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UNOSAT

Helping in the field, but from space

Applied technology How it works
Monitoring the implementation
of field projects is a recurrent
challenge often aggravated by The use of satellites allows for Each activation of SwiftView, and
security concerns, logistical pro- remote monitoring between in-situ its on-line map, are designed speci-
blems and budget constraints. trips in a cost-effective and accoun- fically for each user. As a first step
Most agencies are confronted table manner using reliable on-line UNOSAT experts discuss with the
with this problem and some technology combined with UNOSAT requesting agency the monitoring
are taking measures to solve it. expert analysis. UNOSAT, the UNI- requirements. Once these are defi-
TAR Operational Satellite Applica- ned, a plan is drawn up that includes
The United Nations Institute for
tions Programme, has been testing a location, geographic extent, duration
Training and Research (UNITAR)
user-friendly On-line Project Moni- and periodicity of the monitoring
has studied how available satel-
toring System allowing for detailed and the cost. A typical case would
lite and on-line technologies
periodic project monitoring in any involve monitoring a building site
can help decrease the cost and part of the world. This solution has of one square kilometre (the size of
increase the monitoring capa- been designed as an optimal comple- Jerusalem Old Town, or Lucca in
bility in the field --from afar. ment rather than a replacement of Italy, or Bruges in Belgium): UNO-
in-situ monitoring, especially when SAT would set up an on-line map ac-
implementation occurs in remote cessible only by the requesting agen-
The challenge and unsafe areas or when travel cy and would in addition deliver four
budgets are limited.
reports a year at planned intervals.
These reports detail the changes in
Field experts engaged in implemen- Tests conducted since 2011 have a narrative section complemented
ting development and post-disaster shown that the solution is reliable by satellite screenshots and photos
projects know very well that any and accurate especially when com- from the ground. The total overall
infrastructure implementation pro- bined with in-situ periodic visits. cost per year is less than US$20,000.
cess entails benchmarking and mo- The type of activity to be monitored
nitoring of progress against plans. determines also the accuracy of the The on-line map is easy to use and
This may turn into a serious opera- observations, with settlements, in- serves as a platform for both ground
tional challenge as United Nations frastructure and road-building offe- photos and multiple satellite ima-
agencies and programmes are often ring the best results. Capitalizing on gery covering the location being
responsible for projects in remote these tests UNOSAT has developed monitored. In addition to the four
regions and unsafe areas. Despite the a service capacity that is today at status reports, the requesting agency
danger, the imperative of accoun- the disposal of all UN agencies and can access the on-line site to view
tability to donors and to recipients programmes. The service, dubbed the most recent visual information
implies the duty to inspect project SwiftView, combines in a single web- on the project site including photos
sites and to be able to report on pro- based map-browser the "view from from implementing partners and
gress made. In addition, in some cases above", using regularly updated satel- satellite imagery with related ana-
it may be necessary to keep a vigilant lite imagery, with the "view from the lysis by UNITAR/UNOSAT. Ground
eye on implementing contractors. ground", using geo-tagged photos and photos can be annotated before
videos acquired on-site by staff, field- uploading.
In most cases the lack of security workers or social media users. A spe-
and the high cost of official travel are cific application for iPhones, Wad and UNOSAT trains the implementing
additional limitations to project Android devices called <<TJN-ASIGN>> (user) agency in the use of both the
monitoring and they are usually has been prepared by UNOSAT with on-line platform and the simple
overcome by prolonging the inter- its partner AnsuR of Norway for the smartphone app "UN-ASIGN". The
vals between in-situ checks, with the purpose of enabling field workers and app records the exact location of
negative result of making corrective eventually the general public to add the photo/video, time-stamps it and
action difficult and untimely. photos in real-time. automatically uploads it a dedicated
UNOSAT server hosted securely at
CERN in Geneva.

34 Humanitarian
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