Remote sensing for humanitarian applications

Remote sensing technologies are becoming increasingly used for humanitarian aid and disaster prediction and management purposes. Originally designed for military and government-use, today's proliferation of smaller, light-weight, intelligent, network connected and sometimes autonomous remote sensors are now finding their way into daily use by civilian authorities, universities and commercial entities as accurate and relatively cheap means of providing functions such as disaster prediction, mitigation and for damage assessment. In this paper we present an overview of the trends in remote sensing technologies, with emphasis on the capabilities of existing and planned space and airborne radar and hyperspectral sensors for humanitarian applications. In addition to that, we present a case study for crop health monitoring where remote sensing assets coupled with commercial telematics for example Radio Frequency Identifiers (RFIDs) deployed in support of narcotics interdiction through agricultural interventions in Afghanistan.