** August 2021 News from the Sentinel Asia Project Office **- * - * - * - * - * - *- * - * - * - * - * - *- * - * - * - * - * - *Topics:
1. [News] Additional Information on Typhoon Fabian in the Philippines and on Flood in Myanmar
2. [News] Emergency Observation of Disasters
3. [Event] Report on Sentinel Asia Training Programme on “Space Technology for Drought Risk
Management” (*contributed article from ISRO and IWMI)
4. How to Send an Emergency Observation Request
5. Using Sentinel Asia Operation System, OPTEMIS- * - * - * - * - * - *- * - * - * - * - * - *- * - * - * - * - * - *1. [News] Additional Information on Typhoon Fabian in the Philippines and on Flood in Myanmar(The outline was given in the July 2021 Newsletter)(1) Typhoon Fabian in the Philippines (GLIDE Number: FL-2021-000091-PHL)
Typhoon Fabian (In-fa) hit the Philippines and caused heavy rain. According to FloodList, over
80,000 people had to evacuate their homes in the Philippines after severe weather brought by
the southwest monsoon, was further intensified by Typhoon Fabian. At least three people had
died and five had been injured as a result of falling trees or lightning strikes.
(https://floodlist.com/asia/philippines-floods-typhoon-infa-july-2021)
The Manila Observatory (MO) made an EOR to Sentinel Asia on 25 July. Among Data
Provider Nodes (DPNs), the Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency(GISTDA), the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), the Japan Aerospace Exploration
Agency (JAXA) and the National Applied Research Laboratories (NARL) provided
observation data. Among Data Analysis Nodes (DANs), the Asian Institute of Technology(AIT) provided their Value Added Products (VAPs). Information on the latest responses by
Sentinel Asia is available from the following link:
https://sentinel-asia.org/EO/2021/article20210725PH.html

Satellite image (THEOS1) provided by GISTDA

Satellite image (Resourcesat-2) provided by ISRO

Satellite image (ALOS-2) provided by JAXA

Satellite image (FORMOSAT-5) provided by NARL

Value Added Product by AIT(2) Flood in Myanmar (GLIDE Number: FL-2021-000095-MMR)
A flood occurred in Myanmar on 26 July. The Radio Free Asia reported that heavy rains
battered the southern states of Kayin and Mon and Tanintharyi region beginning on 25 July,
impacting as many as 3,000 people. More than 100 people from Hlaingbwe in the state of
Kayin had to evacuate, according to a relief official from the area.
(https://www.rfa.org/english/news/myanmar/flooding-07262021205343.html)
The ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance on disaster management (AHA
Centre) made an EOR to Sentinel Asia on 27 July. Among DPNs, ISRO and JAXA provided
their data. In addition, GISTDA and NARL also planned to provide their data. Among DANs,
AIT provided their VAPs. Information on the latest responses by Sentinel Asia is available fromthe following link:
https://sentinel-asia.org/EO/2021/article20210727MM.html

Satellite image (Resourcesat-2) provided by ISRO

Satellite image (ALOS-2) provided by JAXA

Value Added Product by AIT- * - * - * - * - * - *- * - * - * - * - * - *- * - * - * - * - * - *2. [News] Emergency Observation of Disasters(1) Flood and Landslide in Turkey (GLIDE Number: FL-2021-000113-TUR)
Floods and landslides occurred in Turkey on 11 August. According to FloodList, severe floods
and landslides had caused major damages in several provinces of Turkey‘s Black Sea Region
after heavy rain on 10 August 2021. Six people had died and one person had gone missing.
(https://floodlist.com/asia/turkey-black-sea-floods-update-august-2021)

The Disaster & Emergency Management Presidency of Turkey (AFAD) made an EOR to
Sentinel Asia on 13 August. Among DPNs, GISTDA, ISRO, JAXA and NARL provided theirdata. Information on the latest responses by Sentinel Asia is available from the following link:
https://sentinel-asia.org/EO/2021/article20210811TR.html

Satellite image (THEOS1) provided by GISTDA

Satellite image (Resourcesat-2) provided by ISRO

Satellite image (ALOS-2) provided by JAXA

Satellite image (FORMOSAT-5) provided by NARL
(2) Flood and Landslide in Japan (GLIDE Number: LS-2021-000114-JPN)
Floods and landslides occurred in Japan on 14 August. According to the Kyodo News, more rain
had been forecasted to hit areas from the western to northern parts of the country as a stationary
front was expected to move north along the Japanese archipelago. In the next 24 hours, up to 200
millimeters of rainfall had been forecasted in the southern Kyushu region, up to 180 mm in the
Shikoku region in western Japan, and up to 150 mm in the Tokai region in central Japan. At least
eight people had died so far.
(https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2021/08/6745d8bbde4f-more-rain-disaster-warnings-injapan-as-death-toll-rises-to-8.html)

