Mozambique on 23rd of January 2021. Although it mostly dissipated on its path over Southern Africa, several thousands of people are affected by its impacts. Amongst the most affected countries, Eswatini has been struck by strong winds, heavy rainfalls and rising river water levels.
As part of the International Charter Space and Major Disasters, DLR supports the mapping by supplying TerraSAR-X data. In addition, different flood masks were derived using automatic processors within a very short time frame with the available material. Areas of high interest are further highlighted on two Pleíades scenes that allow for a further impression of the cyclones impact.
","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT150/","category":"Severe Storm and Hurricane","date":"2021-01-29T12:00:00.000Z","country":"Eswatini"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[31.682861109999997,-26.681887170000007],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Artificial Intelligence supports the mapping of damages in Moria","id":"ACT149","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT149/ACT149_tn.jpg","products":["ACT149/P01","ACT149/P02"],"description":"Europe’s largest refugee camp which has originally been designed to give shelter to less than 3,000 people kept on growing to around 12,000 refugees in September 2020. As a result, unofficial campgrounds grew around Moria with people living in flammable tarpaulin tents and provisional huts. The situation escalated when fires broke out on at least three different places in the camp during the night of September 8, 2020. The fires destroyed large parts of the camp (both official and unofficial campground) and forced thousands of people to leave their shelters.
The maps provided by ZKI show the extent of destruction after the fires on September 9, 2020 compared to a pre-situation image from August 15, 2020. The used WorldView-2 imagery offers a spatial resolution of 50 cm. The affected camp areas were mapped by an Artificial Intelligence approach that was trained to detect destroyed buildings. Since the algorithm is not yet trained to detect tent areas, those were manually captured by visual analysis. This product indicates how AI can support emergency mapping supporting and accelerating the mapping process. Since the algorithm is still under development, the provided products are marked as being “experimental” and make no claim to be complete.
The maps are supposed to show I) the current possibilities and limitations of the AI approach and II) a detailed overview over the affected and destroyed camp area at Moria refugee camp. An overview map of the post-fire situation showing detailed views on undestroyed and destroyed areas for unofficial and official camp areas (P01) is available as well as a comparison between the situation before and after the fires (P02). In both cases the automatically detected building areas are distinguished from the manually captured tent areas by color.
","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT149/","category":"Wild Fire and Burn Scars","date":"2020-09-08T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Greece"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[26.5013756,39.1345794],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Explosion in Beirut, Lebanon","id":"ACT148","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT148/ACT148_tn.jpg","products":["ACT148/P01","ACT148/P02","ACT148/P03"],"description":"On August 4, 2020, a heavy explosion in Beirut, the capital city of Lebanon, killed over a hundred people and left many hundred thousand homeless. The explosion took place in the harbour area at 18:08 local time. It was probably caused by a large quantity of ammonium nitrate stored at a warehouse in the port.
The DLR/ZKI maps show the damage situation on August 5, 2020. After comparing a pre-event-scene with this post-event-image, both with a very high special resolution, it is possible to give an overview of the affected area and an estimation of the damage extent.
","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT148/","category":"Technical Accident","date":"2020-08-07T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Lebanon"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[35.520158,33.902864],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"ZKI-Support for India and 6 other disaster regions","id":"ACT147","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT147/ACT147_tn.jpg","products":["ACT147/P01","ACT147/P02"],"description":"Within the framework of the International Charter 'Space and Major Disasters', DLR-ZKI has been activated seven times in the past two weeks, six of the activations being due to heavy rainfall with subsequent flooding and landslides in Asia (Indonesia, India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Japan, and Myanmar). DLR-ZKI is developing map products for the floods in India, State of Assam. The flooded areas visualized on the maps were derived from earth observation data in near real time using automatic flood processors of DLR-ZKI. In addition, DLR-ZKI provides radar data from the national satellite mission TerraSAR-X over the affected areas for all activations within the International Charter 'Space and Major Disasters'.\r\n\r\nIn India's northeastern state of Assam, heavy rainfall has been occurring for over two weeks. These have caused widespread flooding and landslides. One of the longest and most water-rich rivers in Asia, the Brahmaputra, already burst its banks at the end of June and forced many inhabitants to leave their now flooded villages. More than 2 million people are affected by the floods and there have already been at least 50 deaths. In 20 districts of the state of Assam, 480 relief camps have been set up so far, which are to provide temporary accommodation for more than 60,000 people. Although monsoon rains are common in this region, this year's situation is particularly devastating because of Covid-19, affecting relief efforts.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT147/","category":"Flood","date":"2020-07-17T13:00:00.000Z","country":"India"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[91.75,22.15],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Cyclon Amphan - DLR supports with satellite images","id":"ACT146","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT146/ACT146_tn.jpg","products":["ACT146/P05","ACT146/P04","ACT146/P03","ACT146/P02","ACT146/P01"],"description":"On May 20, 2020, tropical cyclone Amphan made landfall on the northeast coast of India and the south coast of Bangladesh. According to the Indian Meteorological Service, it is one of the worst storms in the region in the last 20 years. More than three million people were taken to emergency shelters. This is a particular challenge due to the corona pandemic. Especially affected are the large city of Calcutta in the northeast of India and the coastal regions there, which are characterized by simply constructed houses.\r\n\r\nAs part of the International Charter Space and Major Disasters, DLR is supporting the project by supplying TerraSAR-X data. In addition, various flood layers were generated by DLR's automated flood processors (Vectorfiles for download below), realised on a best effort basis, within a very short time frame, optimising the material available. Special hotspots are displayed by ZKI in the form of flood masks visualised on situation maps. The hotspots are also defined together with relief organisations. In this case, this is done within the framework of the \"Data4Human\" project.\r\n\r\nIn the project \"Demand-driven Data Services for Humanitarian Aid\" (Data4Human) remote sensing data and other data sources are to be analysed in order to show continuous usage possibilities in a humanitarian context. This is because in the event of a crisis, humanitarian aid organisations often do not have up-to-date situation information at the required level, which they would urgently need for many areas of operational decision-making and situation assessment. The subject areas and areas of application of the project are defined closely between DLR staff and humanitarian aid organisations and, as in the present case, adapted to current events.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT146/","category":"Severe Storm and Hurricane","date":"2020-05-29T13:00:00.000Z","country":"Bangladesh"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[88.36,22.57],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Innovative analyses as possible triggers for a satellite-based recording - Experimental map products based on heterogeneous data streams like Twitter and media analysis tools","id":"ACT145","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT145/ACT145_tn.jpg","products":["ACT145/P01","ACT145/P02","ACT145/P03","ACT145/P04","ACT145/P05","ACT145/P06","ACT145/P07","ACT145/P08"],"description":"In order to ensure a continuous improvement of satellite-based crisis information, ZKI is involved, i. a. together with the DLR project UKIS, in the research of new applied methods and the development of relevant products for the users in disaster management, humanitarian aid and civil security.\r\n\r\nThe analyses presented here are based on data from the Twitter platform and the GDELT project (Global Database of Events, Language and Tone). ZKI is investigating possibilities of how such heterogeneous data can on the one hand be meaningfully displayed spatially and on the other hand serve as possible triggers for the acquisition of very high resolution satellite information for the generation of crisis information.\r\n\r\nThe following map products are experimental products that are still under development. The maps show regions in Southeast Europe, which, in a global comparison, show a high level of Twitter activity in the particular months with regard to keywords in the context of \"Refugees\", or comparatively many GDELT entries in the respective month.\r\n\r\nThe analyses of the Twitter data were generated as follows: A real-time data stream available free of charge contains a subset of all currently available tweets and was first filtered according to selected keywords in the context \"Refugees\". Using a machine-learning based approach, these tweets were then geocoded and aggregated and summed up to administrative units for the map display.\r\n\r\nData from the GDELT project form the basis of the media analysis presented here. GDELT monitors media worldwide in 65 languages in real time and evaluates the content of the news item in terms of locations, sources, moods, etc. This database was searched for keywords on the topic of \"Refugees\" via a web interface. The coordinates used for the map display were taken from GDELT and aggregated and summed up to administrative units.\r\n\r\nLong-term observations have highlighted anomalies that lead to assumptions of increased activity in the area of the Turkey/Greece border (mainland section and Greek islands close to the border). Within the framework of the research activities of DLR-ZKI, anomalies should continue to be detected. These can possibly be used as triggers for the acquisition of high-resolution satellite data, such as the WorldView-3 data of 03 March 2020 published by European Space Imaging on Twitter. Here it can be seen that both human and vehicle conglomerations can be detected.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT145/","category":"Humanitarian Crisis","date":"2020-04-03T13:00:00.000Z","country":"Austria"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[23.73,37.98],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"DRIVER+ Trial \"Austria\" and IRONORE2019 on 12th to 14th September 2019, Eisenerz/Austria","id":"ACT144","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT144/ACT144_tn.jpg","products":["ACT144/P04","ACT144/P03","ACT144/P02","ACT144/P01"],"description":"To strengthen crisis management, the EU-project DRIVER+ (Driving Innovation in Crisis Management for European Resilience) conducted the fourth Trial, this time in the Eisenerz region (Styria, Austria) from 12 to 14 September 2019. Innovative solutions have been assessed by experts based on an earthquake scenario. The German Aerospace Center (DLR) provided real-time unmanned aerial imagery to create situational awareness and support rescue logistics.\r\n\r\n\r\nTo demonstrate the use of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) for disaster management in controlled airspace, the research aircraft D-CODE was used as a UAS-demonstrator and remote-controlled just like an unmanned aircraft. The flight and mission planning of the aircraft was carried out by means of a ground control station for unmanned aircraft, developed at the Institute of Flight Guidance in Braunschweig. For DRIVER+, D-CODE was equipped with the 3K camera system of the Remote Sensing Technology Institute, which was designed especially for disaster management missions. Using this camera system, the research aircraft was able to capture an area of 80 square kilometers in about ten minutes, produce georeferenced aerial photographs and transmit the results directly via a data link connection to a ground station. During the exercise, aerial photographs were taken during several flights and were available on site within a few minutes for damage assessment, coordination of rescue forces and the search for injured and missing persons. The collected data was forwarded to the Center for Satellite Based Crisis Information (ZKI) at the German Remote Sensing Data Center (DFD). ZKI created interactive information products, such as maps, which ease data interpretation for end-users and ensure the exchange of information. \r\n\r\n\r\nSimultaneously, the Bavarian Red Cross (BRK), in cooperation with the ZKI, tested new support capabilities in the large-scale European exercise IRONORE2019, that took place in parallel in the Eisenerz region. In addition to already established maps, the ZKI provided the BRK with special 3D products. \"This allows the operational leader on site to plan the mission and, for example, to mark dangerous terrain passages or avoid them, which significantly increases the security of the operational units,\" explains Uwe Kippnich (project manager of BRK’s rapid deployment group G.I.L.T.). \"With further optimization, we will be able to support the units on site in the disaster area even better. Large-scale exercises such as IRONORE2019, financed by the European Commission, offer ideal and almost realistic conditions for testing procedures and processes,\" says Dr. Monika Gähler (Head of the Center for Satellite Based Crisis Information) from the German Aerospace Center in Oberpfaffenhofen.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT144/","category":"Exercise","date":"2019-09-17T13:00:00.000Z","country":"Austria"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[14.89,47.54],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Vegetation fires in Germany - ZKI supports with current situation maps based on satellite and aerial data","id":"ACT143","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT143/ACT143_tn.jpg","products":["ACT143/P01","ACT143/P02","ACT143/P03","ACT143/P04","ACT143/P05","ACT143/P06","ACT143/P07"],"description":"In large parts of Germany there has been a high risk of forest fires for weeks, sometimes level 5 of 5. North-eastern Germany is particularly affected. Since 30.06.2019, outstanding vegetation fires have been fought there with cross-border support. Near Lübtheen (Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania), an area of approx. 1200 ha is affected. Already on 25.06.2019 there had been a fire at the same place, the fire was reported as extinguished on 28.06.2019, but was again ignited. In the past, the affected area was part of a military training area and is munition contaminated. This makes extinguishing the fire particularly complicated.\r\n\r\n\r\nAlso the DLR supports the action force in Mecklenburg-West Pomerania. With the help of ZKI-maps the estimation of the recent situation is assisted. Therefore different data sources are used. In addition to several satellite based sensors the Institute of Optical Sensor Systems made aerial photographs of the wild fires near Lübtheen with a special version of an „Modular Aerial Camera System“ (MACS) installed on a research aircraft of the Freie Universität Berlin. Additionally, data of the DLR-research satellite mission FireBIRD/TET is used. The ZKI collates the information of the different sensors and generates recent map products of the affected region based on the various optical and thermal data. \r\n\r\n\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT143/","category":"Wild Fire and Burn Scars","date":"2019-07-02T13:00:00.000Z","country":"Germany"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[11.09,53.3],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Tropical Cyclone Idai hits Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi","id":"ACT142","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT142/ACT142_tn.jpg","products":["ACT142/P01","ACT142/P02","ACT142/P03","ACT142/P04","ACT142/P05","ACT142/P06","ACT142/P07","ACT142/P08","ACT142/P09"],"description":"The Tropical Cyclone Idai is regarded as one of the worst tropical cyclones on record to affect Africa and the Southern Hemisphere as a whole. The storm caused catastrophic damage in multiple nations, leaving so far more than 600 people dead and hundreds more missing. Idai brought strong winds and caused severe flooding in Madagascar, Mozambique, Malawi, and Zimbabwe. On March 15, Idai had made landfall near Beira, Mozambique. Catastrophic damage occurred in and around Beira in southern Mozambique. A major humanitarian crisis unfolded in the wake of the cyclone, with hundreds of thousands of people in urgent need of assistance across Mozambique and Zimbabwe.\r\n\r\nIn the frame of the International Charter Space and Major Disasters, DLR/ZKI supports the crisis management activities and provides TerraSAR-X data.\r\nIn addition, various flood layers are generated by DLR's automated flood processors (Vectorfiles for download below).\r\n\r\nA further product (P03 and P08), shows the flooded areas of Beira derived from Sentinel-1 radar imagery. The flooded areas are divided into three flood classes, depending on the built-up density of the flooded areas. The flood classes are based on a change detection analysis exploiting radar intensity and interferometric coherence generated from five images acquired before and one image during the event on March 20, 2019. As the method is part of ongoing development, the results should be regarded as experimental.\r\n\r\nAnother product, P06, illustrates the total flood duration in days along the Rio Pùngué between March 15, 2019 and March 25, 2019. The flood duration is based on flood masks extracted from sixteen Sentinel-1 images acquired between 7 March, 2019 and 25 March, 2019 and two TerraSAR-X images acquired on March 23, 2019 and March 24, 2019.\r\n\r\nAll in all it is tried to support and round the existing services (continuative Links on the right side).\r\n\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT142/","category":"Severe Storm and Hurricane","date":"2019-03-25T13:00:00.000Z","country":"Mozambique"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[34.84,-19.83],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Dam Collapse in Brazil","id":"ACT141","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT141/ACT141_tn.jpg","products":["ACT141/P01","ACT141/P02"],"description":"A dam burst at an iron mine in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais near the village Brumadinho released a wave of red iron waste. Satellite data has already been made available as part of the International Charter \"Space and Major Disasters\". DLR supports the crisis management activities with RapidEye data and an analysis of pre and post event satellite data.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT141/","category":"Technical Accident","date":"2019-01-29T13:00:00.000Z","country":"Brazil"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[-44.12,-20.14],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Extreme Snow conditions in Bavaria - ZKI-DE supports with remote sensing products","id":"ACT140","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT140/ACT140_tn.jpg","products":["ACT140/P07","ACT140/P06","ACT140/P05","ACT140/P04","ACT140/P03","ACT140/P02","ACT140/P01"],"description":"Since January 5, 2019 the whole Alpine foothills are affected by heavy snow falls. Therefore, in five Bavarian districts a state of emergency was declared.\r\n\r\n\r\nThe heavy snow falls led to high snow loads, snow drifts and increased occurrence of avalanches. The massive snow had a huge impact on traffic and public utility services and led to inaccessibility of some municipalities and a cancellation of classes on a large scale.\r\n\r\n\r\nEmergency personnel on-site was occupied by clearing rooftops and traffic routes from snow, as well as maintenance of food and medicine. The affected districts were supported by firefighters, policemen and military forces, as well as by staff members of the THW, BRK and DLRG.\r\n\r\n\r\nOn request of the federal office for civil protection and disaster relief the DLR supported through the ZKI-DE service with satellite-based map information about the situation of the snow coverage.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT140/","category":"Other","date":"2019-01-16T13:00:00.000Z","country":"Germany"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[12.8,47.59],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Fire disaster in California – DLR supports with FireBIRD data","id":"ACT139","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT139/ACT139_tn.jpg","products":["ACT139/P01","ACT139/P01_V02","ACT139/P02","ACT139/P01_V04"],"description":"A, for the season, unusual drought lead to devastating forest fires in California. So far several hundred thousand people were evacuated and dozen deaths were registered. Butte County, located in Northern California, is especially affected.\r\nSatellite data has already been made available as part of the International Charter \"Space and Major Disasters\". DLR supports crisis management by providing satellite-based information of the sensor TET-1 (Technological Experiment Carrier) of the DLR mission FireBIRD (Fire Bispectral InfraRed Detector) and data of the satellite Suomi-NPP/VIIRS. TET-1 and VIIRS detect very high temperatures from space. Several images of the active fires next to the city Paradise, located 250 km northeast of San Francisco in Butte County, were collected.\r\nThe maps visualize the temporal evolution or the fire intensity of the active fires for different days mid November 2018 and its position according to the cities Paradise, Oroville and Chico.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT139/","category":"Wild Fire and Burn Scars","date":"2018-11-15T13:00:00.000Z","country":"USA"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[-121.62,39.76],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Hurricane Florence – DLR provides satellite information","id":"ACT138","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT138/ACT138_tn.jpg","products":["ACT138/P01","ACT138/P02","ACT138/P03"],"description":"On September 14th, 2018, hurricane Florence made landfall on the coast of North Carolina, USA. In the frame of the International Charter Space and Major Disasters, DLR supports the crisis management activities.