Using remote sensing data to measure growth and development of nations

Space Technologies have been contributing to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals for decades, including satellite Earth Observation (EO), satellite communication, satellite positioning, microgravity research, technology transfer and increasing research infrastructure.

It should be emphasized that satellite Earth Observation (EO) has several applications for instance in Climate Change Studies, Global Weather Monitoring, Oceans and Land Analysis, Geohazard Assessment. Just to give some examples: in Urbanization and Transportation fields, Updating Road Maps; Asphalt Conditions; Wetland Delineation; Urban Planning; in Agriculture field: Crop Health Analysis; Precision Agriculture; Compliance Mapping; Yield Estimation; in Natural Resource Management: Habitat Analysis; Environmental Assessment; Impervious Surface Mapping; Lake Monitoring; Forest Monitoring; Hydrology; Landuse-Landcover Monitoring; Mineral Province; Geomorphology; Geology; in application to Homeland Security: Telecommunication Planning; Coastal Mapping; Disaster Mapping and Monitoring; Damage Assessment.

Many satellites have been launched in the last decades to observe our Planet. A list of the 50 most important satellites can be found at:

https://gisgeography.com/earth-satellite-list/

Nowadays increasing availability of satellite data providing a unique asset for developing countries. As satellite data becomes increasingly accessible and frequent, it is now possible not only to better understand how Earth is changing, but also to utilize these insights to improve decision making

(https://blogs.worldbank.org/opendata/innovations-satellite-measurements-development).

The emerging expansion of Earth Observation (EO) activities to so many application areas, together with the growth of “New Space” entrepreneurship worldwide, as well as “New Space” services opportunities, as provided by low cost satellite constellations and solutions involving the use of micro, mini and small satellites, have recently caused an even greater interest in the use of Space technology in support of Sustainable Development Goals [1], [2], [3].

This proposal on one side focuses on the analysis of indexes that measure the growth and development of a nation (the Inclusive Wealth Index is an example), and on the other side it wants to identify which satellite payloads best allow for linking these indexes to the evaluation of natural and non-natural resources. The student/s will be guided to understand how to discriminate the data choice among the top free satellite imagery sources

(https://eos.com/blog/7-top-free-satellite-imagery-sources-in-2019/ ) and when commercial data are instead necessary.

He/she will examine the available satellite data, their possible use for territorial analysis, will choose the territorial areas to be considered for the analysis and will verify if and how it is possible to identify from such data the territorial dynamics able to give us information on the territory growth. Moreover, a study of the state-of-the-art will be necessary to see what has been already done in the proposed research fields, both on the economics and technical side. In literature there are in fact examples of studies already done at this aim [4].

The students involved can also have different backgrounds and work in team.

The student/s will be supervised by prof. Silvia Ullo (https://www.unisannio.it/en/user/622/contatti), Master of Science in Technology at MIT Sloan School, Master degree in Electronic Engineering from the University of Naples, and working in the Engineering Department at the University of Sannio with expertise in satellite images analysis and data processing (statistics and probability theory); by prof. Annamaria Nifo (https://www.unisannio.it/en/user/1739/contatti), Associate Professor in Applied Economics, working in the Department of Law, Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods (DEMM) at the University of Sannio, with research interests concerning the role of human capital in the economic growth, the role of institutional quality in the economic performance, brain drain, economic dualisms, and in the fields of international economics and industrial economics, by Dr. Giancarlo Filippazzo, Master degree in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering from Stanford (B.S. in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering from MIT), Copernicus Program Coordinator at the ESA Earth Observation (EO) Directorate in Frascati (Roma), and Dr. Pierre-Philippe Mathieu, Master degree in Engineering from the University of Liege, Belgium; Ph.D. degree in climate science from the University of Louvain, Belgium, and Management degree from the University of Reading Business School, U.K, Head of the Φ-LAB at Esrin-ESA in Frascati (Rome).

A period of the Externship will be spent at the Φ-LAB of Esrin-ESA (European Space Agency) in Frascati (Rome) in January.

The students will also collaborate with Research assistants, Master students and Trainees at the University of Sannio and ESA.

The results of the research will be disseminated in conferences and/or international journals.

References

[1] Reid, J. and Zeng, C. and Wood¹, D., “Combining Social, Environmental and Design Models to Support the Sustainable Development Goals”, IEEE Aerospace Conference Proceedings, AERO 2019, Big Sky, United Staes, March 2-9, 2019.

[2] Rathnasabapathy, M. and Javier Stober, K. and Wood, D., “Challenges and progress in applying space technology in support of the sustainable development goals”, Proceedings of the International Astronautical Congress, IAC, Bremen, Germany, Vol. 2018, October 1-5, 2018.

[3] Magliarditi, E. and Siddiqi², A. and de Weck, O., “Remote Sensing for Assessing Natural Capital in Inclusive Wealth of Nations: Current Capabilities and Gaps”, Proceedings of 2019 IGARSS Conference, Yokohama, Japan, July 28- August 2, 2019.

[4] Keola, S. and Andersson, M. and Hall, O., “Monitoring Economic Development from Space: Using Nighttime Light and Land Cover Data to Measure Economic Growth”, World Development Vol. 66, pp. 322-334, 2015, www.elsevier.com/locate/worlddev, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2014.08.017

¹Danielle Wood, Assistant Professor at MIT, is in chief of a new group, Space Enabled, at the MIT Media Lab. She believes technologies in orbit can benefit societies on Earth

(https://www.media.mit.edu/articles/satellites-with-social-goals-five-questions-for-danielle-wood/). She discussed in 2012 her PhD thesis at MIT with a dissertation on “Building technological capability within satellite programs in developing countries”

(https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/79502).

²Afreen Siddiqi is a Research Scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), an Associate Director of the MIT Strategic Engineering Research Group, and a visiting scholar at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard Kennedy School. One of her research fields is how Remote Sensing can be used for assessing natural, produced and human capital, in order to measure the sustainable growth and development of nations.

(https://www.hks.harvard.edu/faculty/afreen-siddiqi )