Special Forum: GeoHumanitarian Action
ISDE 2021
Programme July 8th – Register your participation here
GeoHumanitarian Action: Finding Solutions to Complex Challenges
9.00 – 9.55
Welcome Notes
Stefan Lang, PhD, is head of the GEOHUM Lab in Salzburg, which is dedicated to the development and application of cutting-edge geo-spatial technologies for humanitraian opertaions. He is Geographer, GIS and Remote Sensing specialist by training and currently acting as Assistant Professor at the Interfaculty Department of Geoinformatics (Z_GIS) at the University of Salzburg in Austria. He is also heading the Z_GIS Division Integrated Spatial Analysis (ISA). His research interests include: object-based (image) analysis (OBIA), systemic and hierarchical scale concepts, multi-source data integration, multi-dimensional indicator development, multi-scale regionalization and generalisation, validation and accuracy.
MSF’s international GIS Center supports ongoing humanitarian operations by leveraging GIS and remote sensing technologies. The center’s expertise includes the analysis of refugee flows, locating suitable locations of well drilling, or monitoring and predicting impending periods of drought.
Digital Collage: Current EO and GI Technologies in Humanitarian Aid
A group of students from the programmes MSc Applied Geoinformatics and MSc Copernicus Master in Digital Earth has recently studied the relevance of EO and GI technologies to humanitarian operations. In a combined presentation, they will help kick-start the day by providing an overview of a few current technologies and their application.
Setting the Scene
5 Minute Coffee Break
10.00 – 10.50
Keynote: Rethinking Humanitarianism in the Digital Era
Yola Georgiadou is Professor in Geo-information for Governance at the ITC Faculty, University of Twente, The Netherlands. She studies how social actors structure wicked policy problems characterized by intense disagreement on values and uncertain geospatial knowledge. Currently, she focuses on the interplay of values, principles and artificial geospatial intelligence in humanitarian action. Her methods are qualitative. Her normative orientation is “working with the grain” of local institutions.
Leveraging AI and Big Data across the Disaster Risk Management Cycle - Opportunities and Challenges for the Red Cross
Marc is the Scientific Lead of 510 Global at the Netherlands Red Cross, focusing on data preparedness and impact-based forecasting. His role also involves improving preparedness and response to natural disasters through small and big data, information management, and coordination mechanisms. He is the former leader and co-founder within TNO, the Netherlands Research and Technology Organization, of the ICT for Development (ICT4D) team.
For more information on 510 Global visit https://www.510.global/
Live Discussion on the Changing Context and New Solutions in Humanitarianism
10 Minute Break and Lounge Discussions
Innovation in “Data 2 Info”
11.00 – 11.45
Disaster Ninja: Comparing OpenStreetMap data with Kontur Population to Streamline Disaster Mapping
Darafei is the head of product development at Kontur. He specializes in the domain of cartography and GIS (geographic information systems). He is the organizer of the local GIS community in Minsk, Belarus where Kontur has one of the offices. Darafei has been a member of the OpenStreetMap Foundation (OSMF) since 2010.
Click here for more information on the Disaster Ninja project.
Tatsiana is a GIS analyst at Kontur.
Transforming Satellite Data into Actionable Information for Humanitarian Decision Makers
Sarah Muir is an Earth Observation and Climate Analyst at the Analysis and Trends Service (OSZA) unit at the UN World Food Program HQ in Rome. OSZA carries out most analytical functions in food security, economics and markets for WFP. Sarah joined OSZAF geospatial team in 2014 after completing her graduate studies in GIS in Ottawa. Her current work focuses the use of Very High Resolution satellite imagery to monitor conflict displaced populations.
Data Services for Humanitarian Aid
Anne studied Environmental Sciences and received her PhD in remote sensing from Trier University in 2018. Her research focus ever since has been on the use of remote sensing to support humanitarian aid and sustain food security. Since 2020, she is a research associate at German Remote Sensing Data Center (DFD) at the German Aerospace Center (DLR). In this position, she coordinates the Data4Human project, which develops techniques to provide humanitarian aid organizations with state-of-the-art satellite-, GIS- and web-data analysis as well as actionable information products.
Click here for more information on the Data4Human project.
Live Discussion, Q&A
The presentations will be followed by a live discussion and Q&A session.
During the break, the speakers from the will be available for further questions, discussions and chatting in the lounge of the conference platform.
15 Minute Break and Lounge Discussions
12.00 – 12.50
Suggestions on the Selection of Satellite Imagery for Future Remote Sensing-based Humanitarian Applications
Yunya is a current PhD candidate and project staff at the GEOHUM Lab in Salzburg. She holds a Master’s in spatial engineering.
