Satellite data in support of Climate Resilience

Frascati – On July 22, 2015, ESA-ESRIN held a unique Earth Observation (EO) Advocacy Event for Climate Resilience that aimed to showcase how EO satellites can help support climate monitoring and enhance resilience of our society to climate change and natural variability. The advocacy event was part of the 8th PPCR Pilot Countries Meeting organised by the Climate Investment Funds (CIF) and hosted by ESA-ESRIN in Frascati from July 19-23, 2015.

The event was attended by more than 80 participants representing 24 countries from Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and the Carribbean. Representatives of pilot countries to the Pilot Program for Climate Resilience (PPCR) were brought together with representatives of Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) – including World Bank, Asian Development Bank, Inter American Development Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and African Development Bank - as well as other partners involved in the PPCR (e.g. IFAD, FAO) to orient and introduce new pilot countries to the PPCR.

The EO for Climate Resilience Advocacy event gave an overview of ESA’s EO missions, the general capabilities of monitoring climate from space and the Copernicus Climate Change service, through keynote talks from Prof. Volker Liebig (Head of ESA-ESRIN), Prof. Stephen Briggs (ESA and Chairman of GCOS) and Dr. Jean-Noel Thepaut (ECMWF). Additional presentations showcased the results of the ESA initiatives in support of World Bank (EOworld) and Asian Development Bank (EOTAP) projects, highlighting the use of EO data for climate monitoring, disaster risk management, climate-health services or flood monitoring.

The event has raised awareness about the potential of Earth Observation and its applications for International Development to key decision makers, who are now inspired and interested to further explore the use of EO and climate change services within their climate resilience efforts.

"After yesterday's discussions, I plan on returning to my country to design a holistic strategy to strengthen the technical and human capacity to improve the delivery of climate services and products in Honduras."
Ing. Elvis Yovanni Rodas Flores, Vice-Minister of Energy, Honduras

"The Pilot Countries Meeting was very informative, especially to new PPCR countries, because when we came here, we did not have much information on PPCR at the country level. In terms of the presentations we had yesterday, and as a result of the discussions I had, the first thing I will do when I return home is inform the ministers why we need to invest in hydrometeorological services. My ministry allocates resources to agencies, and previously I had not known of the importance of hydrometeorological services. I am now fully convinced of their importance."
Wangchuk Namgay, Gross National Happiness Commission, Bhutan

"For me to know that ESA is an organization with an open philosophy and that any user can start a dialogue with them - this is tremendous."
Rose-May Guignard, Comité Interministériel d’Aménagement du Territoire (CIAT), Haiti

"The presentations were useful, particularly the concrete examples on integration of earth observation data and field data that may inform our projects in the Caribbean region."
Gaetano Vivo, Disaster Risk Management Specialist, World Bank

EO Advocacy Event presentations

Overview
List of participants
Welcome & Opening talk on EO capability (Volker Liebig, ESA)
GCOS and the importance of observations from space (Stephen Briggs, ESA and GCOS)
Copernicus Climate Change Service (Jean-Noel Thépaut, ECMWF)
The TIGER INITIATIVE – Looking after Water in Africa (Benjamin Koetz, ESA)
Transnational water information services to determine changes of vulnerable inland and coastal waters (Thomas Heege, EOMAP)
Macroalgae mapping in the Pacific island of Tuvalu (Sophie Baudel, CLS)
Contribution of satellite Earth Observation to Disaster Risk Management (Philippe Bally, ESA)
EOTAP project in Timor-Leste – Climate risk screening of transport infrastructure (Mikael Kamp Sorensen, DHI GRAS)
Transport infrastructure change in Asia Pacific – A view from Space (Domenico Grandoni, E-GEOS)
Enabling technologies for Climate-Health services – Cross-disciplinary experts as a key factor (Simone Mantovani, MEEO)
Interactive maps on historical floods in the context of climate resilience in Sri Lanka (Nicolas Dosselaere, nazka mapps)
RIICE – Remote sensing based Information and Insurance for Crops in Emerging countries (Francesco Holecz, sarmap)
Online Resource for Mainstreaming Climate Resilience – Special Module: Earth Observation and its Applications on Climate Services (Pierre-Philippe Mathieu, ESA)
Taking the Pulse of our Planet (Pierre-Philippe Mathieu, ESA)

References

2015-07-27