AAAS Scientific Responsibility, Human Rights and Law Program

ISFEREA -- Refugee and Internally Displaced Persons Camps

Website Description: The JRC has started to use VHR imagery to locate and quantify people to support UN agencies decision making and sizing humanitarian aid. Satellite imagery is used to (1) to locate refugee and internally displaced people (figure 1). Typical criteria that need to be taken into consideration when setting refugee camps. Sufficiently distant from conflict country. Accessible (close to roads as well as airports) in areas that do not cause tensions with local population. Have access to water. Have access to resources such as fuel, wood. Furthermore, satellite imagery is used (2) to measure size of camps and if possible with information on household surveys size the total population of camps; (3) Maps produced by satellite images are used to manage camps. Some of the maps are passed on to UN agencies and NGO that are using to manage camps. (4) Inventorying the total population of refugees. Satellite imagery are also used to understand the setting of camps and the resources that can be drawn from the area to support the refugee population. Typically agricultural land, pasture and forest to draw fuel wood. The presence of indigenous population is also often mapped. Isferea has inventoried a large number of refugee camps around the world using satellite imagery. It is analyzing the different camps to understand the typology of dwelling units and provide understanding of the living conditions within the camp.

This project is directly associated with the following: Programs ISFEREA - Geo-Spatial Information Analysis for Global Security and Stability As part of the European Commission's Joint Research Centre, ISFEREA conducts scholarly research on conflict monitoring, image information mining, disaster...