Information Technology for

Humanitarian Assistance, Cooperation and Action

In This Section

• UN Spatial Data Infrastructure
• Early Impact Analysis
• Localized Aerial Surveys
• Early Warning System
• Detection and Monitoring of Drought Events
• Floodplain Modeling
• Snow Coverage Monitoring
• Web Application for Geo-Data Sharing

Links

• Nepal Region
• Pakistan Region

Download

• Snow Coverage Monitoring for Nepal and Afghanistan (PDF, 375 KB)

Snow Coverage Monitoring

The aim of this project is to provide daily updated information on snow covered areas as a support to WFP Logistics. The information provided enables the Road Accessibility Analysis which is required to ensure route optimization in humanitarian aids delivery. This is achieved through the implementation of a cost-free automated process based on MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) satellite data.

EXPECTED OUTPUTS

The expected output consists of a daily updated webgis for the monitoring of particular areas of interest and a service on request for other areas (the expected map scale is 1:1000000). The webgis displays a synthesis of MODIS Snow covered satellite data. The service on request can provide snow vector data almost in real-time. The files refer to snow coverage information generally updated 24 hours before the request. A metadata file containing reliability information of the information is provided too.

METHOD

The method consists mainly of processing of MODIS data. This kind of satellite data is free of charge and produces a daily overview of the earth surface with the purpose of extracting snow coverage data. In order to produce the data, it is necessary to implement a mechanism which automatically performs the following operations:

• Images selection from archive, depending on required date and area of interest;
• Geometric correction, geo-referencing and resizing;
• Elaboration of the synthesis (monitoring service on the areas of interest);
• Elaboration of snow coverage vector information;
• Webgis updating.

The software daily elaborates a synthesis for the areas of interest and periodically checks for new requests. Within a few minutes from a request, the output data is made available to end users.

FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS

A planned development of the described project is the exploitation of a global geodatabase (SDI). This will allow an easy and rapid detection and management of the cartographic data necessary for an early warning impact task. Applications based on MODIS data can be developed in order to create further updated cartographic data for logistic managements