The 2014 International Congress on Health in Emergencies and Disasters aims to bring together leading academic scientists, researchers and scholars to exchange and share their experience and resear
On 10 December 2013, the European Parliament adopted new legislation on the EU Civil Protection Mechanism paving, by doing so, the way for stronger cooperation in responding to disasters.
Five islands in the Indian Ocean – the Union of the Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, Seychelles, and Zanzibar (Tanzania) – are working to establish and manage disaster loss databases.
As a follow-up to a Technical Advisory Mission to Myanmar in March 2013, UN-SPIDER and the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) jointly organized the national training
Experts from UN-SPIDER and ICIMOD as well as invited experts from Wuhan University, China and the Myanmar Information Management Unit.
Target Group:
Twenty participants from various line ministries and departments involved in supporting disaster risk management and emergency response in Myanmar attended the training course. Key officials from the following departments/agencies were among the participants: Relief and Rehabilitation Department (RRD), Department of Water Research and Improvement of River Systems (DWRIRS), Myanmar Information Management Unit (MIMU), Fire Services Department (FSD), Myanmar Engineering Society (MES), Natural Resources Utilization Department (NUD), Public Works Department (PWD), Irrigation Department (ID), Forest Department (FD), Rural Development Department (RDD) and the General Administration Department (GAD).
Training Profile:
The participants were introduced to the concepts of hazard and vulnerability, Earth observation satellites for disaster management, geographic information system, visualization of GIS data and satellite images, Hyogo Framework of Action, methodologies for near real time mapping for emergency response, crowd sourcing, Sentinel Asia System, International Charter and other topics. The hands-on exercises were conducted on Quantum GIS, an open source GIS and Image Processing Software.
Experts from Regional Centre for Training in Aerospace Surveys (RECTAS) and the United Nations University Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS)
Target Group:
Some 25 participants from DPC/MINETAD and representatives various other ministries and universities attended the training. In addition, 7 participants from other Central Africa states (Burundi, Congo, DR Congo, Gabon) participated.
Training Profile:
The training was conducted in French language using software donated by Esri (ArcGIS 10 French) and the ILWIS Academic version. The group had access to recent very high resolution Quickbird sample images over hotspots in Cameroon, courtesy of Digital Globe, Inc. The training covered basic elements of remote sensing, GIS basics and simple data extraction and geo-referencing techniques, accompanied by various presentations and visual material on use of remote sensing for disaster management.
The 7th annual TIDES Fall Field Demonstration will take place in Washington, DC at the National Defense University (NDU) campus from Tuesday, October 1st to Friday, October 4th.
On 3 September 2013, UNOOSA/UN-SPIDER presented a new report which shows the economic, humanitarian and organizational benefits of applying geoinformation to disaster management.
