UNOOSA/UN-SPIDER successfully co-organized a working session on Earth observation and high technology to reduce disaster risks on Sunday, 15 March 2015. 200 participants attended the session. The working session was conducted during the Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (WCDRR) taking place from 14 to 18 March 2015 in Sendai, Japan.
The Third United Nations World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (WCDRR) was kicked off today in Sendai, Japan. It will be held from 14 to 18 March 2015 in Sendai City, Miyagi Prefecture. Several thousand participants including world leaders are attending the event as well as related events linked to the World Conference under the umbrella of building the resilience of nations and communities to disasters.
UNOOSA/UN-SPIDER is supporting two summer courses at the Central European University in Budapest, Hungary this July. The application deadline for both courses is 15 March 2015.
The 2015 Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction (GAR15), prepared by the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) was launched yesterday. In his remarks at the launch of the report, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon underllined that “growing global inequality, increasing exposure to natural hazards, rapid urbanization and the overconsumption of energy and natural resources threaten to drive risk to dangerous and unpredictable levels with systemic global impacts.”
According to the Turkish Prime Ministry's Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD), 50 million people in Turkey live in areas with earthquake risks. That is, two thirds of the country's population.
Of these 50 million people, 33 million live in regions with high earthquake risk; roughly 23 million people live in areas with a low earthquake risk. The assessment also revealed that 10 million buildings are situated in these high risk areas.
From the 10-11 of December 2014, the United Nations University's Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS) held a workshop on decision making and knowledge management in disaster risk reduction (DRR). This workshop was conducted within the frame of the KNOW-4-DRR project (Enabling knowledge for DRR in integration to climate change adaptation), funded by the European Commission and coordinated by the Politecnico di Milano.
German Aerospace Center (DLR ), German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) with the support of Secure World Foundation, the City of Bonn, and Digital Globe
From 10 to 15 November 2014, UN-SPIDER offered a workshop and a simulation exercise to about 100 participants from national institutions, NGOs, and international organizations in Viet Nam. The event was jointly organised with the Geospatial Information and Technology Association (GITA). The Pacific Disaster Centre (PDC), UNDP Viet Nam, OCHA, DigitalGlobe and ESRI also offered considerable support to the workshop. The activity was following up on the Technical Advisory Mission to Vietnam in 2013.
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