09-10, 15:00–15:30 (America/Chicago), Grand C
The NASA funded Lifelines Data Series aims to improve humanitarian outcomes by bridging the knowledge and accessibility gaps that currently exist between humanitarians and the use of remote sensing, Earth science, and geospatial data.
Launched in October 2023, the NASA funded Lifelines initiative is a community-building effort designed to enhance the use of Earth science, remote sensing, and geospatial technology, data, and methods to improve humanitarian outcomes. Lifelines focuses on facilitating cross-disciplinary collaboration between scientists, humanitarians, funders, policymakers, and other stakeholders to identify needs and overcome roadblocks related to the adoption of Earth science and remote sensing. One of the most pressing needs in this domain is data. While there is a vast amount of openly available remote sensing and geospatial data, its use by humanitarians remains relatively low.
Throughout the first year of the Lifelines program, our team repeatedly heard from humanitarian partners and community members that, although they recognize the value of Earth science and remote sensing data for their efforts, adoption is limited. Our discussions with the community revealed five key roadblocks:
Humanitarians often don’t know what data is useful for their use case.
If they know what is useful, they often don’t know what is available.
If they know what is available, they often don’t know how to access it.
If they know how to access it, they often don’t know how to process it.
If they know how to process and analyze it, they often don’t know how to generate quantifiable and meaningful insights for their use case.
The Lifelines Data Series is an effort to address these issues. Leveraging insights from our advisors, data experts, and community, the Data Series assembles collections of data resources, called Data Studio Packages, paired with educational information for specific humanitarian use cases. These Data Studio Packages not only aggregate available resources and data but also provide educational and informational resources on their deployment for particular use cases.
The focus of the Data Series is not to rehost existing open datasets, but to help humanitarians navigate the available data and resources with a clearer understanding of what they are looking for and how to use it. Initial use cases for the Data Studio Packages have been prioritized using the Caribou Space Beyond Borders Report. However, Lifelines is community-driven, so the Data Studio Packages will also be responsive to community needs and support other Lifelines Programs, such as the upcoming Humanitarian Simulation.
The NASA Lifelines Data Series aims to enable humanitarians to effectively harness the power of Earth science and remote sensing data, ultimately enhancing their ability to respond to global challenges with greater precision and impact.
