AI challenge advances satellite-based disaster mapping

Four teams from different countries have been recognised for their breakthrough work in using artificial intelligence to detect earthquake damage from space, marking the conclusion of a global competition organised by the European Space Agency in collaboration with the International Charter ‘Space and Major Disasters’ – commonly referred to as ‘the Charter’.

The winning teams – TelePIX from the Republic of Korea, Datalayer from Belgium, DisasterM3 from Japan and Thales Services Numériques from France – were honoured recently during a ceremony held at the Charter’s 54th Board Meeting in Strasbourg, as France’s French Space Agency, CNES, took leadership of the Charter for the next six months.

Combining the Charter’s operational experience with ESA Φ-lab’s drive for innovation, the ‘AI for Earthquake Response Challenge’, which is part of the ESA Φ-lab Challenges initiative, brought together 143 participants from 40 countries to explore how far artificial intelligence can go in automating post-disaster damage detection from space.

Read the full article on www.esa.int.