Imagining new ways to link NASA and humanitarian work

NASA and the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre hosted a joint workshop to explore new ways to link disaster risk reduction, preparedness, and response with NASA’s Earth Observation (EO) capabilities. Convened at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama beginning August 21, this four-day event improved the ability of NASA EO scientists and coordinators to understand and address the needs of on-the-ground stakeholders. The workshop also helped to facilitate improved communication and partnership between the NASA Disasters program and SERVIR to design and implement future collaborations.

Pablo Suarez of Climate Centre shares ideas with participants from SERVIR and NASA Disasters Applications
 

Items used in one of the serious games

The workshop identified opportunities for purposeful collaborations between NASA and the humanitarian sector, including establishing thresholds that can trigger early action based on EO data.  Additionally, the workshop’s successful use of serious games and innovation inspired participants to propose creative ways to include this approach in the future. Serious games enable participants to directly experience the challenges of linking information, decisions, and consequences of real-life situations. This approach will facilitate deeper interaction with stakeholders and improves how EO services are delivered.

SERVIR, a joint venture between NASA and the U.S. Agency for International Development, provides state-of-the-art, satellite-based Earth monitoring data, geospatial information and tools to help improve environmental decision-making among developing nations. The NASA Disasters Applications program promotes the use of Earth observations to improve prediction of, preparation for, response to, and recovery from natural and technological disasters. The Climate Centre supports the Red Cross Red Crescent movement and its partners in understanding and addressing the humanitarian consequences of climate risks, ranging from hurricane preparedness to long-term resilience building. These three teams share common interests and complementary mandates, and have numerous concrete and exciting ideas for joint work.

    
Word clouds generated by participants before and after the workshop