HR: 09:00h
AN: H31L-05 INVITED    [Abstracts]
TI: Integrating earth observations and model results provides earlier Famine Early Warning
AU: * Brown, M E
EM: molly.brown@nasa.gov
AF: SSAI/NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Code 614.4 Biospheric Sciences Branch, Greenbelt, MD 20771, United States
AU: Funk, C C
EM: funk.cc@gmail.com
AF: Climate Hazards Group, Department of Geography University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, United States
AU: Galu, G
EM: ggalu@usgs.gov
AF: US Geological Survey, EROS Famine Early Warning System Network, Sioux Falls, SD 57198, United States
AU: Choularton, R
EM: rchoularton@fews.net
AF: Chemonics International, Famine Early System Network, Washington, DC 20001, United States
AB: Remote sensing allows us to detect slowly evolving natural hazards such as agricultural drought. Famine early warning systems transform this data into actionable policy information, enabling humanitarian organizations to respond in a timely and appropriate manner. These life saving responses are increasingly important. In 2006, 1 out of 8 people did not have enough to eat, 22 million more people became undernourished, and 22 countries provided 6.5 billion dollars in food aid. The motivation is strong, therefore, to increase the effectiveness of every dollar of food aid provided, ensuring that the assistance arrives sufficiently early to ward off human and economic catastrophe. Properly interpreted remote sensing information reduces the influence of politics in determining the amount and location of aid delivered. In this talk we will review three recent contributions that earth observations have provided to famine early warning: trend identification, increasingly accurate forecasts of food security conditions, and enhanced integration of biophysical and socio-economic data.
DE: 0466 Modeling
DE: 0468 Natural hazards
DE: 1817 Extreme events
DE: 1853 Precipitation-radar
DE: 1855 Remote sensing (1640)
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting