Sci-Tech Information: CRS, People Oriented Applied New Technology of Geoscience
Community Remote Sensing (CRS) is an emerging movement made possible by technology advancement, public access to satellite imagery and the growing mass of technology-savvy citizens. It combines software, data and server-based systems to link experts and volunteers who contribute to collection of information for large-scale project areas. A priority watch activity of 2010 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS), CRS is characterized by application of location technology that... combines remote sensing with citizen science, social networks, and crowd-sourcing to enhance the data obtained from traditional sources. It includes the collection, calibration, analysis, communication, or application of remotely sensed information by these community means. One form of CRS, crowd-sourcing is the use of cellular text messaging, Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and Twitter technology to report ground-level activities real-time and near-time for use in analysis.
Easy-to-access web-based collaboration tools have made possible a new era of distributed processing. This translates into the capacity to harness thousands of people around the world to do a tiny bit, a tiny little area each, and to provide critical information in a useful timeframe, says Scott Madry, who is associate research professor of archaeology at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, a member of the faculty of the International Space University, and president of Informatics International Incorporated, a Chapel Hill consulting firm. CRS is being used to acquire real-time weather data on private vehicles, ground-level data in agricultural settings and for disaster response, for local ecological and marine habitat monitoring, human rights watch information, and rapid peer-review of remote sensing work, and to advance the contributions of indigenous communities.
One of the leading programs to apply CRS to large-scale international projects is GISCorps. They are a volunteer-based group formed in 2003 in Atlanta, Georgia, by Urban and Regional Information Systems Association GISCorps was formed with the intention of applying Geographic Information System (GIS) skills to make a positive impact on the world. The group mission supports humanitarian aid, community planning and development, health and education activities, human rights relief, environmental analysis, and economic development, as well as works to strengthen the local capacity to adopt and use information technology in disadvantaged areas. GISCorps relies on four types of supporters to complete their mission: committee members, volunt-eers, partner agencies and donors.
A specific incident that proved the impact of harnessing volunteers to collect massive amounts of data quickly was the response to cyclone Nargis, which hit Myanmar (Burma) beginning May 2, 2008. GISCorps was approached by UNOSAT, the UN Institute for Training and Research Operational Satellite Applications Program, to coordinate volunteers with GIS and imagery analysis skills. A request was sent to GIS list serves for volunteers willing to provide immediate expertise to attribute features on pre- and post-cyclone imagery. GISCorps provided team members simple project area instructions and a Google Earth web mapping interface via a wiki, an interactive internet site that is not hierarchical and is easy to manipulate by all levels of project participants.
An understanding of local culture played a critical role in choosing the focus of data collection. The team collected typical features such as roads, bridges and towns, but also Buddhist monasteries. Monasteries are the heart of the Burmese communities, and therefore are the natural sites where people congregate in time of crisis. The first round of feature attribution used pre-disaster data and the second round used post-disaster data.
All GISCorps volunteers worked from home and collaborated virtually via the online wiki community to receive assignments and produce as much data as possible outside of their normal working hours. Google Earth was used to attribute single points, lines and polygons on the satellite imagery backdrop. As team members completed assigned areas, they sent information to the project coordinator for review. The data were quality checked, then converted to an Esri ArcGIS software environment to add the power of a relational database. Attributes were then sent to UNOSAT, who completed the final cartographic product, providing it to relief workers through a web portal.
The government of Myanmar was initially not willing to allow international aid into the country, causing a delay in critical lifesaving efforts. This didn't stop the GISCorps project team of 33 volunteers from producing 1300 hours of work to identify 60,000 attributes on the map from May 9-21, 2008. When relief workers were finally allowed into the country, they had online access to the data they needed to prioritize response.
All GISCorps volunteers worked from home and collaborated virtually via the online wiki community to receive assignments and produce as much data as possible outside of their normal working hours. Google Earth was used to attribute single points, lines and polygons on the satellite imagery backdrop. As team members completed assigned areas, they sent information to the project coordinator for review. The data were quality checked, then converted to an Esri ArcGIS software environment to add the power of a relational database. Attributes were then sent to UNOSAT, who completed the final cartographic product, providing it to relief workers through a web portal.
The government of Myanmar was initially not willing to allow international aid into the country, causing a delay in critical lifesaving efforts. This didn't stop the GISCorps project team of 33 volunteers from producing 1300 hours of work to identify 60,000 attributes on the map from May 9-21, 2008. When relief workers were finally allowed into the country, they had online access to the data they needed to prioritize response.
