The Italian Space Agency Contribution to CEOS WGDisasters for Disaster Monitoring and Response

The Working Group on Disasters (WGDisasters) has been established since 2013 by the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS, https://ceos.org) to ensure the sustained coordination of disaster-related activities undertaken by the CEOS Agencies as well as to act as an interface between CEOS and the community of stakeholders / users involved in risk management and disaster reduction.

In this framework, CEOS WGDisasters has initiated, promoted and supported a series of concrete actions for Disaster Risk Management (DRM) and Disaster Risk reduction (DRR) oriented to disaster monitoring, preparedness and prevention. These actions have been translated in single-hazard Pilot and Demonstrator projects (currently focusing on fires, floods, landslide, volcanoes and seismic hazards) as well as multi-hazards projects as the Recovery Observatory (RO) and Supersites for Geohazard Supersites and Natural Laboratories (GSNL).

Since 2012 ASI participates and contributes to the above-mentioned initiatives in terms of project selection and evaluation (as part of Data Coordination Team); data provision of COSMO-SkyMed, SAOCOM (only within the ASI Zone of Exclusivity defined in agreement with CONAE within SIASGE program) and PRISMA images; scientific activities in DRM and RO projects.

In coordination with WG members and CEOS Agencies, ASI has delivered more than 20.000 EO products until now and is actively involved in demonstrating novel scientific products based on a tailored exploitation of COSMO-SkyMed radar images. Several showcases will be presented at the time of the conference dealing with volcano monitoring (e.g. Mount Agung in Indonesia, Sierra Negra at Galapagos, St. Vincent in Caribbean), seismic activities (e.g. 2023 Turkey-Syria earthquake), multi-hazards “Supersite” initiatives (e.g. Reykjanes Peninsula, Kilauea and Mauna Loa volcanoes in Hawaii, Nyamuragira and Nyiragongo volcanoes) and RO initiative (e.g. 2016 Hurricane Matthew and 2021 Hurricane Grace in Haiti).