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In recent decades Guatemala, like other countries around the world, has been experiencing disasters triggered by geologic and hydro-meteorological hazards that have impacted urban and rural communities.
GIS Laboratory of the Faculty of Agriculture of San Carlos University (USAC)
Venue Country:
Guatemala
Event Organisers:
UN-SPIDER, the National Secretariat of the Council of Science and Technology of Guatemala (SENACYT) and the Executive Secretariat of CONRED (SE-CONRED)
Around 11 PM on the night of 1st October 2015, a landslide took place in the Santa Catarina municipal district of of the greater metropolitan district of Guatemala City. The landslide affected an urban settlement called El Cambray 2. The National Coordinating Agency for
The International Charter: Space and Major Disasters has been triggered to provide satellite-based emergency maps in response to heavy rains that triggered a massive landslide in the "El Cambray 2" urban settlement in Santa Catarina Pinula, Guatemala. The mechanism was activated on 7 October 2015, at 02:57 (UTC+02:00) by the USGS on behalf of the National
In recent years Guatemala has been impacted by disasters of various kinds including volcanic eruptions, floods and droughts. In November 2010, UN-SPIDER had conducted a Technical Advisory Mission (TAM) to Guatemala. As a follow-up, this expert mission was carried out to support government institutions in the institutionalization of a technical group focusing on remote sensing applications for disaster risk reduction and emergencyresponse.
Dates:
Mon, 31/10/2011 to Sun, 06/11/2011
Host Institution:
SEGEPLAN
Mission Expert:
Juan Carlos Villagran de Leon, UN-SPIDER
Mission Profile:
The mission aimed at raising awareness of the Directors of various institutions on the benefits of using on disaster risk and disaster response management. It also addressed the recommendations made during a Technical Advisory Mission (TAM) one year earlier, which included the establishment of an inter-agency group of professionals working in various state institutions on the use of GIS and remote sensing.
The mission included visits to SEGEPLAN, to the National Geographic Institute (IGN), to the National Institute of Statistics (INE), the National Coordinating Agency for Disaster Reduction (CONRED) and to the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (MARN).
Mission Outcome:
The mission was able to move forward the establishment of an inter-institutional group of professionals from a variety of Government agencies and universities, which will focus its attention on the use of satellite imagery and remote-sensing applications. The Directors of SEGEPLAN and IGN will institutionalize the technical group through a Memorandum of Understanding. The mission also allowed UN-SPIDER to take note of the comments made by the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, who highlighted the importance of remote sensing applications and raised the question concerning how to improve access to to track and to identify ways regarding adaptation to climate change. In addition, the Minister requested UN-SPIDER to explore how the Ministry could interact more effectively with UNOOSA on the topics of environmental management and climate change.
Guatemala is exposed to various hazards. Floods, droughts and landslides occur on an annual basis in urban and rural communities. Taking into consideration the usefulness of earth observations in the case of drought and other hazards, an Expert Mission was organized to discuss and elaborate a proposal for a potential project in Guatemala targeting the use of to assess the impact of drought and climate variability on crops.
Dates:
Thu, 13/05/2010 to Wed, 19/05/2010
Host Institution:
SEGEPLAN
Mission Expert:
Juan Carlos Villagran de Leon, UN-SPIDER
Mission Profile:
The mission included a series of visits to government agencies and a one-day meeting with representatives of the Commission on Earth, Ocean and Space Sciences (COCITOE) of the National Council of Science and Technology (CONCYT) aimed at elaborating a project proposal to be submitted to CONCYT for funding. The proposal targets the establishment of an inter-institutional, inter-sectoral, technical committee of professionals that will focus its attention on the use of to track the impacts of the drought and climate variability events to crops, in particular subsistence crops. The project is based on the request made by the Director General Secretariat for Planning and Programming of the Presidency of the Republic (SEGEPLAN) to UN-SPIDER.
Mission Outcome:
The mission allowed representatives of government institutions to become aware of UN-SPIDER, its activities and the type of Technical Advisory Support it can provide. During the mission, experts from Guatemala identified the need for training activities to enhance the skills of professionals working in government agencies regarding access and use of to generate information on which to make decisions. Critical issues that need to be resolved when using space-based information in Guatemala were also identified, including: extensive cloud cover, extremely variable topography, and a variety of microclimates. The main output of the mission was the project proposal that was submitted to CONCYT for subsequent evaluation and processing.
On 7 November 2012 at 10:35 am local time, the southwestern region of Guatemala was impacted by a strong earthquake that provoked fatalities and losses. The 7.4 magnitude earthquake had its epicenter 35 kilometers south of the Port of Champerico in the Retalhuleu Department. The National Coordinating Agency for Disaster Reduction of Guatemala (CONRED) conducted a damage and needs assessment and confirmed that most damages took place in the highlands.
On 7 November 2012 at 10:35 am local time, the southwestern region of Guatemala was impacted by a strong earthquake that provoked fatalities and losses. The 7.4 magnitude earthquake had its epicenter 35 kilometers south of the Port of Champerico in the Retalhuleu Department. The National Coordinating Agency for Disaster Reduction of Guatemala (CONRED) conducted a damage and needs assessment and confirmed that most damages took place in the highlands.
In collaboration with the Ministry of Environment & Natural Resources (MARN) in Guatemala, UN-SPIDER's Regional Support Office CATHALAC (Water Center for the Humid Tropics of Latin America and the Caribbean) is carrying out a satellite-based analysis of the current mangrove cover of Guatemala. The experts elaborated several maps showing the cover in 2012.
UN-SPIDER's Regional Support Office CATHALAC (Water Center for the Humid Tropics of Latin America and the Caribbean) quickly reacted to yesterday's eruption of Guatemala's Fuego Volcano.
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