The Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) Working Group on Information Systems and Services (WGISS) recently published the "GEOSS Architecture for the Use of Remote Sensing Products in Disaster Management and Risk Management". The document was developed in the context of the WGISS GA.4.Disasters project, which addresses the use of satellites, sensors, models and associated data products to support disaster response and risk assessment. The broader goal is to describe and document a high-level reference model for the use of these data within the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS).
The purpose of the GEOSS Architecture is to provide a perspective on systems and web services for disaster management, to provide a common vocabulary on the matter and it aims to evaluate existing and proposed disaster response and risk assessment processes. It describes the satellite-based disaster management activities from three viewpoints: the Enterprise viewpoint scopes and structures the activities and sketches stakeholders and operating principles. The Information viewpoint identifies priority observations and physical parameters and common data operations in a disaster management context and the computation viewpoint considers the service types and constraints to disaster management.
The introduced architecture aims to reach the whole scope of stakeholders: providers of satellite data and services, distributors and decision-makers, in hope to reduce the complexity of satellite data implementation in disaster management. The CEOS reference model wants to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of supporting disaster management by offering starting point models to support decision makers and a tool to facilitate coordination among organizations and interoperability among technology implementations.
The document is freely available for download on CEOS's homepage.