The Asian Disaster Reduction Center (ADRC) made an EOR to Sentinel Asia on 13 August. This
EOR was escalated to the International Disasters Charter. Yamaguchi University assumed therole of Project Manager (PM) for this Charter activation. Among DPNs, GISTDA provided thedata. In addition, NARL planned to provide its data. Among DANs, RIKEN and Chiba University

provided their VAPs. Information on the latest responses by Sentinel Asia is available from thefollowing link:
https://sentinel-asia.org/EO/2021/article20210814JP.html

Satellite image (THEOS1) provided by GISTDA

Value Added Product by RIKEN

- * - * - * - * - * - *- * - * - * - * - * - *- * - * - * - * - * - *3. [Event] Report on the Sentinel Asia Training Programme on “Space Technology for Drought Risk
Management” (*article contribution from ISRO and IWMI)
On 19 and 20 July, the webinar on “Space Technology for Drought Risk Management” was held. The
webinar was co-organized by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the International
Water Management Institute (IWMI) and was facilitated by the Sentinel Asia secretariat as part of
Sentinel Asia’s Capacity Building Programme. ISRO and IWMI jointly contributed the following
report:Background
Sentinel Asia is an international cooperation initiative established by the Asia-Pacific Regional Space
Agency Forum (APRSAF), to demonstrate the potential value and impact of using Earth observation
technologies, combined with near-real-time information dissemination methods and Web-GIS
mapping tools for disaster management support in the Asia-Pacific region. The Sentinel Asia
community has long recognized the need for capacity-building towards strengthening its activities.
In order to address this need, at the Joint Project Team Meeting in Bangkok in 2019, a specificTraining Workshop was organized for the first time in which member organizations trained together
by sharing their respective expertise and knowledge. In the Training Workshop, ISRO and IWMI
conducted training programmes on “topological and hydrological modelling”, and “emergency
response mapping using multisource satellite data,” respectively. Following the Training Workshop
in 2019, the ISRO and IWMI jointly proposed to expand its achievements, by volunteering
themselves to provide capacity-building workshops for the benefit of the Sentinel Asia community.
To begin with, the following capacity building programmes were proposed:
1. Space Technology for Drought Risk Management by the National Remote Sensing Centre /Indian Space Research Organization (NRSC/ISRO), India, in association with theInternational Water Management Institute (IWMI) on 19-20 July, 2021
2. Spatial Flood Early Warning by the NRSC/ISRO in October 2021
3. Emergency Response Mapping and Crisis Management by the IWMI in association with the
Asian Disaster Reduction Center (ADRC), NRSC/ISRO in December 2021
These training programmes will be coordinated by the Sentinel Asia Secretariat. The first training
programme on Space Technology for Drought Risk Management has been jointly organised by
NRSC/ISRO and IWMI. About 60 participants from 11 Sentinel Asia countries / regions, ISRO andIWMI have already participated in the programme.
Drought Risk Management
Drought is a serious hydro-meteorological disaster limiting agricultural production worldwide.
Drought management is closely linked to sustainable agriculture and food security. Challenges indrought management are ever increasing because drought is the manifestation of complex interactions
between weather, soils, crops and human actions. Data centric technologies like satellite remotesensing, GPS, field instrumentation and mobile phones coupled with new techniques of data analysis
are providing new data, information and knowledge for achieving an efficient and effective droughtmanagement. Reliable drought indices available from satellite observations such as the Normalized
Different Vegetation Index (NDVI), Land Surface Water Index (LSWI), Shortwave Angle Slope
Index (SASI) and radar backscatters, as well as biophysical products like land surface temperature,soil moisture and rainfall remote sensing technology, are playing a key role in drought detection,
monitoring and impact assessments. Satellite based resource maps and high-resolution satellite
images are useful for developing, implementing and performing impact assessment of long-term
drought management measures. Abundantly available satellite data, an increasing network of weather
observatories, mobile-based fast and efficient field data collection systems, easily accessible andadvanced techniques of data analysis etc., signify that there is huge scope for establishing decision
support systems for drought management. Such systems would further strengthen agro-advisories,
crop risk management, disaster relief, crop insurance and drought prevention strategies, among others.
Scope of the training programme
The objective of the programme was to brief the participants from Sentinel Asia members on thepotential and current status of utilisation of EO technology for operational drought monitoring, inseason drought management, drought impacts assessments and long-term drought management.
Advances in drought assessment with new datasets and emerging technologies also form part of thisprogramme.
The programme consisted of expert presentations and an interactive session to make the message tobe conveyed more impactful. Scope for enhancing technology utilisation, need for customisation of
products and services, research gaps, as well as data and information sharing opportunities wereplanned and documented for future courses of action towards establishing a regional cooperation
mechanism for drought risk management.
Proceedings of the 2-day training programme (19-20 July 2021)
This webinar brought together around 50 experts and practitioners from the Sentinel Asia community.
The inaugural session of the training programme included the inaugural address by Dr. V. V. Rao,
Deputy Director, Remote Sensing Applications, NRSC and brief remarks by (a) Dr. Shantanu
