At the request of the European Commission Delegation in China and in agreement with the Ministry of Science and Technology, the JRC Institute for the Protection and Security of the Citizen (IPSC) provided a scientific and technical support package to the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Centre of Earth Observation and Digital Earth (CAS/CEODE), in order to contribute to post Wen Chuan earthquake disaster measures, such as damage assessment for reconstruction planning and future disaster risk reduction initiatives.

The S&T support package comprised two components:

• Acquisition of high and very high resolution optical and radar pre- and post-disaster satellite data for ten locations identified by the China Academy of Sciences.
• Assistance of a JRC-IPSC team comprising 3 specialists in post-disaster damage assessment for reconstruction needs and mapping, human settlements recognition and analysis, large-scale/project mapping, automatic image processing and analysis techniques for handling HR/VHR satellite data.

What is the Institute for the Protection and Security of the Citizen?

The mission of the Institute for the Protection and Security of the Citizen (IPSC) is to provide research results and to support EU policy-makers in their effort towards global security and towards protection of European citizens from accidents, deliberate attacks, fraud and illegal actions against EU policies.