The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UN-OOSA) and the International Astronautical Federation (IAF) are jointly organizing a Workshop on the theme "Integrated Space Technology Applications - Support to Managing Potentially Hazardous Events", from 26 to 27 September 2008. The Workshop will be held in conjunction with the 59th International Astronautical Congress (IAC), which will take place from 29 September to 3 October 2008 in Glasgow, United Kingdom. Workshop participants selected by the UN and IAF will also be invited to attend the IAC.
This Workshop is the eighteenth meeting jointly organized by the Office for Outer Space Affairs, under the United Nations Programme on Space Applications, and by the International Astronautical Federation. It builds upon the recommendations and experience gained from previous workshops. The UN/IAF Workshop has been endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly as part of the 2008 activities of the United Nations Programme on Space Applications.
The Workshop will address a range of space-related technologies, services and information resources available for support to hazard management from short-term emergency activation of resources to help for long-term planning of mitigation activities. International, regional and national initiatives, such as EU/ESA GMES, International Charter on Space and Major Disasters, GEOSS and the UN-SPIDER, will be presented at the Workshop as well. Primary objectives of this event include the following:
Building upon the success of the 2007 workshop, this year the co-organizers of the Workshop plan to continue a practice of holding a concluding round table with participation of top-level representatives of space agencies, civil protection agencies and other relevant national/regional/international institutions and organizations from both space faring and non-space faring countries in order to establish a direct dialogue with the Workshop participants on how space technologies and policies can contribute to hazard management programmes in developing countries. The round table will also discuss issues and problems in participants' countries as well as open an exchange of pragmatic ideas between decision-makers and leaders from the above-mentioned organizations and participants of the Workshop. The round table will attempt to draw conclusions and to formulate recommendations that will serve as an input to the IAC Plenary Event on this topic which will take place on Wednesday, 1 October 2008.
The deadline for application for participants seeking full or partial funding is 10 June 2008.