Landsats Aff

Refugees – Solvency – Co-op

GIS key to cooperative disaster management
Andronache et al 6(Constantin PHD @ GIT, Rudolph Hon PHD @ MIT, Barbara Mento Prof. @ Notre Dame, Rani Dalgin Research Associate GIS, proceedings.esri.com/library/userconf/proc06/papers/papers/pap_2320.pdf, DA 7/6/11, OST)

Some solutions that emerge from Katrina ease or storms with comparable effects in New Orleans area are: a) upgrade levees and drainage to withstand Category' 4 and 5 hurricanes; b) design flood protection based on rates of local subsidence, rainfall, and sea-level rise; c) minimize drain and fill activities that enhance local subsidence; d) improve evacuation routes; e) protect and restore coastal defenses. Part of the effort in current and future natural disaster management is to prepare reliable forecasts, and disseminate information to decision factors. GIS is already playing an important role in this process, and future work is needed to integrate data from various sources into GIS and increase our ability to solve multidisciplinary complex problems.

Refugees – Solvency – Aid

GIS key to numerous humanitarian aid organizations – No data means no assistance
Bjorgo 1 (Einar, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, 74.125.155.132/scholar?q=cache:HF5pLHdthbEJ:scholar.google.com/+hurricanes+landsats+refugees+einar&hl=en&as_sdt=0,48, DA 7/6/11, OST)

United Nations (UN) humanitarian organizations, as listed by the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), include the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), World Food Programme (WFP), UN Development Programme (UNDP), UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), World Health Organization (WHO), UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR), and UN Population Fund (UNFPA) , as well as OCHA itself. These organizations are all in need of relevant geographic information to better prepare for and respond to natural and man-made disasters. By organizing collected information in a geographic information system (GIS), UN humanitarian organizations can more effectively analyze situations and co-ordinate relief efforts. It is in this context that satellite images have a contributing role. The objective of this paper is to provide an up-to-date overview on the current and potential use of satellite imagery within the United Nations humanitarian organizations and their operations.

Refugees – IL – Prep key – Planning

Current norms for refugee flow are based on preparation and rely on organization
Ek & Karadawi 91 (Ragnhild, Snr Reintegration Consultant at UNHCR & Ahmed, jstor.org/stable/4313822, DA 7/8/11, OST)

Stales have set normative standards in order to depoliticize the presence of refugees. The Organization of African Unity (OAU) in particular, has designed norms on the treatment of refugees (2). The granting of asylum should be considered as a peaceful and humanitarian act (3). and the reception of refugees should not be considered as unfriendly or antagonistic acts. On the other hand, refugees should refrain from any act that might be interpreted as harmful or subversive (4). These norms were established on the assumption that while in exile, refugees often appear to develop their political awareness and engage in activities which aim to influence the situation in their countries of origin. They are either actively involved in the conflict that caused their exodus, or act as a broad constituency for political groupings challenging the territorial shape or the power structure of the state of origin. Hence, the conflict spills over to the host country as it is turned into a base for political activities, with or without the support of the host government, and as fighting continues cither among the original contending parties or as factionalism among the opposition groups.

Refugee – Impact – Instability

Disorganized refugee flows cause regional instability and can exacerbate war and famine
Ek & Karadawi 91 (Ragnhild, Snr Reintegration Consultant at UNHCR & Ahmed, jstor.org/stable/4313822, DA 7/8/11, OST)

The presence of refugees may entail economic and political effects on both the domestic and foreign policies of their host country. The refugees' presence also has the potential for regional instability, and to spill over into the broader framework of international relations. The aim of this paper is to discuss possible linkages between the presence of refugees and political instability at interstate and intrastate levels, and to examine the implications of refugee flows from Ethiopia on political developments in the Sudan. It will address the political effects of the refugee presence in the host country, particularly the potential spillover effects of the conflicts and the recent interaction between drought, famine and war with refugee flows which has further enhanced the perception of refugees as a threat to political stability in the Sudan. It's focus is on Eritrean and Ethiopian refugees 11) in the Eastern Sudan region, concentrating on the time of President JaafarNimicri's regime. 1969-1985.

