The Decentralized Damage Mapping Group (DDMG), founded by geography professor Jamon Van Den Hoek in OSU’s College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences, is receiving the 2025 Earth Observation Excellence Award from the European Space Agency, NASA’s European counterpart.
The mapping group is an international collective of academics and civil society workers that uses satellite analysis to document the humanitarian and environmental fallout from wars and natural hazard-induced disasters. Some of their most prominent work has centered on the wars in Ukraine and Gaza as well as the Los Angeles wildfires.
OSU postdoctoral scholar Corey Scher, doctoral student Zhanpei Fang and undergraduate student Amergin McDavid are also members of DDMG.
DDMG uses publicly available satellite imagery to build out the science, practice and partnerships needed for faster, more accessible observation-driven conflict damage assessments. The group’s findings have been used by journalists and policymakers to assess damage to agricultural land, forests, water infrastructure and solid waste management, among other types of damage.
The group has received wide media coverage, with their work featured in outlets including NPR, the New York Times and the Guardian. They’ve also published several peer-reviewed articles on their research.
“We’re so honored to receive this award,” Van Den Hoek said. “Since the beginning, we sought to complement the work of journalists, humanitarian actors and civil society organizations who all work to gauge the impacts of war and disasters. Whatever impact that DDMG has had couldn’t have been realized without these collaborations.”
The European Space Agency award ceremony will take place June 25 during the agency’s Living Planet Symposium in Vienna, Austria, where Van Den Hoek, Scher and other members of DDMG will accept the award in person. DDMG plans to use the award to host two hands-on workshops over the next year and to deepen collaborations across industry, government, academic and civil society groups.
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