Hot Topic: Sustainable World

IEEE has made sustainable world issues a top priority. Through its new Committee on Earth Observation (ICEO), IEEE is a member of the Group on Earth Observations, or GEO, an international coordination group that’s creating the Global Earth Observation System of Systems, or GEOSS. Dr. John Lyon, an IEEE member, is one of the experts involved in GEOSS.

A physical scientist by trade, Lyon, a former professor, specializes in the hazards and disasters spawned by climate change – and how we can use earth observation and remote sensing technology to cope with these and other adverse events while possibly saving lives. “Engineers are typically really interested in giving back,” Lyon says. “Lots of people are, and that’s why it’s a good world.”

But with climate change, one of the biggest problems is breaking the issue down for the local community. Helping people do things to assist their communities and the world is a way for IEEE to foster technological innovation for the benefit of humanity.

IEEE Engaging the World recently sat down with Lyon to discuss how IEEE is working to sustain the world.

IEEE: What is the difference between a hazard and a disaster?

Lyon: Hazards could happen, disasters have happened. But normally you group them together.

IEEE: So, say, the tsunami of December 2004, in the Indian Ocean, that was a disaster, but tsunamis in general are hazards that theoretically could be prevented?

Lyon: Not prevented, but handled better in the future. The 2004 tsunami was obviously tragic, but some good things came out of it, technologically speaking. People started to put data on Web sites quickly to show the world community the effects of the event. Before, they were interested in vending the data, but after the tsunami, what you saw was the monetary considerations thrown out the window. People were concerned with helping any way they could. Through this, the world community suddenly had a lot of information that could help address this particular kind of hazard, and maybe even create an early warning system.

IEEE: Where did the data come from?

Lyon: A lot came from remote sensing, out in space via satellites, and monitoring in the ocean. The Internet allowed everyone to share this information. People could rapidly determine the impact, where it was, and use the data for planning emergency systems, cleaning up, and then rebuilding homes and businesses, and in general, people’s lives. That’s the big part of the whole thing, what I call "the international pot luck,” the whole world coming together with information to help people make informed decisions.

IEEE: Are there any remote-sensing and monitoring success stories, in terms of early warning systems?

Lyon: Certainly. Thanks to monitoring and remote sensing on the west coast of the United States, including Hawaii and Alaska, there is a tsunami early warning system that’s been in effect for the past 10 years. Education of the people inhabiting these coastal regions is across the board; even my mother in Oregon knows to go to high ground if the warning system goes off. That system is now being replicated in the Gulf of Mexico and on the east coast of the United States. The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami accelerated the development of the system, and showed the value of the system. With ocean monitoring, remote sensing and communications systems, NOAA was able to see that vertical wave action on the US West coast during that Indian Ocean tsunami was minor and about equal in height—10 centimeters—as it was on the US East coast. So a warning or alert was unnecessary, and the system worked so that evacuations there were avoided.

IEEE: Are those lessons being applied globally?

Lyon: Absolutely, and not just for tsunamis. The SERVIR (a Spanish acronym for the Mesoamerican Regional Visualization and Monitoring System) system based in Panama covers Mexico and Central America, and watches out for hurricanes, as well as for more daily concerns, such as bad air quality from fires. And SERVIR is being copied, albeit with lower-grade technology more in-line with available TV broadcast and Internet systems, in East Africa. Monitoring, remote sensing, and communication technologies make this all possible.

IEEE: What about problems with air quality?

Lyon: Air quality is a real problem in a lot of places. It can be influenced by particulate matter from forest fires and other sources. With satellite imagery and air monitoring, we can see how a fire in California can wreck the air quality in Las Vegas, or how one in northwestern Canada can cross borders and waft around and descend back to earth in Chicago or Baltimore. On its most elemental level, this technology allows us to warn people who are asthmatic, to postpone outdoor activities. It can warn my wife, who is ozone-sensitive to stay inside. It can warn people allergic to pollen to wait a few days to weed the garden. That’s how it can help people. Warning systems such as AIR Now and EnviroFlash allow people to use monitoring to make decisions about their daily lives.

IEEE: What else is IEEE doing to bring the benefits of sustainable-world technology to people?

Lyon: IEEE has invested staff and volunteer time, and money, and created ICEO. Under those auspices, they’ve been doing a lot of work on architecture and data management, how to deliver information fast on the Web. They are also working on technology and communications to bring “water to the world,” or how to apply knowledge, technology and communications to offer solutions to deliver more clean water to developing countries.

At IEEE, we want to be international leaders, and capitalize on the spirit of volunteerism. We have all sorts of people who are members and volunteers and staff, not just engineers, and they want to help, and they bring with them a lot of different skill sets, too, such as medical knowledge, or knowledge of resources and how to protect them.

IEEE: What is IEEE doing about the issue of clean water supply?

Lyon: Population growth, food production and delivery issues are altering classic patterns of water supply and demand. One way IEEE and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers are collaborating on the water issue is by exploring the nexus of energy and water. Another way is ICEO’s Water for the World, where we have studied the issues through conference calls; had two face-to-face meetings; a report on worldwide demand, supply and quality; and we’ve convened people to write actionable pilot projects that can be completed in a year to supply or clean up water, and we’re going to go out and fund these projects.

IEEE: Does IEEE’s involvement make it more likely philanthropies will get involved, too?

Lyon: IEEE has tremendous credibility. Recently, we met in Geneva at the GEO/World Meteorological Organization’s offices with groups trying to help. From this meeting, we have developed pilot-project ideas in Nicaragua; the Amazon; Kenya; India; Bangladesh; Alberta, Canada; Asia; and Sri Lanka. We’re now writing up the projects, and it’s been pretty exciting, going at a faster pace than most things do. It’s all about monitoring water for the world. We’re emphasizing the international approach to this using technology, communications, and capacity-building.

IEEE: Can you give us examples of specific projects that are benefiting humanity?

Lyon: One person is studying how to supply arsenic-free water, or water with low levels of arsenic, in Bangladesh. Another in Kenya is working on how to use surface and subsurface mapping capacity to pull data together that will increase the ability to drill successfully for water. In India, we can study how to use rainwater that usually is flooded away after monsoons. Or the effects of mining on water quality in the Amazon.

The important thing is that we can show that our sustainable-world solutions work, and are replicable. It’s a system of systems approach. Try it in this place and then use it somewhere else, make it bigger or smaller, and it will still be scalable and sustainable.

IEEE: Are your efforts redundant with those of various governments and multilateral institutions?

Lyon: No, not at all. This effort isn’t to replace aid-agency and development-type programs that everyone else has. This is to push things that could work together but haven’t been tried, and if we can get it to work, then to spin it off or clone it. GEO is building the project in actionable pieces and then, constructing it to whole in a collaborative, synergistic fashion, with many people bringing their own time and money—the “international pot luck” concept. What does a developing country bring? Scientists and engineers need data to study earth processes, and developing countries can supply these measurements, as well as make use of these pilot-project technologies to benefit developing countries. There are approximately 1.5 billion people who need better drinking water, and that provides a lot of opportunity to do good.