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT138/","category":"Severe Storm and Hurricane","date":"2018-09-17T13:00:00.000Z","country":"USA"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[-78,34.02],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"FireBIRD monitors forest fires in California","id":"ACT137","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT137/ACT137_tn.jpg","products":["ACT137/P01","ACT137/P02"],"description":"In December 2017, wild fires have been burning in parts of California. On December 12, 2017, DLR’s TET-1 satellite captured major hot spots in the region. TET-1 is one of the two satellites of the FireBIRD mission. With its spatial resolution of 320 m the system has a much higher spatial resolution than the standard thermal sensors from MODIS or Sentinel 3 SLTSR (1 km).\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/act137/","category":"Wild Fire and Burn Scars","date":"2017-12-19T00:00:00.000Z","country":"USA"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[-119.5286,34.4538],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Hurricane Harvey - DLR supports Texas with satellite data","id":"ACT136","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT136/ACT136_tn.jpg","products":["ACT136/P01","ACT136/P02"],"description":"On August 26th, 2017, hurricane Harvey made landfall on the coast of Texas. Massive amounts of rain have caused extensive flooding in parts of southeastern Texas, including Fort Bend, Brazoria and Galeston Counties, as well as Harris County and wide areas of Houston. Five people have reportedly died in the storm, including at least 2 in flooding in the Houston area. President Trump has issued a Major Disaster Declaration for the state of Texas. River levels in south eastern Texas have already broken previous record heighs in at least 6 locations, with more record heighs likely to follow. In the frame of the International Charter Space and Major Disasters, DLR supports the crisis management activities.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT136/","category":"Severe Storm and Hurricane","date":"2017-08-29T13:00:00.000Z","country":"USA"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[-94.6,29.68],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"DLR supports the Protestant Kirchentag","id":"ACT135","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT135/ACT135_tn.jpg","products":["ACT135/P01","ACT135/P02","ACT135/P03","ACT135/P04","ACT135/P05","ACT135/P06","ACT135/P07"],"description":"About 100.000 people finally joined the 36th German Protestant Kirchentag in Wittenberg on 28th May 2017. The German Aerospace Center (DLR) supported the traffic and security management of the festive major event in two different ways: (1) the team of the DLR project “VABENE acquired aerial imagery in near-real-time and analysed traffic flows around the festive venue. (2) the ZKI-DE analysed up-to-date aerial and satellite imagery before and during the Kirchentag in order to monitor the festival grounds as well as the surrounded infrastructure. By using this information all operational forces and relief units could coordinate their activities more in detail and compare the before-after-situation. Main users of DLR’s aerial and satellite based information were the event management, the Johanniter, the Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW), the state administration of Saxony-Anhalt as well as the police of the German state of Saxony-Anhalt.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT135/","category":"Civil Security","date":"2017-05-30T09:40:00.000Z","country":"Germany"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[12.63431,51.85416],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Fire disaster in Chile – ZKI uses FireBIRD to deliver situational information","id":"ACT133","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT133/ACT133_tn.jpg","products":["ACT133/P01","ACT133/P02","ACT133/P03","ACT133/P04","ACT133/P05","ACT133/P06","ACT133/P07","ACT133/P08","ACT133/P09","ACT133/P10","ACT133/P11","ACT133/P12","ACT133/P13","ACT133/P14","ACT133/P15","ACT133/P16","ACT133/P17","ACT133/P18","ACT133/P19"],"description":"On January 24, 2017, the International Charter 'Space and Major Disasters' was activated for forest fires in Chile. The DLR/ZKI is responsible for the Project Management of this Charter Call and supports the ‘Chilean National Office of Emergency of the Interior Ministry’ (ONEMI) of Chile with the provision of satellite data and value added disaster information products.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT133/","category":"Wild Fire and Burn Scars","date":"2017-01-24T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Chile"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[-72.2181,-35.4384],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"DLR FireBIRD mission provides data of recent fires in Israel and the West Bank","id":"ACT131","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT131/ACT131_tn.jpg","products":["ACT131/P01"],"description":"On Tuesday, November 22, 2016, wildfires started in Israel and spread rapidly over the country on the following days. On November 25 at 11:25 UTC, DLR’s TET-1 satellite captured major hot spots in the region. TET-1 is one of the two satellites of the FireBIRD mission.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT131/","category":"Wild Fire and Burn Scars","date":"2016-12-01T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Israel"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[35.154,32.1765],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Hurricane Matthew in the Dominican Republic","id":"ACT130","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT130/ACT130_tn.jpg","products":["ACT130/P01","ACT130/P02"],"description":"On October 05, 2016, the International Charter 'Space and Major Disasters' was activated for floods and landslides in the Dominican Republic caused by Hurricane Matthew. The DLR/ZKI is responsible for the Project Management of this Charter Call and supports the National Emergency Commission of the Dominican Republic with the provision of satellite data and value added disaster information products.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT130/","category":"Severe Storm and Hurricane","date":"2016-10-08T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Dominican Republic"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[-69.837,18.56383],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"DLR FireBIRD mission provides data of recent fires in Portugal","id":"ACT129","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT129/ACT129_tn.jpg","products":["ACT129/P01","ACT129/P02","ACT129/P03","ACT129/P04","ACT129/P05"],"description":"On the night from August 7 to August 8 an emergency has been declared in the Porto region of Portugal, where wildfires spread. Over several days fires burned before it was possible to get them under control. From August 11 to August 14 it was possible to monitor the fires in Portugal using DLR’s TET-1 satellite data on four consecutive days and to track, how the fires spread and how their intensity changed. TET-1 is one of the two satellites from the FireBIRD mission. With its spatial resolution of 320 m the system has a much higher spatial resolution than the standard thermal sensors from MODIS or the Sentinel 3 SLTSR (1 km). Additionally the two different bands in the midwave infrared (3.4 – 4.2 µm) and the long wave infrared (8.5-9.3 µm) allow not only the detection of hot spots but also the derivation of the fire radiative power (FRP) which is an quantitative measure for fire intensity. Thus, over the different days the decline in the area under fire can be observed as well as the decrease in fire intensity on August 14 compared to the days before.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT129/","category":"Wild Fire and Burn Scars","date":"2016-08-19T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Portugal"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[-8.1177,40.8516],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Forest fire exercise in Catalonia (Pilot demonstration PHAROS-System)","id":"ACT128","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT128/ACT128_tn.jpg","products":["ACT128/P01","ACT128/P02","ACT128/P03","ACT128/P04","ACT128/P05","ACT128/P06","ACT128/P07","ACT128/P08","ACT128/P09","ACT128/P10","ACT128/P11"],"description":"From the 2nd to 4th of March 2016 forest fire exercises by Catalonian firefighters and wildfire experts take place near the city of Solsona, Catalonia. These exercises are utilized as pilot demonstration for the PHAROS system in close cooperation with regional decision makers, and further supported by the DLR project VABENE++ and the ZKI.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT128/","category":"Exercise","date":"2016-03-01T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Spain"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[1.57223,42.0668],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Earthquake in Nepal on April 25, 2015","id":"ACT127","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT127/ACT127_tn.jpg","products":["ACT127/P01","ACT127/P02","ACT127/P03","ACT127/P04","ACT127/P05"],"description":"On April 25, 2015 a magnitude 7.8 earthquake hit the Himalayan region. The epicentre was located between the Nepalese capital Kathmandu and the city of Pokhara. The event and several aftershocks caused wide ranging destruction. Authorities estimate that more than 2000 people were killed and many more injured across Nepal and the neighbouring countries China, India and Bangladesh. The German Joint Information and Situation Centre (GMLZ) tasked the Center for Satellite Based Crisis Information (ZKI) with the creation of reference maps to support aid organization in their work on the ground.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT127/","category":"Earthquake","date":"2015-04-26T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Nepal"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[85.3082,27.7021],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Exercise of the Bavarian Red Cross (BRK), 25 April 2015, Kitzingen/Bavaria","id":"ACT126","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT126/ACT126_tn.jpg","products":["ACT126/P02"],"description":"On 24 and 25 April 2015, an exercise of the Bavarian Red Cross (BRK) of the local league Kitzingen, in cooperation witth civil security research unit of the German Red Cross (DRK), general secretary Berlin, has taken place on the former USAF airfield Kitzingen. During this exercise called “ConneKT 2015“, the immediate treatment of injuries as a consequence of a simulated tribune collapse as well as a CBRN situation was trained. This exercise was utilized by the BRK in cooperation with the German Aerospace Center (DLR), in order to get new insights in traffic management during emergency cases and in order to test the use of terrestrial and airborne monitoring systems contributing to situational awareness. During this exercise, current traffic and situational information and aerial imagery were acquired by DLR’s 3K camera system on board the Cessna 208B Grand Caravan. Furthermore, the information was visualized in near-real time mode at a mobile situation room. Further experiments included the use of a remote controlled micro aerial vehicle (MAV) and particularly terrestrial monitoring sensors, such as GPS instruments and traffic cameras. Main tasks of the ZKI included the creation of reference and situation maps in preparation of the exercise and current cartographic information derived from the aerial helicopter-based monitoring and image processing. Situational information was visualized via a web-mapping application as well as printed map products, and exchanged to the exercise control on-site.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT126/","category":"Exercise","date":"2015-04-25T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Germany"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[10.18,49.75],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Eruption of Calbuco Volcano in Chile","id":"ACT125","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT125/ACT125_tn.jpg","products":["ACT125/P01","ACT125/P02"],"description":"The Calbuco volcano in southern Chile erupted on Wednesday, 22 April 2015 for the first time in over 42 years sending a plume of ash into the sky. The eruption triggered a Red Alert in the Los Lagos Region of Chile. Thousands of people within a 20 km radius of the volcano have been evacuated. The International Charter Space and Major Disasters has been activated, where the DLR/ZKI contributes with the delivery of TerraSAR-X and RapidEye data and value added products. The volcano erupted twice in less than 24 hours. The first eruption on April 22, 2015 lasted over an hour, leaving a 10 km ash cloud. There had been no warning of the eruption, as the volcano had been dormant for decades and no activity had been expected. The second eruption occurred seven hours later on the following morning and early reports indicate that it was on the same scale as the first eruption.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT125/","category":"Volcanic Eruption","date":"2015-04-24T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Chile"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[-72.67,-41.27],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Eruption of Villarrica Volcano in Chile","id":"ACT124","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT124/ACT124_tn.jpg","products":["ACT124/P01","ACT124/P02"],"description":"Villarrica is one of Chile's most active volcanoes, and had been showing signs of activity since the start of February, leading to close observation of the volcano in the event that a eruption occurred. It finally erupted on 3 March 2015, sending ash and lava up into the sky in a display which was reportedly seen as far as 100 km away. Over two thousand people were evacuated from Pucon, and another thousand from Panguipulli, two communes close to the volcano. Authorities worried that mudslides caused by melting snow could endanger nearby communities, but no injuries were reported so far. The ash from the volcano could also pose a hazard to health. Meteorologists currently expect the ash cloud to be blown south and across remote parts of Argentina. The International Charter Space and Major Disasters has been activated, where the DLR/ZKI contributes with the delivery of TerraSAR-X and RapidEye data.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT124/","category":"Volcanic Eruption","date":"2015-03-05T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Chile"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[-71.94,-39.41],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Flood in Malawi","id":"ACT123","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT123/ACT123_tn.jpg","products":["ACT123/P01","ACT123/P02","ACT123/P03"],"description":"Wide spread rainfall associated with high rainfall amounts in the catchment areas of Shire and Zambesi rivers triggered flash floods and flooding in several areas in Southern Malawi and Mozambique. The International Charter Space and Major Disasters has been activated for this flood event. Here, the DLR/ZKI contributes with the delivery of TerraSAR-X data, the project management as well as value adding service. The information products were provided to the Department of Disaster Management Affairs of Malawi.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT123/","category":"Flood","date":"2015-01-13T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Malawi"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[35,-16.35],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Exercise of the Medical Task Force of Germany, 24 - 26. October 2014, Lehnin/Brandenburg","id":"ACT122","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT122/ACT122_tn.jpg","products":["ACT122/P01","ACT122/P02","ACT122/P03","ACT122/P04"],"description":"Between 24 and 26 October 2014, an exercise of the Medical Task Force of Germany (MTF) has taken place on the military training ground Lehnin, Landkreis Brandenburg-Mittelmark (Germany). During this exercise called Flinker Oktopus the immediate treatment of injuries as a consequence of an explosion of a fertilizer plant was trained. This exercise was utilized by the Federal Office of Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance (BBK) in cooperation with the German Aerospace Center (DLR), in order to get new insights in traffic management during emergency cases and in order to test the use of terrestrial and airborne monitoring systems contributing to situational awareness. During this exercise, current traffic and situational information, aerial imagery as well as Ultra HD Videos were acquired by the new DLR's 4k camera system on board the Eurocopter BO 105. Furthermore, the information was visualized in near-real time mode at a mobile situation room. Further experiments included the use of a remote controlled micro aerial vehicle (MAV) and particularly terrestrial monitoring sensors, such as GPS instruments and traffic cameras. Main tasks of the ZKI included the creation of reference and situation maps in preparation of the exercise and current cartographic information derived from the aerial helicopter-based monitoring. All information - which was visualized via printed maps and an interactive web-application - was directly delivered and exchanged to the exercise organizers on-site.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT122/","category":"Exercise","date":"2014-10-28T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Germany"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[12.473,52.17],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"German Unity Day 2014","id":"ACT121","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT121/ACT121_tn.jpg","products":["ACT121/P01"],"description":"For the preparation of the official festivities for the German Unity Day in Hannover on October 2nd and 3rd, 2014, the Center for Satellite Based Crisis Information (ZKI) provided reference information to the planning committee. A satellite image of August 28th, 2014 with a spatial solution of 0,5m provides an overview of the city of Hannover, which is complemented with information on infrastructure and foreseen parking space.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT121/","category":"Civil Security","date":"2014-10-20T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Germany"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[9.75043,52.3644],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Fires in the Dominican Republic","id":"ACT120","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT120/ACT120_tn.jpg","products":["ACT120/P01","ACT120/P02","ACT120/P03","ACT120/P04"],"description":"In July 20, 2014, several forest fires occurred in the Valle Nuevo National Park, La Vega Province, Dominican Republic. Approximately 4,700 hectares of pine and other ancient timber forest have been devastated. Around 700 firefighters were in action to get the fire under control.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT120/","category":"Wild Fire and Burn Scars","date":"2014-07-31T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Dominican Republic"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[-70.6811,18.7892],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Balkan floods: National Service ZKI-DE activated","id":"ACT119","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT119/ACT119_tn.jpg","products":["ACT119/P01","ACT119/P02"],"description":"The Balkans are enduring the worst floods since records began 120 years ago. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, more than one million people have been affected by the flood disaster. The floods may have dislodged thousands of landmines and contaminated drinking water resources. Several dam breaches have been reported along the Save river at the border of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia. The Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW) tasked the Center for Satellite Based Crisis Information (ZKI) with the creation of satellite based situational information for an area near the Bosnian City of Orasje. \r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT119/","category":"Flood","date":"2014-05-26T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Bosnia and Herzegovina"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[18.6949,45.0317],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Typhoon in Philippines","id":"ACT118","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT118/ACT118_tn.jpg","products":["ACT118/P01","ACT118/P02","ACT118/P03","ACT118/P04","ACT118/P05","ACT118/P06","ACT118/P07","ACT118/P08","ACT118/P09","ACT118/P10"],"description":"The typhoon Haiyan is one of the most powerful storms ever recognized, and has caused devastating demolition in the Philippines. Officials estimate more than 10,000 people have died. Hundreds of thousands of people are displaced. The Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW) tasked the Center for Satellite Based Crisis Information (ZKI) with the creation of satellite image based situation information. This mapping activity was performed in the context of the national service ZKI-DE which is operational since January 2013 and makes DLR products accessible for federal agencies in Germany through the German Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI). Furthermore, the German Joint Information and Situation Centre (GMLZ) activated the International Charter Space and Major Disasters which ensures that public and private operators of earth observation satellites provide fast and cost-free access to satellite images covering a disaster area. During this activation and in its role of a German Charter member, DLR acts as a satellite data provider for TerraSAR-X and RapidEye data.