Highlight 31/2022 – Is satellite communication the future of disaster management?
Anagha Lakshmi, 16 May 2022
The world’s population is growing, and its cities are expanding. In the context of these rising needs of urbanisation, there is a demand for rethinking the risk management paradigm with an emphasis on the importance of critical disaster management. The economic and social impact generated in wider regions across the globe has not been uniform. Loss of life, mobility and damage to livestock have been the most important consequences of climate change. The risk of natural disasters occurring are higher in certain populous regions which are thus highly vulnerable. Keeping in mind these human and economic dimensions, the immediate need to reduce emergency response times calls for the need to improve communication assistance.
Terrestrial communication and/or power networks are often disrupted or destroyed by severe weather events (e.g. through intense floods, severe hurricanes, intense rainy seasons, etc.). Critical and reliable communication systems that would suffer minimum damage in case of a natural disaster are the need of the hour to minimise loss of life. It is in this regard that satellite communication can prove to be an altering mechanism to prevent and mitigate risks of calamities. Satellite and other non-ground-based networks can help provide communication services to assist in disaster response and relief efforts.
High resolution density images can produce high quality results which will help manage risks more precisely. International Telecommunication Union (ITU) standards offer guidance on network architectures able to contend with sudden losses of substantial volumes of network resources. Satellite communications can help the enablement and assistance provided by organisations like the ITU and WMO in times of disaster management. Delayed dissemination of information increases risks of mismanagement. Increasing speed of response in critical times via improved transportation and communication mechanisms can help develop the speed of response. Mobile-satellite service (MSS) and fixed-satellite service (FSS) systems are often ideally suited to support disaster response and relief efforts, due to their wide coverage areas. Open source access to information and exchange of data (global access to collect, publish, access data) could lead to faster and informed decision making at all levels of governance.
Satellite communication can increase the possibilities of sharing information between countries. However, the lack of proper planning and execution of satellite communication in disaster management could lead to a limitation in the timely access to this technology. In order to tackle this challenge, ITU, which is an active member of the Emergency Telecommunications Cluster (ETC) , plays its role as a global network of humanitarian, private sector and governmental organisations that work together in disasters to provide vital communications services. The ETC, in partnership with leading edge technology companies and local telecom providers, creates an environment for emergency response allowing humanitarian responders, communities and governments to have seamless, resilient and principled communications. Natural disasters cost the agricultural sector of some low and middle income countries more than USD 108 billion in damaged crop and livestock production. It has been predicted by the WMO that in the future, the negative impact of natural disasters will be concentrated among these countries because these countries are relatively less prepared to adapt to these disasters. To reduce the socio-economic impact of climate-related disasters, governments are encouraged to increase investment in physical and social infrastructure and allow for the upscaling and acceleration of far-reaching, transformational adaptation strategies. By ensuring an enabling regulatory environment that allows for the roll-out of new satellite-based emergency communications solutions, governments can save lives and protect communities. It can thus be said that this new and developing technology is here to stay and can indeed be perceived as a key feature in the future of disaster management.
Anagha Lakshmi, Highlight 31/2022 – Is satellite communication the future of disaster management?, 16 May 2022, available at www.meig.ch
The views expressed in the MEIG Highlights are personal to the author and neither reflect the positions of the MEIG Programme nor those of the University of Geneva.