"We’ll Have to Let Clova Burn!": The Power Dynamics of Continuous Satellite Surveillance in Climate Disasters
- Paper ID
103221
- DOI
- author
- company
University of Toronto
- country
Canada
- year
2025
- abstract
The launch and use of large constellations of Earth-observing satellites has ushered in an era of near-continuous, high-resolution monitoring of climate disaster events. While this unprecedented level of global and localized surveillance has revolutionized disaster response and risk assessment, it has also reshaped the power dynamics of crisis decision-making, raising concerns about who controls satellite intelligence and how that data influences on-the-ground response efforts. This paper examines the role of satellite observations in wildfire governance, using the 2023 Clova, Quebec wildfire as a case study to illustrate the tension between state-managed emergency response, access to satellite intelligence, and local citizens. In early June 2023, Clova was declared abandoned by state authorities, citing a lack of resources and prioritization of other infrastructure. This left citizens to organize themselves to save their homes. Beyond operational efficiency, the politics of wildfire intelligence dictate what gets saved and who makes those decisions. The infrastructures prioritized by state agencies, such as SOPFEU and emergency response services, may not align with those that communities or Indigenous groups seek to protect. For many Indigenous communities, land attachment is deeply tied to cultural and ecological stewardship, presenting a vastly different framework for evaluating what constitutes critical infrastructure. Similarly, private landowners, local businesses, and small municipalities may have different conceptions of what is worth preserving in a disaster. These competing priorities raise fundamental questions: Who decides what is worth saving? How does access to wildfire intelligence privilege certain actors over others? This paper analyzes the role of state-sponsored satellites versus non-profit initiatives in shaping real-time crisis assessments, as well as the increasing presence of commercial satellite imagery from private-sector entities that provide alternative fire intelligence to governments, insurers, and corporations. While satellite surveillance enhances situational awareness, it also introduces new hierarchies of decision-making, where data access determines whose losses are mitigated and whose are deemed acceptable. By situating wildfire intelligence within the broader discourse of ubiquitous Earth Observation, this paper argues that Satellite surveillance is not neutral; it is a tool of power, shaping responses, resource allocation, and ultimately, whose landscapes and infrastructures are allowed to persist. In an age where fire knows no borders, neither does the data that tracks it -- raising urgent questions about how we balance transparency, sovereignty, and equity in the era of planetary-scale monitoring.