ESA title

Big data applications to boost preparedness and response to migration

  • ESA-STAR REFERENCE AO8644
  • Activity Feasibility Study
  • Closing date 20-01-2017

Europe is being confronted with the most significant influxes of migrants and refugees in its history.

One burning issue is the lack of timely information on migration trends, flows and rates. Such information gap could be bridged through an holistic approach based on the collection, analysis and integration of any relevant direct and indirect indicators of migration flows. 

In this context, big data processing applications have been widely recognised as a potentially very powerful tool. The utilisation of big data in support to identifying migration trends is a topic of rapidly increasing interest. Their exploitation in the human migration domain depends on a number of technical and non-technical factors.

The objective of the feasibility study is to carry out an analysis of the technical feasibility and commercial viability of big data processing applications in combination with space-based services in order to support the identification of migration flows, and to propose a roadmap for their implementation.