International Archives of Photogrammetiy and Remote Sensing. Vol. XXXH Part 7C2, UNISPACE Iff, Vienna, 1999 
92 
I5PR5 
UNISPACE 111 - ISPRS/EARSeL Workshop on 
“Remote Sensing for the Detection, Monitoring 
and Mitigation of Natural Disasters” 
2:30-5:30 pm, 22 July 1999, VIC Room B 
Vienna, Austria 
reason that prediction is indeed possible and therefore a respon 
sibility may be well defined. Also, insurance companies may be 
able to justify a differentiation of insurance premiums, that in the 
extreme may lead to a negative decision as to developing a spe 
cific area. 
These considerations were inspired by an ESA Workshop held in 
Frascati, Italy, in 1995 (Calabresi, 1995) and later remote sens 
ing meetings. See, for instance, the Proceedings of the EARSeL 
Symposium on aspects of natural disasters held in Malta in 1996 
(Spiteri, 1996). 
I have only considered the case of flooding but it is likely that the 
same way of thinking applies to other cases of disaster. In fact, 
the Norwegian system referred to previously is a good example 
of an integrated system of detection, monitoring and communica 
tions that actively involves local authorities responsible for en 
forcement of international law at sea. It was developed by re 
search institutions and a private company together with the end 
users, supported by government funds. 
Massonet, D., and K.L. Feigl, 1994. Radar interferometry and 
its application to changes in the Earth surface. Rev. Geophys., 
36(4), pp. 441-500. 
Skou.N, F. Toselli. A. Wadsworth, 1983. Passive radiometry and 
other remote sensing data interpretation for oil slick thickness 
assessment, in an experimental case. Proc. EARSeL Symposium 
on Remote Sensing, Brussels, 26-28 April 1993, ESA SP-188. 
Spiteri, A. (ed.) 1996. Remote Sensing, Integrated Applications 
for Risk Management and Disaster Prevention for the Mediterra 
nean. Proc. 16th EARSeL Symposium, Malta, 20-23 May 1996. 
Balkema, 1996. 
Zebker, H. and R. Goldstein, 1986. Topographic mapping from 
interferometric SAR observations, J. Geophys. Res.. 91, pp. 
4993-5001. 
Postscript: 
In recognition of the need for timely data in case of natural disas 
ters the European Space Agency and the Centre National des 
Etudes Spatiale jointly announced at UNISPACE III a ‘European 
initiative on disaster management 7 based on what is called opti 
mized use of both ERS and SPOT data. They will schedule their 
satellites so that data may rapidly be provided the user, along 
with archive image data. This action may be considered an essen 
tial extension of the Earth Watching system already in place. It 
may eventually convince authorities as to the usefulness of re 
mote sensing for monitoring natural disasters. 
REFERENCES 
Calabresi, G. (ed), 1995. Proc. First ERS Thematic Working 
Group Meeting on Flood Management, ESRIN ESA Frascati, 
16-27 June 1995. 
Elachi,C., 1987. Introduction to the physics and techniques of 
remote sensing, 431 pp., John Wiley, New York 1987. 
Marelli, E., P. Gudmandsen, J. Rosello-Guasch, 1997. New mis 
sion concept based on on-board SAR processing, in P. Gud 
mandsen (ed.) Future Trends in Remote Sensing, Proc. 17 th 
EARSeL Symposium, Lyngby, Denmark, 17-19 June 1997, 
Balkema 1998