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Decommissioning has been completed successfully

After 16 years orbiting Earth and taking pictures of its surface, ERS-2, the successor to ESA’s original European Remote-Sensing Satellite, was decommissioned and removed from its operational orbit on 5 July 2011.

This summer, the satellite ERS-2 took one last image over the Antilles Islands in the Caribbean before it shut down for ever.

ERS-2 was launched in 1995 with a mission to observe land, ocean, atmosphere and polar regions using its variety of remote-sensing instruments. The data collected from the satellite represented a major asset for the Earth observation community.

More information at “ESA”: http://earth.esa.int/object/index.cfm?fobjectid=7875

and

Space

Spaceref

Source GMES.Info

DUBAI — DubaiSat-1, the UAE-owned and operated earth observation satellite, has relayed a pan-shaped, multi-spectral image of the Mirny Mine in Russia, the largest open pit diamond mine in the world.

The legendary mine, founded in 1957, was captured by the satellite on the 13th of September 2011.

Located in Eastern Siberia, the Mirny Mine is 525 metres deep and has a diameter of 1,200 metres. It is also the first and largest diamond mine in the erstwhile Soviet Union. Helicopters are banned from flying over the mine as there have been incidents in which they were sucked in by the downward air flow.

Surface operations in Mirny Mine closed down in 2001 but underground recovery of diamond had started in 1999. Explorations estimate production to continue for another 25 years and the town has been developed around the city to support diamond excavation and export.

The high spatial resolution images relayed by DubaiSat-1 are a valuable resource in infrastructure planning and development. The satellite images complement existing Geographic Information System (GIS) databases and enable more efficient monitoring of environmental changes and natural hazards.

DubaiSat-1 was a joint project between the UAE and South Korea, developed with a major focus on knowledge transfer to the UAE team that participated in building the satellite. EIAST had launched DubaiSat-1 in July 2009, and since then the satellite has been transmitting images that are of great value in several areas.

EIAST is currently working on DubaiSat-2, a joint development programme with the Satrec Initiative of South Korea. Sixteen UAE engineers, currently stationed in South Korea, have been working on the design, development, testing and manufacturing of the satellite. The participation of UAE engineers in the project has increased by 100 per cent compared to DubaiSat-1 and it is hoped DubaiSat-2 will take EIAST to the next level in satellite development.

DubaiSat-2 will be launched on board a Dnepr Rocket through the Moscow-based International Space Company Kosmotras (ISCK) from Yasny Cosmodrome in Russia by the fourth quarter of 2012, as part of a clustered launch, in which DubaiSat-2 will be the primary satellite on board.

Source

The most powerful UK-built imaging spacecraft ever sent into orbit has been demonstrating its capability.

Its first pictures since being launched in August show Salt Lake City in the US – its airport and surrounding roads. picture

The satellite, built for the Nigerian space agency (NASRDA), can acquire images that resolve details on the ground that are just 2.5m across.

Called NigeriaSat-2, the platform will be used by the African nation to map its lands and plan urban development.

It will also assist the Disaster Monitoring Constellation.

This UK-managed fleet of spacecraft is used to picture regions of the Earth gripped by natural calamities.

These might be catastrophic floods or a big earthquake. Images sent down from space will often be critical to organising an effective emergency response.
NigeriaSat-2 NigeriaSat-2 will be used for land management and urban planning purposes

NigeriaSat-2 was part of a double deal that manufacturer Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL) did with the NASRDA (National Space Research and Development Agency).

The second part was to train Nigerian engineers, to help them construct their own Earth observation satellite. This platform, called NigeriaSat-X, was launched on the same Dnepr rocket that took NigeriaSat-2 into orbit a month and a half ago.

Although there are many satellites in operation today – especially with the US military – that can see much finer details than the UK spacecraft, it is the British technology’s capability-for-the-price that has put SSTL in a world-leading position.

