ORIENT project supports Chinese earthquake aid work
Sino-European academic data link used for vital analysis of destruction in Sichuan earthquake zone
Monday 14 July 2008, Cambridge, UK: The ORIENT project's high capacity data communication route, linking the research and education networks of China and Europe, has been identified by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) as a key tool in both analysis and reconstruction work following the major Chinese earthquake in Sichuan in May 2008. The high bandwidth Internet link is being used to transport the JRC's high-resolution satellite images of the areas devastated by the earthquake from the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) in Italy, directly to those leading relief work in China. The images are used to identify the extent of the earthquake’s impact and to aid post-disaster reconstruction.
Jointly funded by Europe and China, the ORIENT project provides a high-speed connection between the pan-European research network GÉANT2 and Chinese research and education networks, CERNET and CSTnet. Connectivity with the JRC is provided by the Italian academic network, GARR.
High resolution images and data from unexplored areas of destruction in Sichuan were needed by the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology, who requested the JRC's assistance in a bid to determine the severity of damage to towns and cities, and to help protect the area from further risk when rebuilding begins. The JRC is working alongside researchers from the Centre for Earth Observation and Digital Earth (Chinese Academy of Sciences), the ORIENT circuit facilitating the high speed transportation of satellite imagery data between Italy and China.
The project is also enabling the JRC to help improve the existing practices of the European Commission, World Bank and United Nations by developing toolkits for aid workers from these organisations for use in future reconstruction of areas affected by natural disasters.
Dai Davies, General Manager, of DANTE, the organisation that operates the GÉANT2 network said: “The use of ORIENT in the Sichuan province is testament to how technology is fast becoming a vital catalyst for scientific research in tackling the most serious global issues. The Sichuan earthquake recovery project is using ORIENT to help international collaboration. It is an example of how international knowledge can be pooled together to create a virtual community that can provide assistance to regions affected by global disasters.”
Viviane Reding, EU Commissioner for Information Society and Media, commented: “Modern communication networks such as ORIENT are essential for an effective and speedy collaboration between the European Commission's researchers and local government in the wake of the Sichuan earthquake in China. In such a situation of natural and human disaster, we cannot afford to rely on conventional means of communication, such as fax and post but need modern tools for carrying out a proper analysis within short deadlines. ORIENT provides the bandwidth to transport high detail images, thereby making an important contribution to speeding up the reconstruction of infrastructure and to saving human lives.”
For further information please contact:
Chris Measures/Clodagh Boyle
Rainier PR (on behalf of DANTE)
+44(0)20 7494 6570
dante@rainierpr.co.uk
Helen Martindale
DANTE
Direct: +44 (0)1223 371 328
Mobile: +44 (0)7823 538090
helen.martindale@dante.org.uk
