Foreign news

Chinese scientists generate Turkish earthquake relief analysis for UN

Published

2 years ago

February 15, 2023

The United Nations Satellite Centre (UNOSAT) has activated its emergency mapping service in quake-hit areas in Türkiye to aid relief efforts.

A research team from central China’s Wuhan University was invited to map the lights in the areas at night using remote sensing data to help better analyze disaster situations in different areas and allocate relief resources.

Li Xi, a professor at the State Key Laboratory of Information Engineering in Surveying, Mapping and Remote Sensing at Wuhan University, together with his team, provided remote sensing data of the quake-hit areas to UNOSAT.

The initial assessment results, disrupted by rain and snow, show that the lighting reduction ratio is over 90 percent, 50 percent and 70 percent in Hatay, Kahramanmaras and Adiyaman, respectively.

The results indicate that the power and other infrastructure losses in the disaster-stricken areas are serious.

“In the past, it was generally believed that the closer the area was to the epicenter, the greater the loss. In fact, this did not take into account the different disaster resistance capabilities of different areas,” said Li.

The changes in the lights can directly reflect the scale of damage in different cities and can be used to assess disaster resistance capabilities. In the case of resource shortages, it can play an important role in the formulation of more targeted rescue strategies, Li added.

Generating data via satellites

Li’s team analyzed satellite data, which is updated every day, combining macro and micro observations. They used China’s high-resolution satellites to carry out the high-precision monitoring of lights in affected areas at night.

Earth science satellite SDGSAT-1, developed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, provided pre-disaster data for researchers to compare with the post-disaster conditions.

In addition, commercial space telescope Yangwang-1, developed by Origin Space Technology Co., Ltd., and micro-nano satellite QMX-1, developed by Wuhan University, have been employed.

Besides observing lights through high-resolution satellites at night, the team also took help from Suomi-NPP, a U.S. meteorological satellite, to obtain data with longer timeframe and broader range, and to analyze the light trends.

The team reported analysis results to UNOSAT, the World Food Program and other agencies. The results could be used to help formulate relief policies and monitor the progress of post-disaster reconstruction.

“The data may help policymakers analyze the disaster situations in different areas and allocate relief resources better,” Li said.

“We’ve been involved since the day after the earthquakes, and we will be tracking and observing the area for the coming months or even years.”

Team mission

Currently, Li’s team and UNOSAT are collaborating under the pilot initiative “Night-Time Light Remote Sensing for Sustainable Development Goals” from the Group on Earth Observations.

The initiative aims to quantify the progress of several indexes related to the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals using night-time light data.

Since 2012, Li’s team has been engaged in the research field of luminous remote sensing, assessing impact of humanitarian disasters with related data.

Their previous researches in Syria, Yemen and other places have proved that changes in nighttime lights can be used to assess humanitarian disasters efficiently, serving the United Nations Security Council and other agencies for multiple times.

(With input from Xinhua)

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Foreign news

Nigerians lament over exorbitant UK visa application fees

Published

2 weeks ago

August 22, 2024

The Gleamer

Nigerians on Thursday expressed concern over the exorbitant charges for various UK visa application fees, calling on the Foreign Affairs Minister to look into that area.

This complaint was done in a vox-pop interviews by different UK applicants in the country.

Some of them, however, complained about not getting the value for money spent, and the service delivery is also not efficient.

Speaking on the matter, Mr. Ajayi Okon said that he feels they are beginning to make so much money out of Nigerians because most Nigerians love to go there based on proximity.

“I think it is high time the government intervenes; at times it looks like extortion to me. You will pay a priority visa, which is over a million naira, to get a response within 2 days.

“The next thing, you will get an email telling you because of high demand, it will take another 15 days, so what is the essence of the priority paid for?

“ If you are collecting money for a particular service, you should have factored in how you want to deliver efficient service.

However, Mrs. Sarah Mbah said that on the application portal, the self-service option, which is cheaper, is not accessible easily.

According to her, after paying so much on visa fees, you will still be denied without an option of appeal despite the money spent.

“I think the government needs to pay attention, especially in those areas of visa application to other countries.

“The fees are getting too high, and the service delivery is also not satisfactory. Nigerians will outright be denied without any right to appeal after paying so much.

“ I feel is not right; some cases should be allowed to appeal, especially looking at the resources involved, so people won’t feel cheated,“ she added.

Furthermore, Favor Adamu said that the perception is usually that it is people who have the resources that apply for UK visas, but the truth is, people save up for those fees.

She said that because of the high rate of migration, they usually suspect that everyone coming to their country won’t want to return, and based on that, they use that to denial people.

Adamu said based on this, the fees should not be too much, so such a person won’t feel cheated because they cannot even appeal the decision.

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