Satellite image collection modeling for large area hazard emergency response

Timely collection of critical hazard information is the key to intelligent and effective hazard emergency response decisions. Satellite remote sensing imagery provides an effective way to collect critical information. Natural hazards, however, often have large impact areas – larger than a single satellite scene. Additionally, the hazard impact area may be discontinuous, particularly in flooding or tornado hazard events. In this paper, a spatial optimization model is proposed to solve the large area satellite image acquisition planning problem in the context of hazard emergency response. In the model, a large hazard impact area is represented as multiple polygons and image collection priorities for different portion of impact area are addressed. The optimization problem is solved with an exact algorithm. Application results demonstrate that the proposed method can address the satellite image acquisition planning problem. A spatial decision support system supporting the optimization model was developed. Several examples of image acquisition problems are used to demonstrate the complexity of the problem and derive optimized solutions.