Copernicus User Experience:

United Kingdom

15 March 2016

Ben Fletcher, Cabinet Office

Andrew Richman, Environment Agency

Outline

• Emergency management in the United Kingdom

• Using Copernicus in crisis response: EMSR147

(Cumbria 2015), EMSR069 (Southern England,

2014)

• Suggestions for improvement

2

Emergency Management in the UK

3

Minimal parliamentary interest significant parliamentary interest dominating party/national debate

Local Response

only

Region

Cross

Force

Cross -

Region

National

Coverage

Local Response with

two way information

Channel to Central Gov

Significant – Level 1 Lead Government Dept led

central response

Serious – Level 2 Co-ordinated central

response from COBR

Catastrophic – Level 3 Central direction

from COBR

Single

Scene

Minimal LGD policy interest DCLG monitoring LGD actively involved Strategic challenge Overwhelming

Impact

Scale

Central Response – Trigger Levels & co-ordination mechanisms

* LGD – Lead Government Department

Local Response Single Scene

Point of activation where

terrorism is suspected

e.g. Road Traffic Accident

e.g. Large Scale Fire

e.g. Flooding

e.g. Prison Riot

e.g. Animal Disease (Foot & Mouth Disease)

e.g. July Bombings

e.g. London Riots

e.g. Pandemic Flu

e.g. Volcanic Ash

e.g. Industrial Action

4

• Forum for Ministers to take

decisions on Government’s

response to a crisis.

• Chaired by the Prime Minister or

another senior Minister.

• NB does not have authority to

direct how local fire, police, health

services respond to emergency.

5

6

Sub-national

Co-ordination

Wide-area Emergency Single Scene

Operational

Control at Scene

Operational

Co-ordination

Integrated

Overall

Command

(usually) led

by Police

National

Strategic Level

Strategic

Co-ordination Centre (Gold Group)

GOLD Command

Strategic

Co-ordination

Centre (Gold Group)

GOLD Command

Strategic

Co-ordination

Centre (Gold Group)

GOLD Command Government

Liaison Team

COBR

Silver Command

Bronze Command Bronze Command

Strategic

Co-ordination

Centre (Gold Group)

GOLD Command

COBR Priorities

Strategic direction

Effective communication with local &

national responders

An authoritative and common ‘picture’ of

events

Mobilisation & prioritisation of assistance

National assessments e.g. Science,

intelligence

Advice on consequence management

Emergency legislation

International liaison

Provision of public information

Transition to longer term recovery

7

National / Strategic

Local / Operational

Early Warning Flood Guidance Statement

NFAS teleconference

LGD teleconference

8

EMSR147: Flooding in Cumbria

9

Activation • Environment Agency requested activation 21.44 GMT Saturday 5

December

• CCS Duty Officer authorised request, submitted to Copernicus 22.04

GMT Saturday 5 December

• Copernicus requests clarification on AOI 23.29 GMT

• E-mail problems reaching Copernicus duty operators

10

During the activation • First image acquisition Cosmo-Skymed RADAR 05.34 UTC Monday 7

December.

• First Map delivered on Copernicus website 20.46 UTC Monday 7

December

• Second image available Sentinel-1A 06.22 UTC Thursday 10.

• Phone and e-mail liaison with Copernicus duty operator.

11

…

12

Use of Products

13

Impact within the workflow • Shared with Defra and government partners

• Non-urban areas only – SAR imagery

• Outlines were used by the Rural Payments Agency to determine the

number of affected farm holdings and schemes in each area.

• Vector outlines used in GIS for mapping during the recovery phase.

Flood estimate outlines along with oblique aerial photography, social

media and ground survey data (inc. urban areas).

14

EMSR 069 Floods in southern England

15

Comparison with other products • How EA use Disaster Charter, aircraft and ground data – winter 13/14

16

Image courtesy of DMCii

17

18

19

Image courtesy of DMCii

TerraSAR-X Data in ScanSAR mode with HH Polarisation - 8m resolution

20

LIDAR – 1m resolution + satellite data

21

• Somerset Levels & Moors, SW England, change mapping and models

22

Validation exercise

23

EMSR 069 Floods in southern England • EA provided aerial photography taken during the incident.

• Reinforced our own experiences of using Copernicus:

1. Good wide area coverage,

2. Accessible via the website,

3. Underestimate of flood extent and

4. limited to non-urban areas.

24

Suggestions for Improvement

25

Products • Satellite Data, as well as vectors & maps,

would be very useful. A lot more analysis work

can be done with the data.

• Knowing satellite acquisition times and likely

delivery times in advance would be very

useful, to brief colleagues and understand

expectation of delivery.

• FAM products specifically not requested,

suggest removed, they can confuse and

mislead users.

26

Timeliness At all levels need information as

up to date as possible to

understand what happens next

In Cumbria, COBR had met

several times at official and

Ministerial level by Thursday 10

December; in same period, only 2

maps issued.

How can we make earth

observation data available faster in

emergency response?

27

Awareness of Copernicus Need to make sure that local

emergency services know about

ISC/Copernicus.

Is website user-friendly enough for

those unfamiliar with Earth

observation?

Within UK, need to improve

communication between centre

and local areas.

28

Response to a range of incidents Earth observation data very useful

for rural flooding, less useful in

urban areas.

What can it offer for wildfires,

industrial accidents, etc?

Set out more information on what

it can be used for on the website?

29

Separate authorisation from technical CCS is UK authorised user, but

not necessarily best suited for

discussions on technical GIS.

How can we ensure post-

authorisation conversations are

with GIS specialists?

30

EO Satellites

Copernicus vs ISC Can we implement a better

coordinated system?

31