Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
in the struggle to achieve and maintain sustainable development and environmental
sustainability. The major challenge transcending the complexities of technological
innovation is the task of innovatively and optimally utilizing such space-based and
computational technologies in the service of sustainably improving the lives, the
health and wellbeing the people most in need of poverty alleviation.
In sharp contrast to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, the pro-
liferation of earth observing satellites is an extremely beneficial and promising
development. Enabled by such technologies, developing countries are enhanc-
ing their capabilities with respect to environmental sustainability, meteorological
forecasting, crop forecasting, famine & drought early warning, urban planning,
transportation planning, sustainable natural resource management, quantification
of biodiversity loss, disaster mitigation, mapping vulnerability to epidemics and
epizootics and delineation of populations at risk for further impoverishment.
In the aftermath of officially declared biogenic and anthropogenic disasters,
the global near-real-time archive of satellite data assets is potentially available to
affected regions. This
ex post facto
response, however, while laudable is quite insuf-
ficient. What is needed is a global spatial data infrastructure that would facilitate
the free access of earth observational data throughout the life cycle of disasters (i.e.
from vulnerability assessment and early warning through emergency response and
post disaster recovery) and the enhancement of indigenous academic institutions
so as to provide state-of-the science training for the next generation of geospatial
scientists and technicians.
Moreover, the empowerment of people to elect leaders who are committed
to sustainable development and environmental sustainability is even more crucial
than advances in geotechnologies; since, in the absence of such committed polit-
ical leadership, optimal technological deployment and associated environmentally
enlightened policy formulation and implementation cannot occur.
Acknowledgments
The authors wish to acknowledge support from AmericaView, Inc., NATO
Science for Peace Program, and Purdue University's Information Technology at Purdue (ITaP) -
Rosen Center for Advanced Computing.
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