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT118/","category":"Severe Storm and Hurricane","date":"2013-11-11T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Philippines"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[122.975,10.5982],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Campaign for the airborne and satellite-based observation during Landesfeuerwehrtag Baden-Württemberg 2013","id":"ACT117","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT117/ACT117_tn.jpg","products":["ACT117/P01","ACT117/P02","ACT117/P03","ACT117/P04","ACT117/P05","ACT117/P06","ACT117/P07","ACT117/P08"],"description":"As the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in collaboration with the Federal Office of Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance (BBK) demonstrated in Stuttgart, Germany, remote sensing can significantly contribute to situation awareness in the context of civil defense. In the occasion of the Landesfeuerwehrtag in Stuttgart, DLR and BBK established a mobile situation room during June 28 and 29 2013. Several image products from different remote sensing platforms were allocated, preprocessed and analyzed. Meanwhile, interested attendants seized their chance to catch up on the work of DLRs scientists as well as to ask questions to them. In return, also DLR and BBK interviewed their guests in order to gather important knowledge for their further research. Is that made using a satellite? was probably the most frequently asked question emerged on the part of attendants taking a look on an image of the Schlossplatz in Stuttgart. Actually, this image is a product of DLRs air-borne 3K-camera system, which acquired optical imagery of the venue from 1700 meter height above ground. The imagery was immediately transferred to an antenna near the mobile ground station. Due to the fact that high buildings surrounded the ground station, the antenna had to be installed on a cherry picker from the fire brigade in order to ensure intervisibility of airplane and antenna. Additionally to air-borne imagery also a satellite image acquired a month before the event were demonstrated. This demonstration was arranged in the context of the national service ZKI-DE, which was established at the beginning of 2013 based on a frame contract between the Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI) and the German Aerospace Center in order to provide the access to remote sensing information for all ancillary public authorities of the BMI. \r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT117/","category":"Civil Security","date":"2013-06-20T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Germany"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[9.21,48.8],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Floods in Germany: National Service ZKI-DE activated","id":"ACT116","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT116/ACT116_tn.jpg","products":["ACT116/P01","ACT116/P02","ACT116/P03","ACT116/P04","ACT116/P05","ACT116/P06","ACT116/P07","ACT116/P08","ACT116/P09","ACT116/P10","ACT116/P11","ACT116/P12","ACT116/P13","ACT116/P14","ACT116/P15","ACT116/P16","ACT116/P17","ACT116/P18","ACT116/P19","ACT116/P20","ACT116/P21","ACT116/P22","ACT116/P23","ACT116/P24","ACT116/P25","ACT116/P26","ACT116/P27","ACT116/P28","ACT116/P29","ACT116/P30","ACT116/P30a","ACT116/P30b","ACT116/P31","ACT116/P32","ACT116/P33","ACT116/P34","ACT116/P34a","ACT116/P34b","ACT116/P35","ACT116/P36","ACT116/P37","ACT116/P38","ACT116/P39","ACT116/P40","ACT116/P41","ACT116/P42","ACT116/P43","ACT116/P44","ACT116/P45","ACT116/P46","ACT116/P47","ACT116/P48","ACT116/P49"],"description":"The German Joint Information and Situation Centre (GMLZ) tasked the Center for Satellite Based Crisis Information (ZKI) with the creation of satellite and aerial image-based situation information covering the regions most affected by the current floods in Thuringia, Saxony, Bavaria and Baden-Wuerttemberg. The request was made in the context of the national service ZKI-DE which is operational since January 2013 and makes DLR products accessible for federal agencies in Germany through the German Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI). The GMLZ is a facility of the German Federal Office of Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance (BBK). Furthermore, GMLZ activated the International Charter Space and Major Disasters which ensures that public and private operators of earth observation satellites provide fast and cost-free access to satellite images covering a disaster area. During this activation and in its role of a German Charter member, DLR acts as a satellite data provider (TerraSAR-X) as well as the Charter project manager. ZKI was able to deliver the first map products showing the disaster aereas to GMLZ in the early morning of June 4. For this products, data of the German radar-satellite TerraSAR-X were used which were acquired no more than 10 hours earlier and which were deliverd to ZKI at 23:00 CEST. \r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT116/","category":"Flood","date":"2013-06-03T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Germany"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[12.95,48.83],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"VABENE system test during evaluation event of Helmholtz Association, 22 - 24 April 2013, Cologne","id":"ACT115","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT115/ACT115_tn.jpg","products":["ACT115/P01","ACT115/P02"],"description":"During an evaluation event of the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres in Cologne Porz, between 22 and 24 April 2013, the German Aerospace Center is conducting a flight campaign within the VABENE project. Here, high resolution aerial imagery are acquired in real-time mode using the 3K+ aerial camera system. Imagery was used to perform real-time traffic monitoring. \r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT115/","category":"Exercise","date":"2013-04-12T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Germany"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[7.124,50.853],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Refugee / IDP Camp Mapping in Jordan","id":"ACT114","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT114/ACT114_tn.jpg","products":["ACT114/P01","ACT114/P02","ACT114/P03","ACT114/P04"],"description":"Ongoing violence in Syria has led thousands of people to leave their country and to flee to neighbouring Jordan. More than 40,000 people have found accomodation in Al Zaatari refugee camp and even more people are expected to arrive. In addition to this tense situation heavy rainfalls have caused severe damages during the last days. This mapping activity was performed in the context of the ZKI-DE Service for Federal Agencies in Germany based on the framework contract between the German Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI) and the German Aerospace Center (DLR). \r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT114/","category":"Flood","date":"2013-01-08T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Jordan"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[36.32,32.29],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"UEFA Champions League final, 19 May 2012, Munich, Germany","id":"ACT113","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT113/ACT113_tn.jpg","products":["ACT113/P01","ACT113/P02","ACT113/P03"],"description":"During the UEFA Champions League final on 19 May 2012 in Munich, Germany, the German Aerospace Centre conducted an exercise in cooperation with BBK Germany. During this exercise very high resolution imagery were acquired simultaneously applying three different sensor plattforms: Satellite (TerraSAR-X, Quickbird and Worldview-2), Airplane (the motor glider Antares) and Micro Air Vehicle (MAV). In addition ground based traffic data based on floating car data and inductions loops were used. The aim of this campaign was to evaluate the potential of a combined and synergistical use of these different sensor systems in order to support traffic and person monitoring and to analyse complex situations and prepardness including evacuation planning. \r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT113/","category":"Exercise","date":"2012-05-21T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Germany"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[11.6248,48.212],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Tropical storm in Mozambique","id":"ACT112","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT112/ACT112_tn.jpg","products":["ACT112/P01"],"description":"On March 2, 2012, Tropical storm IRINA struck Madagascar at about 00:00 GMT and is forecasted to strike Mozambique as a tropical cyclone at about 20:00 GMT on March 3. IRINA was expected to bring 1-minute maximum sustained winds to the region of around 130 km/h (80 mph). The cyclone was expected to cause heavy rain and flash flooding in Mozambique, and storm surges generally between 1.2 and 1.5 metres (4-5 feet). ZKI provided Geographic Reference maps in the framework of the GMES Emergency Response project SAFER with funding from the European Community`s Seventh Framework Programme. \r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT112/","category":"Severe Storm and Hurricane","date":"2012-03-02T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Mozambique"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[33.76,-25.43],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Flood in Bulgaria","id":"ACT111","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT111/ACT111_tn.jpg","products":["ACT111/P01"],"description":"Due to heavy snow that has covered Bulgaria in the beginning of February 2012, several dams were overflowing. On Monday, 6 February, the Ivanovo dam wall broke due to severe weather conditions. The released water inundated the villages of Biser and Leshnikovo in south eastern Bulgaria. Several other dams in this areas are also in risk of being damaged due to masses of water and snow.ZKI provides Flood Maps in the framework of the GMES Emergency Response project SAFER with funding from the European Community`s Seventh Framework Programme.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT111/","category":"Flood","date":"2012-02-10T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Bulgaria"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[26.05,41.8],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Flood in Mozambique","id":"ACT110","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT110/ACT110_tn.jpg","products":["ACT110/P01","ACT110/P02"],"description":"On January 16, 2012, Mozambique’s coast was hit by the tropical depression Dando followed by cyclone Funso. With wind speeds up to 220 km/h and torrential rains the storms have caused severe damages and floods. About 13,000 people as well as communication and infrastructure along the coast have been affected. ZKI provides Flood Maps in the framework of the GMES Emergency Response project SAFER with funding from the European Community`s Seventh Framework Programme. \r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT110/","category":"Flood","date":"2012-01-24T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Mozambique"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[33.3,-24.9],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Fires in Chile","id":"ACT109","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT109/ACT109_tn.jpg","products":["ACT109/P01","ACT109/P02","ACT109/P03","ACT109/P04"],"description":"Since December 27, 2011, a massive forest fire raged through the Torres del Paine National Park in Patagonia, Chile and has destroyed an area of about 125 sq km. Hundreds of military personnel and fire fighters were deployed at the scene to fight the blaze and managed to bring the fire under control on January 2, 2012.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT109/","category":"Wild Fire and Burn Scars","date":"2012-01-03T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Chile"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[-73,-51.11],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Forest fires in Bulgaria","id":"ACT108","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT108/ACT108_tn.jpg","products":["ACT108/P01"],"description":"On November 21, 2011, forest fires were reported near the village of Treklyano, Kjustendil province (western Bulgaria) in a mountanious area close to the Serbian border. On November 22, 2011 the GMES SAFER mechanism was activated through the National Focal Point of Bulgaria. High resolution, new and archive, optical satellite imagery were ordered. The DLR/ZKI map shows the burnt area extent derived by the analysis of Rapideye data acquired on November 25, 2011.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT108/","category":"Wild Fire and Burn Scars","date":"2011-11-23T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Bulgaria"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[22.288,42.358],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Forest fires in Romania","id":"ACT107","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT107/ACT107_tn.jpg","products":["ACT107/P01"],"description":"On November 06, 2011, heath and forest fires were reported in the mountain region near Sibiu in Romania. The map shows the burnt area extent derived by semi- automatic image analysis of SPOT-5 data (2.5 m resolution) acquired on November 08, 2011. As derived from the analysis of the satellite data an area of about 41 hectares mainly covered by natural grassland burnt down up to this date. Furthermore a more detailed view of the detected burnt areas is shown in the zoom boxes. On the satellite data of Novermber 08, 2011 no active fire locations could be observed. Nevertheless it is not possible to exclude smouldering fires. Orthorectified, radiometrically enhanced and pansharpened SPOT-5 imagery, acquired on November 08, 2011 serves as backdrop. \r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT107/","category":"Wild Fire and Burn Scars","date":"2011-11-08T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Romania"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[24.05,45.33],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Earthquake in Turkey on October 23, 2011","id":"ACT106","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT106/ACT106_tn.jpg","products":["ACT106/P01","ACT106/P02","ACT106/P03","ACT106/P04","ACT106/P05","ACT106/P06","ACT106/P07","ACT106/P08"],"description":"On Sunday October 23, 2011 an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.3 at 5 km depth hit the province of Van in eastern Turkey, followed by a series of powerful aftershocks of magnitudes up to 5.6. The epicentre was located at the village of Tabanli 19 km Northeast of the city of Van between the Van Lake and the Iranian border. Several municipalities around the Van Lake were affected. Especially Bitlis on the west side and and Ercis on the north side of the lake were hit severely. According to Turkish media phone lines and electricity had been cut off. Thus initial reports of damage and casualties have been hard to come by. First estimates speak of 87 deaths and about 1000 injuries. This number is expected to rise substantially.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT106/","category":"Earthquake","date":"2011-10-23T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Turkey"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[43.2,38.5],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Parking occupancy at the NRW-Day and German Unity Day, Bonn 2011, Germany.","id":"ACT105","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT105/ACT105_tn.jpg","products":["ACT105/P01","ACT105/P02","ACT105/P03","ACT105/P04","ACT105/P05","ACT105/P06","ACT105/P07","ACT105/P08"],"description":"On October, 2-3, 2011, a flight campaign was conducted within the VABENE project of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in close cooperation with the Bonn policy department. Within this campaign, high resolution aerial imagery using the 3K aerial photo camera have been acquired. In order to improve the traffic monitorring and to provide decision support to the Bonn police department in traffic-related issues, an analysis of the parking occupancy of the relevant parking spaces was conducted.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT105/","category":"Exercise","date":"2011-09-27T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Germany"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[7.09631,50.7327],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"EU CARPATHEX exercise on CBRN threats held in the Podkarpackie Region, Poland","id":"ACT104","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT104/ACT104_tn.jpg","products":["ACT104/P01","ACT104/P02","ACT104/P03","ACT104/P04","ACT104/P05"],"description":"EU CARPATHEX is a full scale exercise, which aims at improving the response of European Civil Protection Mechanisms to chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) threats. For that purpose, major emergency situations were simulated in the province Podkarpackie of Poland. In support of this exercise, maps were produced for the scenarios dealing with forest fire and flooding. ZKI provides maps for the EU CARPATHEX exercise taking place in Poland in the framework of GMES Emergency Response project SAFER with funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT104/","category":"Exercise","date":"2011-09-14T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Poland"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[21.7476,50.4972],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Floods in Pakistan ","id":"ACT103","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT103/ACT103_tn.jpg","products":["ACT103/P01","ACT103/P02","ACT103/P03","ACT103/P04","ACT103/P05","ACT103/P06"],"description":"After heavy monsoon rains in August and September 2011, the province Sindh in the south of Pakistan was hit by severe floods. More than 300 people have been killed and around 8 million acres of agricultural land have been affected. 1.8 million people have been made homeless, 7.5 million were affected by the floods, and thousands of villages have been swallowed up by the rising waters. According to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), all 23 districts of Sindh have been affected by the floods. ZKI provides Flood Maps in the framework of the GMES Emergency Response project SAFER with funding from the European Community`s Seventh Framework Programme. \r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT103/","category":"Flood","date":"2011-09-12T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Pakistan"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[68.7709,25.1914],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Famine in East Africa","id":"ACT102","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT102/ACT102_tn.jpg","products":["ACT102/P01","ACT102/P02","ACT102/P03","ACT102/P04","ACT102/P05","ACT102/P06","ACT102/P07","ACT102/P08","ACT102/P09","ACT102/P10","ACT102/P11","ACT102/P12","ACT102/P13","ACT102/P14","ACT102/P15","ACT102/P16","ACT102/P17","ACT102/P18","ACT102/P19","ACT102/P20","ACT102/P21","ACT102/P22","ACT102/P23","ACT102/P24","ACT102/P25","ACT102/P26","ACT102/P27","ACT102/P28","ACT102/P29","ACT102/P30","ACT102/P31","ACT102/P32"],"description":"East Africa was hit by the worst famine in more than 60 years, affecting about 3.7 Million people in Somalia alone. Due to the instable political situation in the country, the distribution of relief goods was immensely hampered. As a result thousands of people were fleeing from famine and violence to neighbouring countries, such as the Dolo Ado region of Ethiopia, which sheltered already about 120,000 people in developing refugee camps. To support the aid work of the German Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW) the ZKI produced maps of the Dolo Ado region showing the refugee camps along the Genale river between Dolo Ado and Bokol Mayo in Ethiopia. ZKI provided maps of the Dolo Ado region in the framework of GMES Emergency Response project SAFER with funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme. \r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT102/","category":"Humanitarian Crisis","date":"2011-07-28T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Ethiopia"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[41.8,4.22],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Explosion on naval base in Cyprus","id":"ACT101","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT101/ACT101_tn.jpg","products":["ACT101/P01"],"description":"On July 11, 2011, heavy explosions on the Evangelos Florakis Naval Base near Mari, southern Cyprus, killed 12 people, injured 64 and severely damaged the adjacent Vasilikos Power Station. Wildfires have led to the denotation of a confiscated munition storage. The power station which provided about 50% of Cyprus’ electricity supply has been knocked out causing widespread power cuts on the island. On July 19, 2011 the GMES SAFER mechanism was activated through the MIC on behalf of National Focal Point for Cyprus. Very high resolution optical satellite imagery were ordered. The first DLR/ZKI map showing the damage situation was provided on July 19, 2011. ZKI provides the maps in the framework of GMES Emergency Response project SAFER with funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT101/","category":"Technical Accident","date":"2011-07-19T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Cyprus"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[33.285,34.726],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Volcanic eruption in Chile","id":"ACT100","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT100/ACT100_tn.jpg","products":["ACT100/P01","ACT100/P02"],"description":"On June 4, 2011 the Puyehue Cordón-Caulle vulcano area in Chile has entered in an eruptive process, with explosions resulting in a 10 km high plume of ash. This has been reported by Servicio Nacional de Geología y Minería (SERNAGEOMIN), Observatorio Volcanológico de los Andes del Sur (OVDAS). Due to the massive eruptions large regions are covered with ash and pumice now. The National Emergency Office of Chile (ONEMI) issued a Red Alert in several communities of Región de Los Lagos. The authorities were forced to evacuate at least 4,000 people from areas near the volcano. The phenomenon also affected wide ranges of Argentina. While aircrafts cannot fly over the active volcano and optical satellites cannot look through clouds radar satellites are able to penetrate clouds and even the plume of ash, at least widely. So the monitoring of the eruption site and its surroundings can be supported effectively from space. TDX-1, one of the two German TerraSAR-X mission satellites, took the shown SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) images on June 6, 2011, at 23:38:55 UTC, i.e. at 19:38:55 local time and on June 8, 2011, at 10:00:11 UTC, i.e. at 06:00:11 local time.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT100/","category":"Volcanic Eruption","date":"2011-06-08T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Chile"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[-72.11,-40.59],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Dune fires in the Netherlands","id":"ACT099","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT099/ACT099_tn.jpg","products":["ACT099/P01"],"description":"On May 01, 2011, a major heath fire was reported in the coastal region near Schoorl, North Holland, Netherlands. The fires spread quickly and 160 fire officers and several helicopters were involved in tackling the blaze. On May 04, the fire was reported to be under control.On May 02, 2011 the GMES SAFER mechanism was activated through the National Focal Point of the Netherlands. Very high resolution new and archive optical satellite imagery were ordered. The DLR/ZKI map shows the burnt area extent derived by the analysis of GeoEye-1 data acquired on May 04, 2011.