Gilbert L. Rochon

Adopting Multisensor Remote Sensing Datasets and Coupled Models for Disaster Management

An application and a process involving integration of dynamic models for a data-rich environment, incorporating a multi sensor dataset is discussed. The potential utility of such data fusion for different phases of disaster management: vulnerability assessment, early warning systems, disaster mitigation, response, damage assessment and recovery are delineated. Case studies are drawn from disaster scenarios for flooding, drought management, and heavy rains in India. Applicability of the technology and processes, with potentially different sources of data, is described. Solutions to several technological challenges to handle large data sets using distributed cluster technology and data visualization, using high-resolution large display systems, are presented. Taking an example of the July 26, 2005 heavy rain events in Mumbai, India, which caused flooding, and resulted in over 400 deaths and nearly a billion US economic losses, the ability of multiple models to study the predictability, variability and use of model – satellite data fusion for severe weather and disaster mitigation, as well as response needs is discussed. A case for multisensory satellite datasets and the use of upcoming technologies, including handheld computers and cell phones in facilitating early warning, evacuation and emergency intervention is addressed. A case is made for a technological and educational infrastructure development that can benefit from remote sensing centric models with different complexity and a community cyberinfrastructure for multidata access for disaster management.

Remote sensing applications for sustainable aquaculture in Africa

The authors review the current state of the science with respect to remote sensing applications for aquaculture, including site location, aquaculture facility mapping, market proximity analysis and associated roadway infrastructure, epizootic mitigation, meteorological event and flood early warning, environmental pollution monitoring, and aquatic ecosystem impact, primarily for catfish (Clarias spp.) and tilapia (Tilapia spp.; Oreochromis spp.), inter alia. The potential of technology transfer from the controlled environment aquaculture research facilities at Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, USA to partnering institutions in Ghana and Kenya are explored. The potential for multi-sensor remote sensing deployment to support sustainable fish production in these environments and subsequently in other African countries is evaluated.

Advances in spatial data infrastructure, acquisition, analysis, archiving & dissemination

The authors review recent contributions to the state-of-thescience and benign proliferation of satellite remote sensing, spatial data infrastructure, near-real-time data acquisition, analysis on high performance computing platforms, sapient archiving, multi-modal dissemination and utilization for a wide array of scientific applications. The authors also address advances in Geoinformatics and its growing ubiquity, as evidenced by its inclusion as a focus area within the American Geophysical Union (AGU), European Geosciences Union (EGU), as well as by the evolution of the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Societys (GRSS) Data Archiving and Distribution Technical Committee (DAD TC).

Remote Sensing, Public Health & Disaster Mitigation

The authors review advances in applications for geotechnologies, specifically earth-observing satellite remote sensing, geo-positioning (i.e. USA’s Global Positioning System (GPS), Russia’s Global’naya Navigatsionnaya Sputnikovaya Sistema (GLONASS), Europe’s Galileo and China’s Beidou/Compass) and selected geo-spatial modeling software for public health and disaster management applications, with an emphasis on environmental health and environmental sustainability. Specific applications addressed include the use of remote sensing for infectious disease vector habitat identification and ecologically sustainable disease vector population mitigation, as well as the integration of GPS into mobile CD4 testing devices for HIV/AIDS. Public domain software models described include the Spatio-Temporal Epidemiological Modeler (STEM) and the Hydrologic Engineering River Analysis System (HEC-RAS) for flood modeling. Examples of regional, national and global real-time data acquisition and near-real-time data product development and distribution for time-critical events are offered, specifically through the Purdue Terrestrial Observatory (PTO), the United States Geological Survey (USGS) supported AmericaView and the International Charter – Space & Major Disasters.

Overcoming Bandwidth and Satellite Communications Limitations to Accelerate Applications of Remote Sensing and High Performance Computing for Sustainable African Development: Contributions from Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa

Sixty-two years after the first photos of earth taken by a camera aboard a V-2 rocket in October, 1946, and forty-eight years since the first CORONA satellite images were captured, the status of remote sensing research and applications within the African continent has made dramatic progress. Many African countries now have remote sensing research centers, within government agencies, research institutes and universities. Some countries in Africa currently have earth observing and/or telecommunications satellites in orbit and/or have such assets in various planning stages. The authors document such progress, in addition to the constraints to further applications of remote sensing for sustainable development in Africa, with special reference to data distribution constraints. Moreover, the authors address the urgency for bandwidth improvements within the African continent, so as to enable sustainable development initiatives to benefit from advances in high performance computing, required for ab initio near-real-time analysis of satellite-data. Such capabilities, it is argued, are propaedeutic for time-critical initiatives, such as vulnerability assessment, disaster preparedness and mitigation, emergency response, humanitarian assistance and post-calamity reconstruction, associated with a wide array of biogenic and anthropogenic disasters. Case studies of advances in infrastructure for satellite remote sensing and high performance computing, with implications for sustainable development in Africa, are provided from Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa.

