UN-SPIDER and DGPC of El Salvador to conduct a training course in July 2017

At the request of the General Directorate for Civil Protection of El Salvador (DGPC), UN-SPIDER conducted a technical advisory mission to El Salvador from 3 to 5 April 2014. Taking note of strengths and some limitations regarding the generation and use of geospatial information, UN-SPIDER elevated a recommendation to the DGPC regarding the implementation of a technical, inter-institutional team that would focus its efforts on the generation of geospatial information extracted from space and in situ data as a way to contribute to disaster risk reduction, preparedness and emergency response efforts related to different types of events. Since 2015, DGPC has been implementing this and other recommendations stemming from that technical advisory mission. Efforts are underway with more than fifteen government organizations and universities of the country as a way to establish such a team, and DGPC has requested UN-SPIDER to carry out training courses as a way to strengthen the skills of those experts, professionals and specialists that have been nominated by their institutions to become members of this technical, inter-institutional team. UN-SPIDER and DGPC are joining forces to conduct a one-week long training course focusing on general remote sensing techniques and on two UN-SPIDER Recommended Practices on droughts and floods. The training course will be conducted from 24 to 28 July 2017 in San Salvador, El Salvador and will be impacted by experts from the Agustin Codazzi Geographic Institute (IGAC, in its role as one of the UN-SPIDER Regional Support Offices) and of the Federal University of Santa Maria in Rio Sul, Brazil. The training course will target members of the inter-institutional technical team that is begin set up by the Civil Protection Directorate at the recommendation of UN-SPIDER. This technical team will focus its tasks on the use of remote sensing techniques and UN-SPIDER Recommended Practices as a way to generate relevant and timely geospatial information that is useful for disaster risk reduction, preparedness and emergency response efforts. The training segment on the UN-SPIDER Recommended practices focusing on droughts are geared to contribute to the conduction of the project entitled “Strengthening Early Warning Systems for Drought” (SEWS-D). This project, conducted in El Salvador, Dominican Republic, Guatemala and Honduras aims to incorporate the use of drought indicators targeting the status of vegetation as a way to complement data generated by meteorological departments on rainfall and weather.