History

”Sentinel Asia” was originally proposed in November 2004 when it was realized that maximum benefit from rapid technological advances in the region would occur, and this data could be delivered more quickly via the internet as easy-to-interpret disaster-related information. Sentinel Asia is not designed to replace already active efforts by many of our regional agencies in delivery of information to emergency services. Rather, it aims to expand such efforts and make such data available to all countries and many more people in the region, particularly in countries that do now their own satellite reception facilities. Through such a backbone, information about disasters could begin to be delivered more efficiently through the ’world-wide-web’, even outside national borders, in ’real-time’ or ’near real-time’, and used as early-warning, or as post-disaster information by various countries and relevant end-user agencies.

So, the decision was made soon after the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster to fast-track this project and compliment current space, and ground infrastructure in the region with a fast distribution system of disaster-related earth observation information to relevant agencies and the public throughout the region.

The technical concept for Sentinel Asia was finalized at a meeting in May 2005 in Kuala Lumpur, hosted by the Malaysian Center for Remote Sensing - MACRES, and promptly approved as a project for rapid implementation by the Asia-Pacific Regional Space Agency Forum-12 (APRSAF-12) Plenary held in Kitakyushu, Japan, in October of 2005. In APRSAF-12, the ”Disaster Management Support System in the Asia-Pacific Region” proposed by JAXA is designed to showcase:

• Construction of a ’life-first society’ by ICT & Space technology
• Improvement of speed and accuracy for disaster preparedness and early warning
• Minimizing victims and social economic losses due to disasters

To accelerate the utilization of satellite-derived products related to disasters by end-users, working groups have been set up within the framework of Sentinel Asia to focus on specific disasters and to include specialists and researchers in each specific field.

A stepwise approach for implementation of this dissemination system was proposed by the APRSAF Earth Observation Working Group, where:

STEP 1: Implementation of the backbone ’Sentinel Asia’ data dissemination system and associated Nodes, to showcase the value and impact of the technology using standard internet dissemination systems (February 2006 - December 2007)

STEP 2: Expansion of the dissemination backbone with new Satellite Communication Systems (2008 - 2012) STEP 3: Establishment of a comprehensive Disaster Management Support System in the Asia-Pacific Region (2013 and onwards)

This initiative is to be closely coordinated with similar initiatives elsewhere in the world (e.g. NOAA-EUMETSAT and GEO-Netcast). The Disaster Management Support System in the Asia-Pacific Region is a component of a wider initiative outlined at a specialized workshop for the United Nations World Conference on Disaster Reduction in Kobe - Japan, 20 January 2005.

The Sentinel Asia is a voluntary basis initiative led by the Asia-Pacific Regional Space Agency Forum (APRSAF) to support disaster management activity in the Asia-Pacific region by applying the WEB-GIS technology and space-based technology, such as earth observation satellites data.

A step-by-step approach was adopted for the implementation of Sentinel Asia. In the current step, the STEP 3, it is expected to implement not only emergency observation but activities covering entire disaster management cycle including mitigation/preparedness and recovery phase after a disaster so that the space-based technology would contribute to more activities for mitigation/prevention of natural disasters in Asia and the Pacific.

To achieve these goals of STEP 3, Steering Committee will review previous activities, identify problems, propose solutions and lead to implement those suggested ideas and proposals to enhance the contribution of space-based technology to Disaster Risk Reduction by closely working with technical agencies as well as end user agencies related to Disaster Risk Reduction.