From 9 to 11 May, UN-SPIDER carried out an institutional strengthening mission to support the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO) in its planning of the earthquake simulation to take place in June 2022. The simulation is being organized by NADMO with several government agencies and benefits from the support of the North Dakota National Guard of the United States. The simulation exercise will be based on a hypothethical earthquake that impacts the southern part of Ghana, triggering impacts in communities and several sectors of development. May government agencies will participate in the exercise.
UN-SPIDER proposed a simulated activation of the International Charter Space and Major Disasters to be included in this exercise to raise awareness regarding the provision of space-based information for disaster response efforts which is provided by this emergency mechanism free of charge to national disaster management agencies.
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National Disaster Management Organization of Ghana (NADMO)
The mission included meetings with the Director General of NADMO, with staff of NADMO, and the participation of UN-SPIDER in a meeting of government agencies under the Ministry of Interior, where the Director of NADMO provided information on the earthquake simulation exercise and on the contribution of UN-SPIDER to enhance the use of space technologies in NADMO.
UN-SPIDER used the opportunity to make staff from different government agencies and officers of the North Dakota National Guard aware the International Charter Space and Major Disasters as one of several mechanisms established by the Space community to support disaster response efforts worldwide. The International Charter provides space-based information to national disaster management agencies free of charge to contribute to disaster response efforts. Since 2019, NADMO has been an Authorised User of the International Charter. UN-SPIDER also used the opportunity to share lessons learned from the impacts of earthquakes in Haiti and in Indonesia, as well as on the lessons learned regarding simulations carried out in other countries.
The mission was also used to discuss the Flood GUIDE project, where NADMO is a partner representing Ghana; and to discuss potential future activities, including upcoming events in Bonn and in Africa.
This is event is available for participation on an ongoing basis
What is World Space Week?
World Space Week is an international celebration of science and technology, and their contribution to the betterment of the human condition. The United Nations General Assembly declared in 1999 that World Space Week will be held each year from October 4-10. These dates commemorate two events:
The National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA), UN-SPIDER and the Centre for Remote Sensing of Land Surfaces (ZFL) of the University of Bonn organized a 3-day interinstitutional workshop to improve disaster preparedness in case of very large floods in Nigeria.
What is biodiversity? How do flowers affect us and the environment? And how are they related to spaceflight? For primary school children to be able to investigate these exciting questions, the German Space Agency at DLR sent two kilograms of wildflower seeds to the International Space Station ISS on 29 August 2021.
These 'space seeds' were on the International Space Station (ISS) together with German European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Matthias Maurer during his Cosmic Kiss mission. They landed safely back on Earth on 24 January 2022.
Last year alone, natural disasters struck over 430 times around the globe, wreaking havoc on communities and their livelihoods. In total, these events affected 101.8 million people. More than 10,000 people lost their lives, while the economic damage surpassed $250 billion. Countries globally must become better prepared to deal with these situations by employing the newest solutions, including those enabled by space assets.
The event was organised by the SAARC Disaster Management Centre with support from the UN-SPIDER programme of the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs and International Water Management Institute (IWMI), one of the 26 regional support offices of UN-SPIDER, and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research. The workshop was attended by over 25 participants from Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