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT099/","category":"Wild Fire and Burn Scars","date":"2011-05-04T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Netherlands"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[4.66,52.69],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Forest fires in Bulgaria","id":"ACT098","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT098/ACT098_tn.jpg","products":["ACT098/P01"],"description":"Forest fires were reported on April 09, 2011, in south-western Bulgaria near the villages of Gostun and Osenovo. The fires destroyed more than 200 hectares of pine forests and have not been brought under control within the following two days. Mountainous parts and inaccessible terrain hampered fire suppressing activities of local fire brigades.On April 10, 2011 the GMES SAFER mechanism was activated through the National Focal Point for Bulgaria. High resolution and very high resolution new and archive optical satellite imagery were ordered. The first DLR/ZKI map, showing the burnt area extent on April 11, 2011, was produced on the same day.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT098/","category":"Wild Fire and Burn Scars","date":"2011-04-11T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Bulgaria"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[23.673,41.8016],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Earthquake and Tsunami in Japan","id":"ACT097","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT097/ACT097_tn.jpg","products":["ACT097/P01","ACT097/P02","ACT097/P03","ACT097/P04","ACT097/P05","ACT097/P06","ACT097/P07","ACT097/P08","ACT097/P09","ACT097/P10","ACT097/P11","ACT097/P12","ACT097/P13","ACT097/P14","ACT097/P15","ACT097/P16","ACT097/P17","ACT097/P18","ACT097/P19","ACT097/P20","ACT097/P21"],"description":"An earthquake of magnitude 8.8 hit north-east Japan followed by a series of powerful aftershocks and Tsunamis. The epicentre of the earthquake was located 400 km away from the capital Tokyo at a depth of 32 km. The earthquake occurred at 14:46 local time (05:46 GMT) on March 11. The areas most affected were the prefectures of Miyagi, Fukushima, and Iwate. The town of Sendai was severely affected and a tsunami of more than 10 m height hit the coastline. Massive surges of debris-filled water sweeped away buildings, cars and ships and were reaching far inland. Fires occurred in several cities, and nuclear power plants, refineries, airports, and parts of the transport networks were shut down. In addition to different disaster maps the ZKI as well provided an interactive web mapping component, making the visualization of selected satellite imagery and a comparison of images collected before and after the disaster possible. \r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT097/","category":"Tsunami","date":"2011-03-11T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Japan"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[140.83,38.3],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Civil unrest in Libya","id":"ACT096","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT096/ACT096_tn.jpg","products":["ACT096/P01","ACT096/P02","ACT096/P03","ACT096/P04","ACT096/P05","ACT096/P06","ACT096/P07"],"description":"The Libyan civil unrest began on 15 February 2011 as a series of protests and confrontations against the Government and its leader Muammad al-Gaddafi and has since become a widespread uprising which is continuing to present. Protests have centred on Libya's two largest cities, the capital of Tripoli in the west, and Benghazi in the east and tends to spread to other cities. ZKI provides rapid geographic reference maps of Libya and neighbouring countries in the framework of GMES Emergency Response project SAFER with funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT096/","category":"Civil Security","date":"2011-02-24T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Libya"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[24.7475,31.9566],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Oil spill in Norway","id":"ACT095","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT095/ACT095_tn.jpg","products":["ACT095/P01","ACT095/P02"],"description":"On February 17, 2011, the Icelandic vessel Godafoss stranded near the southern Norwegian coast, about 100 km south of Oslo. Two oil tanks of the vessel were breached and an oil spill threatened the Ytre Hvaler Marine National Park. ZKI provides disaster extent maps in the framework of GMES Emergency Response project SAFER with funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT095/","category":"Technical Accident","date":"2011-02-19T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Norway"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[10.97,59.04],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Floods in Germany","id":"ACT094","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT094/ACT094_tn.jpg","products":["ACT094/P01","ACT094/P02","ACT094/P03","ACT094/P04","ACT094/P05","ACT094/P06","ACT094/P07","ACT094/P08","ACT094/P09","ACT094/P10","ACT094/P11","ACT094/P12","ACT094/P13","ACT094/P14","ACT094/P15","ACT094/P16","ACT094/P17","ACT094/P18","ACT094/P19","ACT094/P20","ACT094/P21","ACT094/P22","ACT094/P23","ACT094/P24","ACT094/P25","ACT094/P26","ACT094/P27","ACT094/P28","ACT094/P29"],"description":"The combination of snow and ice melting as well as heavy rainfall caused floods along many rivers in Germany, among them the Rivers Oder, Saale and Weiße Elster in eastern Germany, and the Rivers Rhine and Mosel in western Germany. After first flood waves in early January and afterwards decreasing water levels, many regions are threatened again by floods in mid-January due to new rainfalls. ZKI provides disaster extent maps in the framework of GMES Emergency Response project SAFER with funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT094/","category":"Flood","date":"2011-01-10T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Germany"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[14.1,52.8],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Floods in Albania","id":"ACT093","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT093/ACT093_tn.jpg","products":["ACT093/P01"],"description":"Three weeks of heavy rainfall and recent snow melt caused flooding in the northwestern regions of Albania in December 2010. More than 12,000 people have been moved from their homes. The situation around the town of Shkoder is described as critical, with 2500 homes and 14,000 hectares of agricultural land under water. ZKI provides Reference and Flood Maps in the framework of the GMES Emergency Response project SAFER with funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT093/","category":"Flood","date":"2010-12-07T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Albania"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[19.4663,42.031],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Floods in Croatia","id":"ACT092","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT092/ACT092_tn.jpg","products":["ACT092/P01","ACT092/P02","ACT092/P03","ACT092/P04"],"description":"Increased water inflow from storage lakes, snow melt and strong precipitation caused floods in various parts of Croatia in the beginning of December, 2010. Numerous roads and towns have been inundated. Among the most affected areas are the surroundings of Metkovi? and the county of Lika-Senj. ZKI provides Reference and Flood Maps in the framework of the GMES Emergency Response project SAFER with funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT092/","category":"Flood","date":"2010-12-02T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Croatia"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[15.2716,44.7042],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Hurricane Tomas in Haiti, November 2010","id":"ACT091","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT091/ACT091_tn.jpg","products":["ACT091/P01"],"description":"On November 5, 2010 Winds of up to 80 mph ripped through parts of Haiti as the tropical storm Tomas grew into a Category 1 hurricane. One of the hardest hit area was Leogane, where flooding forced families to flee. In the capital, Port-au-Prince, Tomas turned streets into canals of flowing garbage.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT091/","category":"Severe Storm and Hurricane","date":"2010-11-07T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Haiti"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[-72.27,18.57],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Tsunami in Indonesia, October 2010","id":"ACT090","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT090/ACT090_tn.jpg","products":["ACT090/P01","ACT090/P02","ACT090/P03","ACT090/P04","ACT090/P05","ACT090/P06","ACT090/P07","ACT090/P08","ACT090/P09","ACT090/P10"],"description":"On October 25, 2010 a tsunami triggered by an earthquake off the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia, killed more than 300 people. Numerous houses were destroyed by the tsunami flood waves. The earthquake with a magnitude of 7.7 struck 20km (13 miles) below the sea floor close to the Mentawai islands. ZKI provides reference and damage extent maps within the framework of the International Charter Space and Major Disasters. This mapping activity is done in close cooperation with the Indonesian National Institute of Aeronautics and Space (LAPAN).\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT090/","category":"Tsunami","date":"2010-10-29T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Indonesia"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[100,-2.62],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Mudflood in Hungary, October 2010","id":"ACT089","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT089/ACT089_tn.jpg","products":["ACT089/P01","ACT089/P02","ACT089/P03","ACT089/P04"],"description":"On October 04, 2010, a reservoir dam holding waste of an aluminium plant broke near the village Kolontár in the Veszprém district of Hungary. The emergent mud flood mixed with flood water from a stream and swept through the villages Kolontár, Devecser and Somlóvásárhely and the surrounding country. ZKI provides Reference and Flood Maps in the framework of the GMES Emergency Response project SAFER with funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT089/","category":"Technical Accident","date":"2010-10-11T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Hungary"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[17.43,47.08],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Floods on the river Schwarze Elster (Germany) 2010","id":"ACT088","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT088/ACT088_tn.jpg","products":["ACT088/P01","ACT088/P02","ACT088/P03","ACT088/P04","ACT088/P05","ACT088/P06","ACT088/P07","ACT088/P08"],"description":"On September 30, 2010, heavy rainfall caused a dam to breach on the river Schwarze Elster near the village of Meuselko in the Wittenberg district of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. As a result of this fields and forests were flooded. The water threatened to destabilize other dykes in the region. ZKI provides Reference and Flood Maps in the framework of the GMES Emergency Response project SAFER with funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme. \r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT088/","category":"Flood","date":"2010-10-06T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Germany"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[13,51.78],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Flood in Slovenia, September 2010","id":"ACT087","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT087/ACT087_tn.jpg","products":["ACT087/P01","ACT087/P02","ACT087/P03","ACT087/P04","ACT087/P05","ACT087/P06"],"description":"Due to heavy rainfall since September 17, 2010 large areas in Slovenia are affected by floods. The most affected areas are the capital Ljubljana and its surroundings as well as the region Posavje in the south-eastern part of Slovenia. Thousands of people have been affected or are threatened by water. Many roads and houses in a number of towns and villages are flooded. ZKI provides Reference and Flood Maps in the framework of the GMES Emergency Response project SAFER with funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT087/","category":"Flood","date":"2010-09-21T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Slovenia"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[14.97,45.963],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Flood in Senegal, September 2010","id":"ACT086","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT086/ACT086_tn.jpg","products":["ACT086/P01","ACT086/P02","ACT086/P03"],"description":"Due to heavy rainfall since September 2, 2010 large areas in Senegal are affected by floods. One of the most affected areas is the capital Dakar with its suburban areas, affecting more than 30,000 households. According to information received from UN-OCHA some roads as well as critical infrastructure are blocked by water.ZKI provides Reference and Flood Maps in the framework of the GMES Emergency Response project SAFER with funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT086/","category":"Flood","date":"2010-09-10T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Senegal"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[-15.6,13.8806],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Flooding along the river Niger in August 2010","id":"ACT085","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT085/ACT085_tn.jpg","products":["ACT085/P01","ACT085/P02","ACT085/P03","ACT085/P04"],"description":"Since June West and Central Africa was suffering from a severe drought. In early August (7th to 9th of August) a large low pressure system caused heavy rains resulting in floods along the Niger river. Thousands of homes were flooded, especially in the surroundings of Niamey. As the water levels are not receding significantly due to ongoing rainfall, the risk of waterborne diseases is rising. ZKI provides Reference and Flood Maps in the framework of the GMES Emergency Response project SAFER with funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT085/","category":"Flood","date":"2010-08-12T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Niger"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[2.09422,13.5117],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Floods on the River Neisse (border triangle Czech Republic-Poland-Germany)","id":"ACT084","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT084/ACT084_tn.jpg","products":["ACT084/P01"],"description":"Beginning of August 2010 heavy rains in Central Europe caused floods in the border triangle of Czech Republic, Poland and Germany. Although a lot of effort was put in evacuating people, several persons died due to the inundations and severe damages to households and infrastructure were reported. The most affected region on German territory was the Free State of Saxony, which had to fight against very fast rising water levels. Therefore, in many Saxon districts emergency alert was triggered. ZKI provides Reference and Flood Maps in the framework of the GMES Emergency Response project SAFER with funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT084/","category":"Flood","date":"2010-08-11T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Germany"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[14.9356,51.0565],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Flood in Pakistan, July and August 2010","id":"ACT083","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT083/ACT083_tn.jpg","products":["ACT083/P01","ACT083/P02","ACT083/P03","ACT083/P04","ACT083/P05","ACT083/P06","ACT083/P07","ACT083/P08","ACT083/P09","ACT083/P10"],"description":"In July and August, 2010, after heavy monsoon rains, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan, was hit by severe floods. Estimates speak of at least 1,300 people killed, 3.700 houses destroyed and 45 bridges swept away. More than a million people were directly affected by the flood. ZKI provides Reference and Flood Maps in the framework of the GMES Emergency Response project SAFER with funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT083/","category":"Flood","date":"2010-08-03T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Pakistan"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[70.933,31.8264],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Flood in Burkina Faso","id":"ACT082","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT082/ACT082_tn.jpg","products":["ACT082/P01","ACT082/P02","ACT082/P03","ACT082/P04","ACT082/P05"],"description":"In mid-July the entire Sahel of western Africa was affected by heavy rainfall. In Burkina Faso the weather changed abruptly from dry to wet with very heavy rainfall on 21st and 22nd July. This resulted in extensive flooding with severe damages and many people lost their livelihood. ZKI provides Reference and Flood Maps in the framework of the GMES Emergency Response project SAFER with funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT082/","category":"Flood","date":"2010-07-31T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Burkina Faso"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[0.660852,13.3476],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Flooding in Bulgaria","id":"ACT081","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT081/ACT081_tn.jpg","products":["ACT081/P01","ACT081/P02","ACT081/P03","ACT081/P04","ACT081/P05","ACT081/P06","ACT081/P07"],"description":"Since mid of July, heavy rainfalls have caused extensive floodings in Bulgaria. The floods affected especially the Pazardzhik district in central southern Bulgaria. The main road between Pazardhzik and Plovdiv as well as the highway between Sofia and Plovidiv have been flooded. Further roads and houses in a number of towns and villages in the region have been affected or are threatened by water.ZKI provides Reference and Flood Maps in the framework of the GMES Emergency Response project SAFER with funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT081/","category":"Flood","date":"2010-07-27T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Bulgaria"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[24.477,42.2944],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Flood in Romania and Moldova","id":"ACT080","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT080/ACT080_tn.jpg","products":["ACT080/P01","ACT080/P02","ACT080/P03","ACT080/P04","ACT080/P05","ACT080/P06","ACT080/P07","ACT080/P08","ACT080/P09","ACT080/P10","ACT080/P11","ACT080/P12","ACT080/P13","ACT080/P14","ACT080/P15","ACT080/P16","ACT080/P17","ACT080/P18","ACT080/P19","ACT080/P20","ACT080/P21"],"description":"End of June 2010, heavy rainfalls unleashed floods in northern and eastern Romania. Numerous people were reported dead and hundreds had to be evacuated from their homes. Several roads and hundreds of hectares of farmland were inundated, dozens of houses destroyed and several bridges damaged. Further rain is predicted for the following days which will tighten the flood situation. ZKI provides Reference and Flood Maps in the framework of the GMES Emergency Response project SAFER with funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT080/","category":"Flood","date":"2010-06-29T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Romania"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[28.0384,46.9083],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Tropical Cyclone Phet - Flash flood along the Sindh Coast of Karachi","id":"ACT079","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT079/ACT079_tn.jpg","products":["ACT079/P01"],"description":"On June 6, 2010 the tropical cyclone Phet made landfall at the town of Thatta in Pakistan, 50 km South of Karachi. Strong rain intensity as a consequence of the cyclone led to collapsing mud houses and submerging roads in Karachi and surrounding areas. ZKI provides Flood Maps for the World Food Programme in the framework of the GMES Emergency Response project SAFER with funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT079/","category":"Flood","date":"2010-06-10T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Pakistan"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[67.7492,24.41],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Floods on the River Oder (German-Polish Border)","id":"ACT078","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT078/ACT078_tn.jpg","products":["ACT078/P01","ACT078/P02","ACT078/P03","ACT078/P04","ACT078/P05","ACT078/P06","ACT078/P07","ACT078/P08","ACT078/P09","ACT078/P10","ACT078/P11","ACT078/P12"],"description":"During the middle of May, a low-pressure area over Ukraine lead to a very intense rainfall in southern Poland. Between May 16, 2010 and May 18, 2010 a rainfall amount of 300 l/m² was registered in the catchment area of the Oder (Southern Poland and Czech Republic). These heavy rainfall intensities lead to inundations of the Oder. The flood peak finally reached Germany on May 27, 2010 in Ratzdorf (at the mouth of the River Neisse). Although the flood peak of the devastating flood event of 1997 were not reached, flood warnings (stage IV) and flood protection measures were initiated for the flood-prone areas of Brandenburg/Germany. Dikes are constantly monitored and locally reinforced ZKI provides Flood Maps for German and Polish authorities in the framework of the GMES Emergency Response project SAFER with funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT078/","category":"Flood","date":"2010-05-28T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Germany"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[14.5592,52.3401],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Floods in Sri Lanka on May 14, 2010","id":"ACT077","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT077/ACT077_tn.jpg","products":["ACT077/P01","ACT077/P02","ACT077/P03","ACT077/P04","ACT077/P05","ACT077/P06","ACT077/P07","ACT077/P08","ACT077/P09","ACT077/P10","ACT077/P11","ACT077/P12","ACT077/P13"],"description":"Since Friday, 14 May 2010, heavy monsoon rains resulted in high water levels, flash floods and landslides in 14 districts, particularly in the south-western parts of Sri Lanka. Altogether, more than 500,000 persons are affected by the floods, including displacement of more than 17,000 people and 20 deaths.This mapping activity was performed in the context of the GMES Emergency Response Project SAFER with funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT077/","category":"Flood","date":"2010-05-21T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Sri Lanka"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[79.943,7.04786],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Oil spill disaster after the loss of the oil rig 'Deepwater Horizon' in the Gulf of Mexico","id":"ACT076","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT076/ACT076_tn.jpg","products":["ACT076/P01","ACT076/P02","ACT076/P03","ACT076/P04","ACT076/P05","ACT076/P06","ACT076/P07","ACT076/P08","ACT076/P09","ACT076/P10","ACT076/P11"],"description":"On April 21, 2010 a momentous explosion occured on the oil rig Deepwater Horizon located in the Gulf of Mexico about 80 km off the coast of Louisiana, USA. The oil rig caught fire and 11 workers were missing after the incident and are believed to be dead. On the following day the oil rig sank to the seafloor about 1500 m below the surface and approximately 400 m northwest of the well. An estimation of up to 800.000 litres of oil are leaking from three places of the well and threaten the marine ecosystem of the Gulf of Mexico, the ecologically sensitive Mississippi delta as well as the coast of Luisiana, USA. Efforts to stop the leakage have not been successful to date. The crisis escalated to a cause of national importance and for the most affected State of Louisiana the state of emergency has been declared. During several overpasses over the Gulf of Mexico the German TerraSAR-X Satellite acquired radar images showing the extensive oil spill on the sea surface caused by the oil rig disaster. The ZKI maps illustrate the extent of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico at several times as well as its evolution based on the TerraSAR-X data.