The Kamal Ewida Earth Observatory: A NATO supported real-time remote sensing receiving station being established in Egypt with HPC-enabled near-real-time data products for mitigation of environmental & public health disasters

Establishment of the Kamal Ewida Earth Observatory (KEEO) has been funded by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Science for Peace Program. KEEO is a joint initiative of two of Egypts largest and most venerable institutions of higher learning, Cairo University and Al Azhar University, both based in Cairo, Egypt, in collaboration with established environmental observatories in two NATO countries, Turkey and the USA. Specifically, the Egyptian partners, based in their Departments of Meteorology and Astronomy, Faculty of Science, at the two Egyptian Universities, are engaging in applications development, research and instructional collaboration with partnering resources from Bogaziçi Universitys Kandilli Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute (Istanbul, Turkey), with expertise in disaster mitigation, and Purdue Universitys Rosen Center for Advanced Computings Purdue Terrestrial Observatory (West Lafayette, Indiana, USA), with expertise in real-time remote sensing and multi-disciplinary applications of satellite data. The KEEO project provides an interdisciplinary approach to effective disaster management and facilitates collaborative research and decision support, within the Egyptian context, for disaster mitigation.

Deployment of real-time satellite remote sensing infrastructure to support disaster mitigation: A NATO Science for Peace collaboration project with Research Universities in Turkey, Egypt and the USA

The authors delineate the specific roles of the research partner institutions from Turkey, Egypt and the USA, in planning and implementing the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Science for Peace sponsored Kamal Ewida Earth Observatory (KEEO), a network of real-time satellite remote sensing ground stations, being established over the next three years in Egypt, with a tracking station for polar orbiting satellites at Cairo University, and a networked geostationary receiving station for the European Space Agencys Meteosat being deployed at Al Azhar University. The primary objective of the project is to facilitate early warning and mitigation of a wide range of biogenic and anthropogenic disasters. The project will also address mitigation of epidemics and epizootics, through identification and monitoring of infectious disease vector and reservoir habitat. Some examples of common concern among participating countries are climate change and its impacts, the land use problems in agriculture, air pollution problems in major cities such as Cairo and Istanbul, recent epidemics such as the bird flu, swine flu and oil spills along the seashores. Archival and real-time remote sensing and generation of near-real-time spatial data products, utilizing high performance computing clusters, are planned throughout the life cycle of disaster management, including vulnerability assessment, infrastructure safeguards, early warning, emergency response, humanitarian relief, as well as post-disaster damage assessment, reconstruction and societal recovery.

Acquisition, analysis and distribution of real-time multi-sensor satellite data, in a high performance computing environment, for disaster mitigation applications: Case studies from the NATO science for peace funded Kamal Ewida Earth Observatory in Egypt, the Electronic Geophysical Year (eGY)-Africa and the US Geological Survey supported AmericaView

The paper presents an implementation of the current state-of-the-art, with respect to acquisition, analysis and distribution of real-time remotely sensed data from multiple polar orbiting and geostationary earth observing satellite sensors, deploying high performance computing for time-critical disaster mitigation applications. The authors also describe the prototype Kamal Ewida Earth Observatory (KEEO), now under development at Cairo University and at Al Azhar University in Egypt, as a technological exemplar of indigenous expertise, real-time remote sensing, near-real-time spatial data products, supercomputer access from Egypts space agency-NARSS, partnerships with multi-lateral agencies (e.g. UN WHO, Electronic Geophysical Year (eGY)-Africa), sensor data archives from the United States Geological Survey (USGS)-supported AmericaView, funding from NATOs Science for Peace Program and collaborative research with Bogaziçi Universitys Kandilli Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute (KOERI) in Istanbul, Turkey and with Purdue Universitys Rosen Center for Advanced Computings Purdue Terrestrial Observatory (PTO) in West Lafayette, Indiana, USA.

Assessment of the Century Model Web Interface in Undergraduate Education to Improve Decision-making and Learning

In this study, an assessment of a web-based interface tool used to enhance student learning and decision-making is described. The web-based interface tool links to the UNIX version of the carbon sequestration crop management Century Model. This model processes soil texture, crop, climate, tillage and several other parameters to assess carbon accumulation over a thousand year period. The tool was tested in five courses at Purdue University involving approximately 250 science and engineering undergraduate students. The students were administered a pretest, lecture, and either a single-field (small scale) or multi-field (large scale) scenario as a homework assignment using the web-based modeling tool, a posttest, and a written student evaluation. Results revealed a significant difference among pretest scores for the various courses, and as a result, the pretest score served as a covariate in the statistical analysis. No significant differences were detected between the single-field and multi-field scenario assignments, student gender or urban vs. rural background. However, student scores elevated from pretest to posttest after completing the multi-field scenario assignment. Additionally, females and students from a rural background scored higher on the pretest and posttest.