Google and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations have launched a new tool that provides access to multidimensional maps and statistics showing key climate and environmental trends. Earth Map draws on the processing power of Google Earth Engine and aims to help develop insights based on satellite and FAO’s agriculturally-relevant data alike. It follows the joint development by Google and FAO of the Collect Earth platform for forest and land cover assessments, and integrates with the recently launched FAO Hand-in-Hand geospatial platform.
Tapping into the wide range of multi-temporal and quasi real-time satellite data available through Google Earth Engine, Earth Map provides…
read moreUpon the request of the National Office for Civil Protection (ONPC) of Tunisia, the UN-SPIDER programme produced and provided a map with fires detected during the 2020 fire season. The active fire data was obtained from the Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS), which provides MODIS Collection 6 (1km resolution) and VIIRS (375m resolution) active fire/hotspot information.
Besides a map, UN-SPIDER also provided the project files for import into the free and open source GIS application QGIS. During a subsequent call with stakeholders in Tunisia, UN-SPIDER explainted the space-based data and methdology used for the production of the map.
read moreAccording to the latest issue of an annual disaster statistics report, floods were the deadliest type of disasters in 2019, followed by extreme temperature, while storms affected the highest number of people. Published by the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED), “Natural disasters 2019 - Now is the time to not give up” draws on data recorded in the Emergency Events Database (EM-DAT), which saw the addition of 396 disasters that affected a total of 95 million and caused $103 billion in economic losses around the world.
Accounting for 40 per cent of disaster events, Asia suffered the highest impact with 45 per cent of deaths and 74 per cent of total affected. India, which saw cyclone Fani cause destruction in 2019, was the country most…
read moreOn 22 July 2020, UN-SPIDER and the Central American Coordination Centre for Natural Disaster Prevention (CEPREDENAC) joined forces to conduct a webinar on the use of novel space-based products and services to monitor forest fires that took place during the spring of 2020 in Honduras. The webinar included high ranking authorities and participants from several institutions of Honduras such as the Ministry of Environment (MiAmbiente), the National Forestry Conservation Institute (ICF), the Permanent Contingencies Commission (COPECO), the National Fire Brigade and the Humanitarian Rescue Unit (UHR), alongside participants from CEPREDENAC and UN-SPIDER.
Alexander Ariza, an expert on the use of Earth observation to monitor forest fires, and currently a Visiting Scientist with UN-SPIDER, made a presentation on novel products and services developed by the space community that can be used to track forest fires and associated smoke plums, and to assess the burn severity of forest fires…
read moreWorld Congress on Disaster Management (WCDM) is a unique initiative of DMICS to bring researchers, policy makers and practitioners from around the world in the same platform to discuss various challenging issues of disaster risk management. The mission of WCDM is to promote interaction of science, policy and practices to enhance understanding of risks and advance actions for reducing risks and building resilience to disasters.
The Conference will discuss various topics, including:
The head of the UN-SPIDER Bonn office and a visiting scientist from the Universidad Católica de Manizales conducted a webinar entitled “Introduction to Satellite Products and Services for the Management of Forest Fires” on 10 June. The aim of this webinar was to facilitate the use of space-based information for disaster management and emergency response, in particular to monitor and forecast forest fires.
The event took place on Wednesday, 10 June, at 5pm CEST (time for other time zones indicated in the image below) and was conducted in Spanish.
The recording of the webinar is available online.
The webinar discussed the following topics:
Introduction to UN-SPIDER and UNOOSA
…
At the end of April and the beginning of May 2020, Peten, the northern province or department of Guatemala, experienced severe forest fires that forced Guatemala’s National Coordinating Agency for Disaster Reduction (CONRED) to request the activation of the International Charter Space and Major Disasters to map the geographical extent of the fires.
To support members of Guatemala’s technical, inter-institutional, GIS and remote sensing team for disaster management (GT-SIGER) in addressing the fires and their impact, Dr. Alexander Ariza, a visiting scientist with the UN-SPIDER programme, conducted a webinar on 7 May 2020 to highlight online products and resources that are available to map the burn severity of forest fires.
Forest fires have a major influence on ecosystems…
read moreThe head of the UN-SPIDER Bonn office and a visiting scientist from the Universidad Católica de Manizales will conduct a webinar entitled “Introduction to Satellite Products and Services for the Management of Forest Fires” (in Spanish). The aim of this webinar is to facilitate the use of space-based information for disaster management and emergency response, in particular to monitor and forecast forest fires.
The recording of the webinar is available online.
The webinar will discuss the following topics:
Introduction to UN-SPIDER and UNOOSA
Introduction to satellite atmospheric observations of fire emissions
State-of-the-art Copernicus operational data sets for monitoring smoke and fire emissions to the atmosphere
Copernicus Forest Fire Hazard and ECMWF data offering
Fire-related applications using LSA-SAF…
EO4GEO aims to bridge the skills gap between the supply and demand of education and training in the space/geospatial sectors, fostering the uptake and integration of space/geospatial data and services in a broad range of application domains.
The event includes sessions on: