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Drought
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UN-SPIDER Regional Support Offices with hazard-specific expertise
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On 10 May 2022, the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), the University of Energy and Natural Resources of Ghana, and the Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water (PSIPW) inaugurated the 5th International Conference on the Use of Space Technology for Water Resources Management. The conference, held in Accra from 10 to 13 May 2022, aims to promote the use of space technology in water management in developing countries.
During the opening segment of the conference, high ranking authorities noted that there have been many success stories related to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), but unfortunately some of these were eroded by the COVID 19 pandemic. They remarked that Ghana is hosting this conference to see how best to foster new partnerships to address the SDGs, and to facilitate a constructive discussion on two key issues essential to sustainable development: Space technologies and sustainable use of water…
read more12/06/2022- Recommended Practice: Agriculture Drought Monitoring and Hazard Assessment using Google Earth Engine
Drought is slow on-set disaster which affects agriculture and associated livelihood in many parts of the world. Drought causes stress to vegetation; hence the extent of a drought can be reflected by changes in the vegetation condition. Geospatial scientists have developed drought indices based on remote sensing data to effectively detect drought conditions. The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) is the normalized difference between near-infrared (NIR) and red reflectance. Simple and effective, it is one of the most widely used indices for detecting drought conditions. More recently…Regional Support Offices mentioned: 
Natural disasters are becoming more frequent and intense across the globe. Enhancing resilience to increasing hazards, exposure, and vulnerability therefore requires leveraging of advanced geospatial technologies for better disaster mitigation and management. With continuous improvements in satellite data sensor acquisition parameters together with geo-computational approaches, geospatial technologies have emerged as the most powerful technology for all phases of disaster management. The course on advanced geospatial technologies for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) is scheduled from April 18 - 29, 2022 .
Course Content
- Overview of remote sensing & Geographic Information System
- Application of satellite communication technology for disaster mitigation
- Overview of UAV for disaster monitoring and mitigation
- Emerging geo computation, online GIS & Geo-web services for DRR
- Advanced application of Geospatial…
On the Iberian Peninsula Portal and Spain are facing a severe drought, that started in November 2021 and worsened in the following months. Officials in Portugal were forced to limit the use of hydroelectric dams for power production and irrigation, as some reservoirs started reaching significant lows.
The extreme dimension of this event gets revealed on a pair of Landsat 8 OLI (Operational Land Imager) images, operated by NASA and USGS, comparing the state of the Alto Rabagão and Alto Lindoso reservoirs in northern Portugal from March 2021 to February 2022.
read more21/02/2022
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Introduction
The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) and the Government of Ghana are jointly organizing a Conference with the support of the Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water (PSIPW) to promote the use of space technology in water management to the benefit of developing countries.
The Conference will be held in Accra, Ghana, from 10- 13 May 2022, hosted by the University of Energy and Natural Resources on behalf of the Government of Ghana.
The Conference is the fifth international event focusing on applications of space technology for water in the series of conferences organised with financial assistance…
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Space-based Solutions for Disaster Risk Management and Emergency Response for Southern Africa
UN-SPIDER and ZFL are holding a regional virtual expert meeting for Southern Africa, a region vulnerable to hydrometeorological, geological, coastal and biological hazards and gravely impacted by droughts in recent years.
The objectives of this regional virtual expert meeting are:
- To raise awareness regarding novel applications of satellite technologies in risk assessment, early warning systems, and disaster response operations;
- To survey and examine efforts carried out by risk and disaster management institutions in Southern African countries on the use of space technologies and space-based information in disaster risk management, preparedness, response and recovery efforts;
- To explore ways to enhance the use space technologies in disaster risk management and response and recovery applications in Southern Africa.…
The Copernicus DEM is a Digital Surface Model (DSM) which represents the surface of the Earth including buildings, infrastructure, and vegetation. The Copernicus DEM is provided in 3 different instances. Two worldwide coverages at 90m (GLO-90) and 30m (GLO-30) resolution are openly available to the public for download via the PANDA Catalogue and FTP. A further European coverage (EEA-10) is provided at 10m resolution, but data is restricted to eligible users who meet required access rights.Publishing institution:-
The Copernicus DEM is a Digital Surface Model (DSM) which represents the surface of the Earth including buildings, infrastructure, and vegetation. The Copernicus DEM is provided in 3 different instances. Two worldwide coverages at 90m (GLO-90) and 30m (GLO-30) resolution are openly available to the public for download via the PANDA Catalogue and FTP. A further European coverage (EEA-10) is provided at 10m resolution, but data is restricted to eligible users who meet required access rights.Publishing institution:
África del Sur está expuesta a amenazas hidrometeorológicas, geológicas, costeras y biológicas. En los últimos años la región ha sufrido los impactos de sequías, inundaciones y plagas de langosta. La tormenta tropical Idai provocó inundaciones severas en Mozambique, Malawi y Zimbabue en marzo del año 2019 y en el año 2020 varios países tuvieron que afrontar la plaga de langosta. Desafortunadamente, COVID-19 sigue impactando a todos los países de esta región.
Para continuar promoviendo el uso de tecnologías espaciales en actividades relacionadas on la gestión para la reducción de riesgo de desastres, la preparación, la respuesta y la recuperación en caso de desastres, ONU-SPIDER y el Centro de Percepción Remota de Superficies Terrestres de la Universidad de Bonn (ZFL por sus siglas en inglés) unieron esfuerzos para organizar la Reunión Regional Virtual de Expertos para África del Sur: "Soluciones Espaciales para Gestión de Riesgo y Respuesta en caso…
read moreRegional Support Offices mentioned:19/07/2021
UN-SPIDER Regional Support Offices with hazard-specific expertise
