The European Space Agency (ESA) organized its Living Planet Symposium at the World Conference Centre in Bonn, Germany, from 23 to 27 May. The symposium, attended by more than 4,000 participants, included scientific sessions, networking sessions and an Agora open forum with additional open sessions.
The German Aerospace Centre (DLR) and UN-SPIDER joined forces to organize a networking session to bring together experts and participants to discuss ways to use the solutions developed by the space community and to identify challenges in developing countries that inhibit the use of such solutions. The networking session included technical presentations by DLR, the Centre for Remote Sensing of Land Surfaces of the University of Bonn (ZFL) and UN-SPIDER.
DLR made participants aware of the efforts carried out at the Crisis Situation Centre (ZKI) which was established by DLR more than a decade ago to support disaster response efforts and humanitarian assistance through the provision of space-based information.
In the case of ZFL, participants took note of the ongoing project implemented with DLR to facilitate the uptake of Copernicus solutions in developing countries through capacity building efforts.
UN-SPIDER made participants aware of its efforts to link the space and the disaster management communities and to raise awareness regarding solutions developed by the space community to support disaster management efforts.
To start the discussion session, UN-SPIDER shared its experience and lessons learned regarding the challenges that it has to address when promoting the use of space-based solutions in disaster management agencies in developing countries. Several participants engaged in disaster relief operations also shared their experience and lessons learned regarding access to space-based information in case of disasters where typical information and communication technologies are temporarily damaged and there is reduced internet bandwidth.
More information on the presentations and discussion is available in the report available below.
More information on the ESA Living Planet Symposion via this link.