Bhatwadekar, Director, Earth observation applications & Disaster management support Programme
Office (EDPO), ISRO Hq. (b) Dr. Raj Kumar, Director, NRSC (ISRO) (c) Dr. Rachael Mcdonnell,
Deputy Director General, IWMI, Sri Lanka and Mr. Takanori Miyoshi (Sentinel Asia Secretariat).
This kind of capacity-building event in which Sentinel Asia members help each other build theircapacities by making use of their respective experiences and expertise, was first organized by Asian
Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC) and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) as part of
the Joint Project Team Meeting (JPTM) in Bangkok in 2019, and this time, the ISRO and IWMI
jointly took the lead to expand it further for the benefit of Sentinel Asia members. The Sentinel Asia
community will continue to support and foster capacity-building among its members through mutual
cooperation. Since drought is a large hydro-meteorological disaster causing huge economic losses
with cascading effects, the need for using science-based evidence solutions for drought management
has been well recognised. Therefore, the current training programme was quite relevant to deepen theparticipant’s understanding of the nature of drought and the scope for new technologies to minimise
losses from such disaster. All the speakers in the inaugural session pointed out the need for organisingdrought monitoring and management related capacity building programmes more frequently for the
benefit of Sentinel Asia member countries.
Technical Session – 1 had four presentations. It started with a brief presentation on “Understanding
drought disaster and its management” by the NRSC, which set the platform for rest of thepresentations. Drought is not an event like floods/cyclones. It is a complex phenomenon interlinked
with meteorological, hydrological and agricultural variables. Therefore, drought monitoring andmanagement are multidisciplinary in nature involving many institutions.
The second presentation in this session was on drought monitoring indicators. It covered extensively
all the meteorological, hydrological and agricultural indicators. Satellite based indicators of
precipitation, soil moisture and crop conditions were emphasised. This was followed by ademonstration on crop condition assessment using optical, thermal and microwave datasets.
The third presentation in this session was on drought monitoring practices in India with recent
examples. It covered the genesis, evolution and the current status of the satellite-based droughtmonitoring project, namely, the “National Agricultural Drought Assessment and Monitoring System”
conceptualised and started in 1989. Satellite-based drought monitoring has become one of the mostsuccessful remote sensing applications in India. The discussion then centred on the Manual forDrought Management of 2016, which is being followed in India for objective drought assessment,
and highlighting the adoption of an integrated approach with multiple drought indicators. It also
covered recent examples on utilisation of SAR data for drought detection, contingency crop planning
developed by some states and agriculture monitoring systems being developed. Effective droughtmonitoring systems of some of the states were mentioned to draw the attention of the participants tothe best practices on remote sensing technology utilisation for drought management.
With reliable NDVI, LSWI, IDSI, SASI and radar backscatter indices available in moderate spatial
and temporal resolutions and with geospatial products on soil moisture and rainfall, geospatial
technology has contributed new information and knowledge for improving drought-related
assessment, emergency declarations and management in the country.
The fourth presentation in this session was on the South Asia Drought Monitoring System developedby the IWMI which is now under implementation. It covered various datasets and clues for drought
assessment, decision support system, customised products, dissemination of information etc., under
this project. It was also mentioned that the information on drought generated in this project was being
effectively used for taking drought management actions in Afghanistan.
The second day of the webinar included Technical Session-2 and the wrap-up. In this session, there
were three presentations. The first presentation was on the agro-advisory system of the Indian
Meteorological Department to support farmers. It covered various information products on current
and forecast weather parameters and utilisation of these data collection equipment for developing
farmer advisories, and presented the institutional structure for developing and expanding them.
Effective utilisation of digital technologies in terms of web tools, web portals, mobile apps, etc., fordissemination and end-use of advisories was highlighted. Feedback collection from farmers and theeconomic benefits as a result of the advisories were also part of the presentation, and finally, the scopefor strengthening the advisories system was highlighted.
The second presentation in this session was on space technology supporting long-term droughtmanagement. Concepts for long-term drought management, hazards, vulnerabilities and risks werediscussed, followed by a demonstration on using time series data on weather, satellite indicators andbio-physical parameters for drought vulnerability mapping. It was also explained to the participantsthat satellite-based maps of resources and high-resolution satellite images were being used to develop,
implement and perform impact assessment of long-term drought management measures in India, byshowing them the use of satellite and mobile technologies for monitoring and evaluating long-term
drought management interventions. Smart phone-based monitoring of crop level assets has become asuccessful technology application in India. Overall, these crop protection mechanisms have beenstrengthened to become effective tools for drought risk mitigation.

