USE OF SPACE TECHNOLOGIES TO MANAGE FLOOD DISASTERS TOWARDS A SPACE BASED EUROPEAN RISK MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

SCOT CONSEIL, 1 Rue Hermès, 31526 RAMONVILLE Cedex - FRANCE -
Tel : 33 561 39 46 46
Fax : 33 561 39 46 10
E-Mail : ng@scot.cnes.fr

ABSTRACT SUBMITTED BY MR Nisso GARGIR

Floods have become a major risk and are responsible for a large 
number of catastrophes in many parts of the world. In Europe, the 
last major  floods (Rhine : Germany and Netherlands, Meuse : 
Belgium, France and the Netherlands...) are still in our mind. They 
remember us that, even at the end of the 20th century, they can 
endager life and cause important economic losses.
In the past few years, various studies have shown that flood 
management activities could largely benefic form the use of Earth 
Observation as well as space technologies  for positioning and data 
transmission. Last year, a pilot project, realised under the EUR-OPA 
Major Hazard Agreement of the Council of Europe and in close 
collaboration with the French Ministry of Environment, was initiated 
to demonstrate the usefulness of space technologies (earth 
observation and data transmission) for managing flood disasters 
through the analysis of real accidents. 
The aim of this project is to show that some methodologies and tools 
are available which could already provide decisive elements for 
flood monitoring : prevention (i.e cartography of the risk exposed 
area), crisis management (i.e data transmission and cartography of 
the flooded areas) and post-crisis analysis (i.e damage assessment 
and analysis for feedback experience).
However, experience shows that the end-user himself, e.g civil 
protection authorities, is not in the position to select, process 
and interpret EO data. Nevertheless, these services are very 
interested in information that can be used for their decision 
process.
Therefore, it is now important to define and implement dedicated 
services if we want to develop an operational use of these 
technologies and to facilitate their integration at the end-user 
level. The objectives of this system service will be to co-ordinate 
the various actors in the space domain (satellite data providers, 
service providers and value adding organisations, research 
institutions, customers...) and prepare the tools and structures 
that could be used  by decision-makers in the field of flood 
monitoring.

I thank you very much indeed to acknowledge receipt of this message,
My fax is (33)560 394610
e-mail : ad@scot.cnes.fr

Keywords: ESA European Space Agency - Agence spatiale europeenne, observation de la terre, earth observation, satellite remote sensing, teledetection, geophysique, altimetrie, radar, chimique atmospherique, geophysics, altimetry, radar, atmospheric chemistry