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT076/","category":"Technical Accident","date":"2010-04-28T00:00:00.000Z","country":"United States"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[-88.3869,28.7367],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Exercise: Traffic flows and area occupation analysis at 'bauma' trade fair in Munich, Germany","id":"ACT075","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT075/ACT075_tn.jpg","products":["ACT075/P01","ACT075/P02","ACT075/P03","ACT075/P04","ACT075/P05","ACT075/P06","ACT075/P07","ACT075/P08"],"description":"On April 24, 2010, during the 'bauma 2010' trade fair, the VABENE project of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) cooperated with the Munich police department in an exercise using the 3K aerial photo camera. An analysis of the traffic flows and occupation of available parking space was part of the exercise, as an example of possible ancillary information in the case of a large-scale event.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT075/","category":"Exercise","date":"2010-04-22T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Germany"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[11.6961,48.1376],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Earthquake in the Qinghai province in China on April 14, 2010","id":"ACT073","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT073/ACT073_tn.jpg","products":["ACT073/P01","ACT073/P02","ACT073/P03","ACT073/P04"],"description":"On April 14, 2010, an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.9 hit the Yushu prefecture in the Qinghai province of China, followed by several aftershocks. Many hundred people were reported dead, injured or missing. Buildings collapsed or were severly damaged. Road network and communication lines were interrupted. This mapping activity was performed in the context of the GMES Emergency Response Project SAFER with funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT073/","category":"Earthquake","date":"2010-04-14T00:00:00.000Z","country":"China"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[97.2454,32.9932],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Earthquake in Turkey on March 8, 2010","id":"ACT072","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT072/ACT072_tn.jpg","products":["ACT072/P01","ACT072/P02"],"description":"On March 8, 2010, an earthquake of magnitude 6.0 struck the eastern part of Turkey near the city of Elazig. Many aftershocks followed. Numerous residential buildings in the adjacent villages were distroyed, according to press reports 51 people were killed and hundreds became homeless. This mapping activity was performed in the context of the GMES Emergency Response Project SAFER with funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT072/","category":"Earthquake","date":"2010-03-10T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Turkey"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[40.0645,38.8141],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Floods in Hungary on March 2010","id":"ACT071","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT071/ACT071_tn.jpg","products":["ACT071/P01","ACT071/P02","ACT071/P03","ACT071/P04","ACT071/P05"],"description":"The Tisza is the second largest river in Hungary and the longest confluent of the Danube. Despite of last years' river training efforts, there are often floodings along the river. This happened at the end of February and beginning of March 2010, when snow melting and rainfalls resulted in rising water levels. Large areas of agricultural land were flooded. This mapping activity was performed in the context of the GMES Emergency Response Project SAFER with funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT071/","category":"Flood","date":"2010-03-08T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Hungary"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[20.3077,47.088],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Flooding in Madeira on February 20, 2010","id":"ACT070","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT070/ACT070_tn.jpg","products":["ACT070/P01","ACT070/P02","ACT070/P03","ACT070/P04","ACT070/P05","ACT070/P06","ACT070/P07","ACT070/P08"],"description":"Heavy rainfall on Saturday, 20th of February caused floods and landslides on the Atlantic island of Madeira. At least 48 people were reported dead and 120 injured, while some were still missing. The higher parts of the capital Funchal were hit particularly bad where complete houses were swept away. Furthermore, many roads on the island were destroyed or blocked.This mapping activity was performed in the context of the GMES Emergency Response Project SAFER with funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT070/","category":"Flood","date":"2010-02-23T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Portugal"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[-16.9102,32.6488],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Earthquakes in Haiti on January 12, 2010","id":"ACT069","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT069/ACT069_tn.jpg","products":["ACT069/P01","ACT069/P02","ACT069/P03","ACT069/P04","ACT069/P05","ACT069/P06","ACT069/P07","ACT069/P08","ACT069/P09","ACT069/P10","ACT069/P11","ACT069/P12","ACT069/P13","ACT069/P14","ACT069/P15","ACT069/P16","ACT069/P17","ACT069/P18","ACT069/P19","ACT069/P20","ACT069/P21","ACT069/P22","ACT069/P23","ACT069/P24","ACT069/P25-A","ACT069/P25-B","ACT069/P25-C","ACT069/P26","ACT069/P27","ACT069/P28","ACT069/P29","ACT069/P30","ACT069/P31","ACT069/P32","ACT069/P33","ACT069/P34"],"description":"On January 12, 2010 a severe earthquake took place at the Coast of Haiti with a magnitude of 7.0 causing major damage. The epicentre was registred about 10 km deep and 16 km southwest of the capital city Port-au-Prince. In the city a large number of buildings such as the palace, government and UN-buildings, embassies and hospitals were affected or destroyed. Telecommunication as well as electricity and water supply failed. This mapping activity was performed in the context of the GMES Emergency Response Project SAFER with funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT069/","category":"Earthquake","date":"2010-01-13T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Haiti"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[-72.3412,18.5421],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Floods in Albania on January 2010","id":"ACT068","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT068/ACT068_tn.jpg","products":["ACT068/P01","ACT068/P02","ACT068/P03","ACT068/P04","ACT068/P05","ACT068/P06","ACT068/P07","ACT068/P08"],"description":"Heavy rainfalls and unusually warm weather have caused flooding in the northwestern region of Albania since January 4, 2010. Furthermore, the authorities were forced to open the gates of a hydropower station dam to prevent it from breaking. More than 3,500 people have already been evacuated and more than 2000 houses and 10,500 hectares of agricultural land are flooded. The International Charter on Space and Major Disasters was triggered to provide satellite imagery for flood mapping and to support the aid response. This mapping activity was performed in the context of the GMES Emergency Response Project SAFER with funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT068/","category":"Flood","date":"2010-01-08T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Albania"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[19.4222,41.96],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Earthquakes in Sumatra / Indonesia on September 30 and October 1, 2009","id":"ACT067","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT067/ACT067_tn.jpg","products":["ACT067/P01","ACT067/P02","ACT067/P03","ACT067/P04","ACT067/P05","ACT067/P06","ACT067/P07","ACT067/P08","ACT067/P09","ACT067/P10","ACT067/P11","ACT067/P12"],"description":"On September 30, 2009, a severe earthquake took place in the Indian Ocean with a magnitude of 7.9 and several aftershocks. The epicentre was registered about 50 km north-eastern of Padang in a depth of 85 km. Heavy shocks caused the collapse of many buildings and bridges, fires broke out and major parts of the technical infrastructure failed. More than 770 people died, much more than 2100 are injured (information of October 2, 2009). A second quake with a magnitude of 6.6 occured hours later on October 1 near the town of Sungai Penuh. Here as well, hundreds of houses were damaged, two people died and a large number became injured or homeless. Strong rain made rescue work difficult and caused landslides in some areas of the affected region. Severe damage is reported from the city of Pariaman, about 50 km north of Padang. The International Charter on Space and Major Disasters was triggered to provide post-disaster satellite imagery for damage mapping and to support the aid response.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT067/","category":"Earthquake","date":"2009-10-01T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Indonesia"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[100.4,-0.91],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Flash floods near Istanbul, Turkey, September 11th, 2009","id":"ACT066","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT066/ACT066_tn.jpg","products":["ACT066/P01","ACT066/P02"],"description":"Heavy rainfall has caused severe flooding in Istanbul and northwestern Turkey on September 8, 2009, killing at least 30 people, destroying bridges and flooding houses and streets. The map shows pre-event water extents (as detected on March 24, 2009) in the area west of Istanbul, compared to those analysed on September 11, 2009, after the event. Also annotated are areas which appear moist in the radar data. The analysis was based on Radarsat-1 scenes of August 19 and 25, 1999, Radarsat-2 data of September 11, 2009 and TerraSAR-X ScanSAR data of March 3, 2009 and September 11, 2009. As backdrop a SPOT image acquired on July 7, 2007 was used. Streets have been digitised on the basis of the SPOT image and may only show an extract of the entire road network.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT066/","category":"Flood","date":"2009-09-12T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Turkey"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[28.7082,41.0931],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Forest fires in Greece","id":"ACT065","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT065/ACT065_tn.jpg","products":["ACT065/P01","ACT065/P02","ACT065/P03","ACT065/P04","ACT065/P05","ACT065/P06","ACT065/P07","ACT065/P08","ACT065/P09"],"description":"Several forest fires occurred since August 21, 2009 in the prefecture Attica, north-east of Athen, Greece. The fires, fanned by strong winds, destroyed thousands of hectares of forest land, farming fields and olive groves. Many residents had to be evacuated from their homes. The maps show burnt areas derived by the analysis of SPOT 5 satellite data acquired on 25/08/2009 and the location of active fire hot spots on different days. ZKI of DLR is continuously monitoring the fire situation in Europe with the help of the MODIS Fire Information System. It uses the receiving stations of the German Remote Sensing Data Center and processes the data automatically. Due to the severe situation in Greece, the fire information for this area is published on this dedicated ZKI webpage.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT065/","category":"Wild Fire and Burn Scars","date":"2009-08-24T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Greece"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[23.9297,38.1174],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Forest fires on the Canary Island of La Palma, Spain","id":"ACT064","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT064/ACT064_tn.jpg","products":["ACT064/P01"],"description":"Several forest fires occurred between July 31, 2009 and August 3, 2009 on the Canary Island of La Palma, Spain. 30 houses and several vineyards were destroyed. More than 4000 residents were evacuated from the area on August 1, 2009. The map shows the burnt areas as well as the locations of active fires between July 31, 2009 and August 3, 2009. The burnt areas were derived through the analysis of two Spot 5 scenes (pre-disaster: 30/07/2007, post-disaster: 07/08/2009). The locations of active fires were automatically derived from MODIS data. Additionally, the ratio between pre-fire land use type and the total area burnt is shown in percent.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT064/","category":"Wild Fire and Burn Scars","date":"2009-08-08T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Spain"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[-17.8308,28.5489],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Forest fires in Sardinia, Italy","id":"ACT063","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT063/ACT063_tn.jpg","products":["ACT063/P01","ACT063/P02"],"description":"From July 23, 2009, to July 25, 2009, several forest fires occurred in Sardinia, Italy, causing at least 2 deaths. Many residents had to leave their homes. The maps show the burnt areas and the spread of the fires. The burnt areas were derived by a classification of ALOS AVNIR-2 and SPOT4 data with a resolution of 10 m and 20 m respectively, acquired on July 28, 2009. The MODIS fire hotspots show the location of active fires from July 23, 2009, to July 25, 2009. The fire hotspots were detected automatically.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT063/","category":"Wild Fire and Burn Scars","date":"2009-07-29T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Italy"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[8.82,40.4096],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Landslide in Nachterstedt, Germany, July 18th, 2009, at around 5:40 AM","id":"ACT062","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT062/ACT062_tn.jpg","products":["ACT062/P01","ACT062/P02","ACT062/P03","ACT062/P04","ACT062/P05"],"description":"A landslide occurred on July 18, 2009, at around 5:40 AM in Nachterstedt in the German state Saxony-Anhalt. The resulting breakline has a length of 350 m. A two-story building, parts of an apartment building and parts of a street slid down. The former mining area was still at risk of further earth movements after the event and only limited access is granted even to rescue workers. The maps produced by ZKI are based on aerial images acquired on July 22, 2009. Post-disaster data is compared to pre-disaster imagery of the area, acquired on May 5, 2006. They are produced in the frame of DLR's ARGOS project (Airborne Wide Area High Altitude Monitoring System). \r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT062/","category":"Landslide","date":"2009-07-22T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Germany"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[11.3394,51.8064],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Landslide in Aini Jamoat, Tajikistan","id":"ACT061","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT061/ACT061_tn.jpg","products":["ACT061/P01"],"description":"On May 14th, 2009, heavy rainfall led to a mudflow in Aini Jamoat in the Khatlon province in western Tajikistan. About 6000 people were affected by the event, 200 houses were destroyed and about 300 families had to be displaced. The disaster site is located 30 km from Kurgan Teppa city and 75 km south of the capital city of Dushanbe. Continuous heavy rains since April 20, 2009, have caused floods and mud flows in more than 25 districts of Tajikistan in which 21 people were killed. The area of Aini Jamoat, Khuroson District, Khatlon Province, was hit twice. An earlier mudflow on April 21, 2009, destroyed 66 houses and left 114 families without home. Two tent camps were established to provide shelter for people who were affected by the two mudflows. The Center for Satellite Based Crisis Information (ZKI) at DLR produced a detailed map of the affected region at the northern suburban area of Aini Jamoat. The map shows the affected area and source area of the mud flow based on a comparison of a pre-disaster SPOT-5 image taken on September 6, 2007, and a corresponding post-disaster image from the same sensor taken on May 17th, 2009.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT061/","category":"Landslide","date":"2009-05-18T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Tajikistan"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[68.69,37.99],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Flooding in Maranhão and Piauí, Brazil","id":"ACT060","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT060/ACT060_tn.jpg","products":["ACT060/P01","ACT060/P02","ACT060/P03","ACT060/P04","ACT060/P05","ACT060/P06","ACT060/P07"],"description":"In April and May, 2009, heavy and long lasting rainfall led to serious flooding in the north of Brazil. Ten of the 26 states of Brazil were heavily affected by the floods. Several people were killed and more than 300,000 displaced. Most of the fatalities have occurred in Brazil's northeast. The Center for Satellite Based Crisis Information (ZKI) at DLR produced pre-disaster overview maps of affected regions around the river Rio Parnaíba and the São Marcos bay area in the northeast of Brazil. Cities, airports, road and rail networks are depicted in the map.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT060/","category":"Flood","date":"2009-05-11T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Brazil"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[-41.64,-3.12],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"NATO summit in Strasbourg / France","id":"ACT059","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT059/ACT059_tn.jpg","products":["ACT059/P01","ACT059/P02","ACT059/P03","ACT059/P04","ACT059/P05","ACT059/P06","ACT059/P07"],"description":"On April 4, 2009, the leaders of the 26 NATO countries met in Kehl and Strasbourg. Extensive security measures were being implemented in both cities. In the course of the ARGOS project, satellite images of both cities on that day were taken to provide examples for the possibilities and limitations of satellite-based analyses of large-scale events.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT059/","category":"Other","date":"2009-04-02T00:00:00.000Z","country":"France"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[7.77,48.58],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Flooding of Kavango, Namibia and Angola","id":"ACT058","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT058/ACT058_tn.jpg","products":["ACT058/P01","ACT058/P02","ACT058/P03"],"description":"Heavy rains in Angola and parts of Zambia's Western Province led to flooding in Namibia's north and north-eastern parts. On March 18, 2009, emergency was declared in the concerned areas where floods have caused large-scale destruction to homes, schools, health facilities, mahangu and maize fields and infrastructure. The maps show the area around Rundu (Namibia) and Calai (Angola), two towns situated along the Cubango River bank.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT058/","category":"Flood","date":"2009-03-25T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Namibia"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[19.51,-17.86],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Severe flooding in northern Namibia","id":"ACT057","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT057/ACT057_tn.jpg","products":["ACT057/P01","ACT057/P02","ACT057/P03","ACT057/P04","ACT057/P05","ACT057/P06","ACT057/P07","ACT057/P08","ACT057/P09","ACT057/P10","ACT057/P11","ACT057/P12","ACT057/P13","ACT057/P14","ACT057/P15","ACT057/P16","ACT057/P17","ACT057/P18","ACT057/P19","ACT057/P20"],"description":"Similar to the year before, severe flooding affected northern Namibia due to heavy local rains and inflow of water from northern regions during late February and March 2009. Due to the complex drainage pattern in the region, satellite observation is an important tool to provide an overview of the large area flood situation, which is of very patchy character in the areas affected. Analysis of a sequence of satellite imagery taken between 20th February and 6th March over the northern Omusati region shows that water levels were rising in the flood area and partly surpassed the levels of March 2008.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT057/","category":"Flood","date":"2009-03-01T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Namibia"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[15.86,-17.61],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Demonstration of traffic monitoring from space - Example case: Australian bushfires","id":"ACT056","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT056/ACT056_tn.jpg","products":["ACT056/P01"],"description":"A traffic monitoring system developed by the Remote Sensing Technology Institute (IMF) of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) allows the monitoring of instantaneous traffic circulation also during disasters. This nearly fully automatic processor was tested by ZKI during the devastating bushfires in Australia in early February 2009. In catastrophes such as this, a safe knowledge which roads can still be used is very important. On the one hand, people may have to be evacuated and on the other hand, the fire brigades and ambulances must find their way into the disaster area. A good indicator of whether a road can be used is when it can be proven that there is ongoing traffic. The map shows the traffic situation on February 10, 2009, at 9:08 am UTC (08:08 pm local Melbourne time). The velocity of the vehicles (mainly trucks) was extracted from a TerraSAR-X StripMap scene recorded in experimental Aperture Switching Mode, which was commanded by the Microwave and Radar Institute of DLR. The scene which is located about 60km east of Melbourne was of special interest because the so-called “Bunyip Ridge Fire had jumped across the Princes Freeway which connects Melbourne with the south-eastern parts of Australia. This fire alone burned 25.000 hectares. The TerraSAR-X data take was positioned exactly over the affected area between the villages of Longwarry and Drouin. Due to the fire, some roads in the area had to be closed. The two roads which were analyzed are the Princes Freeway and an alternate and parallel road two kilometer to the south. It was proven that, at the time of snapshot from the radar satellite, these two roads were in normal use, because the detected vehicles go with common speed around 100 km/h. In large bushfires like this imaging radar is an ideal sensor because it can penetrate the clouds and smoke. The bushfires affected an area of over 365,000 hectares, killing 180 people and destroying over 1,000 homes, mainly in the eastern outskirts of Melbourne, Australia.