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A data studio package built to provide building blocks for the integration of remote sensing and geospatial methods to human rights analyses and response mechanisms. Satellite imagery integration can streamline conflict monitoring, infrastructure assessment of conflict-related destruction, and climate risk analysis that addresses environmental degradation due to conflict and multi-hazard risks that displaced populations face. Designed for NGOs, human rights documentation groups, early warning analysts, and research teams.
This report identifies the hazards that refugees and forcibly displaced people face in refugee camps and informal settlements, acknowledging the compounded environmental, social, and legal factors that exacerbate vulnerability. The brief finds that 93% of sites mapped where forcibly displaced people live are exposed to at least two hazards, illustrating the importance of multi-hazard early warning systems for displaced populations. The report uses modeling of flood, forest fire, tropical cyclone wind, and heat stress risk to identify IDP and refugee population exposure to hazards.
This investigative report by Bellingcat demonstrates the use of satellite imagery to geolocate and verify human rights violations such as mass killings during political conflict.
The Yale School of Public Health's Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL), similar to Bellingcat's investigation, uses high resolution satellite imagery & verification to assess to high confidence widespread and systematic mass killings perpetrated by the RSF in El-Fasher, North Darfur in October and November 2025.
CLIFDEW-GRID is an early warning dashboard piloted by UNHCR, University of California Irvine, and the Complex Risk Analysis Fund (CRAF’d). It is currently being piloted for Western and Eastern Africa. It presents gridded risk analysis that integrates climate variables such as high temperature days, heavy precipitation, and accumulated drought, as well as conflict data for a certain area. Overlaying risk mapping with current formal and informal refugee settlements allows for current and future risk analysis as well as advanced siting considerations.
ACAPS provides conflict- and climate-related risk assessment and granular country analysis on an interactive risk dashboard. They also compile reporting from global humanitarian organizations such as JRC/Echo Flash, OCHA, and local NGO releases to provide country-specific context. ACAPS data/API is also freely available with registration.
Sentinel-2 is a European mission that provides multiple optical bands at varying resolutions. Its twin satellite design provides a high revisit time of 5 days. Sentinel-2 data is provided free of charge to the public and can be downloaded through NASA’s Earthdata access portal or other satellite data repositories, such as Google Earth Engine. Sentinel-2 imagery is available at 10m resolution (bands 1-4), 20m resolution (bands 4-8A, 11-12), and 60m resolution (bands 9-10).
Define an AOI by drawing a polygon, selecting a point, or by uploading a .kmz/.kml file.
Filter by time of day and intended date for imagery acquisition (Hint: the best time to obtain satellite data is between 10:30AM and 12:00 PM local time!)
Browse imagery and download suitable products.
Sentinel-1 is a European mission that consists of 3 satellites, Sentinel-1A, -1B, and -1C. Sentinel-1 imagery is generated from a C-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) instrument that penetrates clouds and provides day-and-night coverage.
Define an AOI by drawing a polygon, selecting a point, or by uploading a .kmz/.kml file.
Filter by time of day and intended date for imagery acquisition (Hint: the best time to obtain satellite data is between 10:30AM and 12:00 PM local time!)
Browse imagery and download suitable products.
Planet makes available select imagery for major disaster events, including major earthquakes, floods, storms, wildfires, and human-made disasters. Individuals and groups affiliated with NGOs, government authorities, and international organizations assisting with response efforts are eligible for access. To request access and see if you qualify, one can fill out the form and Planet’s Crisis Response Program will be in touch as soon as possible.
Fill out the form provided through the link, describing your organization and the use of requested data, and Planet will be in touch.
Maxar provides very high resolution (VHR) satellite imagery of sites before and after disaster to assist in humanitarian response, primarily from the Worldview-1, -2, and -3 satellites. Following a disaster, Maxar releases imagery packages of before and after the event under a Creative Commons 4.0 license, allowing for rapid humanitarian and community response efforts. This program only makes imagery for certain disasters available; coverage is limited.
Navigate to Maxar’s Open Data Program page using the left sidebar in the map portal. Open Data events will be listed by year; often with new releases highlighted. You must register for a Maxar Geospatial Program (MGP) account before you can access and download images.