The third presentation in this session was on the drought management efforts by the IWMI.
Collaborative efforts between the IWMI and the private sector to develop comprehensive solutions
for drought risk management and the impact of such efforts were presented, highlighting the need todevelop new tools and information products, establish multi-institutional collaboration, and the roleof private sector in these efforts, etc.
The brief session on interactive presentations, consisted of two presentations by participants from
India and Taiwan. The first was a presentation by the Mahalanobis National Crop Forecasting Centre(MNCFC) of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Government of India, which covered
the current drought monitoring system in the country using various indicators and the increasing roleof space technology for drought assessment.
The second was a presentation by the National Space Organization (NSPO) of National Applied
Research Laboratories (NARL) of Taiwan, which showcased the repository of satellite data being
used for disaster management. Analysis ready data products are made available to the stakeholders in
the form of Open Data Cubes, in public domain.
Some of the participants interacted with the experts on specific aspects of drought occurrence in theirregions and the scope for developing customised information products.
Concluding remarks
The Sentinel Asia Secretariat extended his gratitude to the ISRO and IWMI for organizing thiswebinar, by reiterating the significance of capacity-building activities and recalling the previous
achievements at the Training Workshop, which was part of the JPTM, jointly organized by ADPC and
JAXA. Moreover, Mr. Miyoshi expressed his wishes for the expansion of these efforts for the benefitof the Sentinel Asia community.
The ISRO and IWMI indicated that with several open-access satellite data, an increasing network of
weather observatories, mobile-based fast and efficient field data collection systems, as well as easily
accessible and advanced technologies such as cloud platforms, it is now possible to develop robust
drought monitoring and management systems that allow taking timely action to reduce drought risks.
It was also concluded that the regional cooperation mechanism among the Sentinel Asia member
countries needed to be further strengthened in order to share the drought-related analysis ready data,
as well as the knowledge and expertise for enhancing drought management capabilities.

Annexe

Schedule of the Capacity Building Programme- * - * - * - * - * - *- * - * - * - * - * - *- * - * - * - * - * - *5. How to send an Emergency Observation Request
JPT member organizations are entitled to send an Emergency Observation Request (EOR) for
disasters in the Asia-Pacific region. Please refer to https://sentinel-asia.org/elearning/Emergency_Observation_Request.html.
EOR Order Desk:
Asian Disaster Reduction Center (ADRC)
HP: http://www.adrc.asia/
E-mail: sarequest@adrc.asia
FAX: +81-78-262-5546,
TEL: +81-78-262-5540- * - * - * - * - * - *- * - * - * - * - * - *- * - * - * - * - * - *6. Using Sentinel Asia Operation System, OPTEMIS
Sentinel Asia launched a new operation system, OPTEMIS. Please refer to the website on how tocreateanaccount
for
OPTEMIS.
https://sentinel-asia.org/elearning/Emergency_Observation_Request.html+===+===+===+===+===+===+===+===+===+===+===+===+===+===+===+===+=
Copyright 2021 the Sentinel Asia Secretariat
Sentinel Asia Project OfficeSatellite Applications and Operations Center (SAOC)
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)
Ochanomizu Sola City, 4-6 Kandasurugadai, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 101-8008 Japan
E-mail: Z-SENTINEL.ASIA@ml.jaxa.jp
TEL: +81-3-6435-6785
FAX: +81-3-5777-1580