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How UN-SPIDER supports disaster management

By the UN-SPIDER team

The United Nations Platform for Space-based Information for Disaster Management and Emergency Response (UN-SPIDER), which is a program of the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), is a major contributor to GEO Tasks on disasters and capacity building.

Most recently, UN-SPIDER has helped to engage GEO in the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) of the United Nations. In particular, at the recent Second Session of the Global Platform, UN-SPIDER launched the SPIDER Global Thematic Partnership on the use of space-based information for disaster-risk reduction and emergency response. UN-SPIDER is also actively promoting Spring Schools for training people in the use of Earth observations for disaster management.

ISDR, the Hyogo Framework and the Global Platform

The use of remotely sensed Earth observations for managing natural disasters and saving lives is the core business of UN-SPIDER. As ISDR and the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED) of the Université catholique de Louvain in Brussels recently reiterated, the number of disasters, and the corresponding economic losses, has been increasing steadily in recent years.

As stressed by ISDR and other agencies, hard-won gains from development are often being wiped out by these disasters in developing countries. According to the recent UN publication “2009 Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction - Risk and Poverty in a Changing Climate”, such an increase can be related to the growing exposure of people and assets to hazards through processes such as rapid economic and urban growth.

Efforts to reduce the impacts of disasters worldwide are now being conducted under the umbrella of the Hyogo Framework for Action. The Framework was endorsed by 168 member states of the United Nations at the World Conference on Disaster Reduction, held in Kobe, Japan, in January 2005. It commits all countries to make major efforts to reduce their disaster-related risk by the year 2015, with the support of regional and international organizations.

As vehicles to achieve the targets established in the five Key Priority Areas of the Hyogo Framework, ISDR has promoted the establishment of a network of platforms spanning national, regional, and global levels, as well as thematic platforms or partnerships. The Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction is the main global forum for governments, United Nations agencies, international and regional bodies, civil society, the private sector, the scientific, and academic communities and the thematic platforms for raising awareness and reiterate commitments, to share experiences, address gaps, and to provide strategic guidance and coherence for implementing the Hyogo Framework.

Space-based information and disasters

During the Second Session of the Global Platform for Disaster Reduction held in Geneva, Switzerland, on 16 – 19 June 2009, UN-SPIDER and the GEO Secretariat joined forces with the Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), the Asian Disaster Reduction Center (ADRC), and the German Aerospace Center (DLR) to conduct a special event entitled “Accessing space-based information to support disaster risk reduction”.

Through a series of presentations by these partners, the audience learned how space-based observations can minimize the likelihood of hazards turning into disasters that destroy human life and property. Such information has proven its value in the case of warnings related to tropical storms, cyclones, floods, and droughts.

In addition, space-based information is allowing practitioners to map and monitor seismic hazards, forest fires, desertification and land degradation, and climate change. Furthermore, such information is being used to map the impacts of disasters, particularly through images displaying before-and-after disaster comparisons. The humanitarian community uses such products to assess impacts and to support operations during the response and recovery phases.
UN-SPIDER used the event to reach out to representatives of national and regional platforms, as well as representatives from the NGO community, to promote its knowledge portal; to explain its global outreach, technical advisory support, and training activities; and to bridge the gap between the space, disaster, and humanitarian communities.

The special event also provided the setting for UN-SPIDER to launch the SPIDER Global Thematic Partnership as a vehicle for promoting synergies among space agencies and the disaster-risk management community. Participants raised questions concerning how to access space-based information and commented on their expectations concerning the use of such information for disaster-risk reduction.

In addition, the event allowed participants to become aware of efforts conducted by a variety of agencies concerning the use of Earth observations for disaster-risk reduction. It also allowed representatives of these agencies to establish direct contact with participants who manifested their interest in this issue.

Spring schools

The GEO Secretariat took the opportunity to present its global and regional initiatives on disaster-risk reduction, to promote the development of a GEO Disasters Community of Practice to support ISDR in the implementation of the Hyogo Framework for Action, and to support the Spring Schools on Disaster Management, which are conducted by the Regional Center for Space Science and Technology Education in Latin America and the Caribbean (CRECTEALC), with the support of UN-SPIDER and other GEO partners.

The first Spring School addressing “Space-based Solutions for Disaster Management and Emergency Response in case of Floods” was conducted on the Brazilian campus of CRECTEALC in Santa Maria on 8–12 September 2008. It brought together 35 participants from 11 Latin American countries. The next Spring School will be held in Argentina on 26–30 October 2009 and will target drought and desertification.

These efforts manifest the contribution that UN-SPIDER can make towards advancing the use of Earth observations, including those derived from space applications, for disaster-risk reduction and emergency response. These efforts will further support national platforms for disaster risk reduction as they seek to build the resilience of nations and communities to disasters.

Back to GEO News issue #4

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