The frequency and severity of natural disasters are increasing. Impacts of disaster events on human lives, livelihoods, the environment and the economy are increasing every year due to an accumulation of people  and assets in the world’s risk prone areas. At the same time, the number and severity of extreme weather events is also increasing. This combined effect results in more people and critical infrastructure being exposed to risk.

Many of the currently available satellite systems have significant potential to contribute to disaster risk management, including large-scale disaster risk reduction. Spaceborne sensors generate a stream of globally consistent and coherent data that can be transformed into critical information enabling an improved management of disaster risk across multiple scales. Inaccessible and hazardous areas can be sensed without putting any person at risk. But even in areas with dense measurement networks, frequent satellite observations complement in situ measurements, model simulations and other data sources to provide stakeholders in disaster management with regular and detailed updates on the state of risk hazards.

Satellite Earth Observation-derived products and services have thus the potential to prevent or mitigate adverse impacts of natural disasters. These products and services support evidence-based decision making in all phases of the disaster risk management cycle, such as prevention/ preparedness, early warning, post event recovery and reconstruction activities. There are already many examples of how various measurements from satellites provide valuable additional input that can be used for disaster support applications: tracking the path of tropical storms, including typhoons, cyclones and hurricanes; mapping the extent of flooded areas and estimating the number of people affected, estimating damages from earthquakes, tracking the dispersion of ash and lava emitted during volcanic eruptions; monitoring the extent of forest fires, monitoring the extent of oil spills and detecting ships in affected areas, and monitoring the effects of droughts on soils, vegetation, and crops. Moreover, through their assimilation into numerical prediction models, such satellite EO-based products, allow to maintain model predictions on track.

While much progress has been achieved in recent years, there is no doubt that most of the great potential of satellite EO for advancing disaster risk management and reduction has yet to be fully realised. This section provides an overview of applications and relevant research questions.