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT056/","category":"Wild Fire and Burn Scars","date":"2009-02-11T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Australia"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[145.78,-38.08],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"ZKI maps floods in Mexico","id":"ACT055","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT055/ACT055_tn.jpg","products":["ACT055/P01","ACT055/P02"],"description":"Since October, heavy rain caused floodings in several states of Mexico, affecting farmland, motorways and thousands of homes. The towns of Tenosique, Balancan, Emiliano Zapata and Jonuta, which are located along the River Usumacinta, have been particularly affected by the flooding. Similar to the 2007 floods, also the area around the city of Villahermosa was hit by flood waters. The Center for Satellite Based Crisis Information (ZKI) of DLR supports the Mexican National Water Commission (CONAGUA) and Civil Protection Agency (CENAPRED) with satellite image maps of the floods.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT055/","category":"Flood","date":"2008-11-03T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Mexico"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[-92.07,17.91],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"20,000 homeless after torrential rain in Yemen","id":"ACT054","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT054/ACT054_tn.jpg","products":["ACT054/P01","ACT054/P02","ACT054/P03","ACT054/P04","ACT054/P05","ACT054/P06"],"description":"In late October 2008 the third tropical cyclone of the season caused heavy rains and flash floods in Yemen. The floods have killed about 100 persons and left approximately 20 000 people homeless. The most affected region suffering from severe damages to infrastructure, houses and farm land is the Say'un district with an estimated 75% of buildings destroyed or severely damaged. On October 28, 2008, UN OCHA ROMENACA triggered the International Charter 'Space and Major Disasters' through UN OOSA for a damage assessment to better coordinate their relief activities in this region. DLR ZKI took over the role of the Charter Project Management and realised the damage mapping. The population distribution map of the affected region was provided to ZKI by courtesy of the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission through the project LIMES.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT054/","category":"Flood","date":"2008-10-31T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Yemen"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[48.67,15.96],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Refugee Camp Mapping in Sudan","id":"ACT053","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT053/ACT053_tn.jpg","products":["ACT053/P01","ACT053/P02","ACT053/P03","ACT053/P04","ACT053/P05","ACT053/P06","ACT053/P07","ACT053/P08"],"description":"Because of many regional conflicts over the last 20 years, eastern Sudan hosts large populations of refugees in the arid states of Kassala, Gedaref, Gezira and Sennar. ZKI produced several large scale maps of Refugee Camps in this area on request of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT053/","category":"Humanitarian Crisis","date":"2008-10-30T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Sudan"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[33.92,13.6],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Atlantic tropical cyclones: ZKI maps flooding in Haiti","id":"ACT052","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT052/ACT052_tn.jpg","products":["ACT052/P01","ACT052/P02","ACT052/P03","ACT052/P04","ACT052/P05","ACT052/P06","ACT052/P07","ACT052/P08","ACT052/P09"],"description":"Between mid of August and September 8, 2008, the hurricanes Fay, Gustav, Hannah and Ike hit Haiti, leaving behind a path of destruction. More than 500 people died and many more are still missing. Strong rain intensity as a consequence of the hurricanes led to large inundations in the poorest country of America. The worst-hit city is Gonaives, which was nearly completly flooded. Many people died or were injured, and over 10,000 people left the coastal city. Then Haiti was threatened by famine resulting from the destruction of the Hurricans. Based on data of the RADAR satellite TerraSAR-X (DLR/Infoterra), the Center for Satellite Based Crisis Information (ZKI) at DLR produced maps of the affected areas and supported the activities of the German Red Cross (DRK).\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT052/","category":"Flood","date":"2008-09-12T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Haiti"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[-72.86,19.24],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Embankment breach: ZKI maps flooding in India/Nepal","id":"ACT051","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT051/ACT051_tn.jpg","products":["ACT051/P01","ACT051/P02","ACT051/P03","ACT051/P04","ACT051/P05","ACT051/P06","ACT051/P07","ACT051/P08","ACT051/P09"],"description":"On August 18, 2008, the Koshi River breached an embankment, causing flooding in the Sunsari district as well as further South in the Supaul district of Bihar, which is situated 7 kilometres downstream in India. It also inundated the districts of Madhepura, Araria, Purnea and Saharsa. After the breach, the River Koshi, which separates India from Nepal, changed its course resulting in more than 250,000 destroyed homes in 1,600 villages and a total of 3 million affected people. Damaged roads and flooded railway tracks have hampered relief efforts. The map illustrates the flooded area south of the breached embankment with many flooded settlements, roads and agricultural land. The analysis is based on TerraSAR-X StripMap and ScanSAR data acquired on August 30 and September 1, 2008. The repetition rate of data acquisition could be accelerated significantly by using the unique left-looking recording ability of TerraSAR-X for the September 1 data take. Map production was carried out in the framework of the project SAR-HQ, which is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT051/","category":"Flood","date":"2008-08-30T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Nepal"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[86.99,26.09],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Earthquake in China","id":"ACT050","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT050/ACT050_tn.jpg","products":["ACT050/P01","ACT050/P02"],"description":"On May 12, 2008, the strongest earthquake in China since 1976 occurred 90 km northwest of Chengdu in the Province of Sichuan. Measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale, the earthquake was followed by a series of severe after-shocks that struck the whole region. Over 69,000 people died, 374,141 people were injured and 17,469 were still missing on June 12, 2008. The tremors destroyed more than 80 percent of the buildings in the vicinity and more than 5 million people lost their homes. The city of Dujiangyan with its 600,000 inhabitants suffered from some of the worst effects of the earthquake. Emergency relief teams, army troops and various organisations were immediately sent to the affected areas. National relief teams mainly organised the relief actions supported by international emergency aid from different sides. On May 26, 2008, the DRK built up a mobile hospital with 120 beds, an operation room, a laboratory and a maternity ward. Since then over 12,000 persons received medical care, which is up to 300 persons every day. Gradually, it has been transferred to the Chinese Red Cross and was officially handed over on June 15, 2008. The German Red Cross (DRK), one of the German users of Respond, asked for maps of Dujiangyan showing the DRK mobile hospital. After the enquiry of the Disaster Response Unit of the German Red Cross Head Quarters, a high resolution FORMOSAT-2 satellite image was ordered and pre-processed by DLR. The satellite image was acquired on June 05, 2008, with a spatial resolution of 2m. It was used to create two different maps: an overview map and a detail map showing the Red Cross mobile hospital.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT050/","category":"Earthquake","date":"2008-06-20T00:00:00.000Z","country":"China"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[103.63,30.99],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Tropical Cyclone Nargis: ZKI maps flooding in Myanmar","id":"ACT048","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT048/ACT048_tn.jpg","products":["ACT048/P01","ACT048/P02","ACT048/P03","ACT048/P04","ACT048/P05","ACT048/P06","ACT048/P07","ACT048/P08","ACT048/P09","ACT048/P10","ACT048/P11","ACT048/P12","ACT048/P13","ACT048/P14","ACT048/P15","ACT048/P16","ACT048/P17"],"description":"On May 2, 2008, tropical cyclone 'Nargis' swept over Myanmar and left behind a path of destruction. Wind speeds of more than 200 km/h and a storm surge of up to 3 meters in height destroyed more than 90 percent of housing and large parts of infrastructure in some regions. It is believed that more then 100,000 people might have died and more than a million people have lost their homes in the disaster (16/05/08).In the affected regions the people faced a lack of food and drinking water. As large regions were still inundated and the rain intensity increased, there was a high risk of epidemic plagues, like cholera, in the Irrawaddy delta. Based on data of the RADAR satellites TerraSAR-X (DLR/Infoterra) and ALOS/PALSAR (JAXA), the Center for Satellite Based Crisis Information (ZKI) at DLR produced maps of the affected areas and supported the activities of the World Food Programme (WFP) and UN OCHA. Map production was carried out in the framework of the GMES Service Element RESPOND or accomplished in collaboration with ITHACA. \r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT048/","category":"Flood","date":"2008-05-08T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Myanmar"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[96,16.53],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Floods in Namibia","id":"ACT047","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT047/ACT047_tn.jpg","products":["ACT047/P01","ACT047/P02","ACT047/P03","ACT047/P04","ACT047/P05","ACT047/P06","ACT047/P07","ACT047/P08","ACT047/P09","ACT047/P10","ACT047/P11"],"description":"In January and February, 2008, heavy and long lasting rainfall led to partially serious flooding in northern Namibia and southern Angola. Many rivers and wadis were deeply inundated with water, which has caused serious damages to infrastructure and housing and forced thousands of people to leave their homes. The contamination of the water caused by the submerging of pit latrines and the sewerage system led to an outbreak of cholera which caused the Namibian government to declare a state of emergency. Continuing rainfall was expected for the following days. On March 14, 2008, UN-OOSA triggered the International Charter 'Space and Major Disasters' on behalf of the United Nations Development Programme UN DP. Relying on data of DLR's high-resolution radar satellite TerraSAR-X, the Center for Satellite Based Crisis Information (ZKI) at DLR produced maps of the affected region as support to the ongoing Charter Call which was managed by ESA with UNOSAT as Value Adding provider.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT047/","category":"Flood","date":"2008-03-17T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Namibia"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[15.47,-17.56],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Oil spill in Antarctica from sunken ship MV Explorer","id":"ACT046","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT046/ACT046_tn.jpg","products":["ACT046/P01"],"description":"On November 23, 2007, the MV Explorer, an adventure travel ship, hit an iceberg whilst passing through pack ice in the Bransfield Strait about 50 nautical miles south of King George Island, Antarctica, forcing its 154 passengers and crew into lifeboats in the middle of the night. When the MV Explorer sank, about 190,000 liters of diesel oil, 24,000 liters of lubricant and 980 liters of gasoline were on board. Two days after the sinking, a 5 sqkm area of sheen was reported, which represents a few cubic metres of oil at most. Reports suggested that oil sheen continued to be observed in the vicinity of the sinking location and its appearance and cover corresponded to a slow and steady release of fuel from one or more tanks onboard the vessel. Areas surrounding the spill site include breeding grounds for Antarctic and Adelia penguins, and the largest mating colony for Papua penguins. In addition to penguins, the spill could have also affected other Antarctic fauna, including seals, sea birds and sea lions as well as fish, krill, algae and plankton colonies. On November 29, 2007, at 8:31 UTC, TerraSAR-X data of the area was acquired in StripMap-mode. The scene covers about 15x50 km and was recorded in dual-polarization mode (VV and HH). The DLR radar satellite TerraSAR-X, which was launched in June 2007, proved once more its suitability for the detection of even small-scaled oil pollution. Independent of cloud cover or daytime, TerraSAR-X was able to deliver high quality data with a resolution of up to one meter.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT046/","category":"Technical Accident","date":"2007-12-20T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Antarctica"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[-57.3,-62.53],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Oil spill at the Kerch Strait between Ukraine and Russia","id":"ACT044","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT044/ACT044_tn.jpg","products":["ACT044/P01"],"description":"A storm on Sunday, November 11, 2007, broke a small Russian oil tanker in half, the Volgoneft-139, spilling at least 1,300 tonnes of fuel oil in the Kerch strait between the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. The same storm sank at least four freighters, three carrying sulphur and one with a cargo of scrap metal. On the shore near port Kavkaz, the environmental consequences of the heavy oil spill were disastrous. On Friday, November 16, 2007, at 3:52 UTC TerraSAR-X data of the disaster was acquired in StripMap-mode. The scene covers about 30x100 km in both polarizations (VV and HH).\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT044/","category":"Technical Accident","date":"2007-11-21T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Ukraine"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[36.66,45.34],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"ZKI produces maps of affected regions after tropical cyclone 'Sidr' in Bangladesh","id":"ACT045","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT045/ACT045_tn.jpg","products":["ACT045/P01","ACT045/P02"],"description":"During the night from November 15 and 16, 2007, tropical cyclone 'Sidr' swept over the the southwestern part of Bangladesh, leaving behind a trail of destruction. With wind speeds of up to 240 km/h at the coast and up to 160 km/h at the capital Dhaka, Sidr forced three million people to flee from their homes in 15 coastal districts of Bangladesh. According to the UN OCHA reports, more than 3,000 people lost their lives in the cyclone, which caused a storm surge of up to five meters in heigth, flooding the towns of Patuakhali, Barguna and Jhalakathi. By the storm and the surge an estimated 300,000 homes were destroyed and 600,000 were partially damaged. Nearly 900,000 acres of crops were destroyed. UNOSAT has triggered the International Charter 'Space and Major Disasters' on behalf of the World Food Programme (WFP), which asked for support, demanding satellite-based information on the impact of Sidr. The Center for Satellite Based Crisis Information (ZKI) at DLR took over the project management in this Charter call and produced satellite image maps of the regions affected most by the event. On the right side of the sceen, you can doanlaod a dossier of visual interpretations of very high resolution satellite data (IKONOS), aquired on Nov 20, 2007, covering parts of the disctricts Barisal, Jhalakathi, Paluakathi, Barguna, Pirjopur and Bagerhat.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT045/","category":"Flood","date":"2007-11-21T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Bangladesh"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[90.18,22.54],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"ZKI maps flooding in Mexico with high-resolution radar satellite TerraSAR-X","id":"ACT043","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT043/ACT043_tn.jpg","products":["ACT043/P01","ACT043/P02","ACT043/P03","ACT043/P04","ACT043/P05","ACT043/P06"],"description":"In early November 2007, heavy rainfalls lasting for a whole week led to devastating floods in the Mexican states of Tabasco and Chiapas, displacing about one million people, which is approximately half of Tabasco's overall population. About 80% of the state of Tabasco's surface (overall area: 25,000 km²) has been temporarily flooded. The region around the city of Villahermosa with its population of approximately 600.000 was hit most by the floods. The Center for Satellite Based Crisis Information (ZKI) of DLR supports the Mexican civil protection (CENAPRED) with satellite image maps of the floods. The DLR radar satellite TerraSAR-X, which was launched in June 2007 and was still in its commissioning phase, proved to be highly suitable for the assessment of flood events again. Independently from cloud cover or daytime, TerraSAR-X was able to deliver high resolution imagery with a resolution of up to one meter. In this case, the data aquisition could be accelerated significantly by using TerraSAR-X's unique left looking recording ability.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT043/","category":"Flood","date":"2007-11-07T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Mexico"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[-92.93,17.98],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Forest fires in southern Europe, August 2007","id":"ACT041","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT041/ACT041_tn.jpg","products":["ACT041/P01","ACT041/P02","ACT041/P03","ACT041/P04","ACT041/P05","ACT041/P06","ACT041/P07","ACT041/P08"],"description":"In 2007, southeastern Europe was affected by the worst wildfires for decades. Conditioned by extrem heat since middle of August 2007, large natural or man-made fires started. After the end of August, Greece was the most affected country. The fires killed at least 60 people. It was expected that the death toll rises, since many villages were still trapped by the fires. The Peleponnes peninsula was affected most. Following the devastating situation, the Greek government had declared the nation-wide state of emergency. In the meantime, the Greek emergency services were supported by international forces. 13 fire-fighting airplanes and helicopters were deployed - including three German helicopters. ZKI of DLR is continously monitoring the fire situation in Europe with the help of the sensor NOAA-AVHRR 18 as well as with MODIS TERRA-1 and AQUA-1. It uses the receiving stations of the German Remote Sensing Data Center and processes the data automatically. Due to the severe situation in Greece, the fire information for this area was published on this dedicated ZKI-webpage. In the context of the International Charter 'Space and Major Disasters', ZKI produced together with its French partner SERTIT satellite image maps of the areas affected by the fire disaster. The products of ZKI were realized through the GMES service element Risk-EOS. \r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT041/","category":"Wild Fire and Burn Scars","date":"2007-08-27T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Greece"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[23.17,38.49],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Fires on the Canary Islands, August 2007","id":"ACT040","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT040/ACT040_tn.jpg","products":["ACT040/P01","ACT040/P02"],"description":"The islands of Tenerife and Gran Canaria of the Canary Islands (Spain) were affected by some of the worst forest fires in the history of Spain. The fires forced more than 10.000 people to temporarily leave their homes, some of which were destroyed by the fires. The Spanish Government and the Monitoring and Information Centre (MIC) of the European Commission triggered the International Charter Space and Major Disasters to estimate the damaged area based on satellite data. The Center for satellite based crisis information (ZKI) of DLR took over the project management for this activation on behalf of ESA, financed through the Risk-EOS Service element. The affected area was estimated in close cooperation with the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) at the Joint Research Centre (JRC) in Ispra (Italy). According to this analysis, on Tenerife 12700 ha were burnt and additional 2000 ha burnt down partially. On Gran Canaria, 9900 ha were burnt fully and 5450 partially.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT040/","category":"Wild Fire and Burn Scars","date":"2007-08-09T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Spain"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[-16.19,28.03],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Flood in the United Kingdom, July 2007","id":"ACT039","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT039/ACT039_tn.jpg","products":["ACT039/P01","ACT039/P02","ACT039/P03","ACT039/P04","ACT039/P05","ACT039/P06"],"description":"Following the severe flooding that had affected the central and northern parts of England in the end of June and the beginning of July 2007, the south-west of England and Wales had been hit by severe weather again, with flooding affecting thousands of homes and leaving many without water and electricity. The areas worst affected included the counties of Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire, Hereford and Worcestershire. DLR was supporting the image analysis within the scope of the International Charter Space and Major Disasters through the GMES Service Element Risk-EOS. The Charter was triggered by the UK cabinet office and the charter project management was done by the UK environmental agency.