Draft Concept Note for the UN-GGIM WG-Disasters Conference 2020
Relevant geospatial organizations of the United Nations Member States are transforming our world by interdisciplinary and cross-sector cooperation with other government organizations, academia, and the private sector, among others. We contribute to the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals. We assist better understanding, management, and reduction of disaster risks. We support building back better from the disasters.
As a co-chair of the Working Group on Geospatial Information and Services for Disasters (WG-Disasters) under the United Nations Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM), Japan, with support from relevant bodies, hosts a conference on the disaster response and the disaster risk management within the context of geospatial information management. The aim of the conference will be a knowledge sharing on the importance of broad partnerships in the context of disaster response and disaster risk management. In particular, the focus of the conference will be on the development of a common global knowledge on the implementation that creates tangible values by making use of the recent development in geodesy and in web maps.
Geodesy measures and monitors the shape of the Earth and its spatiotemporal variation. In order to understand accurately the scale and the mechanism of disasters by the events such as earthquakes, volcanic activities, and tsunamis, geodesy plays a vital role in the measurements and monitoring as an essential technology. Geodesy, exemplified by the recent development of the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), is continuously making significant progress in contributing to the Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) in global, regional, and national levels. Significant progress has been made in the global geodetic collaboration through coordination by the Global Geodetic Observing System (GGOS), and in the crustal movement monitoring utilizing national observation network of GNSS Continuously Operating Reference Stations (CORS). In the first session of the conference titled “Contribution of Geodesy and Geospatial Information to Disaster Risk Reduction” we share the activities in geodesy for DRR. The activities we cover will include GNSS tsunami early warning led by the global geodetic community, GGOS, and the monitoring and the mechanism estimating of earthquakes and volcanic activities by national GNSS CORS networks. In this session we are also discussing further applications of geodesy and international cooperation to implement such applications.
In the disaster response, various organizations in different departments, disciplines, and sectors are making use of geospatial information. Better coordination between the National Geospatial Information Authority (NGIA) and other disaster-related organizations is promising in transforming digital disaster response. In the second session titled “Utilization of Geospatial Information by Stakeholders of Disaster Risk Reduction” we are sharing with diverse organization how various data and geospatial information are contributing to disaster response. We are also discussing the importance of broad partnerships in the disaster response and the disaster risk management.
Each Member State and organization have different expertise on the application of geospatial information for disaster response and building resilience due to the difference of the types of disasters, the difference of regions, and the difference of states. In the third session titled “Disaster Response and Building Resilience using Geospatial Information” we share experience before, during, and after disasters. We also discuss how we should promote building resilience against various disasters using geospatial information.
In responding disasters, geospatial information faces a great trial on its relevance, timeliness, and accuracy. An optimized and swift geospatial information delivery method enables the delivery of the actual values to the responders in need of geospatial information, and to the decision makers. Geospatial information organizations can deliver values from the geospatial information by sharing such delivery methods. In the fourth session titled “Geospatial Technology against Disasters” we are sharing various activities on the delivery of geospatial information to the fields and decision makers, including the United Nations Vector Tile Toolkit (UNVT) under the United Nations Open GIS Initiative. We are also discussing how we can combine efforts in geospatial technologies.
In the afternoon on the second day of the conference, we conduct a scenario-based exercise hosted by the Task Group B of the UN-GGIM WG-Disasters. Each participant of the exercise will implement a small web-based disaster geospatial information sharing platform on a single-board computer using the UNVT developed under the United Nations Open GIS Initiative.
A technical tour for the United Nations Member State government officers and the staff of international organizations will follow the conference.
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