Acta Astronautica 66 (2010) 33--39 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Acta Astronautica journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/actaastro Space-enabled information environment for crisis management. Scenario-based analysis and evaluation in an operational environment Jakub Ryzenko a, ∗ , Marcin Smolarkiewicz b a PIAP, Poland b The Main School of Fire Service, Poland ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Article history: Received 5 December 2007 Accepted 31 March 2009 Available online 5 August 2009 Keywords: Crisis management Integrated applications Operational evaluation The paper presents analysis of usefulness of space applications in crisis management activities carried out on the national level. Analytical approach has been based upon de- velopment of realistic disaster scenarios and their evaluation with assumption of existence of space-related capabilities available to rescue forces. Building upon analysis's results, the experimental information environment has been developed and it successfully supported commanding of a large-scale crisis management field training. The results prove that many crisis management needs can be served with existing, commercially available products. The key to success lays in understanding operational needs; integration into common informa- tion environment; and standardisation of information exchange. © 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Space community holds strong belief that space appli- cations could be used more intensively for coordination of crisis management activities. At the same time emergency services' user have difficulties in understanding what ex- actly space can offer them and what are the limitations. To overcome these communication problems and to facilitate evaluation of actual benefits a special methodology has been developed. The research has been conducted within the frame- work of the Foresight project “Future of space technologies in Poland”, which aimed at identifying the most promis- ing space applications within a perspective of year 2020. ∗ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: Jakub.Ryzenko@onet.pl (J. Ryzenko), Marcin_Smolar@sgsp.edu.pl (M. Smolarkiewicz). 0094-5765/$ - see front matter © 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.actaastro.2009.03.088 It also builds upon experience from demonstration and evaluation organised as an element of the EU Astro+ project. 2. Scenario-based analysis The approach is based upon development of several sce- narios covering the most common large-scale natural and man-made threats. Each scenario is run twice—assuming conventional means and with assumption of extensive use of space technologies (navigation, observation and—when relevant—communication) representing the information environment enhancing situation awareness and command and control. Comparison of results allows evaluation of actual efficiency of employing space systems into crisis management operations. It should be emphasised that our experience is very en- couraging and we find such methodology efficient, both as an analytical tool and as an opportunity to bring together providers and users of space technologies. This approach can be used to investigate promising areas for applica- tion of space technologies in different types of disaster