Geoinformation for Disaster and Risk Management - ISPRS

An exemplary case: The African Sub-Sahara
Flood/Disease SensorWeb Pilot Project
The following outline demonstrates how various UN-
SPIDER activities may translate into concrete
projects.
Disaster management agencies in the Southern
African Region have to adapt to an increasing
number of natural disasters mainly caused by floods
and drought. The effects of global climate change will
most probably aggravate this situation and
substantially increase the economic impact,
threatening the livelihoods of an increasing number
of people. In addition, vector borne diseases and
Figure 10: Network of Regional Support Offices, National Focal Points
epidemics of weather- and climate-sensitive
infectious diseases, including malaria, meningitis,
and cholera, cause massive disruption to societies
and put a heavy burden on national and local health
systems.
During the floods in Namibia in March 2008, the UN-
SPIDER team was instrumental in ensuring access to
the International Charter Space and Major Disasters
and other opportunities to support the Namibian
government with satellite data. A severe flood had
started at the end of January and reached its peak
around mid-March. The Namibian government
declared the state of emergency on 5 March. A
request to provide satellite imagery for the northern
and north-eastern regions of Namibia reached
UNOOSA from the Department of Water Affairs,
Ministry of Agriculture Water and Forestry (MAWF),
and the country office of the United Nations
Development Program (UNDP) in Namibia, asking
for international support to obtain high resolution,
cloud free satellite imagery on a priority basis.
Subsequently, on March 14, UNOOSA activated the
International Charter to help Namibia to manage the
impacts of the floods including the outbreak of
cholera. UN-SPIDER provided support and followedup
closely with both UNDP and the Department of
Water Affairs of Namibia, helping the country to take
full advantage of international support.
In January 2009 the Government of Namibia
requested a Technical Advisory Mission of UN-
SPIDER to assess the existing use of space-based
technology and information for disaster
management and emergency response in Namibia.
Specifically, the mission was requested to identify
potential areas where space-based technology and
information could play a greater role, and to propose
recommendations on how to improve Namibia's
access to and use of space-based technology and
information. Following a meeting during the
International UN-SPIDER Workshop in October 2008
in Bonn, with the governmental focal point for the
mission, the Department of Water Affairs, Ministry of
Agriculture Water and Forestry, three experts from
UN-SPIDER and the German Aerospace Center's
crisis information team (DLR/ZKI) were fielded to
Windhoek, Namibia from 27 January to 2 February
2009 to provide technical advice and train local
experts in remote sensing techniques for flood
mapping. A two day kick-off workshop on 29 and 30
January 2009 brought together relevant disaster
management stakeholders to evaluate past
experiences and formulate lessons learnt.
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