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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Kristina WolfORCiD, Professor Jon MillsORCiD, Luis Cormier, Ruth Dunn, Olivia Fairless, Adewale Falaye, Stuart Gordon, Oshadee Jayamanne, Carrow Morris-Wiltshire, Ellie Myall, Francisco Salgado Castillo, Yashvini Shukla, Professor Richard DawsonORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
© 2025 by the authors. Space is one of the UK’s fastest-growing industry sectors of the last decade. Recognising this, in 2021 the UK Government’s first National Space Strategy established a new vision to make the nation one of the most innovative and attractive worldwide space economies. As part of the strategic funding programme, in 2023, the UK Space Agency (UKSA) funded a scoping study to assess the potential of satellite data to address issues that the three North East England Local Resilience Forums face at all stages of implementing the UK’s Integrated Emergency Management Framework (IEMF). Through dedicated workshops convened by two North East England universities, regional stakeholders from the emergency domain and related industries identified three case studies ripe for applying satellite data in support of multi-agency IEMF activities. Master’s students in the UK’s Centre for Doctoral Training in Geospatial Systems then undertook a month-long integrated group project to assess the potential for satellite imagery to be applied in the identified application areas. The research reported in this paper demonstrates how satellite imagery may be adopted to help address challenges posed during power outages, for mitigating illegal waste site fires, and during periods of snow and extreme cold. While the maturity levels of satellite applications vary in the three case studies due to data availability and image resolution, all three cases demonstrate that space data, particularly when augmented with additional geospatial information, help to enhance IEMF analysis. It is anticipated that the findings from the study will help stakeholders involved in IEMF management appreciate the added value of integrating satellite data into their current processes and analyses. By empowering key stakeholders to use satellite applications more effectively, it is predicted that better decisions will be achieved, thereby improving emergency risk management. A prototype dashboard, an output of the research to demonstrate the potential of space data for emergency management, is available online.
Author(s): Wolf K, Mills JP, Cormier L, Dunn R, Fairless O, Falaye A, Gordon S, Jayamanne O, Morris-Wiltshire C, Myall E, Salgado-Castillo F, Shukla Y, Taylor L, Robson E, Donoghue D, Dawson RJ, Lewis E, Reaney SM, Scott E, Freedman J, Marshall S, Walker P, Hinds H
Publication type: Review
Publication status: Published
Journal: Remote Sensing
Year: 2025
Volume: 17
Issue: 9
Online publication date: 26/04/2025
Acceptance date: 24/04/2025
ISSN (electronic): 2072-4292
Publisher: MDPI
URL: https://doi.org/10.3390/rs17091545
DOI: 10.3390/rs17091545
Data Access Statement: All data are available in a publicly accessible repository that can be found here: https://github.com/Geospatial-Systems-CDT/r2d2-datastore (accessed on 23 April 2025).