Multi-feature Sample Database for enhancing Deep Learning Tasks in Operational Humanitarian Applications
Stefan Lang, PhD, is the head of the GEOHUM Lab in Salzburg, which is dedicated to the development and application of cutting-edge geo-spatial technologies for humanitraian opertaions. He is Geographer, GIS and Remote Sensing specialist by training and currently acting as Assistant Professor at the Interfaculty Department of Geoinformatics (Z_GIS) at the University of Salzburg in Austria. He is also heading the Z_GIS Division Integrated Spatial Analysis (ISA). His research interests include: object-based (image) analysis (OBIA), systemic and hierarchical scale concepts, multi-source data integration, multi-dimensional indicator development, multi-scale regionalization and generalisation, validation and accuracy.
Testing Transferability of Deep Learning-based Dwelling Extraction in Refugee Camps
Getch is a current PhD candidate at the GEOHUM Lab in Salzburg. His research focuses on informtion extraction from remotely sensed imagery through deep learning algorithms.
Extraction of Dwellings of Displaced Persons from VHR Radar Imagery – Current Challenges, Future Perspectives
Andreas is a researcher at the GEOHUM Lab in Salzburg.
Live Discussion, Q&A
The presentations will be followed by a live discussion and Q&A session.
During the break, the speakers from the will be available for further questions, discussions and chatting in the lounge of the conference platform.
10 Minute Break and Lounge Discussions
New Technologies in Practice
13.00 – 13.30
Aerospace Techologies for Humanitarian Aid
Monika is a system engineer and senior scientist at the German Remote Sensing Data Center (DFD) of the German Aerospace Center (DLR). Since 2007, her work has been focussing on the development of various crisis information, early warning and decision support systems, and on the coordination of a number of projects being supported by national ministries and the European Commission (for example, H2020 HEIMDALL, BMBF Client-II RIESGOS). As of February 2021 she is part of the coordination team of the DLR Humanitarian Technologies Initiative.
SKAI - An Application of EO and AI for Disaster Response
Kyriacos Koupparis is the Head of Frontier Innovations, at WFP Innovation Accelerator in Munich. Before joining the United Nations WFP Innovation Accelerator as the lead for the Frontier Innovations team, he worked for USAID in Bangkok as a senior innovation advisor for the Asia region. He has more than 10 years of development experience managing programmes to build better communities in emerging markets through science, technology, innovation and partnerships.
For more information on WFP Accelerator visit https://innovation.wfp.org/
Live Discussion, Q&A
The presentations will be followed by a live discussion and Q&A session.
During the break, the speakers from the will be available for further questions, discussions and chatting in the lounge of the conference platform.
30 Minute Lunch Break
14.00 – 14.50
Humanitarian Data Science for Preparedness and Anticipatory Action
Hannah Ker is a Data Scientist with MapAction, where she works to improve the ways that data is used to support humanitarian decision-making. This role also has her contributing to the Predictive Analytics team at the OCHA Centre for Humanitarian Data.
Click here for more information on anticipatory action and MapAction.
Opportunities for Missing Maps to support Anticipatory Action
Katharina is a geoinformatics advisor at the German Red Cross.
Predictive Analysis of Crisis Impacts
Sebastian is a geospatial expert at Palladium Group. Previously, he worked as GIS specialist at REACH.
Dealing with the Pandemic: Digital Capacity Building for Space Based Disaster Management
Klaus Greve has been professor of Geographic Information Systems and Remote Sensing at the University of Bonn since 1996. His work focuses on environmental information systems, spatial data infrastructure, GIS and earth observation in disaster management and value creation with geographic information. With the University of the United Nations, he set up a joint master’s degree in risk research. With UN-SPIDER (United Nations Platform for Space-based Information for Disaster Management and Emergency Response) he is researching the improvement of the use of earth observation products to support disaster management, primarily in Africa.
Live Discussion, Q&A
The presentations will be followed by a live discussion and Q&A session.
During the break, the speakers from the will be available for further questions, discussions and chatting in the lounge of the conference platform.
10 Minute Break and Lounge Discussions
Changing Realities and Needs in the Field
15.00 – 15.45
The IDEAMAPS Approach to Deprived Area Mapping: A Practical Toolkit for City-scale Mapping of Domains of Deprivation
Monika Kuffer received her PhD from the University of Twente (NL), an MSc in Human Geographer (TU Munich) and an MSc in Geographic Information Science (University of London). She is working as Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC, University of Twente).
Click here for more information on IDEAMAPS.
Evaluation of DEMs Derived from Multi-Date Satellite Stereo Imagery for Urban Areas
Tobias is a researcher at the GEOHUM Lab in Salzburg.
Settlement Classification and Population Mapping from Building Footprint Patterns
Chris is a senior research fellow at WorldPop. His research focuses on developing and applying quantitative spatial methods to explore the geographic patterns of human health and disease, particularly how social, economic, and political contexts shape human-environment interactions. He holds a PhD in geography and has previously worked at Oak Ridge National Laboratory on high spatial/temporal resolution population distribution models.
For more information on WorldPop visit https://www.worldpop.org/
Live Discussion, Q&A
The presentations will be followed by a live discussion and Q&A session.
