Natural disasters are an increasingly familiar reality, yet their unpredictability remains a core challenge. This is why preparedness is our best means of mitigating impact when disaster does occur.

Satellite technology plays a critical role in enabling this readiness, but why? To understand this, you need only consider the sheer scale and diversity of Australia’s landscapes, waters and ecosystems. The continent spans 7.7 million square kilometres and, relative to its total area, has a low population density. This makes it incredibly difficult to manage, with the use of terrestrial or airborne monitoring platforms and systems not always suitable or feasible. Australia is uniquely prone to a wide variety of natural hazards and disasters that threaten our natural environments, wildlife, the economy and our communities. Bushfires alone, have left the economy with damages in the billions, with downstream impacts to multiple sectors including, tourism, agriculture, land management, and health. The 2019 – 2020 Black Summer bushfires cost our tourism sector $2.8 billion¹, displaced 3 billion animals² and burnt more than seven million hectares of eucalypt forests and woodlands³. 

Beyond these headlines, the knock-on effects endure for years. Just five years on from the Black Summer fires, an SBS News investigation found that of the 464 houses destroyed in Bega Valley Shire NSW, only 50 had been rebuilt⁴. Fires and other natural disasters don’t just damage the land; but leave a lasting effect on the fabric of the communities they reach, with the recovery lasting often many years beyond the event and a toll that is difficult, if not impossible, to reasonably quantify. While satellite imaging in isolation can’t eliminate these issues, it plays a vital role in aiding emergency services organisations with meaningfully shifting response efforts from reactive to proactive. Mitigating risk, but understanding, planning and preparation before that risk becomes reality. 

Earth Observation Satellites offer a solution. But not all are created equal.

The answer isn’t simply to introduce satellite imagery into your workflows. In fact, there are many data types, systems and technologies, processes and capabilities needed to adequately form a common operating picture experience, decision makers and responders rely upon. Understanding the role of space-based earth observation operationally, tactically and strategically as part of a broader emergency management ecosystem is first key. For example, many spaced-based EO platforms can offer what’s referred to as a “spotlight” based approach in response to an emergency. This is when an area of interest is tasked but only after the event has occurred. This reactive approach has three critical vulnerabilities: 

Time delay

You will have heard the phrase, “in an emergency, every second counts” and this rings true. On an economic level, waiting for task visibility can increase the magnitude of debris removal, damage to critical infrastructure, and overall recovery costs. In a social context, swift response could mean protecting the community from natural perils and ultimately, lives being saved. 

Eye of the storm

Tasking satellites only at the time of the event or post, could mean that you may have missed the peak of the disaster. Whether this is the maximum flood inundation or peak fire intensity, being prepared to capture this vital information is essential for informing policy, response procedures, insurance, action planning, recovery and investment. 

Funding risk

With an always-on approach, you can monitor the landscape as it changes and get ahead of the event. This intelligence needed for a business case that improves eligibility for disaster relief funds and accurate forecasting. 

Australia’s vast geography amplifies all three of these risks which is why NGIS advocate for the floodlight approach. The floodlight approach means constant, widespread data capture. Demanding, but the benefit is exponential. This method of capture results in a living baseline. A continuous, always-on recording of the Earth’s surface that catches changes as they happen. The practical value of this architecture has been demonstrated by organisations that have adopted the technology.  

The floodlight approach isn’t theoretical; it’s been put used among many organisations across the world. NGIS has supported multiple organisations in Australia, integrate satellite imaging into their workflows.  

During the Black Summer fires of 2019 – 2020, NGIS was part of the effort to distribute mapped projections of fire spread during this period, working through skies thick with smoke as fires moved across the Blue Mountains throughout the summer. The imagery captured before, during, and after the fires gave agencies a comprehensive picture of fire behaviour and landscape change that ground-based teams simply could not have assembled alone. 

Satellite technology doesn’t diminish the role of emergency management professionals, it strengthens it. By eliminating critical data gaps, satellite intelligence enables teams to make faster, more informed decisions when it matters the most.   

If you’d like to learn more about remote sensing and how it can support emergency response teams, watch our free on-demand webinar, delivered in partnership with Planet, a leading satellite imaging provider.  

1. ABC – Black Summer bushfires cost Australia billions in lost tourism, new research reveals
2. ABC – 3 billion animals killed or displaced in Black Summer bushfires, study estimates
3. CSIRO – Plants most at risk after black summer megafires
4. SBS – ‘Fireballs bigger than a ute’ torched Jamie’s property. Five years later he’s still living in a caravan