Copernicus DEM is a Digital Surface Model (DSM) which represents the surface of the Earth including buildings, infrastructure and vegetation. DEM/DSM data can be helpful for analyzing changes in built environment and development, including formal and informal settlements. It can also be useful for determining climate and disaster risk due to topography in and around settlements.
Define an AOI through the link provided. Advanced download settings such as file format and raster visualization may be available.
Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED) provides global conflict data and forecasting. Conflict is separated into five categories: repression, insurgency, atrocities, terrorism, and foreign military engagement. Conflict data proves useful for mapping and analyzing human rights crises and their impacts.
ACLED’s Data Export is tiered according to research and institutional affiliations. Register or login with your institutional email to ensure you are granted appropriate data access privileges. Once you are registered, you can filter event data by date/time, geographic location, and conflict categories, among other qualifiers. Data is available as .csv and other tabular formats.
Developed and endorsed by the Inter-agency Standing Committee (IASC), and disseminated by OCHA, Common operational data sets (CODs) are datasets used in humanitarian emergencies to support technical standards, improve the quality of data, and strengthen interoperability. OCHA identifies, publishes and maintains CODs for use in humanitarian emergencies on the Humanitarian Data Exchange (HDX).
Core CODs are administrative boundaries and population statistics. OCHA aims to make these available for all its operational countries Other CODs (e.g., roads, hospitals, schools, hydrology, etc.) are available on the Humanitarian Data Exchange (HDX).
CODs are reviewed and standardized reference datasets produced by global organizations like OCHA. They are maintained on HDX (Humanitarian Data Exchange). HDX’s COD page can be filtered by location, format, source organizations, and more advanced filters. HDX generally provides datasets in several different formats, along with detailed metadata. Datasets are freely available for download.
NASA VIIRS produces a daily, top-of-atmosphere nighttime irradiance product, which is helpful for identifying population clusters, development, and conflict/displacement. This can be done by tracking changes in nighttime light coverage before and after a significant conflict or displacement event.
Define an AOI by drawing a polygon, selecting a point, or by uploading a .kmz/.kml file.
Filter by time of day and intended date for imagery acquisition.
Browse imagery and download suitable products.
Climate Hazards Center Infrared Precipitation with Stations (CHIRPS) is a quasi-global rainfall dataset that relies on satellite-based thermal infrared precipitation totals as well as in-situ gauge stations across the globe. CHIRPS rainfall data can be helpful for analyzing rainfall totals and determining flood risks/impacts.
The Climate Hazards Center at UC Santa Barbara maintains a repository of indexed CHIRPS data. .tifs are available for Africa, Latin America, and Global coverage. .tif files can be processed in most GIS software and then clipped to an AOI.
The NASA SWOT mission provides sea surface height, wave height, and surface water height measurements globally. SWOT totals can be helpful for flooding measurements and response, as well as drought and settlement mapping as rivers and lakes change seasonally and with fluctuations in climate.
SWOT data is available as netCDF-4 format through NASA Earthdata Search. netCDF files can be converted to raster data for ease of analysis through GIS software. SWOT data, because of its swath pattern, is best filtered spatially by defining an AOI.
The Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals for GPM (IMERG) IMERG is a NASA product estimating global surface precipitation rates at a high resolution of 0.1° every half-hour beginning 2000. IMERG has three Runs with varying latencies in response to a range of application needs: rapid-response applications (Early Run, 4-h latency), same/next-day applications (Late Run, 14-h latency), and post-real-time research (Final Run, 3.5-month latency). Similar to other precipitation datasets, GPM IMERG data can be used to assess flood risk and hydrologic modeling, but its low temporal latency makes it particularly useful for humanitarian response.
GPM IMERG data is available as netCDF-4 format through NASA Earthdata Search. netCDF files can be converted to raster data for ease of analysis through GIS software, and clipped to an AOI.
The Global Human Settlement Layer (GHSL), maintained by the European Space Agency (ESA), includes a collection of datasets that show high resolution, gridded data on global built-up environment. GHSL helps analyze population density, built environment, and settlement distribution. The GHSL dataset collection includes gridded data, risk exposure mapping, building footprints, reference datasets, and Europe-specific collections.
Most GHSL datasets are available as a global download or by geographic tiles. No account is required. Downloads are processed as zipped .tif files.