CRS is an emerging application of earth observation technology with unlimited potential. Because it is nascent, we have a very limited understanding of the possible future evolution of this marriage between technology, humanity and the environment. Distributed processing, the leading edge of CRS, may be utilized to engage individuals around the world to contribute to our understanding of ecology, archeology, natural disasters and human behavior. As access to inform-ation expands, citizens are educated about the earth and shown more avenues for meaningful participation in society, whether through volunteerism, eco-tourism or conservation of resources in their local communities.
Easy-to-access web-based collaboration tools have made possible a new era of distributed processing. This translates into the capacity to harness thousands of people around the world to do a tiny bit, a tiny little area each, and to provide critical information in a useful timeframe, says Scott Madry, who is associate research professor of archaeology at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, a member of the faculty of the International Space University, and president of Informatics International Incorporated, a Chapel Hill consulting firm. CRS is being used to acquire real-time weather data on private vehicles, ground-level data in agricultural settings and for disaster response, for local ecological and marine habitat monitoring, human rights watch information, and rapid peer-review of remote sensing work, and to advance the contributions of indigenous communities.
One of the leading programs to apply CRS to large-scale international projects is GISCorps. They are a volunteer-based group formed in 2003 in Atlanta, Georgia, by Urban and Regional Information Systems Association GISCorps was formed with the intention of applying Geographic Information System (GIS) skills to make a positive impact on the world. The group mission supports humanitarian aid, community planning and development, health and education activities, human rights relief, environmental analysis, and economic development, as well as works to strengthen the local capacity to adopt and use information technology in disadvantaged areas. GISCorps relies on four types of supporters to complete their mission: committee members, volunt-eers, partner agencies and donors.
A specific incident that proved the impact of harnessing volunteers to collect massive amounts of data quickly was the response to cyclone Nargis, which hit Myanmar (Burma) beginning May 2, 2008. GISCorps was approached by UNOSAT, the UN Institute for Training and Research Operational Satellite Applications Program, to coordinate volunteers with GIS and imagery analysis skills. A request was sent to GIS list serves for volunteers willing to provide immediate expertise to attribute features on pre- and post-cyclone imagery. GISCorps provided team members simple project area instructions and a Google Earth web mapping interface via a wiki, an interactive internet site that is not hierarchical and is easy to manipulate by all levels of project participants.
An understanding of local culture played a critical role in choosing the focus of data collection. The team collected typical features such as roads, bridges and towns, but also Buddhist monasteries. Monasteries are the heart of the Burmese communities, and therefore are the natural sites where people congregate in time of crisis. The first round of feature attribution used pre-disaster data and the second round used post-disaster data.
All GISCorps volunteers worked from home and collaborated virtually via the online wiki community to receive assignments and produce as much data as possible outside of their normal working hours. Google Earth was used to attribute single points, lines and polygons on the satellite imagery backdrop. As team members completed assigned areas, they sent information to the project coordinator for review. The data were quality checked, then converted to an Esri ArcGIS software environment to add the power of a relational database. Attributes were then sent to UNOSAT, who completed the final cartographic product, providing it to relief workers through a web portal.
The government of Myanmar was initially not willing to allow international aid into the country, causing a delay in critical lifesaving efforts. This didn't stop the GISCorps project team of 33 volunteers from producing 1300 hours of work to identify 60,000 attributes on the map from May 9-21, 2008. When relief workers were finally allowed into the country, they had online access to the data they needed to prioritize response.
All GISCorps volunteers worked from home and collaborated virtually via the online wiki community to receive assignments and produce as much data as possible outside of their normal working hours. Google Earth was used to attribute single points, lines and polygons on the satellite imagery backdrop. As team members completed assigned areas, they sent information to the project coordinator for review. The data were quality checked, then converted to an Esri ArcGIS software environment to add the power of a relational database. Attributes were then sent to UNOSAT, who completed the final cartographic product, providing it to relief workers through a web portal.
The government of Myanmar was initially not willing to allow international aid into the country, causing a delay in critical lifesaving efforts. This didn't stop the GISCorps project team of 33 volunteers from producing 1300 hours of work to identify 60,000 attributes on the map from May 9-21, 2008. When relief workers were finally allowed into the country, they had online access to the data they needed to prioritize response.
CRS is an emerging application of earth observation technology with unlimited potential. Because it is nascent, we have a very limited understanding of the possible future evolution of this marriage between technology, humanity and the environment. Distributed processing, the leading edge of CRS, may be utilized to engage individuals around the world to contribute to our understanding of ecology, archeology, natural disasters and human behavior. As access to inform-ation expands, citizens are educated about the earth and shown more avenues for meaningful participation in society, whether through volunteerism, eco-tourism or conservation of resources in their local communities.
