Video: SERVIR Connecting Space to Village

This video provides a four-minute introduction to SERVIR. A joint development initiative of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), SERVIR works in partnership with leading regional organizations world-wide to help developing countries use information provided by Earth observing satellites and geospatial technologies for managing climate risks and land use. 

You can also watch the video in French, Portuguese, or Spanish. 

SERVIR Connecting Space to Village (4 minute) video transcript

It's about people. And it's about our planet. And SERVIR really tries to connect space to village by bringing space-based information to really meet the needs that people have around the world

Southeast Asia is one of the most disaster prone regions in the world.

And in Africa you’re finding countries are now experiencing drought and famine.

Every day we have to issue a flood warning.

What's happening with climate change? 

What’s happening with glaciers and our water supply? 

How do you link satellite images and data to environmental challenges?

Floods, fires, the state of forest and land cover in the region…

We’re not just providing a supply of tools and technologies. We're actually sending the demand. What are the kind of decisions that people need to be making that will affect the people in their country? 

SERVIR really wanted to take advantage of NASA's constellation of satellites to address the many issues that they had in the region. We use that unique vantage point of space to better understand and protect our home planet. 

To understand SERVIR is to really understand all of the collaborations and partnerships that make those connections. 

Before the Jason-2 came into operation our modeling computation was entirely based on the surface measurement.

The success in this project is connecting satellite altimetry data to the Flood Forecasting and Warning Center and Institute of Water Modeling in Bangladesh. What this has done effectively is taken a three to five day warning and expanded it to an 8-day warning. And the idea is that it will give people an extra three days to travel out of harm's way if a flood is coming. 

We work in five regions, in 45 countries. We’ve partnered with more than 150 different institutions. We have to think about the whole chain from information to action. To collect the right data, to analyze it in ways that answer specific questions, to create tools that people can use easily, and then to help them with the uptake of those tools. 

I actually feel very passionate about what we have put out for people to use. It feels great to be part of the solution.

That marriage between science and technology that brings NASA together with USAID, with our hubs from around the world, with the ultimate goal to serve society.