Asian Surveying & Mapping
Breaking News
China Launches Earth Observation Satellite Gaofen-13 02 for Remote Sensing
China on Friday sent a new Earth observation satellite...
ISRO to conduct young scientist programme in Bengaluru
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is organising a...
Egypt launches second remote-sensing satellite from China
The Egyptian Space Agency’s CEO, Sherif Sedky, announced the...
Israeli-developed DRONE DOME to secure Dubai from aerial attacks
Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd. is supplying the system...
China launches 2nd Horus remote-sensing satellite for Egypt (video)
China has launched a second remote-sensing satellite for Egypt,...
China obstructs new subsea cable to Taiwan
Southeast Asia-Japan Cable 2 connecting Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong,...
Scientific collaboration between China and US key to tackling climate change, experts say
Efforts to combat climate change bore the brunt of...
ISRO Receives India-US Jointly Built NISAR Earth Observation Satellite, Begins Preparations For Launch
US space agency NASA has handed over NISAR earth...
ISRO conducts parachute deployment tests on rail tracks for Gaganyaan Mission
Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has conducted Rail Track...
OceanX helps Riyadh boost best up-and-comers in GEOINT
The Saudi Space Commission has given OceanX the difficult...

July 8th, 2010
Community Remote Sensing Emerges

Kite aerial photography is one example of this growing trend. Kites and balloons have been used for aerial photography for as long as photography has existed, and now they’re offering a platform for hobbyists to map and measure the world. The most compelling examples are taking place now to map the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico at the encouragement of Grassroots Mapping. This organization has harnessed community participation for the Gulf Oil Spill Mapping project to document the extent and impact of oil on the shoreline.

Another example of this growing trend is the work being done by Fijian and Cook Islanders to map and monitor the health of their coral reefs. The project enables locals to collect and record satellite information to form a baseline for the assessment of the reefs, and helps them collect and record relevant information.

The volunteer GIS group, GISCorps has also been active in this regard, using the Internet and wikis to conduct remote projects for analysis, education and disaster response. The group deployed their resources a few days after Cyclone Nargis hit areas o Myanmar (Burma) on May 2, 2008, and assisted the UN Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) to perform change detection and the analysis of various features from a Google Earth environment. The volunteers contributed more than 900 hours all told, and collected more than 54,000 features from the imagery, assisting the UN in important humanitarian work from afar, each using their own computers from their homes or offices.

These and more examples of community remote sensing will be highlighted at the IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium IGARSS that will take place in Honolulu, Hawaii from July 25 through 28. The event encourages this new means to capture information about the environment (both natural and human-built), for this information is central to our progress. The enormity of the required undertaking – observing and understanding our world at all space and time scales – takes your breath away.