UN-SPIDER and International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), prospective Regional Support Office of UN-SPIDER, are jointly organizing a national training course on Geo-informatics for Disaster Risk Management in Nay Pyi Taw, the new capital of Myanmar from 26-30 November 2012. The programme is supported by the Relief and Resettlement Department (RRD) of the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement and UN OCHA Myanmar Office.
The national training course on Geo-informatics for Disaster Risk Management is attended by over twenty participants from various line ministries and departments involved in supporting disaster risk management and emergency response in Myanmar. The training programme is conducted by experts from UN-SPIDERand ICIMOD . The invited experts from Wuhan University, China and Myanmar Information Management Unit are also contributing to the training course.
The participants will be introduced to the concepts of hazard and vulnerability, earth observation satellites for disaster management, geographic information system, visualization of GIS data and satellite images, Hyogo Framework of Action, methodologies for near real time mapping for emergency response, crowd sourcing, Sentinel Asia System, International Charter and other topics. The hands on exercises are conducted on the Quantum GIS, the open source GIS and Image Processing Software.
The training is a follow-up of the UN-SPIDER Technical Advisory Mission (TAM) in Myanmar from 19-23 March 2012 to implement some of the key recommendations of TAM, especially to address capacity building needs within the country. Before the kick-off of the training, a half day workshop for dissemination of the report of UN-SPIDER Technical Advisory Mission was held. The report presents detailed assessment and recommendations for enabling RRD and stakeholders of RRD to access and use space-based information for improving disaster risk reduction and emergency response. The report effectively contributes to ongoing efforts of implementing the Myanmar Action Plan on Disaster Risk Reduction. UN-SPIDER presented the findings of the report followed by detailed discussions on ideas how to implement the recommendations
Another workshop is organized in Yangon on 30 Nov 2012 to present the outcomes of the TAM to international stakeholders involving UN organisations based in Myanmar, representative of permanent Mission, bilateral donor agencies and international agencies. The purpose is to seek support of international donors in implementing recommendations of the UN-SPIDER Technical Advisory Mission.
