The International Charter Space and Major Disasters, which was launched in the fall of th year 2000, has been activated on 01 August 2016 for the 500th time to support emergency relief efforts in Bangladesh due to extreme floods. The request for activation was elevated by ADRC on behaf of SPARRSO of Bangladesh; and the Asian Institute of Technology has been designated as the project manager for this activation.
This activation marks a new milestone in the long history of activations of the Charter; which currently includes 15 members. Since its launch sixteen years ago, the Charter has supported emergency relief efforts in many countries around the world through the provision of space-based information. Since January 2016, the Charter has been activated 19 times. In most cases, the Charter has been activated due to extremely large floods, as in the recent case in Bangladesh. During 2016 the Charter was also activated in case of forest fires, tornadoes, cyclones, earthquakes, and volcanic activity.
As a way to facilitate its activation in case of disasters, a few years ago the Charter introduced the Principle of Universal Access, allowing national disaster management authorities to request its activation in case of large disasters. UN-SPIDER and Charter members have been working together to engage national disaster management agencies in Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa and Asia to become Authorised Users. For more information on the principle of Universal Access and Authorised Users, please click here.
