The ENVISYS concept for environmental emergency

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ENVISYS Workshop - Castellón, Spain, 22-23 March
1999
The ENVISYS concept for environmental
emergency management Rune Solberg Norwegian
Computing Center ENVISYS project
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Environmental emergencies covered by the concept
Forest fires
Oil spills
Floods
Earthquakes and volcanoes
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What is an environmental emergency situation?

• Potentially serious to people and environment
• Vast potential area for appearance
• Sudden appearance
• Geographically extended
• Potential of rapid development
• Maybe early warning

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The remote sensing/telematics approach
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Remote sensing detects hazards Oil spills

• Dampening effect of oil on capillary and short
  ocean waves
• Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) sensitive to this
  effect
• Suitable satellites ERS, Radarsat, ENVISAT

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ENVISYS The system approach, oil spill
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Remote sensing detects hazards Forest fires

• High temperature areas and smoke clouds
• High contrast in thermal infrared
• Detectable by e.g. NOAA AVHRR, EOS AM-1 MODIS

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ENVISYS The system approach, forest fires
Main Command Interpreter
External Data Import
Early warning
Pre-processing
RS
Verification
Detection
Background Command Sequencer
GN, RS
Post assessment
Assessment
Operations
GIS
GUI
RDBMS
Toolkit
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Remote sensing detects hazards Floods

• Water surface roughness usually different from
  land surface roughness
• High contrast in near infrared
• Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and infrared
  radiometers sensitive
• Suitable satellites ERS, Radarsat, ENVISAT,
  Landsat, SPOT, NOAA, EOS

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ENVISYS The system approach, floods
Main Command Interpreter
External Data Import
Early warning
Pre-processing
RS
Detection
Background Command Sequencer
GN
Post assessment
Assessment
Operations
GIS
GUI
RDBMS
Toolkit
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Remote sensing detects hazards
Volcano/earthquakes

• Small movements in the surface can indicate
  potential earthquake or volcanic activity
• Interferometry by SAR sensitive to very small
  land surface movements
• Suitable satellites ERS, Radarsat, ENVISAT

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ENVISYS The system approach, volcano/earthquakes
Main Command Interpreter
External Data Import
Early warning
Pre-processing
RS
Detection
Background Command Sequencer
GN
Post assessment
GIS
GUI
RDBMS
Toolkit
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Overview of Cyclades monitoring area
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Verification module (1)

• Make user able to verify slick
• Combine image data and map data
• Image enhancement tools
• Modify a slick mask manually
• Train the detection algorithm

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Verification module (2)
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Assessment module

• View oil slick in full geographic context
• Show sensitive areas
• Show wind and sea currents
• Prediction of oil slick movement by
• Empirical model (straight movement)
• Physical model (trajectory simulation)
• Statistical information

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Operations module

• View the oil slick as observed one or more times
• Plan a cleanup operation
• Support an ongoing cleanup operation
• Document oil spill development by satellite
  images and measurements from the field

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Concluding remarks

• The ENVISYS project demonstrates the strength of
  the combination of telematics and remote sensing
  for environmental emergency detection and
  management
• There will be a strong global need for such
  systems as the environmental consciousness grows
  world-wide
• ENVISYS should be further developed into a
  commercial product for oil spill and also
  extended to other environmental emergency
  situations