***Genocide Advantage***

Genocide – Solvency – Prevention

Satellite data has been used to map out areas of genocides



LANDSAT MSS 4 (iwmidsp.org/dsp2/rs-gis-data/National/Cambodia/01-Landsat-MSS-220m-mosaaics/ReadMe/readme-first.pdf, 8/5, DA 7/4/11, OST)

This folder contains two additional folders of JPEG image products created in ArcGIS using the enclosed GIS files and image mosaics. The /GSP/final_cambodia_products/ folder contains JPEG images of Cambodia, western Cambodia, and south-central Cambodia and the burial grounds, prisons, and memorials from the genocide time period. These image products contain legends for easy identification of map items. The /GSP/products_no_legends/ folder contains similar images without legends. These files may be more useful for backgrounds or other projects where images, rather than maps, are required. /key_GIS_files_cambodia/ This folder contains a subset of the available GIS data related to the Cambodian genocide. The GIS files in this folder are the files used to create the image products in the /Cambodia_products/ folder. The files map prisons, memorials, burial grounds, rivers, roads, and the Cambodian country boundary.

Landsats help to document and prevent genocide
Enotes 8 (http://www.enotes.com/forensic-science/remote-sensing, 11/16, DA 7/4/11, OST)

Remote sensing is broadly defined as the act of obtaining images or data from a distance, typically using a manned spacecraft, a satellite, or a high-altitude spy aircraft. The term was invented in the 1950s to distinguish early satellite images from aerial photographs traditionally obtained from fixed wing aircraft. As such, remotely sensed images can be considered to be one kind of geospatial imagery. Although the application of unclassified remote sensing images to civil and criminal investigations has been limited, they have proven to be useful for documenting international atrocities in areas that are otherwise inaccessible to outside observers. Sufficiently detailed satellite imagery has been used to document international crimes such as possible genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan and the existence of concealed mass graves in Iraq. In Iraq, potential gravesites were identified with the help of satellite image and aerial photograph interpretation and then investigated in more detail using ground-penetrating radar and other methods. A total of 270 mass graves were reported, of which 53 had been confirmed by early 2004, with some 400,000 bodies discovered. Features such as mass graves are generally not directly visible. Instead, analysis reveals features such as otherwise inexplicable areas of freshly moved earth or signs of heavy construction equipment used to excavate the graves. Comparison of publicly available Landsat satellite images obtained in 2003 and 2004 was also used to document the burning of 44 of the villages in the Darfur region of Sudan during a period of civil strife, which some observers believe amounted to genocide. Burning was inferred in areas where the albedo, or amount of radiation reflected by the ground surface, had changed significantly during the times at which the two images were obtained. This was accomplished by using a computer algorithm to calculate albedo from the satellite data, then subtracting one albedo map from the other to calculate the change. This kind of mathematical operation on entire maps or digital images, as opposed to single numbers, is known as map algebra.

LandSats lead to global accountability which deters humanitarian abuses
Bachelet 11 (Michelle, Former president of Chile, globalsolutions.org/files/public/documentes/Minerva38.pdf, April, DA 7/4/11, OST)

Following up on Amnesty International’s “Eyes On Darfur” initiative, launched in 2007 and “generally credited for breaking ground” on use of satellite technology “to monitor, perhaps deter, humanitarian abuses” (Richard Solash, Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, 12 January 2011), the Satellite Sentinel Project — a collaboration between Google, the UN Operational Satellite Applications Programme (UNOSAT), the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, and various NGOs — was formed in hope of watchfully discouraging violence related to the January referendum in southern Sudan. Satellite imagery used to have “an almost exclusive, military connotation,” notes Patrick Meier, co-founder of the Crisis Mapping Project at the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative. “Now it’s demystified. I think what we’re seeing… is going from this kind of state-centric, proprietary, extremely expensive technology that then is classified and only limited to a few individuals to a more opensource, open-data, very public, non-state approach to employing and leveraging these technologies, in a way, for some of the same ends — to really monitor and do surveying and [derive] in some form or another some accountability.”