The contract for both Nigerian spacecraft, without launch and insurance costs, was valued at £30m.

“I believe NigeriaSat-2 is the most powerful optical Earth observation satellite ever produced in Britain,” said Luis Gomes, the satellite’s project manager and the head of Earth observation at SSTL.

“In terms of resolution, capacity and its different modes of operation – I don’t think Britain has ever done anything better than this,” he told BBC News.

SSTL is now building three satellites for its Chinese customers that will be able to resolve details under a metre across.

Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk

PanGeo is a 3-year FP7 GMES Downstream Services Collaborative project that started 1st February 2011 with the objective of enabling free and open access to geohazard information in support of GMES. This will be achieved by providing an INSPIRE-compliant, free, online geohazard information service for the two largest towns in each EU country (Cyprus and Luxembourg only one) = 52 towns in total (~13% of EU population).

The PanGeo project

Geohazards in the built environment can be dangerous and costly, yet information about these phenomena and their effects can be difficult if not impossible to obtain. PanGeo is about generating information on urban geohazards and then making this information freely available and accessible to all, online.

Geohazards in PanGeo are natural and man-made phenomena that have the potential to make the ground unstable. These geohazards include: earthquakes, landslides, mineral workings, groundwater abstraction and recharge, shrink and swell clays, soluble rocks, compressible ground, collapsible deposits and landfill (many of these geohazards manifest as subsidence).

PanGeo is a 3-year Collaborative project that started 1st February 2011 with the objective of enabling free and open access to geohazard information in support of GMES. This will be achieved by providing an INSPIRE-compliant, free, online geohazard information service for the two largest towns in each EU country (Cyprus and Luxembourg only one) – 52 towns in total (~13% of EU population).

The geohazard information will be served in a standard format by the 27 EU national Geological Surveys via a modified version of the ‘shared access’ infrastructure as devised for the DG ISM project One-Geology Europe. The information to be served (a new geohazard data-layer and accompanying interpretation) will be made by each Survey, and be compiled from integrations of:

  • Satellite Persistent Scatterer InSAR processing, providing measurements of terrain-motion.
  • Geological and geohazard information already held by national Geological Surveys.
  • The landcover and landuse data contained within the GMES Land Theme’s Urban Atlas.

Upon user enquiry, a PanGeo web-portal will automatically integrate the geohazard data with the Urban Atlas to highlight the landcover polygons influenced. Mousing over polygons will hyperlink to interpretative text. User input to design will be facilitated by the Surveys contracted into the project and initiation of a ‘Local Authority Feedback Group’.

It is trusted that sustainability of PanGeo will be achieved by attracting a proportion of the remaining 253 Urban Atlas towns to procure the PanGeo service for their towns. The service that will already be provided in their country will form the basis of the required promotional activity.

Target users of the PanGeo service

PanGeo is quite specifically targeted at four key user groups:

  • Government Local Authority planners and regulators who are concerned with managing development control and risk;
  • National Geological Surveys and Geoscience Institutes who collect and disseminate geohazard data for public benefit;
  • Policy-makers concerned with assessing and comparing pan-European geological risk;
  • The public, for general empowerment.

Service mechanics

In PanGeo, all 27 EU National Geological Surveys are producing two key products: A ‘Ground Stability Layer’ and a ‘Geohazard Summary’. The graphic above depicts conceptually how these products are made: Four InSAR providers are providing the Geological Surveys with terrain-motion data for each of the 52 towns involved in the service.

The Surveys use these data, in conjunction with their own geological data and expertise, plus an amount of validation, to produce the new Ground Stability Layer. This 2D vector layer comprises polygons surrounding discrete areas of common geohazard. Each polygon then relates to interpretative text within a newly-compiled Geohazard Summary document.

User Access

Users will access the information provided by PanGeo through a ‘PanGeo Portal’ – a derivative of the One-Geology Europe geoportal upon which the PanGeo service is built.

