Earth Observation for Emergency Management
A section of Remote Sensing (ISSN 2072-4292).
Section Information
Background and Aim
Natural disasters are increasing in frequency and severity in the modern world, and their impact on human lives and the economy is accelerating due to growing urbanization and increasing frequency of extreme weather events. Disaster management planning is structured around the disaster management cycle model of four stages—mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery.
Disaster monitoring and assessment are the most benefited areas by recent advances in satellite and airborne remote sensing. Consistent efforts to find ways to operationally monitor and assess disastrous events, such as earthquakes, tsunamis, storms, floods, and wildfires, are consistently rewarded by integrating advanced remote sensing. Novel techniques in image analysis and the scheduled launch of a series of new sensors with enhanced specifications are also promising for disaster monitoring and assessment, which aims at reducing the risks caused by disasters, providing the public and emergency responders with information that can assist decision making around short-term readiness.
Earth Observation (EO) has been widely applied to post-disaster response, damage assessment, recovery and mitigation, and data collection and processing methods have advanced substantially in recent years. The overall trend toward open data favored by major agencies and programs across the globe enables an unprecedented scale of monitoring and understanding of disaster phenomena, creating the conditions for building complete, accurate, and dynamic pictures of post-disaster situations.
Using satellite and airborne data, regional and global environmental, economic, and societal impacts on the public health (e.g., the COVID-19 pandemic) can be assessed. To discover the effects on the environment due to changes in human behavior, remote sensing data can show new trends over time. Human-made and technological hazards are events that are caused by humans and occur in or close to human settlements. They include complex emergencies, conflicts, industrial accidents, transport accidents, environmental degradation, and pollution.
The aim of “Earth Observation for Emergency Management” is to offer a platform to discuss disaster monitoring, assessment, and emergency management caused by natural hazards, such as earthquakes, storms, floods, wildfires, and landslides, and human-made and technological hazards, such as chemical explosion and environmental pollution.
Scope
- Multisensor data fusion for disaster monitoring and decision support
- Novel techniques for remote-sensing-based vulnerability and disaster assessment
- Remote-sensing-based systems for disaster monitoring and forecasting
- Damage assessment and mapping using Earth observation data
- Exposure information and recovery monitoring
- Insurance policies and claim vetting
- Open data and big data and machine learning in risk and damage assessment
- Crowdsourcing and participative sensing
- Human-made and technological hazards
- COVID-19 pandemic, public health, and emergency management
Editorial Board
Special Issues
Following special issues within this section are currently open for submissions:
- InSAR for Geohazard Monitoring: From Deformation Detection to Risk Assessment (Deadline: 30 September 2026)
- Advances in Remote Sensing Techniques for Ground Deformation Monitoring in Tectonic and Volcanic Environments (Deadline: 30 September 2026)
- Time-Series Remote Sensing for Geohazard Monitoring and Early Warning (Deadline: 15 October 2026)
- Landslide Detection Using Machine and Deep Learning (Deadline: 15 November 2026)
- Remote Sensing for Disaster Science: Building Damage Recognition and Analysis (Deadline: 30 November 2026)
- Exploring the Electromagnetic Environment and Natural Hazard Disturbances in Space Using Remote Sensing Satellites and Ground-Based Observations (Deadline: 30 November 2026)
- Multi-Source Remote Sensing Integrations in Geological Hazards Research (Deadline: 31 December 2026)
- Progress in Remote Sensing and Scalable Computing for Natural Hazard Detection and Emergency Response (Deadline: 31 December 2026)
- Landslide Deformation Monitoring and Prediction with Multi-Source Remote Sensing (Deadline: 15 January 2027)
- Advances in Remote Sensing for Burned Area Mapping (Deadline: 31 January 2027)
- Multi-Sensor Remote Sensing and Advanced Computational Frameworks for Landslide Detection and Predictive Modeling (Deadline: 31 January 2027)
- Advanced InSAR for High-Resolution Topography and Deformation Monitoring: Methods, Multi-Source Data Fusion, and Applications (Deadline: 31 January 2027)
- Remote Sensing-Based Geological Hazard Monitoring, Identification, Prediction, and Risk Assessment: Techniques and Applications (Deadline: 15 March 2027)
- Multi-Modal Remote Sensing and AI for Urban Safety and Disaster Resilience (Deadline: 31 March 2027)
- Remote Sensing for Landslide Detection, Monitoring and Susceptibility Assessment (Deadline: 1 May 2027)
