El Salvador is exposed to hydro-meteorological and geophysical hazards and has a history of destructive earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tropical storms, and droughts. In order to increase the capacity of the inter-institutional technical team headed by the Directorate of Civil Protection of El Salvador (DGPC) on the use remote sensing techniques to generate geospatial information to address these hazards, UN-SPIDER and DGCP conducted a week-long training course.
Remote sensing techniques and UN-SPIDER Recommended Practices on droughts and floods
Agustin Codazzi Geographic Institute, Colombia
Federal University of Santa Maria, Rio Sul, Brazil
Members of the inter-institutional technical team that was set up by the Civil Protection Directorate at the recommendation of UN-SPIDER.
UN-SPIDER and DGPC joined 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 was conducted from 24 to 28 July 2017 in San Salvador, El Salvador with the participation of 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 targeted members of the inter-institutional technical team that is 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.