Upon user-enquiry for a given town, the Portal will automatically coincide the Ground Stability Layer described above with corresponding data from the EU’s Urban Atlas which comprises 27 landcover classes at 2.5m resolution (~1:10,000). Urban Atlas polygons that intersect with the Ground Stability Layer polygons will be highlighted indicating that they are influenced by a geohazard(s).

Mousing over these areas will pop-up a brief description of the hazard. A mouse-click will link the user directly to a full interpretation within the Geohazard Summary document.
Topographic maps for user-orientation will be facilitated by a user-option of either Google Earth or Open Source Mapping.

All PanGeo products (geocoded Urban Atlas, Ground Stability Layer and the Geohazard Summary as a standalone PDF) will be downloadable to enable use within a users’ own Geographic Information System.

The 52 towns currently included in the service

The following table shows the 52 towns currently included within the PanGeo service. Note that Cyprus and Luxembourg only have one town each as these countries only have one Urban Atlas dataset available as the threshold for inclusion in the Urban Atlas is a minimum population of 100,000. In most cases the towns chosen are simply the two largest, however, the final decision was made by the National Geological Survey.
Contribution to policy implementation and development
The provision of an open-access, standardised information service on geohazards will enable policy-makers and regulators to:

  • Systematically assess geohazards in each of the 52 towns involved.
  • Gain understanding of the geohazards themselves.
  • Know who to talk to for more information.
  • Statistically analyse and cross-compare geohazard phenomena across EU countries.
  • Gain a better understanding of the socio-economic costs involved.
  • Make more informed decisions.
  • Have confidence that the information provided is robust and reliable.
  • Also, EU citizens will be empowered with access to knowledge previously known only to a few.

Contribution to policy implementation and development
The provision of an open-access, standardised information service on geohazards will enable policy-makers and regulators to:

  • Systematically assess geohazards in each of the 52 towns involved.
  • Gain understanding of the geohazards themselves.
  • Know who to talk to for more information.
  • Statistically analyse and cross-compare geohazard phenomena across EU countries.
  • Gain a better understanding of the socio-economic costs involved.
  • Make more informed decisions.
  • Have confidence that the information provided is robust and reliable.
  • Also, EU citizens will be empowered with access to knowledge previously known only to a few.

Relevant policy

Local policy: Following the EU subsidiarity principle, terrain-motion and associated geohazard policy is generally enacted at the local level. Some examples of local policies suggested by the Geological Surveys include: monitoring the impacts of dissolution and sinkholes in Hamburg city centre (Germany); monitoring of nuclear power plant stability (Lithuania); monitoring flood plain subsidence in urban areas (Luxembourg).

National policy: There are many national policies of EU member states that mandate the collection of geohazard data. Examples cited include: ‘Map of active faults’ project (Slovenia); Monitoring of hydroelectric power plants and the burial of nuclear and hazardous waste (Latvia); Mitigation of Climate Change impacts (Estonia, Denmark national programs).

European Union policies: PanGeo is relevant to several EU strategies and Directives:

­* The EC Directive on Landfill (1999) requires that a landfill site must meet certain conditions relating to the risk of flooding, subsidence, and landslides.

­* The EC Flood Directive (2007) requires Member States to assess the flood risk of all water courses and coast lines; map assets and humans at risk; and to take adequate measures to reduce this flood risk.

­* The European Programme for Critical Infrastructure Protection (ECPIP, 2006) was introduced for the identification and designation of European critical infrastructure and the assessment of the need to improve their protection. Related to this, Eurocode 8 (of the European Structural Design codes) is concerned with making buildings and civil engineering structures resistant to earthquakes.

­* Future EC directives relevant to PanGeo are The Prevention of Natural and Man-Made Disasters, and The EU Strategy for Supporting Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) in Developing Countries. Both these strategies require disaster mitigation by obtaining detailed information on areas most at risk from geohazards and their indirect impacts.

