Infrastructure needs to be planned and built in advance

One of the main issues in the disaster response is the disaster preparedness of infrastructure and services. Money and resources invested in advance in preparation for an emergency are used with much greater efficiency and contribute to saving more lives than those funds allocated during and after an emergency. There is an estimate that is considered fairly accurate: 1 dollar spent on emergency preparedness is worth 10 dollars in an emergency. And serious funds are often donated to emergency management structures after the emergency has occurred. And it would be good to have an opportunity to spend this money on preventing new emergencies.

Therefore, not only prompt response but also timely prevention is important. Further to a monitoring and tracking service, this requires a clear plan, as well as pre-installed satellite communications equipment at key locations and services in the potential emergency area – government authorities, medical facilities, rescue facilities and rescue management headquarters. This will make it possible to virtually instantly restore the operation of communication networks after an emergency occurred. However, the equipment alone is not enough. You need employees trained to work with it.

Furthermore, in order to promptly respond to emergencies, it is crucial for international organisations and businesses, that are willing to provide assistance, to know which local partners can be contacted to resolve organisational and, most importantly, regulatory issues. There is also a need to increase the credibility of information. For example, during the recent flooding in the UAE, the warning was received by public services but not trusted. Therefore, in such situations, a reliable and authoritative source of information is important, which can be international organisations such as ITU and the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA).

Crisis Connectivity Charter

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) is a United Nations program that aims to provide assistance in emergencies. Among other things, WFP leads a telecommunications cluster for work in emergency areas – Emergency Telecommunications Cluster (1). This structure has been working since 2002 an is based on the principles of public-private partnership. In 2015 a number of international, governmental organisations and businesses signed the Crisis Connectivity Charter (2). Now the Charter has developed a working mechanism of cooperation, including with the private sector, which is important because in emergencies private business often plays a leading role and makes a significant contribution to the rapid restoration of communication infrastructure. The role of local operators and providers is particularly important. In the recent earthquake in Turkey, the Charter's mechanisms proved to be effective and efficient.

Turksat – Turkish national satellite operator used a pre-developed plan and proven mechanisms for cooperation with government, public and international institutions. Satellite communication in the emergency area is not a separate entity, and the operator provided satellite backhaul services to mobile operators. This restored mobile phone networks and allowed people to communicate using their phones.

United Nations Spider Program (UN-SPIDER)

United Nations Platform for Space-based Information for Disaster Management and Emergency Response (UN-SPIDER) (3) was created under UNOOSA in 2006. UN-SPIDER develops solutions that enable developing countries to gain access to space-based technologies essential for emergency management – satellite communications, Earth's remote sensing and space based navigation. Today, the program advises 55 countries, in most of which satellite technologies are extremely difficult to access. And the areas prone to natural disasters have usually a lot of connectivity issues even without their impact. Even if there is an entity dealing with the consequences of an emergency, its headquarters often do not have sufficient communication with the field offices. Therefore, the implementation of the program of connecting the unconnected becomes a kind of guarantee that during the emergency relevant services will have connectivity.

Emergencies regulations

In many countries, the process of issuing licenses and permits to import and operate satellite equipment is time consuming and complicated. In order to rapidly deploy communication networks in the emergency zone, regulators must make all emergency decisions in advance. They should determine how and what they will do to secure the frequency spectrum for the satellite equipment, organise the rapid import of hardware and other related issues. Furthermore, the operator should know in advance the entity with which it will interact on regulatory matters, or better yet, the specific person. In Zambia, for example, the Prime Minister Office has the authority to deal with emergencies, and in that country all the mechanisms work quite well and promptly.

The first 24 hours after an emergency are very important for searching and assisting affected people, and here the equipment that was rapidly deployed can help to save someone's life.

The situation can become very complicated if the emergency hits an area where there is a border between countries. In order to quickly implement the so-called humanitarian connectivity, regulations favourable for the use of satellite technologies during emergencies are needed. And not only telecom regulators and operators should be involved in promoting this issue, but also those structures, that are engaged in emergency response in each particular country. Regulators need to find some licensing mechanism other than an auction, because an auction implies licensing of a single technology, while during an emergency a multifaceted approach is needed.

Promising technologies for operations in the emergency zone

The most promising technologies for emergency applications include inter alia direct satellite-to-smartphone (or D2D) communications, as well as virtually any integration of satellite into the 5G and 6G ecosystem under 3GPP. If these technologies become widespread, sooner or later everyone will have a smartphone with satellite communication capability. And the ability not to lose communication when ground infrastructure is destroyed will seriously facilitate operations in the emergency zone. This should be the reason why regulators need to promote the D2D service, including at the next World Radiocommunication Conference.

Public-private partnership – an effective mechanism

Public-private partnership may become the most effective mechanism for deployment of emergency prevention and response infrastructure. Business entities – both those involved in communications and those involved in remote earth sensing – are willing to provide support, but can also achieve their own goals in parallel, such as advertising.

Private companies, especially startups, are more flexible than government entities, they can respond faster to the changing environment. In addition, having solutions from multiple companies increases the reliability and resilience of the entire system. The main thing is to provide startups with a detailed outline of the requirements and objectives. And, of course, a working business model needs to be established, because businesses need an incentive to collect, process and forward huge amounts of data.

India is very much counting on New Space, especially in the area of earth surface monitoring, as changes in space policy have given a major boost to space startups. One of the country's issues is glacial lakes, the breakthrough of which threatens to flood areas and kill people. A warming climate increases glacier melting and makes the danger real. Such lakes require continuous, high-resolution monitoring. The national government and local authorities believe that startups will be able to provide them with the solutions they need.

Effective work of space applications for emergency prevention and infrastructure restoration is possible only with an integrated approach and clear interaction of all players involved. It is collaboration, cooperation and a clear plan of actions that is the key to the success of public, private and international actors in the emergency zone.

(1) https://www.etcluster.org/

(2) https://disasterscharter.org/en/web/guest/home

(3) https://www.unoosa.org/oosa/en/ourwork/un-spider/index.html