Rasor Platform@UNISDR Science and Technology Conference

The RASOR platform was presented during the UNISDR Science and Technology Conference aimed to create the Science and Technology Partnership and the Science and Technology Road Map for the implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030.

More than 800 scientists, policy makers, practitioners and members of the private sector and civil society from all over the world met in Geneva, Switzerland, from 27 to 29 January, to promote and support the availability and application of science and technology to decision-making in disaster risk reduction.
The RASOR platform concepts were shown during the session: “Use of Science, Technology and Innovation Tool, Methods and Standards to Support the Implementation and Reporting of Sendai Framework”, in response to one of the four priorities of the Sendai Frameworks: “Disaster risk management needs to be based on an understanding of disaster risk in all its dimensions of vulnerability, capacity, exposure of persons and assets, hazard characteristics and the environment”.

In this context, the use of multi-hazard risk analysis tools such as RASOR, can greatly improve the understanding disaster risk and build the foundations to implement risk reduction and resilience-oriented policies.

RASOR @ CCDM Conference ranked 4th at the “Knowledge marketplace”

Caribbean Comprehensive Disaster Management Conference, Nassau – 30 November to 5 December. All key players from the caribbean region are present. RASOR took advantage of the event by participating in the “Knowledge marketplace”, a two hour session where 15 ICT tools were presented in parallel to Conference attendees who were asked to “spend” money on tools of their choice. RASOR ranked 4th out of 15, with 1500$ spent compared to 2000$ for the winning tool. RASOR was the highest ranking geospatial analysis tool, and several key contacts were made for potential future users. RASOR also held side meetings with Caribbean Disaster and Emergency Management Executive Director to discuss how RASOR work in Haiti could be applied to other countries in the region, and with the Pacific Disaster Center, to discuss partnering opportunities that would take advantage of the complementary nature of RASOR and the PDC’s DisastersAWARE. RASOR focusses on risk assessment using EO and other technologies to document hazards, exposure and vulnerabilities. DisastersAWARE is a visualization tool to compile socio-economic and environmental vulnerabilities and examine coping capacity within a given country or area. The discussion has led to the definition of a joint process for examining complementary exploitation of the tools, and could lead to an MOU between the RASOR Consortium and the PDC. The PDC is one of the world’s leading Disaster Centers.

RASOR @UR Africa

Addis – The Understanding Risk and Finance Africa Conference was held in Addis Ababa from 17 to 21 November. About 250 risk practitioners, mostly from Africa, attended the event. About 75 RASOR fliers were distributed, and side conversations were held with key stakeholders from the World Bank, as well as new contacts made with potential downline suers, including in Madagascar, Tanzania, Mozambique and Uganda. Africa remains a strong potential market for early roll-out of the tool.

Rasor@CLS : Collecte Localisation Satellites

RASOR Project team met with the CLS directors to discuss future business opportunities though Altamira’s key role in the partnership. CLS controls Altamira Information. CLS is a subsidiary of CNES, IFREMER and the investment company ARDIAN. It has been operating satellite systems and providing high value-added products and services since 1986. CLS operates over 80 instruments carried by 40 satellites and provides its expertise to a broad range of customers: governments, scientific organizations, non-governmental organizations, institutions, large industrial groups (maritime freight, oil and gas companies, commercial shipping, fisheries, etc).

For more information on the event, please visit.

 

RASOR- EARSC SME Workshop hosted by IGARSS

The RASOR Consortium organizes a one-day SME Workshop, together with EARSC and hosted by IGARSS.
The purpose of the workshop is to develop partnerships in the development and application of the RASOR platform.

RASOR is a multi-hazard risk analysis software platform to support the full cycle of disaster management. RASOR uses the 12m resolution TanDEM-X Digital Elevation Model (DEM) of RASOR partners DLR/Airbus Defence and Space as a ground layer for risk management applications, on which RASOR users superpose data sets and develop specific disaster scenarios. RASOR overlays archived and near-real time very-high resolution optical and radar satellite data, combined with in-situ data for both global and local applications. A scenario-driven query system allows users to project situations into the future and model multi-hazard risk both before and during an event. RASOR is an open source, freely available tool, but selected RASOR partners offer add-on products and provide targeted value-added services.
The RASOR Consortium welcomes new RASOR Associates and hopes to forge new alliances in the application of innovative technologies to risk assessment and management.

For more information, visit the dedicated webpage, here.