Project Partners

There are 37 partners in PanGeo in total. These are divided into a Core Team of 13 and a Survey Team of 24 (3 Surveys are in the Core Team).

What is GMES?

Global Monitoring for Environment and Security is a joint programme of the European Commission and the European Space Agency, designed to establish a European capacity for the provision and use of operational information for monitoring and management of the environment and for civil security. GMES is intended to support Europe’s goals in relation to sustainable development, environmental protection and the capacity to respond to global crises, by facilitating and fostering the timely provision of data, information and knowledge to the standards needed to implement the environmental and civil security policies of the EU. For more information visit: www.gmes.info/.

Article by Ren Capes (PanGeo Project Coordinator)
Fugro NPA Ltd, UK

23-26th of January 2012, Westminster, London
www.dgieurope.com

Defence Geospatial Intelligence (DGI) is Europe’s largest and most international annual gathering dedicated to the high-level discussion of the importance and the major challenges of the use of geospatial intelligence in both defence and national security operations.

DGI brings together heads of Geospatial Intelligence, Remote Sensing, GIS Mapping, Satellite Imagery and Analysis within the Military, Governmental and National Security sectors. It attracts professionals who are responsible for using, and integrating, geo based capabilities in their operations and organisations. DGI provides a unique forum for defence intelligence to discuss and debate the development of geospatial intelligence capabilities across the globe in defence and security sectors – With over 600 attendees year on year, DGI has becomes Europe’s key forum for geospatial strategy.

Addressing the use of geospatial information in scenarios such as international conflicts, defence operations, C4ISR, humanitarian disasters, crime, national security, border control, arms treaty monitoring and global climate change; a fundamental objective of DGI is to help organisations understand how to build the necessary infrastructure and architecture to take advantage of geospatial intelligence capabilities.

To find out more, contact the organisers today:
W: www.dgieurope.com
E: dgi@wbr.co.uk
T: +44 (0) 207 368 9465


COUNCIL

The European Council is an institution of the European Union. It comprises the heads of state or government of the EU member states, along with the President of the European Commission and the President of the European Council. While the European Council has no formal legislative power, it is charged under the Treaty of Lisbon with defining “the general political directions and priorities” of the Union. It is thus the Union’s strategic (and crisis solving) body, acting as the collective presidency of the EU. The European Council was established as an informal body in 1961; it became an official EU institution in 2009 when the Treaty of Lisbon entered into force

Can you describe in a simple way your daily work at your office at the European Council? Could you explain how the Cabinet’s team is assisting to the Council decisions? How you coordinate your work?

In fact we are a very small team advising the President (17 individuals only). Briefly, it can be stated that the Cabinet has two pillars, a “diplomacy and foreign policy” pillar and a socio-economic pillar.
I belong to the latter one and deal, on a daily basis, with issues such as research and development, innovation, information society, education, culture and (I would say “of course”) space policy.

How your previous work in ESA could help to tackle space issues? It is not only my past experience at ESA (more than ten years at the ESA Brussels Office, heading the Cabinet of the DG in Brussels) that is helping me tackle space issues. In fact, I have been involved in space activities for more than 25 years, and I have had the chance to look at it from different perspectives:

  • the Belgian public perspective as Advisor of Deputy Prime Minister Willy De Clercq from 1982 till 1984 and of Deputy Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt from 1985 till 1987, and as Head of the Space Department in the Belgian administration from 1987 till 1992;
  • the private perspective as Director Strategy for Alcatel Space in Belgium and Deputy Director “Marketing and Sales” for Alcatel Space in Europe (corresponding more or less to what is today the Thales Alenia Space group) from 1993 till 1999;
  • and, finally (at least till end 2009) the international and intergovernmental perspective at ESA. What may at first glance appear as a non-linear career path has actually given me the ability to consider the full spectrum of space challenges, exactly what is required from the point of view of an institution such as the European Council.

