PresentationsThursday, 7 November 2019 - Hands-on sessions Friday, 8 November 2019 | Agenda (PDF)Photos from the eventBackground information about the conferenceConference report |
Image credit: DLR (CC-BY 3.0)
| Wednesday, 6 November 2019 |
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08:30 – 09:00 | Registration |
09:00 – 09:30 AAH
| Opening and Welcome Remarks
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09:30 – 10:00 | Keynote
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10:00 – 10:30 | Keynote
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10:30 – 11:00 | Coffee break (in front of the AAH lower-level conference room) |
11:00 – 12:30 | Introductory Presentation
Panel 1 – Space Technologies for Disaster Management in Africa [presentation] Moderator: Joachim Post, DLR
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12:30 – 14:00 | Light lunch provided in area in front of the AAH lower-level conference room |
14:00 – 15:30 | Parallel sessions 1 and 2 Session 1 – Solutions – Recent initiatives in Africa
Q & A |
14:00 – 15:30 | Session 2 – Solutions – Capacity-building in Innovative Solutions for Disaster Management
Q & A |
15:30 – 16:00 | Coffee break (in front of the AAH lower-level conference room) |
16:00 – 17:30 | Parallel sessions 3 and 4 Session 3 – Partnerships and Initiatives Supporting Disaster Management in Africa
Q & A |
16:00 – 17:30 | Session 4 – Advances in Space Technology Applications
Q & A |
| Thursday, 7 November 2019 |
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09:00 – 09:30 | Short plenary session with lightning presentations (3 min) to introduce the activities of the day. A laptop will be required to participate in these hands-on sessions. |
09:30 – 10:30
LEU 2705 | Applications I – Hands-on sessions on:
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10:00 – 10:30 | Coffee break (in front of the AAH lower-level conference room) |
10:30 – 12:30 | Applications I - Sessions continue |
12:30 – 14:00 | Light lunch provided in area in front of the AAH lower-level conference room |
14:00 – 15:30 AAH Lower-level conference room LEU 2112LEU 2705 LEU 2516 | Applications II - Hands-on sessions on:
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15:30 – 16:00 | Coffee break (in front of the AAH lower-level conference room) |
16:00 – 17:30 | Applications II - Sessions continue |
Morning or afternoon | Parallel activities for decision-makers from Africa |
| Friday, 8 November 2019 |
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09:00 – 09:30 | Summary of hands-on sessions |
09:30 – 10:00 | Innovative solutions for disaster management in Africa
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10:00 – 10:30 | Coffee break (in front of the AAH lower-level conference room) |
10:30 – 12:00 | Summary and the Way Forward Panel 2 – Challenges in the Use of Space-Based Information for Disaster Management in Africa Moderator: UN-SPIDER and ZFL
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12:00 – 12:30 | Discussion - Conclusions |
12:30 – 13:00 | Closing Remarks: Summary and the Way Forward |
13:00 | Conference ends |
Afternoon | Bilateral meetings between UNOOSA/UN-SPIDER and participants from Africa |
Background information
Natural and man-made disasters cause tremendous damage to societies around the world. They lead to loss of lives and property, displace people from their homes and destroy livelihoods, and disrupt sustainable development efforts worldwide. Developing countries are particularly susceptible to the impact of disasters as societies are more vulnerable and exposed, and less resilient to recover when disasters strike.
Convinced that space technologies can play a vital role in supporting disaster management, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) established the United Nations Platform for Space-based Information for Disaster Management and Emergency Response (UN-SPIDER) in 2006 as a programme to be implemented by the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA). The General Assembly mandated UN-SPIDER to provide universal access to all countries and all relevant international and regional organizations to all types of space-based information and services relevant to disaster management to support the full disaster management cycle.
In recent years, the quality of satellite sensors, access to and use of satellite imagery and Earth observation services has significantly improved, with more and more space agencies embracing open data policies that facilitate access to archived and up-to-date imagery. Such remotely-sensed data can be combined with in situ information from a variety of sensors and with other data sources such as crowdsourced geotagged images to generate relevant information. Through Big Data approaches, diverse data sources can be used synergistically to create insights that would not be possible through the exploitation of a single source. The increasing presence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques in remote sensing, such as deep learning, helps mine the massive amounts of big space data more efficiently, for instance to quickly determine whether a road is still passable or not following a disaster.
Taking note of these advances in space technologies and other technological advances, the African Union outlined in its 2017 African Space Policy that space represents a unique opportunity for cooperation in using and sharing enabling infrastructure and data towards the proactive management of responses to natural hazards and disasters, amongst other fields. In this way, the African Union aims to promote the use of space applications for improving weather forecasts and to develop a range of early warning systems, as Africa is subject to various extreme weather, climate, ecosystem and geological events.
Strengthening technical skills and setting up institutional and inter-institutional structures is important to ensure that the benefits of space-based information reach civil protection agencies and other actors involved in disaster management activities. Partnerships can facilitate access to data, for instance through emergency mechanisms such as the International Charter Space and Major Disasters. Recently, the European Union and the Government of Germany identified international cooperation with Africa as one of the priorities as highlighted in the Marshall Plan with Africa of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the Africa Strategy 2014-2018 of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the G20 Compact with Africa.
This International Conference will take up the issues raised above and continue identifying challenges, highlight solutions and encourage partnerships for using space technologies for disaster management in Africa.
Objectives and expected outcomes
The International Conference aims to contribute to an increased use of big space data approaches and satellite-based application in African countries to respond to challenges posed by natural hazards. More specifically, the event aims to:
- Showcase recent advances and identify challenges to the use of space-based information, big data approaches and artificial intelligence techniques such as machine learning in disaster management in Africa.
- Present and provide a hands-on experience of space-based applications through tutorials on technical solutions ranging from standalone desktop packages to cloud computing environments that facilitate the access to and use of space-based data and information products for disaster management.
- Build on the outcomes of UNOOSA international conferences and symposia to identify capacity-building needs and opportunities regarding full use of the increasing amount of space-based information and new techniques to access, combine, process, analyze and present the data.
- Provide a forum to discuss partnerships to facilitate access to data and applications tailored to the needs of disaster management stakeholders in Africa.
Financial support
Due to funding constraints, the organizers will be able to offer support to only a limited number of participants from Member States. The support will defray the cost of travel (round-trip ticket - most economic fare - between the airport of international departure in their country of residence and Bonn, Germany) and/or room and board expenses during the duration of the event.
Life and health insurances
Life/major health insurance for each of the selected participants is necessary and is the responsibility of the candidate or his/her institution or Government. The organizers will not assume any responsibility for life and major health insurance, nor for expenses related to medical treatment or accidents. Please pay attention to the online application form when registering for the conference.
