Geospatial data plays a crucial role in our work and partnerships, as we help clients and communities build adaptation strategies and resilience to climate change across the globe.
What is remote sensing?
At JBA we integrate the most innovative technologies and data into all that we do across a diverse range of services, and for many years this has included the use of remote sensing.
Remote sensing is a process of acquiring information about a location or any object without the need to make physical contact with it. We commonly understand remote sensing as the collection of data by satellites, aerial sensors, drones or ground sensors - across different spatial, temporal and spectral resolutions.
Remote sensing technologies allow us to capture data about sites and assets in otherwise hard-to-reach locations. This reduces the time, cost and carbon footprint associated with in-person data capture.
Remote sensing and large-scale catchment analysis
The river basins in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania suffer from an imbalance of sediment, predominantly as a result of vegetation clearance over many years, rapid urbanisation and a lack of sediment control practices during construction.
We worked closely with the World Bank and local stakeholders to identify long-term, adaptable and sustainable nature-based solutions which could be implemented. This included calculating sediment transport rates and identifying key areas within the region susceptible to erosion.
We used and integrated a range of remote sensing data sets to carry out this analysis – in combination with mapping and other data sources. Remote sensing was a critical part of the project and allowed us to carry out analysis across a large and remote river catchment, where data may have otherwise been unavailable. It also allowed us to deliver faster and at a lower cost than if the data was sourced from in-person surveying.
Remote sensing and coastal monitoring
We use remote sensing data from CoastSat, an open-source code that enables users to extract shoreline indicators from a range of open-access satellite imagery. This data allows the long-term analysis of shoreline positional change and insights into beach-face slope, alongside risk analysis. We have applied CoastSat data in a European Space Agency project looking at coastline change in Kerala, India, and Georgia. We have also used it to assess the change in lake level in Lake Tanganyika, Burundi, supporting the development of a strategic investment plan to reduce flood risk, on behalf of the World Bank.
For coastal monitoring within the UK, we have also developed drone-based aerial bathymetry surveying, enabling the remote measurement of near-shore depths and coastal topography covering large areas, at a lower cost than alternative survey techniques. This technology has been supported by our JBA Labs innovation accelerator programme.
Remote sensing and land-cover monitoring
JBA’s Spectral Analysis Tool, JSat is a new technology providing early warning of changes to land cover, enabling our clients to take mitigating and anticipatory action. Developed in partnership with Affinity Water and supported by JBA Labs, the system uses a series of proprietary innovations to detect changes in land use through a machine learning-enabled analysis of satellite images, allowing users to proactively manage emerging groundwater pollution risks.
JSat is highly versatile and can be applied to any scenario requiring the rapid detection of land surface changes – including consistent, automated monitoring of risks to critical infrastructure. It is currently transforming water companies’ monitoring of groundwater assets. This dramatically reduces the risk of pollution incidents while saving costs, resources and reducing carbon emissions through better and more proactive prioritisation of site inspections.
Remote sensing and flood forecasting
Flood Foresight is a globally scalable operational system providing data on rainfall severity, flood inundation footprints and depths, and flood impacts for use in early warning, humanitarian anticipatory action and parametric insurance purposes. When we first deploy Flood Foresight in a new country anywhere in the world, our team compares the outputs of our modelled flood inundation mapping with satellite observations of flooding from historic events. Readily available and consistent remote sensing data allows us to check and refine our models for validation purposes, providing an independent source of data at a scale that covers very large river catchments and flood events.
Remote sensing data is a cost-effective, scale-efficient way of assessing historic flood events in territories where alternative sources of data may not be available, accessible or exist.
Contact John Bevington to find out more about how our remote sensing technologies are supporting our clients in reducing costs and realising carbon savings.
