The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), the Government of Costa Rica, and the Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water (PSIPW) are jointly organizing a conference to promote the use of space technology in water management to the benefit of developing countries.
The Conference will be held in San José, Costa Rica, from 7-10 May 2024, hosted by and with the support of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) on behalf of the Government of Costa Rica.
The Conference is the sixth international event focusing on applications of space technology for water in the series of conferences organised with the financial assistance of the PSIPW.
The initial event, on space technology for water management, took place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in April 2008, the second conference was organized in March 2011 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the third conference in Rabat, Morocco in April 2014, the fourth in Islamabad, Pakistan in February-March 2018 and the fifth in Accra, Ghana in May 2022.
The objectives of the conference are:
- To raise awareness on and expand the use of space technologies and space-based data for better application in hydrology, water resource management, ecosystem preservation and within the context of the Water-Food Nexus;
- To further the active exchange of knowledge between government authorities, technical experts and academia, the private sector and civil society via technical presentations, panel discussions and networking opportunities;
- To demonstrate how projects using space applications have successfully informed decision-making and policy;
- To demonstrate space-related activities, services and cooperation programmes among different user groups, in particular government officials, the diplomatic community, UN and international agencies as well as NGOs;
- To build capacity on topics relevant to Latin America and the Caribbean; and
- To exchange on and co-develop solutions for pressing water challenges
- To report to the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space through the Scientific and Technical Sub-committee.
