Use of the International Charter space and major disasters for damage assessment

Operational since November 1, 2000, the activation of the Charter is regularly increasing. As of December 31, 2003 the civil protection agencies requested triggering of the Charter 45 times : seventeen times for flooding in Argentina, Austria, Canada, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, France, Germany, Indonesia, Morocco, Nepal and Russia, seven times for an earthquake in Afghanistan, India, Iran, San Salvador, Turkey and Algeria, five times for forest fires in Canada, France and Portugal, five times for oil spills near the coast of Denmark, Ecuador, Lebanon, Spain and Yemen, four times for landslide in Italy, Nepal, Philippines and Russia, four times for a volcanic eruption in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Italy and Montserrat island, three times for a storm in Mexico, India and the USA. The purpose of the International Charter is to provide a unified system of space data acquisition and delivery for users affected by disasters, to promote co-operation between space agencies and space system operators and to allow participation in the organisation of emergency assistance or subsequent operations. Data acquisition using available space resources (ERS-2, ENVISAT, IRS-1C, 1D, RADARSAT, SPOT 2-4-5, NOAA polar satellites and SAC-C) and delivery takes place on an priority basis as well as processing and damage assessment maps production. All Partner agencies undertake to co-operate on a voluntary basis with no exchange of funds between them in the event of a major natural or technological disaster and to provide free data and information to the end users. This paper will point out some of the best cases of Charter activation for different disasters leading to change detection imagery and to some tentative of damage assessment products in close co-ordination with the end users.