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT039/","category":"Flood","date":"2007-07-26T00:00:00.000Z","country":"United Kingdom"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[-2.25,51.89],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Flood in England and Wales, England July 2007","id":"ACT038","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT038/ACT038_tn.jpg","products":["ACT038/P01","ACT038/P02"],"description":"Heavy rainstorms caused by an extraordinary weather situation led to major floodings in parts of the UK. During June 2007, a large low-pressure area coming from the Atlantic Ocean was trapped over Wales and England. The highest precipitation rates measured over the last decade were recorded at a number of meteorological stations in Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and the Midlands. Those areas were mainly affected by floods which led to breakdowns in power supply and the evacuation of residents, for example from the city of Sheffield. The threat of reservoir dam breaks further exacerbated relief activities of the local authorities. The extent of the flood situation was mapped by the German TerraSAR-X satellite on July 3, 2007. It covered a region of approximately 950 km² south of York, Yorkshire, UK. The flood mask was derived from the TerraSAR-X radar image at 3m pixel spacing in a semi-automatic processing and cross-checked by seasoned interpreters with imagery from RADARSAT. For visualisation purposes, the results were superimposed onto a Landsat ETM+ image dating from 2002. This work was done to support the activation of the International Charter - Space and Major Disasters for the ongoing flood event. The Charter was triggered on June 28, 2007, by the Environment Agency of the UK. It is important to note that the TerraSAR-X satellite, launched on June 15, 2007, was still in its commissioning phase and thus further imagery could not be provided on an operational basis.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT038/","category":"Flood","date":"2007-07-06T00:00:00.000Z","country":"United Kingdom"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[-1.04,53.86],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"DLR maps for G8 Summit in Heiligendamm, June 6 to 8, 2007","id":"ACT037","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT037/ACT037_tn.jpg","products":["ACT037/P01","ACT037/P02","ACT037/P03","ACT037/P04","ACT037/P05","ACT037/P06","ACT037/P07"],"description":"From June 6 to 8, the G8 leaders met for their annual summit in Heiligendamm, Germany. The area of Heiligendamm was spaciously protected for security reasons and the inner security zone was confined by a fence. Many governmental and non-governmental organisations were involved in the logistical organisation and implementation of safety and security for both the official summit and the protest activities. In the context of research activities for satellite based event monitoring, ZKI of DLR processed and analysed satellite data of June 1 and June 7, 2007, before and during the G8-Summit. The satellite based information was transmitted in near real-time to the local THW headquarters near Heiligendamm via satellite communication. DLR used the satellite communication that was provided through the ESA research project ARTES 3 to collect experiences in the interaction between satellite image analysis and satellite communication. These experiences were integrated in particular in the EU research project LIMES.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT037/","category":"Civil Security","date":"2007-06-11T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Germany"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[11.83,54.12],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Earthquake in West Sumatra, Indonesia 2007","id":"ACT036","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT036/ACT036_tn.jpg","products":["ACT036/P01","ACT036/P02"],"description":"Two earthquakes occurred on March 6, 2007, at 10:49 am and 12:49 am local time, magnitude 6.2 and 6.3 (GEOFON) respectively, in the West Sumatra province of Indonesia and led to heavy destructions. The epicentre was located 16 km southwest of Batusangkar District and 55 km northeast of the regional capital Padang. Up to 73 dead people and approximately 4000 heavily damaged buildings were reported by the regional disaster management authority (March 9, 2007).The earthquakes had struck a densely populated region with major damages reported for the cities Padang Panjang, Bukit Tinggi, Solok, Batusangkar and Payakumbuh, located within 50 km distance of the earthquake epicenter. In order to support the relief agencies and local authorities, the GITEWS Project (German-Indonesian Tsunami Early Warning System) supported by the Center for Satellite Based Crisis Information (ZKI) of DLR produced post disaster situation maps after the event. These maps were based on very high-resolution IKONOS imagery (1 meter ground resolution) from March 7, 2007, and display the post disaster situation in the region of Payakumbuh City (approximately 100 000 inhabitants). The situation assessment was carried out through visual interpretation only. Road network and open space areas were derived to indicate potential camp locations (e.g. health care). Due to heavy cloud coverage after the earthquake, it was difficult to acquire optical satellite imagery over the affected area. Unfortunately, archive satellite imagery was not available for this area, so change detection and damage assessment could not be applied.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT036/","category":"Earthquake","date":"2007-03-06T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Indonesia"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[100.62,-0.23],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Floods in Mozambique: ZKI supports UN World Food Programme","id":"ACT035","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT035/ACT035_tn.jpg","products":["ACT035/P01","ACT035/P02","ACT035/P03","ACT035/P04","ACT035/P05","ACT035/P06","ACT035/P07","ACT035/P08","ACT035/P09"],"description":"After the end of January 2007, heavy seasonal rains in south-eastern Africa caused severe flooding, especially along the Zambezi River (Mozambique). The National Institute for Disaster Management (INGC) declared Red Alert on February 4, 2007, for the whole Zambezi River basin and expected the situation to last until end of February 2007. On February 8, the World Food Programme (WFP), working in this area, triggered the International Charter Space and Major Disasters in consequence of the cut off of Mutarara city by the floods. The National Water Directorate (DNA) and INGC anticipated a displacement of 200,000 to 300,000 people, heavy damages to infrastructure and crop yield, and loss of lives along the Zambezi River. The Center for Satellite Based Crisis Information (ZKI) of DLR provided overview and analysis maps in the framework of the European GMES Service Element RESPOND, supporting humanitarian relief activities. RESPOND partner UNOSAT took over the project management for this activation of the Charter.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT035/","category":"Flood","date":"2007-02-12T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Mozambique"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[35.72,-18.04],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Environmental assessment of 'Buruli ulcer' reservoir in Ivory Coast","id":"ACT033","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT033/ACT033_tn.jpg","products":["ACT033/P01","ACT033/P02","ACT033/P03"],"description":"Buruli ulcer, also known as tropical ulcer, is an emerging necrotic skin disease, caused by the Mycobacterium ulcerans. Since 1986, the disease has become epidemic with 6.000 cases per year in Ivory Coast. This environmental mycobacterium has been recovered from water and soil in swampy areas. However, the route of transmission remains unclear. Disease associations with slow-moving or stagnant water and environmental changes including mining, deforestation, and irrigation have been reported. Against this background, the mapping service in the context of GMES Service Element RESPOND was used to search for Buruli ulcer-prone environments, using remotely-sensed data in the transition zone between evergreen rain forest in the south of Ivory Coast and savannah in the north of Ivory Coast. The mapping services focused on vegetation and hydrology, as certain types of vegetation and different types of moist areas are most likely associated with the mycobacterium.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT033/","category":"Other","date":"2006-09-05T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Ivory Coast"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[-6.03,6.89],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Oil spill at the Lebanese coast","id":"ACT032","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT032/ACT032_tn.jpg","products":["ACT032/P01","ACT032/P02","ACT032/P03","ACT032/P04","ACT032/P05","ACT032/P06"],"description":"In the course of the conflict in the Middle East, the oil-fuelled power plant of Jieh, located directly on the coastline approximately 30 km south of Beirut, was hit by bombs on July 13 and 15, 2006. Part of the storage tanks caught fire and were burning for several days. A large part of the fuel was spilled into the Mediterranean Sea as a result of the blast. The Lebanese ministry of environment estimated that approximately 30,000 tons of heavy fuel oil were emmitted into the sea. Due to south-westerly winds and the sea currents, the oil spill was partly carried out to sea and partly dispersed along the coast of Lebanon. Until the beginning of August, 2006, the Lebanese coastline had been affected from the Damour region south of Beirut to the Syrian border in the North. Following a request for help from the Lebanese Ministry of Environment, the EC Monitoring and Information Centre (MIC) of DG Environment triggered the International Charter 'Space and Major Disasters' in order to obtain information about the extent of the oil pollution in the coastal strip and, where possible, the size of the pollution. The Center for Satellite Based Crisis Information (ZKI) of DLR took over the project management in this activation and produced satellite analyses in the context of the European GMES Service Elements Risk-EOS and MarCoast.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT032/","category":"Technical Accident","date":"2006-08-01T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Lebanon"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[35.63,34.13],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Earthquake in Yogyakarta, Indonesia","id":"ACT031","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT031/ACT031_tn.jpg","products":["ACT031/P01","ACT031/P02","ACT031/P03","ACT031/P04","ACT031/P05","ACT031/P06","ACT031/P07","ACT031/P08","ACT031/P09","ACT031/P10"],"description":"After the Tsunami of December, 2004, Indonesia was hit by another severe natural disaster. In the morning of Mai 27, 2006, an earthquake of magnitude 6.2 (USGS) led to heavy destructions in the region of Yogyakarta on the Indonesian island of Java. More than 5,000 bodies were found and 20,000 injuries were counted (May 30, 2006). Some 200,000 people lost their homes. 4,000 buildings collapsed, 3,000 of them in the village of Bantul south of the city Yogyakarta alone. The region of the earthquake was situated only a few kilometers south of the vulcano Mt. Merapi which had shown increased activity for several weeks and has augmented the amount of its ash spills again after the earthquake. In order to support the relief agencies in the field, the German Foreign Ministry had triggered the International Charter 'Space and Major Disasters'. The Center for Satellite Based Crisis Information (ZKI) of DLR took over the project management in this activation and produced maps based on high-resolution satellite images in the context of the European GMES service element RESPOND.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT031/","category":"Earthquake","date":"2006-05-30T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Indonesia"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[110.33,-7.88],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Danube flood in Romania","id":"ACT030","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT030/ACT030_tn.jpg","products":["ACT030/P01"],"description":"In Romania, snowmelt and long lasting rainfalls led to a dramatic increase of water levels at the Danube River to values which were never measured before. More than 4,700 people had to be evacuated from the flooded regions, 3,000 of them in the village Rast in the southwest of the country alone. After a dam could no longer withstand the pressure by the water, 600 buildings were flooded, from which 115 collapsed. 40,000 hectares of land were covered by the floodings. Due to the tough flood situation in Romania, the Monitoring and Information Centre (MIC) of the European Commission had extended Charter Call 120 (Floods at Tisza River, Hungary) to the affected regions there. The Center for Satellite Based Crisis Information (ZKI) of DLR was producing maps of the flooded areas based on up-to-date satellite data. The map production was financed through the GMES Service Element RISK-EOS.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT030/","category":"Flood","date":"2006-04-19T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Romania"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[23.36,43.92],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Flooding in Hungary","id":"ACT029","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT029/ACT029_tn.jpg","products":["ACT029/P01","ACT029/P02","ACT029/P03","ACT029/P04","ACT029/P05","ACT029/P06"],"description":"Snowmelt in combination with heavy rainfalls led to an aggravation of the flooding situation in Southeast Europe. In Hungary, the most critical situation shifted from the Danube river, where the water level had reached the highest levels for more than 100 years, to the Tisza river (April 18, 2006). In particular the cities of Szolnok and Szeged were affected, where the Hungarian civil protection tried to reinforce the dams with sand bags. In total, about 40 settlements were endangered by the flood. The Monitoring and Information Centre (MIC) of the European Commission had triggered the International Charter 'Space and Major Disasters' on behalf of the Hungarian civil protection. The Center for Satellite Based Crisis Information (ZKI) of DLR had taken over the project management for this Charter activation and produced map products based on up-to-date satellite data. The map production was financed through the GMES Service Element RISK-EOS.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT029/","category":"Flood","date":"2006-04-18T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Hungary"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[20.23,46.77],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Flooding of the river Elbe in Germany","id":"ACT028","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT028/ACT028_tn.jpg","products":["ACT028/P01","ACT028/P02","ACT028/P03","ACT028/P04","ACT028/P05","ACT028/P06","ACT028/P07","ACT028/P08","ACT028/P09","ACT028/P10","ACT028/P11","ACT028/P12","ACT028/P13","ACT028/P14","ACT028/P15","ACT028/P16","ACT028/P17","ACT028/P18","ACT028/P19"],"description":"After the devastating flooding in August 2002, the Elbe region in Saxony was affected by a flood once again. Strong rainfalls in conjunction with snowmelt in the Krkonose Mountains (Czech Republic) led to a rise of the Elbe River to a level of 7.45 meters. In the city of Dresden, some areas next to the river had to be evacuated. Alongside the Elbe, whole districts of several towns were flooded. In four Saxony counties, disaster alarm was raised. Numerous helpers of the military, the German governmental disaster relief organization (THW), and the German Livesaving Organisation (DLRG) were on duty in the crisis region. Within the scope of the International Charter Space and Major Disasters, DLR prepared satellite image maps of the region. The Charter was triggered by the German Joint Information and Situation Centre (GMLZ) in order to support the State of Saxony's relief efforts. Furthermore, the DLR maps were generated in the context of RISK-EOS, a European network of service providers in geoinformation, which had been created to support the actors of disaster management. The image on the right shows footprints ofthe maps along the river Elbe.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT028/","category":"Flood","date":"2006-04-03T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Germany"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[11.72,52.2],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Landslide in the Philippines","id":"ACT027","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT027/ACT027_tn.jpg","products":["ACT027/P01","ACT027/P02","ACT027/P03"],"description":"On February 17, 2006, a landslide triggered by heavy rains buried the village of Guinsaungon, Saint Bernard, Southern Leyte Island (Philippines). Most of the approximately 300 houses and the elementary school were fully covered by the mudslide.The village had 1411 inhabitants and in the elementary school, 246 pupils were taught by seven teachers at the time of the incident. The immediate cause of the landslide were continuous rains for the whole past week. Southern Leyte received about four times more than the normal rainfall (478mm vs. 137mm). DLR-ZKI, in cooperation with its partners from the International Charter - Space and Major Disasters and RESPOND was generating up-to-date relief support information (maps, images, etc.), which was being made available to relief organisations. A topographic elevation map gives a first overview of the region affected by the landslide.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT027/","category":"Landslide","date":"2006-02-17T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Philippines"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[125.11,10.36],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Earthquake in Pakistan","id":"ACT026","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT026/ACT026_tn.jpg","products":["ACT026/P01","ACT026/P02","ACT026/P03","ACT026/P04","ACT026/P05","ACT026/P06","ACT026/P07","ACT026/P08","ACT026/P09","ACT026/P10","ACT026/P11","ACT026/P12","ACT026/P13","ACT026/P14","ACT026/P15","ACT026/P16","ACT026/P17"],"description":"A series of severe earthquakes (max. magnitude 7.6) struck the Kashmir region on October 8, 2005. The epicenter was located on the India-Pakistan border, about 100 kilometres northeast of Islamabad. DLR-ZKI, in cooperation with its partners from the International Charter - Space and Major Disasters, RESPOND and the Space Imaging Consortium, was generating up-to-date relief support information (maps, images, etc.) which were being made available to relief organisations. A Landsat ETM image gives an overview (1:100.000) of the region affected by the earthquake. Within this region, several maps derived from very high resolution IKONOS imagery give a clear overview of Muzaffarabad, Abbottabad and Manshera in detail (1:7.500).\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT026/","category":"Earthquake","date":"2005-10-09T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Pakistan"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[73.24,34.5],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Floods in Bavaria","id":"ACT024","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT024/ACT024_tn.jpg","products":["ACT024/P01","ACT024/P02","ACT024/P03"],"description":"At the end of August 2005, heavy and long-lasting rainfalls of up to 120 litres per square meter led to a disastrous high water situation in large parts of the Alps. In Bavaria, the catchment areas of the rivers Iller, Lech, Isar, and Inn were affected most. Severe obstructions of traffic occured due to flooded streets and railway tracks, outwashed bridges and landslides. Some communes were partially flooded, for 18 Bavarian districts, state of emergency was declared. The town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen was temporarily not accessible. The community of Eschenlohe was hit hardest, as parts of the village were inundated by 1.5 meters of water from the nearby river Loisach. In Upper Allgaeu, the region around Oberstdorf was affected most by the floods. During the flood event, the runoff of many rivers exceeded even the maximum levels of the extreme event in 1999. In order to support the cleanup efforts in the region, ZKI produced high-resolution satellite maps in cooperation with European Space Imaging, kindly supported by the German Joint Information and Situation Centre (GMLZ) and the Bavarian Ministry of the Interior.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT024/","category":"Flood","date":"2005-08-31T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Germany"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[10.26,47.38],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"ZKI monitors fire hot-spots in Portugal","id":"ACT023","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT023/ACT023_tn.jpg","products":["ACT023/P01","ACT023/P02","ACT023/P03","ACT023/P04","ACT023/P05","ACT023/P06","ACT023/P07","ACT023/P08","ACT023/P09"],"description":"After one of the most severe droughts over the Iberian Peninsula, many wildfires were raging out of control across central and northern Portugal. By August 22, 2005, 27 fires were active in the region and have left at least 15 dead and 140,000 hectares destroyed. The worst-hit areas included the central region, where fires were threatening the outskirts of the third-largest city of Portugal, Coimbra. The fast-moving wildfires had already destroyed at least 12 houses in Ceira, a suburb of the city. A state of emergency was declared in the region. Wildfires were also continuing to burn in the northern districts of Viseu and Viana do Castelo. The more than 3000 Portuguese fire-fighters were supported by fire-fighting aircraft and helicopters from France, Spain, Italy, Germany and the Netherlands. Also in the neighbouring region Galicia, Spain, 20 forest fires are reported. Based on the experiences in the fire seasons 2003 and 2004, ZKI started to monitor the situation using the sensors NOAA-AVHRR and MODIS for the detection of fire hotspots. DFD used its own receiving equipment for the purpose and processed the raw data for use in the field.