# Capability Analysis of Earth Observation Data for Integrated Emergency Management
## 1 Introduction  
Over the last ten years, space has become one of the UK's fastest-growing industrial sectors, worth over GBP 18.9 billion in income to the UK economy and employing over 52,000 people in 2021 [1]. In alignment with the UK's first National Space Strategy [2], the UK Space Agency (UKSA) published a call in November 2022 for projects to research and develop new space technologies. The call invited projects using or demonstrating the potential of innovative technologies and feasibility studies in the space sector that established new academic-industrial research collaborations [3]. Thus, the call aimed to raise Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs) and help bring UK space activities closer to commercial or practical use.  
Supported by the Satellite Applications Catapult, the North East Centre of Excellence in Satellite Applications (now Space North East England), Newcastle and Durham Universities were awarded a four-month scoping study to assess the use of satellite applications for emergency management in North East England. The study, entitled \"R2-D2: Resilience to Recovery--Data for Disasters\", built a core stakeholder cluster comprising three North East Local Resilience Forums (LRFs), academia and the broader space community. The ambition of R2-D2 was to raise capabilities, skills and competencies to enable decision-makers to utilise space data to prioritise actions and deploy resources more efficiently and effectively, thereby improving public services and safety. Over three phases of the project, workshops helped to share analyses and findings with key stakeholders, exchange knowledge, and facilitate discussion regarding the challenges and opportunities for innovation involving space technologies within the emergency management domain.  
This paper presents the key findings of the R2-D2 project in assessing the use of satellite data during incident management for three different risks, jointly identified by key stakeholders, faced by North East England's LRFs: (1) snow and extreme cold; (2) illegal waste site fires; and (3) national electricity transmission faults. The research addresses three main research questions:  
* What satellite data are available to support impact assessment of snow, fire and electricity transmission incidents?
* How can satellite data support emergency management of these incidents?
* What are the challenges and limitations in currently available satellite data for managing each incident type?  
While the three case studies demonstrate that the current application of satellite imagery largely depends on data availability and resolution, initial analyses highlighted the added benefit of satellite data for integrated emergency management. This scoping study facilitated a better understanding of currently available satellite data, demonstrating examples of use and applications, and deriving lessons learned for future exploration. To complement current shortfalls in available satellite data for specific incident types, the scoping study identified additional geospatial datasets for a more holistic analysis in emergency management.  
The findings of this study are expected to benefit key local authorities and stakeholders involved in emergency management, as well as the space research and innovation industry. This will likely lead to better anticipation, mitigation and management of identified risks that can impact local economies, as well as an opportunity for regions to develop improved emergency management solutions utilising satellite data.