Here’s the scenario:
The July-September monsoon season starts in Pakistan with reports of torrential rain and flash floods in many parts of the country. The UN calls in the International Charter Space and Major Disasters (ICSMD) to support relief efforts.
What is it and what has it got to do with the Pakistan flooding?
Founded in 1999, ICSMD provides “a unified system of space data acquisition and delivery to those affected by natural or man-made disasters”.
In the event of a major natural disaster, satellite imagery relating to the affected area(s) is collected. Such data has become a key source of information for disaster management, and the humanitarian community is increasingly coming to rely on it to help mitigate the effects of disasters.
The ICSMD activation map suggests the number of activations has been increasing steadily over the years. Recent activations from members include the July floods in Togo, cyclone Nargis in May in Myanmar, Argentina’s fires in April and the February earthquake in Rwanda, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Burundi.
Satellite image derived maps and analyses on Pakistan’s flooding will be available at www.unosat.org soon.
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This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions