Implementing Space Technology and Innovations into Homeland Security and Emergency Management Operations and Activities HS Today

Abstract 

Space capabilities, technology, applications, and services represent the forefront of  technological development for the homeland security enterprise. Space capabilities and  technological innovations are emerging technologies that are shaping and redefining homeland  security, emergency management and response operations. These technologies are redefining  how we approach emergency operations including damage and risk assessments, information sharing, geospatial intelligence, search and rescue, first responder accountability, tracking,  mapping and more. There are numerous expanding uses of space capabilities being developed,  tested and implemented to support first responders. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and DHS  Science & Technology Directorate have been working closely to develop innovative solutions based on space technology for use in homeland security & emergency management activities  that demonstrate how space technologies have far greater utilization beyond their original  spacefaring mission. Finally, this essay explores how space technology is being used in the field today and ways to operationalize these technologies into practice. 

Introduction 

Space capabilities and technological innovations are redefining how we approach challenges  and activities in homeland security & emergency management. NASA’s Jet Propulsion  Laboratory and the Department of Homeland Security, Science & Technology Directorate (DHS,  S&T) have partnered to develop innovative solutions based on space technology for use in  homeland security & emergency management activities. For example, according to testimony  before a joint hearing from committees of the U.S. House and Senate, satellite imagery and geospatial analysis has enabled FEMA to accurately determine  house-to-house damage assessments and expedite millions of dollars of rental  assistance to disaster survivors. This capability reduces the cost to the taxpayer as  damage assessments can be derived from satellite imagery at a fraction of the cost  of ground inspections. In some cases, they are up to 90 percent less costly. A single  satellite image can cover hundreds, even thousands of square miles and provide  cheaper and timelier data to deployed teams, especially in remote areas.¹ 

Interestingly, space technology and satellites are becoming more prominent in homeland security  and emergency response activities. The Department of Homeland Security, Science and Technology  Directorate in partnership with the U.S. Coast Guard launched two miniature cube-shaped satellites (CubeSats) into space on December 3, 2018, via the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket to replace an aging satellite; the new CubeSats will assist with search and rescue missions and monitor maritime traffic in the arctic.² It’s unique to see that the Department of Homeland Security has ventured into developing space  capabilities to support its missions and how these capabilities may further support various activities. A  recent study further noted potential uses of satellites and space technology to predict future COVID-19  outbreaks and disease.³ New space capabilities such as SpaceX’s Starlink program can provide high  speed internet access globally via a constellation of satellites, which offers great potential to support  disaster affected areas.⁴ These are but a few recent examples and represent a small fraction of the full  range of capabilities and benefits that space technology can provide. The list on figure 1 represents  various applications for geographic information system (GIS) technologies to support emergency and  disaster management and was compiled from a survey study comprised of international stakeholders. 

Figure 1: Longlist of Applicable Geoinformation products and systems. Source: The Value of  Geoinformation for Disaster and Risk Management (VALID) | UN-SPIDER Knowledge Portal, 2013.⁵

Space Technology Use in Homeland Security and Emergency Management Activities 

Comparative insights into the gaps in U.S. emergency management versus international  emergency management demonstrate various ways of incorporating space technology  into emergency management practices. The Copernicus Emergency Management Service (CEMS) is perhaps the most robust national emergency management service space agency.  It should be considered a national model and a demonstration of how these vital resources,  capabilities, applications and services can be operationalized to support emergency and  disaster management. As described by the Copernicus website, “The Copernicus Emergency  Management Service supports all actors involved in the management of natural or manmade  disasters by providing geospatial data and images for informed decision making and constantly  monitors Europe and the globe for signals of an impending disaster or evidence of one  happening in real time.”⁶ CEMS demonstrates how space capabilities can be used throughout  the disaster management life cycle and to support pre & post disaster activities including long term recovery. Other notable emergency management space programs include the Space-based  Information for Disaster Management and Emergency Response (UN-SPIDER), the Association  of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and respectively China and Russia who each have their own  disaster space programs.  

Space Capabilities in the United States 

In the United States, several key federal agencies possess a number of space capabilities  such as the DOD, NRO, NGA, America’s Intelligence Agencies, NASA and NOAA that provide:  “satellite photoreconnaissance that includes a near real-time capability… This includes providing  information for indications and warning and the planning and conduct of military operations; and  imaging of the United States and its territories and possessions, consistent with applicable laws,  for purposes including, but not limited to, homeland security.”⁷ The Department of Defense and  America’s Intelligence agencies have long supported domestic emergency and disaster responses  long before 9/11.⁸ Post-9/11 U.S. National Space Policy has expanded and further clarified the  roles of the Department of Defense and America’s Intelligence agencies’ support to domestic  emergency, disaster and humanitarian response.⁹ Mechanisms exist at the federal level to  provide space capability support to domestic emergency response activities. However, the federal  government is not the only shop in town that can provide space capability support. Over the last  decade commercial space capabilities have had a major boom and continue to expand rapidly.

NASA, USGS, FEMA and Other GIS Tools that Can Be Implemented into Activities Today 

There are many space capabilities that are available today to support emergency operations. U.S.  Geological Survey (USGS) and NASA have partnered to provide various space capabilities and  resources for emergency and disaster management use, many of which are publicly available,  include web-based applications and are free to use, such as the NASA Earth Science and Earth  Data programs. These space applications include near-real time capabilities such as NASA’s Fire  Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS), “which distributes Near Real-Time (NRT)  active fire data within 3 hours of satellite observation from NASA’s Moderate Resolution Imaging  Spectro-radio-meter (MODIS) and NASA’s Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS).” ¹⁰ Additional resources include the Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (LP DAAC), which  operates as a partnership between USGS & NASA. USGS & NASA also provide various types of  educational materials, training, resource lists, webinars and various data products that can be used  to support emergency and disaster management activities. For example, NASA provides remote  sensing data and applications for disaster management training. According to the NASA website,  “NASA remote sensing and modeling resources are useful for managing a variety of disasters –  including earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, floods, landslides, wildfires, and oil spills – particularly in  regions with very little in situ data.” ¹¹ NASA also provides Applied Remote Sensing Training (ARSET).  According to the ARSET website, “The (ARSET) program builds the skills to acquire and use NASA  satellite and model data for decision support. The program provides training via online webinars  and in-person workshops. ARSET trainings are intended for policymakers, NGOs, and other applied  science professionals seeking to incorporate NASA remote sensing into their daily activities.”¹² NASA  ARSET trainings provide “step-by-step instructions for obtaining satellite images, alerts, and crisis  management information,” and are available in: Air Quality & Health, Disasters, Land, and Water  Resources.¹³ These are all tools and training that can be implemented today and used to support  activities and operations. Figure 2 provides a more comprehensive listing of resources available. 

Figure 2: Disasters Tool and Data Portal Reference Sheet. Source:  

Using NASA Remote Sensing for Disaster Management | ARSET, 2020 

The Disasters Tool and Data Portal Reference Sheet is a list of space capabilities available to  support emergency and disaster management activities.  

FEMA’s Geospatial Resource Center  

FEMA’s GIS Resource Center – which is still under development to note, is designed to support the emergency management community with world-class geospatial information, services, and  technologies.¹⁴ FEMA GIS has various tools that provide robust data such as its Hazard Overview,  FEMA Geospatial Damage Assessments and Critical Public & Essential Facility Explorer. It contains  links to other agency tools such as the CDC’s Social Vulnerability Index and is a hub to various  resources such as crowdsourced disaster photo mapping to WAZE traffic alerts. Another notable  tool is the FEMA Priority Operations Support Tool – POST, which “is a predictive output that displays  areas of greatest risk for a given event based on social vulnerability, population, building location  and types, and hazard data.” ¹⁵ Lastly, FEMA GIS has several hubs such as one for Data and Imagery  that can provide satellite imagery for listed disasters. These are excellent tools available today for  use that can improve data sources available to emergency management programs nationwide. 

Disaster Charter 

Not that long ago, nations going through disasters or emergencies took what they could get  for satellite-sourced imagery. A government might rely on national assets, if available. Or it  could turn to the International Charter Space & Major Disasters (Disaster Charter) and ask for  assistance to get satellite images of a specific area.  

One example of the Disaster Charter at work occurred after Hurricane Maria hit Dominica Island  in mid-September 2017.¹⁶ A Russian government-operated earth-observation (EO) satellite took  the image on the right after the hurricane had passed through. A Disaster Charter activation  tasked the satellite to take that and other pictures. A French Space Agency (CNES)-operated EO  satellite collected the image on the left (the “before” picture) in late January 2017. We can’t say  why they took the picture, but its existence was serendipitous for the Dominican Republic. 

Contrasting both images allowed the government to see the magnitude of Maria’s path and  areas the storm damaged. The Disaster Charter worked, as intended. Note that both pictures  were provided by government-operated Earth observation satellites–not unusual for the time. 

That same year, commercial company Planet had deployed 146 EO satellites low into the Earth’s  orbit.¹⁷ The company has deployed more satellites since that time. It runs enough satellites that  Planet advertises it can image the entire world every 24 hours, seven days a week.¹⁸ This large  constellation means there are potentially more opportunities for satellites to collect images of  anywhere on Earth. This change in imagery frequency and availability potentially could benefit a  disaster manager–without needing to rely on serendipity. 

Planet is not the only company engaging in commercial EO activities. Other startups have entered  or are planning to enter the commercial space EO/remote sensing (RS) business. Based on (for  most) company press releases, these newest EO/RS operators might contribute five times the  existing number of operational EO/RS satellites in the next few years. That’s from slightly under  the estimated 300 operational EO/RS satellites on-orbit (including government-operated satellites)  to an estimated 1,500 EO/RS satellites–mainly commercially-operated.¹⁹ 

More satellites will collect more “data” (pictures) of the Earth. More satellites result in more  pictures taken more often. And more satellites means there will be a faster response, perhaps  with better image resolution, to a disaster/emergency manager’s request for an image. Instead  of waiting hours, a request may take only minutes to fulfill. Not only that–there will be more  types of EO/RS data available. 

The new EO/RS operators are not just optical imagery collectors, there are other remote  sensing products available: Visible/Multispectral (MS)/Hyperspectral (HS), Infrared, Synthetic  Aperture Radar (SAR), and Radio Frequency. Each of these product types only adds to the  potential tools an emergency/disaster manager can use. Trying to pinpoint a forest fire  hotspot? Then infrared-derived products might be required. Tasked with enforcing the fight  against illegal fishing over impossibly large areas? Then maybe a combination of satellite  optical imagery and radiofrequency scanning products is useful. 

A less obvious result of commercial EO/RS satellite growth is perhaps the possibility for  nations to identify areas prone to disasters (fires, earthquakes, hurricanes, etc.) and schedule  for updating images before a “season.” In other words, the growth of commercial EO/RS  satellites also help pin down something more useful for emergency and disaster managers- -planning. Their potentially massive data repositories, with scheduled collections, would be  a known quantity for emergency/disaster managers to rely upon (and pay those companies  to conduct those updates). It is good to know that the data are there to allow emergency/ disaster managers to conduct much quicker life-saving and property protection measures when  comparing images. 

If half of those 1,500 EO/RS satellites are deployed, disaster and emergency managers will  have the unique experience of choice. Instead of facing only the bureaucracies inherent with  calling on government assets, they can also call on the new commercial EO/RS space operators  like Planet, Iceye etc. Those commercial operators are likely to respond more quickly than  the average bureaucracy. The Disaster Charter may still be useful and perhaps provide more  products in a faster time-frame than before–if these companies join with its members to supply  free images whenever disaster strikes (Planet and Iceye have). 

The promise of profits is compelling commercial space companies to build out an EO/RS  infrastructure, but attaining those profits might take a while. Each one of the companies operating  those satellites is bent on somehow making money off of the data their satellites collect. Each  company is adding to its EO/RS satellites constellation, in turn creating more image availability.  This scenario, which may seem confusing at first based on all of the companies entering this  market, can only be good for disaster and emergency managers willing to think ahead.  

Challenges with Technology Adaptation  in Emergency Management 

Emergency Management has long had challenges and even apprehensions about introducing  new technologies into its practices. We still see limitations in communications systems, minimal  use of web-based information sharing resources, and even some GIS technology often relegated  to wildland fires and maybe major floods and hurricane disaster areas. We need to have a better  idea of what technology is really out there, who owns it, who can request it and how can it be  used more consistently across the industry in a standardized way. Then we need to think about  how technology can be added to the classroom to prepare future emergency planners, first  responders, and policy makers from the largest metropolitan cities to the smallest towns.  

This is reminiscent of the painful growth experience when trying to implement NIMS nationally  in 2005. There are still challenges and holdouts in some locales and disciplines when it comes  to NIMS adoption even today. This is a challenge that we see just to even get access to the  technologies to improve our capabilities across the emergency management arena. The problem  then was that we really didn’t know what we needed, or even wanted because we didn’t really  know what was available and we were so used to doing things with traditional tools, new ones  just seemed unattainable, especially for small town departments. As an industry, emergency management has not partnered with entities that just might have the next tool we would need.  Even today, public service-related education relies heavily on the psychosocial theories,  interpersonal interactions, and fundamentals of what our industry is, but we don’t use a lot of  technology in educating future public servants. The lack of a true standardized set of program  objectives in criminal justice and homeland security, i.e., programmatic accreditation, is still  an issue in our field. Even looking at the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences standards for  certification there is nothing directly related to technology.  

This brings us to emerging space capabilities. For example, it is possible that the Space Force  will provide new capabilities that will be useful for emergency management. We know that  the space industry has provided us with thousands of technological resources from the electric  toothbrush to the cell phone and beyond. Incorporating space technology into emergency  management practices presents a leap in technological adaption and innovation that can bring  new resources into the homeland security enterprise with the potential to contribute greatly  towards solving the myriad of challenges we continue to face.  

Recommendations 

Space capabilities, applications, services and technologies can provide advanced information,  intelligence, data, early warning, tracking and many other leading-edge capabilities to the  homeland security enterprise and state and local first responders if awareness, education and  training is provided and these products are operationalized nationally for use during all phases of  emergency management and response activities. The Department of Homeland Security, Science  & Technology Directorate (DHS, S&T) should advocate for the establishment of public-private &  academic partnerships across all levels of government and provide substantial new funding to  establish a vast repository of case studies on technology adaptation and implementation and  to identify best practices and standards. Further grant funding should be provided to make new  technologies available nationwide, especially at the state and local level to push the adaptation of  new technologies. DHS, S&T should implement funding on a vastly greater scale than its current  Civic Innovation Challenge partnership with National Science Foundation and MetroLab. This will  provide major progress towards the development of literature that can be used to identify new  standards and programs needed to provide these resources nationwide.  

Conclusion 

Space capabilities have major potential applications for use during all phases of emergencies and  disasters. The applications discussed in this essay are just the tip of the iceberg as to the full range  of capabilities and technological solutions available. These technologies represent the next great  leap in the continuum of technology in the homeland security enterprise. Incorporating space  technology into emergency management practices will bring a new generation of tools to facilitate  smarter, safer, data-driven responses that will provide quicker, more timely, more accurate data to  enable better decision-making and support to frontline first responders. 

Notes 

1. U.S. Congress, Senate. Subcommittee on Strategic Forces, Committee on Armed Services, Jointly with the  Subcommittee on Emergency Preparedness, Response, and Communications, Committee on Homeland  Security, Threats to Space Assets and Implications for Homeland Security, 115th Cong., 1st sess., March 29, 2017, hsdl.org/?view&did=806644. 
2. Department of Homeland Security, Science and Technology Directorate, “Snapshot: S&T, SpaceX Launch  Polar Scout Satellites | Homeland Security,” Department of Homeland Security, Science and Technology  Directorate, 2019, launch-polar-scout-satellites.  
3. Fiona Broom, “Next COVID-19 Outbreak ‘Predicted via Satellite,’ | PreventionWeb.Net, PreventionWeb,  April 3, 2020, campaign=PreventionSavesLives.  
4. “Starlink,” 2021, Starlink, 2021, starlink.com.  
5. “The Value of Geoinformation for Disaster and Risk Management (VALID) | UN-SPIDER Knowledge Portal,”  2013, Joint Board of Geospatial Information Societies (JBGIS) and UNOOSA/UN-SPIDER, September 3, 2013,  un-spider.org/about/publication/value-geoinformation-disaster-and-risk-management-valid.  
6. “Copernicus Emergency Management Service,” n.d. Copernicus, Accessed January 30, 2021, copernicus.eu/en/services/emergency.  
7. United States, Office of Science and Technology Policy, “Unclassified U.S. National Space Policy,” 2006,  hsdl.org/?view&did=466991.  
8. “GAO-10-364 Homeland Defense: DOD Needs to Take Actions to Enhance Interagency Coordination for Its  Homeland Defense and Civil Support Missions, Report to Congressional Requesters,” 2010, United States,  Government Accountability Office, hsdl.org/?view&did=25454. 

11 Implementing Space Technology and Innovations into  Homeland Security and Emergency Management Operations and Activities 

9. United States, Office of Science and Technology Policy, “Unclassified U.S. National Space Policy,” 2006,  hsdl.org/?view&did=466991.; “2010 National Space Policy | Office of Space Commerce,” 2010,  space.commerce.gov/policy/national-space-policy/. 
10. “Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS) | Earthdata,” NASA EarthData, 2020, https:// earthdata.nasa.gov/earth-observation-data/near-real-time/firms.  
11. “Using NASA Remote Sensing for Disaster Management | ARSET,” NASA, ARSET,  May 15, 2020, ga=2.188126696.1598920002.1589598453-1150738098.1589394117 . 
12. “About | ARSET,” NASA, ARSET, May 15, 2020, https://arset.gsfc.nasa.gov/about. 
13. Ibid. 
14. “FEMA Geospatial Resource Center,” FEMA, 2019, https://gis-fema.hub.arcgis.com/.  
15. “FEMA Priority Operations Support Tool – POST,” FEMA, April 28, 2020, home/item.html?id=2b3b177a633f47949e17fe9996f86384.  
16. “Hurricane Maria in the Dominican Republic – Activations – International Disasters Charter,” 2017,  International Charter Space & Major Disasters, September 19, 2017, guest/activations/-/article/flood-in-dominican-republic-activation-556-.  
17. “Planet Opens New State-of-the-Art Satellite Manufacturing Factory in San Francisco,” Planet, August 12,  2018, planet.com/pulse/planet-opens-satellite-manufacturing-factory/.  
18. “Planet Monitoring | Planet,” Plane, 2021, planet.com/products/monitoring/.  19. Estimates from IDS satellite identification and counts, October 2020.