Geoinformation for Disaster and Risk Management - ISPRS

Alternatively, technical advice to national institutions
may also be provided by other means such as
bilateral meetings, telecommunication, video
conference, or by facilitating direct cooperation
between the national institution and providers of
space-based information.
Up to March 2010, UN-SPIDER has carried out
formal Technical Advisory Missions to Burkina Faso,
Ecuador, the Dominican Republic, Fiji, Ghana, Haiti,
Jamaica, Namibia, Samoa, and Togo.
Capacity-building
Capacity-building efforts are essential for UN-
SPIDER to fulfil its mission in developing countries.
Capacity-building goes beyond training of
individuals, and includes the strengthening of
institutional frameworks and procedures. Shortterm
training programmes target specific contents,
such as particular tools or processes, with the aim of
strengthening the capacity of individuals. Long-term
activities are tailored to enhance capacities of
agencies or to enhance the synergies among them.
Activities in this component include workshops and
exercises (2- 5 days), short, intensive training events
(spring or summer schools, block courses, 1- 3
weeks), and courses (one to several months).
Workshops will target very specific topics and will be
structured in such a way that they concentrate on
specific skills. In a similar fashion, contingency and
near-real-time exercises will be set up with realistic
scenarios in mind to complement other training
activities.
Short, intensive training events (for example spring
and summer schools or block courses) will include
lectures as well as hands-on training on basic space
technology utilization, GIS, interpretation and
visualization of spatial data, and applications via
examples and case studies.
Courses will provide an overall view to use spacebased
information for disaster and risk management,
targeting the use of this information for a variety of
hazards and, in the case of emergency response,
addressing not only the use of information, but also
other spatial applications such as GNSS and satellite
communications.
Training activities are carried out through the
network of Regional Centres on Space Science and
Technology Education affiliated to the United
Nations, as well as other Centres of Excellence such
as the International Institute for Geo-Information
Science and Earth Observation (ITC) in the
Netherlands, the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT)
in Thailand, the University of Salzburg Centre for
Geoinformatics (Z_GIS) in Austria, and with the
support of space centres such as the German
Aerospace Center (DLR).
The capacity-building efforts are coordinated with
the support of the Regional Support Offices and
National Focal Points, and with other regional and
international organizations such as the International
Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR); the Group on
Earth Observations (GEO); United Nations agencies,
such as the UN Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), the World
Meteorological Organization (WMO), the United
Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO); and regional organizations
targeting risk reduction and emergency response
such as the Coordinating Centre for the Prevention of
Natural Disasters in Central America (CEPREDENAC)
and Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response
Agency (CDERA) in the American hemisphere; the
Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC) and the
Asian Disaster Reduction Centre (ADRC) in Asia; and
the International Federation of the Red Cross and
Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).
The UN-SPIDER Knowledge Portal: A Webbased
Platform for Information and
Communication
What is the Knowledge Portal?
The Knowledge Portal is UN-SPIDER's response to
the need for a comprehensive information gateway
to space-based information for disaster management
support. It is a web portal for information,
communication and process support and offers
orientation and guidance, and provides updates on
the latest UN-SPIDER activities. Information on
SpaceAid and updates on current disasters is issued,
as are reports about Technical Advisory Missions
and UN-SPIDER workshops. Questions about
availability, quality, accessibility and costs of spacebased
information are answered on the Portal.
The portal is open to the public and anyone involved
in the fields of disaster management and/or satellite
technology. You are cordially invited to visit
http://www.un-spider.org and register as a user.
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