Guest GMES ERS toolbox

SPACE BASED PRODUCTS TO SUPPORT EUROPEAN EMERGENCY RESPONSE

Europe has, over the last 10 years, prioritised investments in an ambitious and autonomous space programme. One of the results of this programme is the GMES initiative, which is now moving into a pre-operational phase.

GMES at a glance

Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) is a European initiative led by the European Union and implemented by the European Commission (EC) jointly with the European Space Agency (ESA) aimed at developing a European information service based on satellite earth observations and in-situ (ground based) data. The objective of GMES is to monitor and forecast the state of the environment on land, sea and in the atmosphere to support the security of every citizen as well as the emergency services. The information provided by GMES will improve people’s safety, e.g. by providing information on natural disasters such as forest fires or floods, and thus help to prevent the loss of lives and property. GMES is a user driven initiative and the information services provided will be freely and openly accessible to its users, mostly public authorities.

GMES Emergency Response Service (ERS)

The GMES Emergency Response Service will provide all actors involved in the management of humanitarian crises, natural disasters, and manmade emergency situations, with timely and high quality products derived from space observations for use in the response phase, such as:

• preparedness, recovery and refugee / IDP products (available in non-rush mode);
• emergency response products (available in rush mode ; first products generated within 24 hours).
  

GMES Emergency Response Service is expanding its services towards the crisis-prevention (pre-disaster) and post-disaster management by undertaking/developing hazard and risk analysis, fore-casting and early warning products and services. Many types of disasters are being addressed: natural disasters (floods, fires, landslides, storms, earthquakes, etc.), technological accidents (oil spills, vehicle accidents, etc.) and humanitarian crises (for instance famine after a severe period of drought). The GMES Emergency Response Service cooperates and coordinates with major initiatives in the domain, for example with the International Charter “Space and Major Disasters”.

GMES Emergency Response Service benefits!

 Major benefits from the use of the GMES Emergency Response Service products and services are:

• Access to products and services for any geographical area worldwide, (satellite imagery can be acquired anywhere in the world);
• Pre-disaster reference products covering major crisis areas worldwide;
  
• Timeliness of post-disaster information, available within 24 hours from receipt of request;
  
• In-field information delivery, (delivery of the geo-information products to wherever they are needed by users, e.g. in-field, in crisis rooms, in coordination centres, etc.);
  
• Support in all Emergency Response phases, as the GMES Emergency Response Service will produce pre-event, post-event and crisis follow- up products;
  
• End user support, providing software and hardware tools necessary to easily integrate GMES Emergency Response Service products in your current operational workflows.

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