In 2012, UN-SPIDER carried out a Technical Advisory Mission to Mozambique in order to assess existing disaster and risk reduction activities as well as policies and plans with regard to the use of space-based technologies. One of the recommendations included in the expert team's assessment included the building of national capacities to use remotely sensed data for disasters.
Experts from the University of Cologne and the University of Applied Sciences in Cologne (both in Germany), National Disaster Reduction Center of China (NDRCC) and from UN-SPIDER (Vienna and Beijing).
Eight organizations in Mozambique that are involved in data management of disasters, under which National Institute of Disaster Management (INGC), the national Centre of Cartography and Remote Sensing (CENACARTA), National Institute of Meteorology (IIAM) and two Universities (Mozambique Technical University and Eduardo Mondlane University).
Topics covered in the training course included the use of remote sensing techniques for flood forecasting and flood detection, drought monitoring, rapid mapping of disasters and GIS techniques to evaluate the impact of disasters on the population.
The participants were actively involved in the processing of digital elevation models, rainfall data, satellite imagery and geographic data on infrastructure, utilities and population. The training took place at a computer laboratory of the Eduardo Mondlane University, one year after the mission team of a UN-SPIDER Technical Advisory Mission in 2012 had evaluated the current and potential use of space-based information for disaster management in Mozambique.
