Humanitarian action has rapidly adopted Earth observation (EO) and geospatial technologies shaping them according to their needs. Protracted crises and large-scale population displacements require up-to-date information in many facets of humanitarian action support, from mission planning, resource deployment and monitoring, to nutrition and vaccination campaigns, camp plotting, damage assessment, etc. Even though nearly all assets of remote sensing apply in such demanding scenarios, it remains a challenge to fully implement and sustain a trustful and reliable information service. This paper discusses achievements and open issues in the use and uptake of EO technology, from a technical and organisational point of view, motivated by an information service for Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and its extension to other NGO's information needs in the humanitarian sector. With a focus on EO-based population estimation based on (semi-)automated dwelling counting from very high-resolution optical satellite imagery as well as the exploitation of data integration (including radar sensors), the paper also covers potential service elements with respect to environmental and ground-or surface water monitoring. It investigates workflow elements in relation to information extraction and delivery by illustrating a broad range of application scenarios, and discusses first operational solutions of a customized service portfolio.

Disasters such as the earthquakes that struck Nepal in spring 2015 not only cause direct impacts of death and injuries to people, but also have long-term effects such as the destruction of vital infrastructure. To support the restoration of such infrastructure, remotesensing applications can be helpful due to their potential to be complementary to in-situ data. In this study, GIS analyses are applied to Earth observation (EO) data in order to support the rehabilitation of water supply infrastructure planned by the Earthquake Recovery Operation of the Nepal Red Cross Society in the area of Lapilang, Nepal. Various aspects that are important for effective and sustainable planning are examined: (1) provision of accurate elevation information with a spatial resolution of 2m to support the planning of water supply systems; (2) mapping the distribution of buildings as a proxy for population distribution in order to facilitate a spatially explicit estimate of water demand;(3) identifying potential locations for community water taps that fulfil national standards; (4) the assessment of landcover / land use in watershed areas to estimate meliorating effects and potential contamination risks. The mapped results of the analysis are not only essential for onsite field work, but can also facilitate informed decision-making processes for both short-and long-term planning of water supply systems in the area.

In urban humanitarian-aid operations, safe treatment of fecal sludge is highly important. While currently field-deployable fecal-sludge treatment plants are being developed, field-ready analytical equipment for process-control and public health monitoring is missing. Within the Microbial Sludge Quality project, a field laboratory was developed. A minimum set of parameters for the considered processes was developed through literature research. The analytical methods were tested on their field applicability and, if necessary, modified. The following methods were modified for field use: bacteriological analysis (sample homogenization and counting), chemical oxygen demand (sample digestion), volatile fatty acid–alkalinity titration (redesigned test setup), total solids (redesigned test setup), and ammonia determination (redesigned test setup). For bacteriological analysis, chemical oxygen demand, and total solids the modifications lead to highly comparable analytical results. The results obtained by the field methodology for volatile fatty acid–alkalinity titration and ammonia determination were sufficient for field-process monitoring; however, they did not correlate as well. To enable rapid startup of the laboratory during humanitarian-aid missions, it was developed to include analytical and support equipment. The usage of the developed laboratory should allow close-in-time process monitoring and public-health assessments of fecal-sludge treatment plants.