UN/Austria/ESA Symposium on Space Applications to Support the Plan of Implementation of the World Summit on Sustainable Development
"Space Tools and Solutions for Monitoring the Atmosphere in Support of Sustainable Development"

Graz, Austria, 11 - 14 September 2007

The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, the Government of Austria and the European Space Agency (ESA) in 2006-2008 are jointly organizing the second series of three consecutive symposia to promote activities to carry out the Plan of Implementation of the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), held in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 2002. The first symposium in the current series of symposia, held in September 2006, addressed the benefits provided by space technologies for monitoring air pollution and energy production and use for sustainable development. Building on this event, the Symposium in 2007 will focus on space tools and solutions for monitoring the atmosphere in support of sustainable development, with the aim to support or enable participants to develop and implement projects in this area, and to provide reliable data and information for policy- and decision-making related to such issues as air quality, climate change, ozone and ultra-violet monitoring.

The Symposium will be hosted and co-sponsored by the Government of Austria (Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs and Federal Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology), the State of Styria and the City of Graz. It will also be co-sponsored by ESA. This will be the fourteenth in a series of symposia organized through the United Nations Programme on Space Applications in cooperation with these co-sponsors since 1994. The Symposium programme is supported through contributions by the Austrian Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics (ZAMG), the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the GMES Bureau of the European Commission, the Group on Earth Observations (GEO), the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and others.

The deadline for application for participants seeking full or partial funding support has expired on 22 June 2007.
Applicants have been informed about the outcome of their applications by mid-July 2007.
The Symposium has now ended. All presentations and post-Symposium Information is available here.

Symposium Programme and Presentations:

  • Information Note (PDF format, English only)
  • Final Programme as delivered at the Symposium (PDF format, English only)
  • United Nations Information Service Press Release: "United Nations to Hold Symposium on Space Tools and Solutions for Monitoring the Atmosphere in Support of Sustainable Development"
    UNIS/OS/356 (External Link)
  • Presentations made at the Symposium
  • Report of the Workshop (A/AC.105/904) (available in all official languages of the United Nations)

Reference and Tutorial Materials

Links to Atmosphere-related Data and Websites

Logistical Information for Symposium Participants

  • Hotel Accommodation and Local Information, Symposium Preparation
    • Hotel Reservation Form for self-funded participants (MSWord format, English only)
    • The Symposium will be held at the Space Research Institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Schmiedlstraße 6, 8042 Graz, Austria.
    • Registration Form for non-funded participants, including attendees from the academic and private sector (PDF format, English only)
    • Registration will commence at 8:15 on Tuesday, 11 September 2007.
  • Important notes for participants
    • The Symposium will include a hands-on tutorial and training session to be held in the afternoon of Thursday, 13 September, organized with the support of NASA. The organizers strive to make available a limited number of PC workstations, however, to individually follow the tutorials and training exercises participants are strongly encouraged to bring along their WLAN-enabled notebook computers to the Symposium."
    • For this training session the participants are kindly asked to come prepared with information and descriptions of the types of measurements (i.e., ground-based data) that are available to them in their region - the more specific the better.
    • To make the training session and discussions at the Symposium most efficient, participants should also be prepared to describe the type of air quality activities they are involved with (e.g., management analysis and decisions they make, any policy issues they're trying to analyze and address) and specific problems/challenges they face that may then be addressed during the training session. Preferably this information should be given to the trainers at the beginning of the Symposium.
    • Funded participants are reminded to prepare a short presentation of approximately 10 minutes duration on their professional work related to the Symposium theme prior to their arrival in Graz. The presentations will be delivered as part of the Symposium programme and may also include ideas on how to implement particular recommendations, proposals for starting new initiatives or for further enhancing ongoing or planned projects and programmes. Please send an electronic copy your presentation or a one-page abstract thereof to Mr. Levent Canturk (E-mail: Levent.Canturk@unvienna.org) and Mr. Werner Balogh (E-mail: Werner.Balogh@unvienna.org) by 17 August 2007.
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