ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the financial requirements and considerations necessary to acquire high-resolution commercial satellite imagery. High-resolution commercial satellite imagery (CSI) can offer significant advantages to United Nations (UN) peacekeeping missions and other aid organizations operating in regions where timely geographic information is required. For example, CSI can be used to assess threats to forces or other personnel, gather information on refugee movement, airport conditions, road conditions, and verify or discount damage re-ports or other claims made by eyewitnesses or governments. Peace operations could benefit greatly from more extensive use of geographic information systems (GIS) technology, which quickly integrates operational information with electronic maps of the mission area, for applications as diverse as demobilization, civilian policing, voter registration, human rights monitoring, and reconstruction. The chapter describes commercial high-resolution satellite imagery is an effective source of information for UN peacekeeping and other aid organizations.
