Exposed to severe and intense natural disasters is not a new thing for the people of Latin America. With unpredictable changes in the climate and environment, the intensity and frequency of natural disasters have increased like never before. These sudden disasters affect the functioning of society, with great losses in human, social, financial, material, and environmental sectors. Along with these losses, the process of overcoming these losses is also huge. However, with repeated natural calamities and disasters, Latin American residents have been struggling to reshape their lives to normal. In addition, Latin America and the Caribbean are identified as the second most disaster-prone regions after Asia. According to studies, almost three-quarters of people in Latin America are living in regions at disaster risk. Furthermore, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has reported that the changes in extreme weather events have increased considerably in these regions, resulting in a 23% rise in natural disasters in the last decade.
Due to such risk elements and natural disasters like forest fires, floods, and landslides looming over Latin countries, the coordinated work of governments and organizations has shaped effective disaster management technologies in most of these countries. The world has been discussing these innovative technologies since the experts from these areas shared about the use of real-time satellite data in detecting natural calamities at the “Planet On the Road” event conducted in Bogota, Colombia. Among them, its use to detect hazards in Mega-Dam projects and wildfires was the most discussed.
Colombia’s use of real-time satellite data to monitor disasters at the Mega-Dam project
Monitoring and preventing hazards like landslides and floods is difficult, especially at large dams and water bodies. As a result, the policies for environmental protection and safeguarding local communities require a high financial background and resource power. So, the same was discussed by William Ramirez, an Environmental, Social, and Sustainability Professional at Empresas Publicas de Medellin at the event regarding Colombia’s Hidrotuango hydropower project.
Due to the potential and size of the dam, it possesses several risk elements along the Cauca River and nearby areas including shifting land, floating debris, and heavy rain. According to William Ramirez, his team makes use of Planet imagery to monitor and analyze the situations in this region. He said that the monitoring helped them control and characterize the phenomenon. He noted that this technology not only helps monitor the area, but also safeguards lives, infrastructure, and land.
Chile’s Resistance Against Wildfires
Chile is a vast country that spans over 4,000 kilometers and hence detecting natural calamities well in advance is a hectic task. Valentina Espinosa, General Manager at Raster4 shared that Chile has its own set of challenges and the change satellite data makes in the country is highly commendable. She noted that the real-time satellite data helped them reduce the devastating effect of the forest fire that happened earlier this year. She added that the technology helped authorities identify and inform the affected area in advance which helped reduce widespread disaster. Moreover, this technology was also beneficial in identifying the best evacuation routes and inform them to the firefighters.
With evolving AI and satellite imagery people are reshaping disaster management. Along with detecting calamities these technologies also reduce the chances of disasters by improving the vegetation and environment of high-risk areas.
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