The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency is providing geospatial data and products in support of the U.S. government’s humanitarian assistance operations in Mozambique, following the devastation of Cyclone Idai, NGA announced April 4.
NGA data is being used by the United States Agency for International Development’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance and multiple non-governmental organizations that require shareable, unrestricted products to provide food, shelter and housing in on-going relief efforts.
The NGA public-facing website hosts a variety of publicly releasable imagery and information that assists relief logistics and planning efforts to include water inundation, mapping data, population distribution and commercial imagery. This data can be accessed by the U.S. government, NGOs and the general public via online and mobile applications.
In addition to providing geospatial assistance to the civilian community, NGA analysts are providing critical unclassified information to the U.S. military, specifically, United States Africa Command and Combined Joint Task Force Horn of Africa, enabling first responders on the ground to deliver supplies to effected individuals.
“We have personnel collocated with AFRICOM and CJTF-HOA who are able to reach back to NGA colleagues at our Springfield and St Louis locations and provide geospatial support to the relief efforts in Mozambique,” said Jean Donohue, deputy director of NGA’s support team to AFRICOM. “One of the products we have provided to CJTF-HOA is road trafficability assessment, which helps folks on the ground assess how to get supplies to affected populations as quickly as possible.”
We are actively supporting our partners across the government, and will continue to do so as humanitarian assistance and disaster relief efforts progress, said Donohue.
Source: NGA
By Michael Blinde
April 5, 2019
