UN-SPIDER and the Federal University of Santa Maria of Brazil (a UN-SPIDER regional support office) conducted three webinars for staff at the National Institute for Disaster Management, the National Meteorological Institute, the Regional Water Administration Authorities, the Ministry of Public Works, Housing and Water Resources, the Mozambique Red Cross and universities in order to raise awareness of the applications of novel satellite technologies and products to monitor droughts and map the geographical extent of floods. The National Institute for Disaster Management, the Regional Water Administration Authorities and the Ministry of Public Works, Housing and Water Resources gave presentations on their efforts to monitor floods and droughts; the development of an information system on arid and semi-arid areas; the use of the Africa risk capacity tool by the National Institute for Disaster Management; and efforts by the Ministry of Public Works, Housing and Water Resources to monitor droughts.
UN-SPIDER, together with the National Institute for Disaster Management, the National Meteorological Institute and other institutions, including universities, discussed the establishment of a technical, inter-institutional team that would focus on the generation of geospatial information to support disaster management using geographical information systems and Earth observation applications.