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT023/","category":"Wild Fire and Burn Scars","date":"2005-08-23T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Portugal"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[-8.04,39.95],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Flooding in Romania: ZKI maps disaster area","id":"ACT022","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT022/ACT022_tn.jpg","products":["ACT022/P01","ACT022/P02"],"description":"Heavy rain in April and May 2005 caused the worst floods since 50 years in Romania, affecting thousands of people and destroying hundreds of houses. The Romanian government responded on 19 May by launching an appeal for European civil protection assistance, triggering a rapid response from the Monitoring and Information Centre (MIC) of the European Commission. As a result 11 EU Member States offered their assistance. In this context the MIC triggered the International Charter 'Space and Major Disasters' to provide a synoptical overview of the affected areas. In close cooperation with the European Commission, the German Aerospace Center (DLR) took over the project management and the analysis of all available satellite imagery including ENVISAT ASAR and SPOT 5. From these data, flood maps and damage statistics were derived to support European relief. The analysis focussed on one of the most affected areas in western Romania. DLR estimates that only in the area of Timisoara, more than 40,000 hectares were flooded. \r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT022/","category":"Flood","date":"2005-06-07T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Romania"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[20.88,45.48],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Satellite maps supporting United Nations World Food Programme and UNICEF in relief activities in Ethiopia","id":"ACT021","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT021/ACT021_tn.jpg","products":["ACT021/P01","ACT021/P02","ACT021/P03"],"description":"Exceptionally heavy rainfalls led to severe floodings in the southeast of Ethiopia. According to reports of the United Nations, more than 100 people lost their lives and some 100.000 were displaced. Wide areas of agricultural land were devastated and about 50.000 cattle were killed by the extensive floods. Torrential rains that struck the region of Ogaden (some 700 km southeast of the capital Addis Abeba) and lasted for 48 hours caused the Shabeelle River levels to rise quickly. The subsequent floodings flushed away some 25 villages and rendered numerous roads impassable. Since many wells were covered by the floods, the supply with drinking water was also affected. The current events worsen the humanitarian situation in a region which is regularly affected by droughts. The United Nations World Food Programme (UNWFP) and UNICEF support the government and population of Ethiopia by supplying and distributing blankets, tents and food. In order to assess the extent of the flooded areas, WFP requested help from the International Charter Space and Major Disasters. DLR's Center for Satellite Based Crisis Information (ZKI) produces satellite maps which show the region before and after the floodings took place. For the humanitarian relief activities, they provide an overview of the region affected by the crisis. In this recent Charter call, ZKI provides its services through the European project RESPOND. The coordination of the Charter activities in connection with the floods in Ethiopia is conducted by UNOSAT.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT021/","category":"Flood","date":"2005-05-11T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Ethiopia"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[44.33,5.5],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"ZKI supports WHO in the fight against the Marburg Virus in Angola through RESPOND","id":"ACT020","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT020/ACT020_tn.jpg","products":["ACT020/P01","ACT020/P02"],"description":"The outbreak of the Marburg virus has claimed the lives of at least 210 people in Angola, most of them children under the age of five. It is a deadly hemorrhagic fever and a relative of the Ebola virus. The majority of the 231 cases has been registered in the northern province of Uige. The outbreak surfaced late last year and is now threatening to spread to other regions of the country. At the moment infections are reported from six provinces. However, for the time being no cases of contamination have been registered outside Uige (Source: WHO April 11, 2005). The World Health Organisation (WHO) is supporting the Angolan government and has requested help from the RESPOND consortium. ZKI produced in the framework of the GMES Service Element of ESA high resolution satellite maps of the city of Cabinda, where one victim is confirmed at the moment and several persons are in quarantaine. The images do not allow identification of the disease, but will enable WHO to better control and monitor the potential spreading of the virus in the village. The satellite image map was produced from archived imagery acquired on May 03, 2004. The maps are also useful tools for orientation in the city since topographic maps are not available.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT020/","category":"Other","date":"2005-04-29T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Angola"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[12.19,-5.56],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Satellite image mapping in support of European Disaster Exercise EURATECH in Portes-lès-Valence/South-France","id":"ACT019","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT019/ACT019_tn.jpg","products":["ACT019/P01","ACT019/P02"],"description":"A major European civil protection exercise takes place from 10 to 14 April 2005 in Portes-lès-Valence/Department Drôme in southern France. The scenario is a hazardous material transportation accident in a full scale community exercise. It is organized by the French Défense et de la Sécurité Civiles (DDSC) and funded by the European Commission and the French Ministry of the Interior. Around 400 French and 100 foreign actors join the exercise. The governmental disaster relief organization of the Federal Republic of Germany (THW), German fire brigades as well as Belgian, Italian and Czech civil protection forces participate in EURATECH. Within the EURATECH 2005 exercise, the Center for Satellite based Crisis Information (ZKI) of DLR and SERTIT backed by CNES, harmonize their production of emergency information derived from satellite data acquired through the International Charter Space and Major Disasters, in order to co-operate towards the development of a European emergency mapping service. Complementary to the satellite images provided through the International Charter Space and Major Disasters, DLR uses high-resolution Ikonos imagery from April 02, 2005 provided by European Space Imaging.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT019/","category":"Exercise","date":"2005-04-11T00:00:00.000Z","country":"France"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[4.88,44.87],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"ZKI supports international humanitarian relief teams in Indonesia through RESPOND","id":"ACT018","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT018/ACT018_tn.jpg","products":["ACT018/P01","ACT018/P02"],"description":"A great earthquake occurred near the West coast of Sumatra (Indonesia) about 205 km west northwest of Sibolga, Sumatra at 23:09 local time in Indonesia (16.09 UTC) on March 28, 2005. According to the USGS the earthquake had a magnitude of 8.7 (Richter scale). Fortunately, no major tsunami resulted from the quake as it happened only three month before in the same region after a earthquake with magnitude 9.0 (Richter scale). The islands of Nias and Simeulue, located off the southwest coast of Sumatra, are the areas worst affected by the latest earthquakes. Nias Island, south of Simeulue, has an estimated population of 444,000, of which some 1,780 people are registered as internally displaced due to the tsunami damage. Simeulue Island has an estimated population of 77,751 people, of which 18,000 people are internally displaced (UN OCHA site report). ZKI produced in the framework of the RESPOND Service Element of the European Space Agency (ESA) high resolution satellite maps of the city of Gunung Sitoli, which was most severely affected by the earthquake. The satellite image maps were produced from archived pre-disaster imagery. Although the images do not allow damage assessment, they are useful tools for orientation in the field since topographic maps are not available.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT018/","category":"Earthquake","date":"2005-03-30T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Indonesia"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[97.61,1.28],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"ZKI satellite mapping supports international humanitarian relief teams in Southeast Asia","id":"ACT017","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT017/ACT017_tn.jpg","products":["ACT017/P01","ACT017/P02","ACT017/P03","ACT017/P04","ACT017/P05","ACT017/P06","ACT017/P07","ACT017/P08","ACT017/P09","ACT017/P10","ACT017/P11","ACT017/P12","ACT017/P13","ACT017/P14","ACT017/P15","ACT017/P16","ACT017/P17","ACT017/P18","ACT017/P19","ACT017/P20","ACT017/P21","ACT017/P22","ACT017/P23","ACT017/P24","ACT017/P25","ACT017/P26","ACT017/P27","ACT017/P28","ACT017/P29","ACT017/P30","ACT017/P31","ACT017/P32","ACT017/P33","ACT017/P34","ACT017/P35","ACT017/P36","ACT017/P37","ACT017/P38","ACT017/P39","ACT017/P40","ACT017/P41","ACT017/P42","ACT017/P43","ACT017/P44","ACT017/P45","ACT017/P46"],"description":"In the early morning of Dec. 26th a severe earthquake (30 km below sea level, magnitude 9) caused Tsunami flood waves in the Indian Ocean, which struck the coastal regions of Sumatra, Thailand, Sri Lanka and southern India. Due to the immense extent of the affected coastal areas, images from earth observing satellites have turned out to be a valuable support tool for international relief activities in the aftermath of the disaster. In close cooperation with international partners such as UNOSAT, the Joint Research Centre JRC of the European Commission, Infoterra UK and SERTIT, the Centre for satellite-based Crisis Information ZKI of the German Aerospace Center DLR has taken over responsibility for the acquisition of satellite data, the generation of image maps, and their dissemination to various relief organisations via the Internet. ZKI concentrated its activities on Sumatra and Thailand. This up-to-date mapping covering large areas enables disaster managers to achieve an overview of the recent situation, to assess the damage, and to supply local logistic teams with reliable information. ZKI provided this service for the crisis reaction team of Germany's Federal Foreign Office (Auswärtiges Amt), the joint federal situation and information center GMLZ, the German technical relief agency THW, the German Red Cross DRK, Greenpeace and Medicins Sans Frontières MSF, the geoinformation department of the German Army AGeoBw, the press and the public and operates in close cooperation with the RESPOND Service Element of the European Space Agency, ESA. The image maps provided through the ZKI website were produced both from archived pre-disaster imagery and from recent post-disaster satellite images. This combination allowed easy and quantitative damage assessment by visual change detection.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT017/","category":"Tsunami","date":"2004-12-27T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Indonesia"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[95.854,3.316],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"ZKI in cooperation with UNHCR performed a refugee camp monitoring for Chad","id":"ACT016","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT016/ACT016_tn.jpg","products":["ACT016/P01","ACT016/P02"],"description":"Due to Civil War, thousands of people escape the Darfur region in Sudan and seek shelter in the state of Chad, where many refugee camps have been established. Not all of them are permanently supervised by international organizations. UNHCR, the High Commissioner for Refugees asked for a subsequent satellite data acquisition to be able to monitor the change in size and amount of tents of the refugee camp Mille by change detection methods. The satellite maps show the Camp Mille in Chad: one image (June 2004) has been acquired with the Quickbird satellite, while the later one (November 2004) has been acquired with the Ikonos satellite. During this period the camp has doubled its size and its amount of tents. Remote Sensing with VHR satellite data offers the opportunity to provide fast overviews of the extent of a camp, its structure and amount of tents. With these data an actual estimation of the camp population is possible for e.g. resources planning (food, medicine, etc.). In this case a total count leads to about 1600 tents in June and about 3000 tents in November with the camp area growing from 1.1km² to 2.1km². Automatic detection of tents has been performed with template matching methods (small rectangles), while it had to be completed by manual methods (crosses). This combined evaluation procedure allows the fastest and most reliable interpretation of VHR satellite images for the above mentioned purposes.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT016/","category":"Humanitarian Crisis","date":"2004-12-07T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Chad"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[21.92,14.59],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Base and crisis mapping of Al Fashir and Al Junaynah region in Darfur/Sudan","id":"ACT014","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT014/ACT014_tn.jpg","products":["ACT014/P01","ACT014/P02","ACT014/P03","ACT014/P04","ACT014/P05","ACT014/P06"],"description":"Because of the continuing refugee situation and the onset of the rainy season in western Sudan, the humanitarian aid organizations working there are in urgent need of up-to-date, detailed maps. In consultation with UN-OCHA, Germany's disaster relief organization (THW) and the German Red Cross (DRK), the crisis regions around the cities of Al Fashir and Al Junaynah were the first to be mapped. The focus was on ascertaining the road network, its condition, and the traversability of possibly flooded wadis and river valleys. Recording settlements and refugees camps and their current size was also of high interest. Satellite data were made available for the maps by the 'International Charter on Space and Major Disasters' and processed and interpreted in the context of the ESA GMES Service Element, 'RESPOND'\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT014/","category":"Humanitarian Crisis","date":"2004-08-31T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Sudan"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[25.28,13.61],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Base mapping of Dhaka region/Bangladesh","id":"ACT013","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT013/ACT013_tn.jpg","products":["ACT013/P01","ACT013/P02","ACT013/P03"],"description":"A base mapping activity was performed on request of the Governmental Disaster Relief Organization (THW) of the Federal Republic of Germany for the area around Dhaka, Bangladesh. This activity was pursued on the background of a commonly planned humanitarian aid campaign of the THW and the United Nations (UNOCHA) with a focus on drinking water management and supply after heavy flooding damage in the past weeks. Ikonos imagery was kindly provided by Space Imaging North America (SINA) with support of European Space Imaging (EUSI).\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT013/","category":"Flood","date":"2004-08-08T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Bangladesh"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[90.39,23.69],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Mapping of forest fires in southern Portugal (Algarve region)","id":"ACT012","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT012/ACT012_tn.jpg","products":["ACT012/P01"],"description":"The major forest fires in Spain and Portugal in July 2004 were recorded and analyzed at DFD's Center for Satellite Based Crisis Information (ZKI), which produced a detailed satellite map of the affected area in the Monchique region based on Ikonos data. In addition MODIS imagery was analyzed to obtain an overview of the current distribution of fires across the entire Iberian Peninsula. Earth observation satellites make possible rapid mapping of large regions of the earth's surface and can be a valuable help for the disaster management. Data can be used from both passive instruments, which collect information in the visible and infrared spectral range, and from radar instruments, which actively send signals which can see through smoke. In cooperation with European Space Imaging (EUSI), a supplier of high quality, high-resolution, global IKONOS satellite imagery, DFD conducted a fast mapping excercise to show the extent and damage of forest fires in the Algarve Region. DFD uses its own receiving equipment for the purpose and processes the raw data for use in the field.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT012/","category":"Wild Fire and Burn Scars","date":"2004-07-28T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Portugal"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[-8.58,37.28],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Earthquake hit northern Iran on May 28, 2004 - first pre-disaster satellite map is available","id":"ACT011","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT011/ACT011_tn.jpg","products":["ACT011/P01"],"description":"The central Mazandaran province, 65 km northeast of Tehran was affected by a severe earthquake (magnitude 6.2) on May 28, 2004 as well as by several aftershocks during the days to follow. On request of the German Federal Foreign Office, the International Charter on Space and Major Disasters was triggered.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT011/","category":"Earthquake","date":"2004-05-30T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Iran"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[51.74,36.22],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Explosion disaster near Novobogdanovka/Ukraine","id":"ACT010","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT010/ACT010_tn.jpg","products":["ACT010/P01","ACT010/P02","ACT010/P03"],"description":"On May 6, 2004 a military arms dump close to the village of Novobogdanovka in southern Ukraine exploded. According to press statements 10.000 people in the surrounding villages had to be evacuated and a major highway and railway line connecting the cities of Melitopol and Zaporizhzhya had to be blocked.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT010/","category":"Technical Accident","date":"2004-05-08T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Ukraine"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[35.25,47.19],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Satellite image analysis after the earthquake in Morocco","id":"ACT009","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT009/ACT009_tn.jpg","products":["ACT009/P01","ACT009/P02","ACT009/P03"],"description":"After the earthquake southwest of Al Hoceima on Februar 24, 2004 IKONOS imagery was analysed in order to identify the damage assessment. An acquisition on February 25 was not possible due to the local weather situation. The company European Space Imaging provided an IKONOS image on February 27 which was still 60 percent cloud covered. Therefore the affected region could be only partially analysed and interpreted.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT009/","category":"Earthquake","date":"2004-02-27T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Morocco"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[-3.97,35.19],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Emergency mapping of the damages resulting from the earthquake in Bam, Kerman Provinz/Iran","id":"ACT008","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT008/ACT008_tn.jpg","products":["ACT008/P01","ACT008/P02","ACT008/P03"],"description":"Supporting the international relief activities undertaken by various humanitarian organisations in the area around the city of Bam (Iran) and supporting the activation of the International Charter on Space and Major Disasters, the Center for Satellite Based Crisis Information in cooperation with the company Space Imaging have made first damage analysis maps available, based on IKONOS satellite imagery. \r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT008/","category":"Earthquake","date":"2003-12-27T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Iran"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[58.35,29.1],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Supporting relief organisations in flooded areas of the Rhone valley, southern France","id":"ACT007","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT007/ACT007_tn.jpg","products":["ACT007/P01"],"description":"The German governmental disaster relief organization (THW) in Arles was equipped with satellite maps derived from high resolution IKONOS satellite images analyzed by ZKI. On December 4, 2003, the french civil protection agency triggered the International Charter on Space and Major Disasters, which supports relief activities with satellite imagery on a best effort basis.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT007/","category":"Flood","date":"2003-12-06T00:00:00.000Z","country":"France"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[4.69,44.11],"type":"Point"}},{"type":"Feature","properties":{"title":"Devastating forest fires in central and southern Portugal","id":"ACT006","thumbnail":"images/activations/ACT006/ACT006_tn.jpg","products":["ACT006/P01"],"description":"Earth observation satellites make rapid mapping of large regions of the earth's surface possible and can be a valuable help for the disaster management. Data can be used from both passive instruments, which collect information in the visible and infrared spectral range, and from radar instruments, which actively send signals which can see through smoke. In cooperation with the European Space Agency ESA and other national and international partners, DFD had been acquiring available satellite data since August 5, 2003, and made them available to local situation centers for fire fighting and examination. DFD used its own receiving equipment for the purpose and processes the raw data for use in the field. On August 5, the Portuguese Servicio Nacional de Bombeiros e Protecccao Civil requested activation of the International Charter on Space and Major Disasters. The ZKI took over the project management for this Charter call from Portugal at the request of ESA and was coordinating data distribution and analysis. In addition to the satellite data already provided by ZKI and its partners from NOAA-AVHRR, MODIS and DLR's own BIRD satellite, other information was made available for evaluating the situation and for crisis management. Relating to the decrease of forest fires in Portugal and after consultation with the authorized user in Portugal, the Charter call 43 has been closed on August 24. During the 18 days, 52 satellite images (34 NOAA-AVHRR, 3 ENVISAT-MERIS, 9 SPOT, 3 BIRD, 1 IKONOS), 17 NOAA-AVHRR fire masks, 2 MERIS and 2 SPOT masks of the fire scars were delivered as geocorrected data sets as pre-decided with RISCOS. As an example, ZKI could provide the NOAA-AVHRR fire masks daily in the morning only a few hours after the acquisition. The provision of all these imagery and value added products was only possible due to the strong support of the various envolved Charter institutions and the support of several teams within DLR. We hope that we could make some valuable contributions to the handling of the fire situation and the crisis management team in Portugal.\r\n","url":"//en/activations/items/ACT006/","category":"Wild Fire and Burn Scars","date":"2003-08-07T00:00:00.000Z","country":"Portugal"},"geometry":{"coordinates":[-7.68,39.4],"type":"Point"}}]}