How the Council, the Ministers of the Council of the European Union and ESA work together? And how the Space Council has been set up?

To make a (very) long story short, I would say that there are, in Europe, three main actors dealing with “space”:

  • the Member States “individually”, mainly through ESA, but also e.g. Eumetsat and other organizations, and of course, through the EU;
  • the EU Institutions (mainly through the right of initiative exercised by the Commission, but also the Council and Parliament, in various degrees of influence);
  • and last but surely not least , what I call the industry, be it operators (Arianespace, Eutelsat,…), manufacturers (EADS, OHB,…) or the service industry “at large”.

The two former actors should increase, in a complementary way, their support and dedication to space because space is one of the most important tools to improve EU citizens’ life. The latter, industry, is what makes space possible, real, tangible.

As I used to say: “We need more Europe for better space, and we need more space for a better Europe”.

GMES

The European Parliament, the European Council, which includes ministers from European Union member states, and the commission itself have all endorsed GMES and Galileo in recent months…. but the decision to take the GMES project off the commission’s budget just as it begins operations drew immediate criticism from EARSC. Could you please comment on it? And what about the political commitments?

I tend to agree with EARSC and… with the Commission itself, which considers that the decision to fund GMES outside the Multi-annual Financial Framework (MFF) would “create high uncertainty for GMES”. Allow me to quote President Barroso: “We must guarantee the success of the EU flagship projects EGNOS/GALILEO and GMES. We must develop a strong, space-based capacity to deal with climate change and we also need more security in and from space”. This is, indeed, a very clear statement.

For GMES, the commission cites a figure of 834 million euros per year that would be proposed, à la carte, to member states that would make individual decisions on whether to subscribe, and for how much…. how do you believe this will work?

I think that this is the formula that has been, is and will be applied in an intergovernmental Agency as ESA, through what ESA calls “optional programmes”, and has been successful. To open such “optional programmes” in the EU setting, through the outsourcing of the GMES funding to Member States directly is, in my view, mixing up the role of the Commission (that has to take care of the 27 Member States being considered as “one player”) with the role of ESA (acting, as I mentioned before, through “à la carte” programmes in which Member States participate in function of their own political and industrial interests).

There is no precedent on this, and would in fact blur responsibilities over the future of the programme. This has been a Commission initiative from the beginning. It will now be the role of Member States and MEP’s to decide exactly what to counter-propose for the funding of GMES towards 2020.

As to me the only viable solution is to reintegrate GMES in the MFF, somehow or other (through Horizon 2020, or through dedicated policy budget lines: in environment, climate, regional policy or, why not, “space policy” as foreseen in the Treaty). The letter circulated on this issue by MEP Vittorio Prodi is a very good and a very helpful one.
The Commission and the Member States should also keep in mind that GMES is not a “you take it all” project, as ITER is. GMES is a “building block” project, meaning that, by definition, cost overruns are impossible because you can always limit the number of “blocks” making up the project.

From GMES paper (1) “Further delays and uncertainty on GMES financing greatly undermine the industrial effort and make projects linked to GMES very unattractive,” “The funding uncertainty will certainly reduce, or even cancel, future private commitments.” Which could be now the role of the EO value added industry?

The EO value added industry will, I imagine, determine its strategy based on numerous parameters.

One of them, and which I consider an essential one, is, to put it bluntly, the long term political support and financial commitment (these two elements are completely linked) of ESA AND of the Commission: of ESA in order to build up the R&D of the system; of the Commission to use the system. Without this second element, everything is jeopardized: the R&D project itself, the economic and social benefits of the system, but also the EU’s political credibility.

Is now financing the most challenging task for GMES? What about governance?

Governance and financing go hand in hand. You can not deal with the one ignoring the other.

To be blunt again, what really matters is to have enough budget through ESA AND Commission levels, to have financial regulations and rules allowing to spend this budget in the most efficient manner, and to have the necessary flexibility to support long term investment, be it for an infrastructure policy or for a user/service policy. No more, no less!