 

RASOR presents platform @ EU Civil Protection Forum 2015

RASOR Project Manager Andrew Eddy and Platform Developer Lauro Rossi were present at the EU Civil Protection Forum in Brussels May 6 and 7, 2015. The Forum, held this year or the 5th time, is the largest recurring civil protection event in Europe. It brought together more than 700 participants from politics, academia, civil protection services and international organizations.
In his opening remarks, EU Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management Commissioner Christos Stylianides underscored the growing impact of natural disasters. “The economic and human impact of disasters in the last decade is unprecedented. Worldwide, the total damage has affected almost two billion people. Seven hundred thousand people were killed. Europe has not been spared. The average economic cost of disasters in Europe is estimated at ten billion Euros per year.” Stylianides called for “a holistic approach to disaster management […] that addresses all phases of the disaster cycle, and all risks and hazards.” This commitment to a holistic, comprehensive approach to informing risk is the driver behind projects such as RASOR, which will greatly improve the ability of risk managers to understand risk.
 

RASOR Platform Developer Lauro Rossi demonstrating RASOR to the German Technical Relief Agency (THW)

 

RASOR @EU Civil Protection Forum

RASOR is one of the twenty Projects selected for presenting at the EU Civil Protection Forum next 6-7 May.

You are invited to Join.
Click here for the Program

 

 

RASOR Project Held the 1st Review Meeting with REA 16 April 2015

RASOR project Held the 1st Review Meeting with REA in Vienna on the side of EGU General Assembly.
The project advancement were presented to the PO Florence Beroud
and the Project Reviewer Zofia Stott.
The full day review concluded with the satisfaction of all, the recognition af the hard work done and the Hard work to come!

 

 

Rasor@ EGU General Assembly 2015

The RASOR Project will be present at the European Geosciences Union General Assembly 2015 in a dedicated session to be held on April 16th on EO data application to natural hazards and risk studies. More than 30 contributions were received from more than seventy scientist world wide. The description of the session follows.
NH9.20 Application of remote sensing and Earth-observation data in natural hazard and risk studies
Conveners: Matthew Blackett, P. Webley , Robert Wright , Charley Hill-Butler , Roberto Rudari , Fifame Koudogbo , Alanna Leigh Simpson

The session will provide a forum for the dissemination of research into using new sensors and techniques for application to natural hazards. The research presented might focus on: the determination of vulnerable areas; the observation of possible precursory events and evaluation of potential predictive capabilities; the monitoring of a hazard event as it runs its course; the development of tools and platforms for assessment and validation of hazard models, or on the assessment of post-event damage. An additional application which has shown great utility in recent years has been the use of remotely detected data for hazard and risk assessments, decision support and emergency management. This opportunity for research dissemination is particularly timely as the European Commission recently funded a Research project RASOR (Rapid Analysis and Spatialisation of Risk) which focuses on integrating multi-hazard and risk analysis with the help of satellite data. Of these possible research themes, the use of different types of remote sensing (e.g. thermal, visual, radar, laser, and/or the fusion of these) might be considered, with an evaluation of their respective pros and cons. Evaluation of current sensors, data capabilities and algorithms will be welcomed, as will suggestions for future sensor considerations, algorithm developments and

Rasor@WCDRR Public Forum, Side Event

RASOR Project will be at the World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction at Sendai, Japan from March 14-18, 2015.
Within the conference events, RASOR will take part at the workshop: “Environmental Supercomputing and Disaster Risk Reduction” to be held at Tohoku University Room nº C106 on Sunday, March 15 from 09.00-12.00.

The initiative will support exchange of experiences, best practices and requirements across different disciplines and stakeholder groups. The foundations of the initiative are the experiences gained from numerous large-scape projects applying high performance computing (HPC), distributed computing, and big data approaches to different fields of environmental modeling such as hydrometeorology, seismology and hydrology. These R&D activities have repeatedly demonstrated the potential for major improvements in the accuracy, flexibility and speed the modeling and analysis results can be produced. However, experience has also highlighted the need for much tighter coupling between the researchers in different fields, organizations with operational responsibilities (e.g. in civil protection) and the policy level actors on the global, national and regional levels. Benefits of all of these new technical capabilities can be realized only if all stakeholders share a common, basic body of knowledge related tools, services and data resources – and the ways they can be combined in a coherent and efficient manner. Initial pilot activities are being launched, and an engagement process with a broad range of potential stakeholders is ongoing. As part of this engagement process, the CIMA Research Foundation, Italy, and the Leibniz Supercomputing Centre (LRZ), Germany are inviting interested parties to join in to shape the initial vision, mission and approach in this workshop.

For further information, please access here.