During the break, the speakers from the will be available for further questions, discussions and chatting in the lounge of the conference platform.
15.45 - 16.30
Spatial Intelligence to Drive Health Campaigns to the Last Mile
Anna Winters is the co-founder and CEO of Akros, an organization that establishes data-driven systems to improve the health and well-being of disadvantaged communities. Anna holds a Master’s and PhD in epidemiology, which she is now applying to spatial intelligence to bring health resources to “last mile” communities across Africa and Asia.
For more information about Akros, visit https://akros.com/
Scaling off-grid Electrification using Satellite Imagery and AI
Simon Kohlhase is a data scientist at Village Data Analytics (VIDA), a software platform for off-grid electrification planning. The VIDA software processes satellite imagery, publicly available geospatial data, on-ground survey data, and energy modeling using machine-learning algorithms to identify remote villages and assess their suitability for off-grid electrification. With their data-driven approach, VIDA de-risks electrification projects, by reducing time and cost and enabling investment at scale for off-grid planning.
For more information about Village Data Analytics, visit https://www.villagedata.io/
Data Collection for Public Services in East Africa
Primoz is a co-founder and director of Spatial Collective, an enterprise that supports communities and organizations in adopting available technologies to collect data that is important to them. Primoz is an entrepreneur and geodetic engineer who lives in Nairobi, Kenya. He blogs about participatory development, mapping, technology, data, collective action, and research on mappingnobigdeal.com.
For more information on Spatial Collective, visit http://spatialcollective.com/
Live Discussion, Q&A
The presentations will be followed by a live discussion and Q&A session.
During the break, the speakers from the will be available for further questions, discussions and chatting in the lounge of the conference platform.
15 Minute Break and Lounge Discussions
Evening Panel: EO/GI in the Humanitarianism of Today and Tomorrow
16.45 - 17.30
Evening Panel Discussion: In a changing humanitarian landscape, what can and should our impact be?
Chair: Peter Zeil
MSF’s international GIS Center supports ongoing humanitarian operations by leveraging GIS and remote sensing technologies. The center’s expertise includes the analysis of refugee flows, locating suitable locations of well drilling, or monitoring and predicting impending periods of drought.
Marc is the Scientific Lead of 510 Global at the Netherlands Red Cross, focusing on data preparedness and impact-based forecasting. His role also involves improving preparedness and response to natural disasters through small and big data, information management, and coordination mechanisms. He is the former leader and co-founder within TNO, the Netherlands Research and Technology Organization, of the ICT for Development (ICT4D) team.
For more information on 510 Global visit https://www.510.global/
Anne studied Environmental Sciences and received her PhD in remote sensing from Trier University in 2018. Her research focus ever since has been on the use of remote sensing to support humanitarian aid and sustain food security. Since 2020, she is a research associate at German Remote Sensing Data Center (DFD) at the German Aerospace Center (DLR). In this position, she coordinates the Data4Human project, which develops techniques to provide humanitarian aid organizations with state-of-the-art satellite-, GIS- and web-data analysis as well as actionable information products.
Click here for more information on the Data4Human project.
Klaus Greve is professor of Geographic Information Systems and Remote Sensing at the University of Bonn. His work focuses on environmental information systems, spatial data infrastructure, GIS and earth observation in disaster management and value creation with geographic information. With the University of the United Nations, he set up a joint master’s degree in risk research. With UN-SPIDER (United Nations Platform for Space-based Information for Disaster Management and Emergency Response) he is researching the improvement of the use of earth observation products to support disaster management, primarily in Africa.
Andy Tatem is the director of WorldPop and Vector-borne Disease Airport Importation Risk Tool Projects, ad he is a board member of the Flowminder Foundation. Andy’s PhD focussed on sub-pixel land cover mapping from satellite imagery. His recent work concerns the application of spatial demographics in malaria burden estimation, maternal and newborn health and poverty mapping, as well as the dispersal of diseases and their vectors through global transportation networks and quantifying population movements in relation to disease dynamics.
For more information on WorldPop visit https://www.worldpop.org/
Stefan Lang, PhD, is the head of the GEOHUM Lab in Salzburg, which is dedicated to the development and application of cutting-edge geo-spatial technologies for humanitraian opertaions. He is Geographer, GIS and Remote Sensing specialist by training and currently acting as Assistant Professor at the Interfaculty Department of Geoinformatics (Z_GIS) at the University of Salzburg in Austria. He is also heading the Z_GIS Division Integrated Spatial Analysis (ISA). His research interests include: object-based (image) analysis (OBIA), systemic and hierarchical scale concepts, multi-source data integration, multi-dimensional indicator development, multi-scale regionalization and generalisation, validation and accuracy.
17.30 onwards
Wrap-up of the Day (The Lounge will remain open)
Feel free to use the lounge for continued discussions and networking! Alternatively, join the ISDE closing session.