DIALOGUE WITH INDUSTRY

What will cooperative efforts between the European Council and Industry bring? How EARSC can work with the Council to provide the views of the downstream service industry? How can the dialogue be improved?

Let us not confuse the Council of the European Union with the European Council. Their roles are different. But industry should speak with, or “lobby” (I have nothing against this beautiful word) Ministers, Prime Ministers and even Heads of States, to explain which “potential”, which “added value” space tools can offer: space tools in general and EO space tools in particular. And when I refer to “added value” I have in mind all the fields and domains that are for Europe of strategic importance and for which this “space added value” is absolutely needed: agriculture, environment, energy, climate change, communications, transport, education, medicine, humanitarian aid, crisis response, sustainable development, maritime surveillance, international relations ; to name but a few.

The sector is following the Lisbon agenda in terms of helping growth and jobs in Europe… but what do you think about benchmarking along some other industrial sectors?

Again, space is simply a tool. Not “the” only tool but for sure a significant tool to improve the definition of European policies and to better implement them. A tool that should be used in the most efficient manner. That is why the space sector does not only concern what is usually called “the space industry”. Today, it concerns an extremely wide array of the economy and our growth. Regarding innovation and employment, I can assure you that I am “fighting” (this is the right word) every day to put it high on the agenda of the European Institutions.

The sovereign debt, the fiscal consolidation, the Eurozone (that rightly Herman Van Rompuy prefers to call “Euroland”, reflecting better the integrated approach that is needed) are , of course, crucial issues. But President Van Rompuy is also constantly insisting on the “global economical approach”: in order to overcome the crisis you need Sustainable growth. And you need concrete measures to make this growth possible, in particular the ones proposed by the Heads of State and Government during the European Council dedicated to innovation held on February 4th.

FUTURE & SOCIETY

At the end of the interview, we would like to ask you for your overall recommendations on the future development of the geo-information service sector, and would like to ask to give some hopefully positive messages to the members of EARSC

As I mentioned before, geo-information in practice concerns and influences all European policy fields, because geo-information is in essence cross-border, and the very basis on which political decision can be taken. Without information, a great deal of which comes from space, elected officials cannot make informed decisions. Moreover, considering European history and integration, I believe it is important not to forget the regional dimension of and in Europe.

DG Regio is one of the most important DG’s in the Commission and is insufficiently aware of the possibilities that a well designed geo-information service can procure. Be it a “city” service (and the lover of Venice that I am is thinking at the lagoon issue), a “regional” service or an inter-regional service (look e.g. at the Baltic Sea or at the Danube strategy). Industry should improve its communication with DG Regio and with the “regional component” in general, simply to explain what can be achieved, what the potential of space can be to these Commission services. At least I would warmly recommend doing so.

(1) EARSC position paper on Multinnual Finantial Framewrok
Captions:
-Mr. Praet contribution in speech
-Mr. Praet, Member Cabinet President European Council and Mr. Dordain, ESA Director Gemeral
-Mr. Preat and Mr. Herman Van Rompuy, President of European Council during European day 2011

Thank you in advance for the elements of contribution to the Interview and for sharing your thoughts and comments with the EOmag readers.

EOmag!27_Interview with Michel Praet Member of cabinet of the president of the European Council.pdf

The Oil and Gas Earth Observation interest group is preparing a Webportal to share information, questions, issues, successful applications and promote the use of Remote Sensing in the Oil and Gas industry.

Any offshore as well as onshore application from environmental monitoring to infrastructure mapping to exploration or iceberg tracking will be considered. This project is supported by ESA and currently implemented by EARSC as an industry forum. The portal will be open for access to the oil and gas industry and EO geo-information service providers.

The portal will be launched at the upcoming OGEO and GRSG workshop at ESA in December in Frascati.