This dataset provides the locations of active fires detected by NASA’s satellite instruments (VIIRS at ~375 m resolution and MODIS at ~1 km). Each detection includes timestamp, latitude/longitude, confidence level, and Fire Radiative Power (FRP, indicating intensity).
Tracking active fires around known formal or informal settlements can inform rapid response, where dense settlement zones and flammable materials can exacerbate fire spread. Also relevant for active conflicts or forest margins.
Visit FIRMS Active Fire Dashboard for maps and alerts related to active fires, as well access archived data.
Download FIRMS data through NASA Earthdata search; products are available as .shp (ESRI shapefile), .kml. or .txt file.
WorldPop provides gridded population estimates and related data for countries and administrative boundaries. Gridded population estimates, as well as population density estimates, are important for integrating population numbers into risk assessments and response frameworks.
Global mosaics are generally produced with a 1km resolution, while individual countries are provided with an 100m resolution.
WorldPop provides free and open data download through their website; data is also available through Humanitarian Data Exchange (HDX). Data is available as gridded .tif files which can be processed and clipped to an area of interest in GIS software.
Humanitarian OpenStreetMap provides crowdsourced collections of geographic data, from both in-situ and remote data collection. HOT data is used for humanitarian response, infrastructure planning, and understanding access constraints during conflict.
HOT datasets generally provide country-wide infrastructure data, including roadways, railways, ports, health facilities, and hydrologic systems. Such infrastructure is important for developing rapid response frameworks, analyzing conflict, and planning/locating formal and informal settlements.
HOT data is best accessed through HDX or through HOT's data export tool.
Datasets can be filtered by location, infrastructure type, or conflict-specific filters. Data is available as .shp (ESRI shapefile), .json, or .csv / tabular data.
Audience: Humanitarian analysts, rapid response teams, human rights researchers
Deploy time: <1 day
Prerequisites: Basic familiarity with GIS software, GIS software and internet connection
Data & Tools: ACLED conflict data, OCHA CODs, administrative layers, settlement and population layers.
Instructions:
This approach is designed to create a shared understanding of the spatial implications of conflict, population, and infrastructure. Vector layers can be integrated with satellite imagery to add context to emergent humanitarian situations.
Audience: Displacement monitoring teams, human rights investigators
Deploy Time:
Prerequisites: GIS software, basic remote sensing knowledge (i.e., band combinations, coherence)
Data & Tools: Sentinel-1 and -2 imagery, VHR imagery (if available/accessible), GHSL building footprints, VIIRS nighttime lights.
Instructions:
This workflow can identify and classify the emergence or expansion of informal and formal settlements, including IDF and refugee camps.
Validation: Compare SAR, optical digitization, and VHR imagery (if the latter is available and accessible) to verify detected changes. Integrate secondary reporting, in-situ data, and citizen observation when available.
Audience: Human rights investigative teams, post-facto legal or protection teams, NGOs, researchers
Deploy Time: 1-5 days; more time depending on imagery availability
Prerequisites: GIS and remote sensing software, remote sensing experience, evidentiary standards and documentation protocols
Data & Tools: Sentinel-1 and -2 imagery, VHR imagery when available, LULC layers/maps of AOI, ACLED conflict datasets, open source/secondary evidence (i.e., online videos and photos, social media posts)
Instructions:
Validation: Validate findings with VHR and in-situ reporting when available/accessible.
Risks & Considerations: Satellite imagery cannot alone determine intent or perpetrators. Contextual knowledge and verification is essential. High resolution imagery is extremely helpful to validate findings.
Audience: Early warning NGOs and researchers, humanitarian response planners, urban planning teams, large coordination bodies
Deploy time: 1-5 days
Prerequisites: GIS software, raster data processing
Data & Tools: Satellite imagery, digitized settlement locations or point data, , CODs, ACLED/ CLIFDEW-GRID conflict early warning, Worldpop population density estimates, CHIRPS global rainfall estimates, GPM IMERG, SWOT, FIRMS active & historical fire data, DEM/DSM, GHSL built layers
Instructions:
Using real-time and/or historical climate data, current and potential settlement sites can be assessed for climate and multi-hazard risk, informing settlement and aid response, infrastructure development, and disaster planning for displaced communities.
Risks & Considerations: Risk maps are decision-support tools and are not prescriptive; siting decisions and aid delivery must account for land tenure, social and political dynamics, and transitional justice.
