Earth Monitoring
Saturated and detailed monitoring of the whole planet will be necessary to prevent deaths from natural disaster, pandemics, etc. We're already seeing it improve after disasters such as the Nepal earthquake where drones were used to quickly map areas of devastation allowing the emergency services to plan and prioritise areas for rescue and rebuilding.
Hopefully in future our planet will be so extensively monitored we'll even be able to be give accurate warnings about earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunami, as well as helping to forecast long term weather which may allow us to better use farmland and food production, for example planting the appropriate crops for the expected weather in the area.
Resources
Click on resource name for more details.
Planet Labs
Earth imaging company with goal to image the entirety of the planet daily to monitor changes and pinpoint trends
Resource Watch
Free, open data visualization platform that serves as a repository for the world's best available data
Recent News
Presence of coronavirus in sewage quantitatively reflects number infected
Newsweek - 23-Apr-2020
Quickly becomes inactive in faeces and sewage so there's no risk of infection
Read more...Robots ahoy! Mapping Earth's surface
BBC - 13-Sep-2018
SEA-KIT may be the autonomous vessel to win the XPRIZE for best seabed mapping system
Read more...Running out of water as dams shrink
Guardian - 11-Apr-2018
Early warning satellite system reveals countries with shrinking reservoirs.
Read more...Swarm of Shoebox Satellites Will Predict Natural Disasters
The Daily Beast - 06-Nov-2017
Fleet of tiny satellites constantly monitoring our planet.
Read more...Supervolcano warning time much shorter than thought
The Weather Network - 14-Oct-2017
According to new findings presented at a geology conference recently the famously potent 'supervolcano' beneath Yellowstone National Park may roar back to life with even less warning than scientists previously thought.
Read more...