Please email any ideas or contributions to EARSC Secretariat

June 2011


1. SPIDER Thematic Partnership for the Pacific Region
2. Expert Meeting on Crowdsource Mapping for Preparedness and Emergency Response in Vienna will produce input for report of Secretary General
3. Technical Advisory Mission to Cameroon
4. UN-SPIDER co-organizes PAIGH/USGS Crisis Workshop in Panama
5. Technical Advisory Mission to Nigeria
6. Technical Advisory Mission to Bangladesh
7. UN-SPIDER at the OGC Plenary week
8. Sustainable Future of Outer Space Activities discussed at the Outer Space Committee
9. Sentinel Asia supports disaster response to floods in Tajikistan
10.International Charter activated for volcano eruption affecting Chile and Argentina
11.RCMRD collaborates with ECHO/UNISDR on Regional Training Workshop
12.ADRC conducted an expert group meeting in response to the Japan Earthquake
13.Nigeria prepares to launch two earth observation satellites
14.NASA flights seek to improve view of air pollution from space
15.Satellite programs aid emergency crews battling wildfires
16.RapidEye reveals full archive through EyeFind
17.CEOS and ISU to use Earth Observation satellites to detect bugs

Information on upcoming UN-SPIDER outreach activities can be obtained from the events section of the UN-SPIDER Knowledge Portal

06 2011 UN-SPIDER Updates.pdf
Source UN-Spider

Sustainability of Space Activities: International issues & Potential Solutions. STRASBOURG, Tues 21st – Thurs 23rd February 2012

During each academic year, the International Space University (ISU) organizes a three-day symposium as an interdisciplinary, international forum to help both the users and the providers of space-related systems to move forward from the discussion of problems to the formulation of innovative solutions. As an independent organization, ISU has developed a winning formula for a “different kind of symposium”:

  • Addressing all aspects of the subject – policy, business, legal, scientific, technical, etc.
  • Creating ample time for discussion
  • Fostering constructive dialogue among different sectors of the space community, or between different communities, that do not often interact in more specialized symposia.

At each of the past several events we have attracted close to 200 participants from agencies, industry and academia in around 30 different countries.

ISU’s next annual symposium will address the risks faced by spacecraft and crew due to various natural and human generated threats. Looking be¬yond the current situation we ask what can be done to mitigate the threats in order to assure long-term sustainability of space activities particularly through increased cooperation between nations.

The scope of the Symposium will be in line with the main objective of the UN COPUOS Working Group on the sub¬ject established in early 2010, that is, “to examine and propose measures to ensure the safe and sustainable use of outer space for peaceful purposes, for the ben¬efit of all countries”

The program will include invited contributions from leading experts in the field plus presentations and posters selected on the basis of abstracts submitted in response to the attached Call for Papers by the deadline date of 12th October 2011.

More information ISU

Newswise — Space-based technologies — from Earth remote sensing spacecraft to global navigation and telecommunications satellites – are potent tools in both shaping disaster preparedness and in dealing with the chaos of responding to natural disasters.

To augment the use of these space technologies, virtual communities of group intelligence – called “Crowdsourcing” – can aide in emergency planning and post-disaster coordination.

An international gathering of more than 60 experts took part in Crowdsource Mapping for Preparedness and Emergency Response, held July 5-6 in Vienna, Austria.

The meeting was organized by the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs’ Space-based Information for Disaster Management and Emergency Response (UN-SPIDER), with the support and cooperation of the Government of Austria and Secure World Foundation.

The two-day agenda of discussion and special sessions brought into sharp focus:

  • How the crowdsource mapping community benefitted from space-based information during the Haiti response efforts
  • Understanding of the specific needs of the emergency response community
  • Consideration of what mechanisms are already in place regarding accessing satellite imagery to support emergency response

One of a kind gathering

“Efforts such as this that bring together disparate communities to benefit the use of space systems for human and environmental security fit our agenda very well,” said Dr. Ray Williamson, Executive Director of Secure World Foundation (SWF). “We are committed to facilitating discussion among these communities for the good of all peoples affected by natural disaster.”

Secure World Foundation is very pleased to continue its cooperation with the UN-SPIDER, said Agnieszka Lukaszczyk, an event organizer and Space Policy Consultant for SWF based in Brussels, Belgium.

“The event co-organized in Vienna was one of a kind where space experts, disaster managers, and people from crowdsourcing community got together and discussed better ways of working together in the area of disaster management,” Lukaszczyk said. “We do hope that this effort was only the beginning of a continuous cooperation among these three communities.”

Additionally, there was discussion on strategies to adequately address intellectual property and copyright concerns. This first expert meeting benefited by leading experts representing crowd-sourcing communities, space agencies, disaster management and civil protection agencies, Non-Governmental Organizations, private companies, and regional and international organizations.

The outcome of this expert meeting will be included in a report of the Secretary General of the United Nations which will be considered by the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space when it meets in early 2012. It will also be included as an input to the second expert meeting which is planned for Geneva on November 16 of this year, back-to-back with the next International Conference on Crisis Mapping (ICCM 2011).

“The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs welcomed working this expert meeting with Secure World Foundation which is the first such meeting on the topic organized by the United Nations for the benefit of all countries. Secure World Foundation’s vision and commitment to ensuring that all countries take advantage of these opportunities is to be noted,” said David Stevens, Program Coordinator for UN-SPIDER.

Technological advancements

In December 2006 the United Nations General Assembly agreed to establish the United Nations Platform for Space-based Information for Disaster Management and Emergency Response — UN-SPIDER — as a new United Nations program.

UN-SPIDER’s mission statement is to “Ensure that all countries and international and regional organizations have access to and develop the capacity to use all types of space-based information to support the full disaster management cycle”.

In recent years, advancements in technologies have made it possible for virtual communities such as OpenStreetMap, CrisisMappers, Virtual Disaster Viewer, Google MapMaker, Ushahidi, Sahana and Innovative Support to Emergencies Diseases and Disasters (InSTEDD) to provide increasing support to disaster preparedness and emergency response efforts.

Important cornerstones of this virtual effort are the possibility to access and take advantage of post-disaster satellite imagery as well as the use of other space-based technologies such as telecommunications satellites and global navigation satellite systems.

Furthermore, by tapping the power of Crowdsourcing, a community of volunteers can generate quality geographical information by the use of remote sensing image analysis tools.

One-year project

To facilitate the connection between Crowdsourcing
expertise with the space industry as well as the disaster management community, the UN-SPIDER Program has initiated a one-year project: “Space-based information for Crowdsource Mapping.” This initiative is aimed at identifying specific actions that could ensure a closer cooperation among the three communities.

For more information on the recently concluded meeting, Crowdsource Mapping for Preparedness and Emergency Response, please contact:
Agnieszka Lukaszczyk
Space Policy Consultant
Secure World Foundation
Avenue des Arts 8
B-1210 Brussels
Belgium
Phone +32 2 545 11 50
Fax +32 2 545 11 66
Email: alukaszczyk@swfound.org
Reporter’s Note: To view Lukaszczyk’s presentation — Building Appropriate Institutions to Support the Use of Earth Observations for Human Security – please go to the followong link

About Secure World Foundation

Secure World Foundation (SWF) is headquartered in Superior, Colorado, with offices in Washington, D.C. and Brussels, Belgium.

SWF is a private operating foundation dedicated to the secure and sustainable use of space for the benefit of Earth and all its peoples.

SWF engages with academics, policy makers, scientists and advocates in the space and international affairs communities to support steps that strengthen global space sustainability. It promotes the development of cooperative and effective use of space for the protection of Earth’s environment and human security.

The Foundation acts as a research body, convener and facilitator to advocate for promoting key space security and other space related topics and to examine their influence on governance and international development.

For access to the SWF website

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