Monitoring the Syrian humanitarian crisis with the JRC's global human settlement layer and night-time satellite

The JRC's Global Human Settlement Layer (GHSL) and the derived population data were integrated with night-time satellite imagery to assess the humanitarian impact of the Syrian conflict. The results demonstrate that the methodology allows estimating in a timely and consistent manner the number of affected people during crisis using satellite-derived indicators. Estimates of affected people that match with the official figures including registered refugees and IDPs were obtained with this method. The approach has a potential in estimating in an objective and timely way the impacts of humanitarian crisis. Prospective studies can make use of the temporal and spatial advantages of open-access geospatial data (night-time satellite imagery and GHSL derived products) in the field of disaster risk management to investigate the role of social dynamics over space and time in the occurrences of disasters and provide evidence-based knowledge to support disaster risk reduction plans and actions