Earth Observation to Support Disaster Preparedness and Disaster Risk Management

Dear Colleagues,

Globally, the impacts of climate change, scarcity of natural resources, and natural disasters, represent enormous challenges for society, governmental, and non-governmental organizations. With the recent adoption of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs, see https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdgs/) adopted by world leaders at the 2015 UN Sustainable Development Summit, and the call by the UN Secretary General for a “revolution” in the use of (geo)data for sustainable development, geospatial technologies have tremendous potential to effectively and efficiently monitor SDG progress and to support the implementation of the development agenda at all levels.

Disasters are increasing in frequency and severity in the modern world, and their impacts on human lives and the economy are accelerating due to growing urbanization and increasing extreme weather events. In this regard, disaster risk reduction (DRR) is one essential mean to achieve sustainable development. Likewise, a paradigm change from emergency response to disaster risk reduction and preparedness is supported by a variety of institutions and political frameworks. A prominent example is the Sendai Framework for DRR 2015–2030, which explicitly promotes the use of Earth observation (EO) as a way to gather data that is needed to elaborate information on hazard exposure, vulnerability and risk and hence as an indispensable source of information to support decision-making related to disasters.

EO has been widely applied to disaster risk management (including disaster preparation, response, recovery and mitigation). Data collection and processing methods have advanced substantially. Freeing data archives ranging back over more than 30 years (for example Landsat/NASA) and EO programs like Copernicus provide a plethora of various types of satellite data and products. Such advances need to find their way in applications related to DRR, including in the indicators to monitor advances in these areas. EO from ground and space platforms and related applications represent a unique platform to observe and assess how risks have evolved in recent years, as well as to track the reduction in the level of exposure of communities to (natural) hazards over the years.

This Special Issue is focused on EO for supporting disaster risk management. It will draw from ongoing advancements, novel developments of methodologies, and best case studies demonstrating the use of EO technology for contributing to the generation of relevant information regarding risk and vulnerability and its changes over time. We encourage submitting manuscripts related to the use of space-based information that can contribute to monitoring hazards, to tracking changes in exposure to (natural) hazards, and of vulnerable elements over the years. Further, we welcome submitting manuscripts that discuss the use of EO data from an application point of view, its implementation potential, including current obstacles and challenges using space-based information.

With these issues in mind, we invite you to submit manuscripts about your recent research, as well as review papers, with respect to the following topics (not limited):

• EO algorithm development, automation, implementation, and validation for tracking changes and dynamics in exposure to (natural) hazards and of vulnerable elements over time and space;
• EO for multi-hazard early warning systems and examples of implementation/contribution to risk reduction;
• Case studies demonstrating the use of Copernicus and/or other satellite data in support of risk management;
• EO for measuring and monitoring disaster-relevant SDGs and Sendai indicators;
• EO for supporting Sendai priority for action 1 “Understanding disaster risk” and priority 4 “Enhancing disaster preparedness” including measurement and monitoring of global targets and defined indicators.

Dr. Fabian Löw
Prof. Dr. Siquan Yang
Prof. Dr. Günter Strunz
Prof. Dr. Zhenhong Li
Dr. Joachim Post
Dr. Juan Carlos de Villagrán de Léon
Dr. Shunichi Koshimura
Dr. Roberto Tomas
Dr. Peter Spruyt
Prof. Dr. Michael Judex
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Remote Sensing is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.