Pacific Applicationof Earth
Observation
Kaliopate Tavola
Pacific Community (SPC)

The Pacific Community (SPC)
Who are we ?
The Pacific Community (SPC) is the principal scientific and technicalorganization in the Pacific region, proudly supporting development
since 1947.

We are an International development organization owned andgoverned by our 27 country and territory members coordinating
regional disaster risk management activities in the Pacific.

Who am I ?
My name is Kaliopate Tavola, and I have been working for SPC for thelast 1 year and 5 months as a Technical Data Assistant for the Disaster& Community Resilience Programme under the Geoscience, Energy &Maritime Division.

Objectives
Earth Observation in the Pacific Region
Application in Disaster Management
Challenges and Limitations
Opportunities• Digital Earth Pacific (DEP)• Capacity Building• Asset Inventories to inform Risk Assessment• Urban Planning• Post Disaster Needs Assessment

Case Study

Earth Observation in the Pacific
Why is Earth Observation crucial in the Pacific region?
The Pacific region is susceptible to a variety of natural disasters including hydrometeorological hazards such as
tropical cyclones, floods, droughts, and geophysical hazards such as volcanoes, earthquakes, and resulting tsunamis
and landslides.

Earth Observation is an essential tool that address some of theunique challenges and opportunities in the Pacific region such as
disaster management, climate change and food security

Application in Disaster Management
SPC requests emergency observation for affected areas post disaster to Sentinel Asia for the Pacific Region
an example of this was the Tropical Cyclone Judy and Kevin that affected Vanuatu early march this year

Guide government decisions during an emergency response

Impact based forecasting to determine the level of exposure and vulnerability for the PacificStandardize baseline exposure data to support risk informed planning and financing in the PacificApplication in Disaster Management
Develop risk profiles for the PacificStrengthen the capacity of key agencies to use and apply the disasterrisk modelling products in policy and investment decisions

Support and inform Post Disaster Needs Assessment in the PacificChallenges andLimitations

Cloud cover is a major problem in the Pacific (only afew months of useable imagery for major islands insome cases)

Accessibility to readily available earth observation
products and budget allocation for EO products
Lack of analytical capabilities, specialized
software/hardware for large-scale analysis of tempospatial data within Pacific Island countries; especiallyfor continuous monitoring.

Challenges andLimitations

Data sharing amongst government ministries
and stakeholders
Limited technical capacity for applying earth
observational data to national development
priorities and sustainable development
IT Infrastructure to support data access,storage and processing

Opportunities - Digital Earth Pacific
An operational earth observation system that takes decades of freely
available data Will allow SPC’s 26 Member States to make betterinformed decisions to address the challenges to development. For
instances related to climate change, food security, and disasters
It will help Pacific Island countries understand the changes in theenvironment including the impact of sea-level rise, planning fordisaster preparedness, response and recovery, and productivity ofagricultural fields

A platform to bridge the EO data science-to-policy gap.

Opportunities - Capacity Building

Capacity-building delivered tosupport and upskill
government officials andstakeholdersExposure data collection using
KoboToolbox, an Introduction to Risk
Assessment training, basic andadvanced training in Geographic
Information System (GIS) using QGIS

Utilize open earth observation
products and applications tostrengthen government
capacity.

Capacity Building - Partner Countries

Opportunities - Asset Inventories• Asset exposure data collected from partner countries is uploaded tothe exposure database• Exposure data includes:
 Buildings
 Infrastructure: Bridge, Airport, Fuel, Port, Roads, Telecommunication
 Utilities: Electricity, Water
 Crops Livestock• The exposure database is called Pacific Risk Information System orPacRIS and is available to access online via https://risk.spc.int/

Exposure Data Survey

Lenakel, Vanuatu.
2022 Exposure DataSurvey

Exposure Database
PacRIS – Pacific Risk Information System

Opportunities - Urban Planning
The asset exposure data provides the latest baseline to enable urban
planners to carry out effective risk-informed planning

Exposure database are overlaid with hazard layers to identify exposed assets
and determine risk levels based on risk assessment process

Government development priorities are in the process of adopting a riskinformed approach to sustain and improve their investment commitments

Opportunities - Urban Planning
Extracted building footprints (manual) from earth observation have beenvalidated on the ground and surveyed collecting critical baseline information
about buildings, infrastructure, and utilities to inform urban planning

Expectation towards Sentinel Asia is to provide higher resolution imagery forclear extraction of building footprints across the Pacific region.

Building Footprint Extraction

Opportunities - Post Disaster Assessment• Emergency observation requests are sent from SPC to Sentinel Asia for
affected areas post-disaster to assist with assessment• Part of the work done by SPC is to estimate the unit cost of construction
for all the buildings that were collected in the asset exposure survey
from participating countries based on certain building typologies, thesecountries include Tonga, Vanuatu, Samoa, Solomon Islands, and CookIslands• The unit cost of construction per building will estimate the replacement
cost of the building and will inform risk financing aspect of the country

Case Study - Vanuatu• A natural hazard risk assessment was conducted in Vanuatu for thetwo townships of Lenakel and Lakatoro on both Tanna and Malekulaislands of Vanuatu.
• The objective of the assessment is to develop risk-based town plans
for resilient investments to support safe and orderly urban growth.
Risk Assessment Method Overview

Case Study – Multi-hazard map of Lenakel & Lakatoro

Conclusion• Highlighting some of the use cases and application of earth observation in
the pacific region provides an opportunity for stakeholders and regional
partners to build and strengthen disaster management• Regional development priorities should adapt a risk-informed approach toinform sustainable development and resilient investment• Earth Observation plays a pivotal role in the pacific, leveraging thistechnology will allow the development of decision-ready products that will
support concise and analysed information for decision makers whilst
providing needed data and information to support regional and global
commitments such as the 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent, theParis Agreement , Sendai Framework and the Sustainable Development
Goals.

Any Question ?

Terima Kasih