United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs

28 July 2008 - UNOOSA/UN-SPIDER received thanks from the China National Committee for Disaster Reduction (CNCDR) and the National Disaster Reduction Centre of China (NDRCC) for providing support to China during the recent catastrophic Wenchuan Earthquake which occurred on 12 May 2008. The National Disaster Reduction Centre of China (NDRCC) took the lead in using space-based information to support the emergency relief efforts. The UN-SPIDER Support Team, a group of experts made available by NDRCC for the upcoming UN-SPIDER Beijing Office, coordinated the work of nearly 40 analysts, mostly volunteers (see picture Mr. Liu San Chao, Ms. Li Suju ,Head of the UN-SPIDER Support Team, and Mr. Wei Wu, 7 June 2008). The thank-you letter specifically recognised that the support received from UN-SPIDER helped China "coordinate with international agencies to provide to us satellite images of the earthquake areas" and that this was "very helpful in our timely acquirement of first hand information for the disaster assessment." In particular they thanked UN-SPIDER Programme Coordinator, David Stevens, "who came to Beijing and provided useful suggestions about our work". The support received "played a unique role in assisting our estimation about the magnitude of damage and greatly empowered the rescue and relief efforts to reduce the casualties and damage. While expressing our gratitude to your institution for your timely and most needed support, I wish that we continue our close cooperation in application for space technologies in disaster prevention and reduction for benefiting the people." China has been a major supporter of UN-SPIDER.

08 July 2008 - From 08 to 11 July 2008, more than 60 participants from Caribbean attended a UN-SPIDER workshop on Space-based Solutions for Disaster Management in the Caribbean region. The workshop brought together disaster managers from civil protection agencies, satellite technology and remote sensing experts, representatives from UN agencies and other institutions working in the region to discuss how satellite-based information and technology can improve disaster management. "Satellite-based information already plays an important role in the Caribbean for early warning and damage assessment but we have not yet fully utilized its great potential for disaster preparedness and risk reduction" says David Stevens, the UN-SPIDER coordinator. The Caribbean is regularly hit by hurricanes and tropical storms but volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, floods and landslides also constitute important hazards in the region. Additional information on the workshop can be found here.