The Zukunftswerkstatt Erdbeobachtung (Future Workshop on Earth Observation) is scheduled for 4 and 5 November 2026 in Bonn, Germany. The German Space Agency at DLR is organizing the event, which will gather researchers, developers, companies, and users of Earth observation data to share ideas about future trends and uses. This year, the main topics include commercial satellite data, working together internationally, and how national satellite missions can help both research and practical work. HeiGIT will join the event with a presentation by Marcel Maurer, who will introduce the new SURE-PATH project. He will talk about how this project plans to make road network information and routing better for humanitarian logistics and disaster response.
Presentation: SURE-PATH-Adaptive Routing for Emergency Response and Logistics Planning in Crises
Speaker: Marcel Maurer, Alexander Zipf
How can emergency responders find safe and reliable routes when disasters like floods or earthquakes damage roads and make travel unpredictable?
SURE-PATH helps improve route planning and travel time estimates during crises by using satellite images, OpenStreetMap data, street-level photos, and field reports to assess road conditions. Instead of just marking roads as open or closed, the project also considers partial damage, slower speeds, and uncertain travel times with openrouteservice. By working with the World Food Programme-led Logistics Cluster and the German Red Cross, SURE-PATH supports humanitarian groups and emergency teams in making better decisions when roads are disrupted.