DLR researchers launch GEOCON project to support humanitarian aid in Ukraine and other conflict regions
During conflicts and crisis, the current situation is often complex and difficult to assess. Although emergency workers and decision-makers in humanitarian aid organizations often have access to extensive information, this usually comes from different sources, is often unverified and must first be combined into meaningful information products. Neither time nor capacities are available for this in an emergency. The aim of the GEOCON project "Satellite based geoinformation in urban conflict regions for supporting humanitarian activities" is to collect various remote sensing, geospatial and web data and to merge them in such a way that meaningful information products are created for humanitarian actors on the ground. The work is being carried out on the current conflict in Ukraine, but other conflict regions are also being considered.
During the kick-off event on February 1, representatives of the World Bank, the German Red Cross, the World Food Programme, the German Agency for Technical Relief and remote sensing experts from Ukraine discussed which products facilitate the work of humanitarian organizations in Ukraine and other conflict regions.
Over the next three years, DLR researchers will develop, among other things, improved evaluation methods for the automated detection of damage to buildings and infrastructure (using artificial intelligence) as well as fused information products with web information. The results will be incorporated into an interactive web application that will be made available to humanitarian users.
GEOCON is primarily funded by the Program Directorate Space and the Program Coordination Security. The German Remote Sensing Data Center and the Remote Sensing Technology Institute are involved in the funding and work as well.
Within the framework of the project, DLR's activities on humanitarian technologies will be continued. The scientific-technological work is flanked by a HumTech network team, which supports further networking internally and externally, identification of HumTech potentials at DLR, and outreach activities (e.g. DLR HumTechDays).