UN-SPIDER July 2008 Updates

01 August 2008, 10:28am

Caribbean Region Taking Advantage of Space-based Solutions

A direct result of the recent "United Nations Regional UN-SPIDER Workshop: Building Upon Regional Space-based Solutions for Disaster Management and Emergency Response for the Caribbean" which was held in Barbados, from 8 to 11 July 2008, was the request for activation of the International Charter Space and Major Disasters to monitor the recent activity of the volcano in Montserrat (16.715N, 62.176W) on 29 July 2008. Mr. Rod Stewart, Acting Director of the Montserrat Volcano Observatory participated in the Caribbean workshop where he shared his expertise and learnt of the opportunities available for the Caribbean region. On his return he immediately had the opportunity to take advantage of what he learnt and to contact the people he met in Barbados to help Montserrat to deal with this new potential threat.

Craig A. Batstone, based in Barbados and Managing Director of GeoOrbis, Inc., brought his expertise to the Caribbean workshop and made all participants aware of ImageConnect and access to DigitalGlobe’s imagery library. He also informed everyone of the available Collection Alert service which provides e-mail notifications each time new imagery is collected over a specific area of interest. From those workshop participants that signed up for the Collection Alert service GeoOrbis carried out a random drawing for 25 sq-km of archived imagery. The winner was Elizabeth Klute, Government of Anguilla, Director, Department of Disaster Management. Further info at:

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The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) implements the decisions of the General Assembly and of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space and its two
Subcommittees, the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee and the Legal Subcommittee. The Office is responsible for promoting international cooperation in the peaceful uses of outer space, and assisting developing countries in using space science and technology. Headquartered in Vienna, Austria,
UNOOSA maintains a website at ttp://www.unoosa.org.

In its resolution 61/110 of 14 December 2006 the United Nations General Assembly agreed to establish the "United Nations Platform for Space-based Information for Disaster Management and
Emergency Response - UN-SPIDER" as a programme within UNOOSA. UN-SPIDER focuses on the need to ensure access to and use of space-based solutions during all phases of the disaster management cycle.

www.unoosa.org.

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Workshop information

Geo: International