OpenIR [Open Infrared] : enhancing environmental monitoring through accessible remote sensing, in Indonesia and beyond

Abstract

As the human landscape changes ever more rapidly, environmental change accelerates. Much environmental information is publicly available as infrared satellite data. However, for the general user, this information is difficult to obtain, and even more difficult to interpret. With this in mind, my team and I launched OpenIR (Open Infrared), an ICT (Information Communication Technology) that provides geo-located IR (infrared) satellite data as ondemand map layers, automates environmental feature classification, experiments with flood risk mapping, and interfaces IR data with crowd- and citizen-maps. OpenIR's initial use case is emergency management and environmental monitoring in the economically developing and ecologically vulnerable archipelago of Indonesia, where we conduced initial usability tests in January 2013.