P. O. Box 500, a-1400, Vienna, Austria. Corrections will be issued in a consolidated corrigendum

 

COPUOS/T.551 

Page 17

 

goals, means and tasks.  Romania is ready to further 

contribute, support and accomplish specific projects to 

be defined as follow-up of the work of the Action 

Teams. 

 

 

Mr. Chairman and distinguished delegates, my 

delegation considers that space technology is not only 

able, but should play a crucial role in the risks 

mitigation and in the improvement of the quality of life 

on Earth.  Efforts should be done to generate synergic 

cooperation between national agencies and 

international organizations, which conduct projects and 

systems for disaster management, and a better access to 

information and data could be one of the first goals the 

Subcommittee might take into account. 

 

 

I would like to recall, Mr. Chairman, that 

space technology has been operationally utilized by 

Romania for the monitoring of the disastrous floods 

occurred during July 2005 and April-May 2006.  The 

International Charter “Space and Major Disaster” has 

been triggered twice by Romania and radar and optical 

satellite information has been acquired and processed 

by cooperation with the French Space Agency and with 

the German Space Agency and the Romanian Space 

Agency.  The Romanian authorities were daily 

informed on the flooding evolution and disaster maps 

containing pertinent information of the flooded areas 

were produced, together with 3-dimensional fly-

throughs of the flooded areas.  And having this already 

new experience on the utilization of space technology 

for disaster management, my delegation has a new 

argument to further support the activities of the Ad 

Hoc Group of Experts towards the development of an 

international entity devoted to space and disasters, 

DMISCO. 

 

 

Mr. Chairman, regarding the agenda items 

concerning space and society, my delegation agreed 

with the need to develop specific action plans for 

incorporating outer space into education, enhancing 

education in space, expanding space tools for education 

and fostering the wide promotion of space concepts 

and applications among social and business life. 

 

 

My delegation also agreed with the 

development of the theme “Space and Water” and 

supports the initiatives organized by the United 

Nations and member States in the field. 

 

 

Regarding the discussions around the 

recommendations of the World Summit on the 

Information Society, our opinion included the fact that 

space assets are essential components of the 

information era.  The new developments and the 

generalization of the geospatial information systems 

are clearly supported by the GNSS, SATCOM and 

Earth observation and it might be important that the 

global information society planners should have the 

requested awareness about the existing space tools. 

 

 

Mr. Chairman, I am asking for the permission 

to reiterate the fact that Romania, a country with 

tradition and development in the field of space science, 

aerospace technology and space applications, will 

continue to give the space activities a driving role in 

the fields of national science and technology and 

development and security programmes. 

 

 

Mr. Chairman, my delegation will ask you for 

taking the floor during the specific items of the agenda 

we might be able to be concerned. 

 

 

Thank you Mr. Chairman and distinguished 

delegates for your attention. 

 

 

The CHAIRMAN 

(interpretation from 

French):  Thank you very much Mr. Piso for your very 

thorough statement.  Might I congratulate you upon the 

signature of the Agreement with the European Space 

Agency that means participation in the specific 

programme that has been set up by the ESA in order to 

facilitate the participation of Central European 

countries in the work of the Agency.  I know that in 

Romania the application of space technology has a 

long tradition.  It goes back a long way and I 

personally had the opportunity to see what work is 

being done in your country and I know from what your 

delegation has told me that you are in a position to 

make a very active contribution to this Committee and 

I would like to thank you in advance for that. 

 

 

I do not see any further delegations of 

member States on the speakers list this afternoon.  

However, we have a request from an observer State, 

namely the International Society for Photogrammetry 

and Remote Sensing, represented here by Professor Ian 

Dowman, whom I first met perhaps some 20 years ago.  

And I am delighted to give Professor Dowman the 

floor now to present a statement on behalf of the 

ISPRS. 

 

 

Professor Dowman, you have the floor. 

 

 

Mr. I. DOWMAN (International Society for 

Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing):  Mr. Chairman, 

distinguished delegates, thank you for this opportunity 

to participate I the forty-ninth session of the Committee 

on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space under your 

distinguished chairmanship and we congratulate you on 

your election to this position, particularly in view of 

your long association with ISPRS. 

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COPUOS/T.551 

Page 18 

 

 

 

 

We would also wish to thank the Director and 

staff of the Office for Outer Space Affairs for their 

work in support of the use of space data for the benefit 

of society and particularly in the area of disaster 

management and the operation of DMISCO. 

 

 

Mr. Chairman, as a non-governmental 

international organization devoted to the development 

of international cooperation for the advancement of 

photogrammetry and remote sensing and their 

applications, the International Society for 

Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing wishes to bring 

to your attention some of the activities of ISPRS during 

the past year which are relevant to the deliberations of 

COPUOS and to comment on the agenda items which 

are important to ISPRS. 

 

 

We note the continued activities of COPUOS 

in implementing the recommendations from 

UNISPACE III.  But we also note the continued 

development of the Group on Earth Observation, GEO.  

ISPRS is a Participating Organization of GEO and is 

active in the committees and task teams of the 

Organization.  We note that many organizations, 

including the Office for Outer Space Affairs and the 

Committee for Earth Observation Satellite, CEOS, will 

be participating in the implementation of the Global 

Earth Observing System of Systems, GEOSS.  Many of 

these activities overlap with the recommendations of 

UNISPACE III and we urge the Committee to ensure 

that these activities are coordinated. 

 

 

ISPRS believes that one of the most important 

components of the implementation of GEOSS is 

capacity-building.  And, once again, we urge that 

organizations collaborate in capacity-building 

activities, through GEO, to ensure that efforts are not 

duplicated and that maximum efficiency is obtained 

from such efforts.  ISPRS has combined its 

commitment to GEO and its mission of promoting 

Earth observation to developing nations, particularly in 

the current period in Africa.  We have co-sponsored 

with the Institute of Electrical and Electronic 

Engineers, IEEE, a Workshop in Africa on GEOSS in 

which we particularly looked to get feedback on user 

requirements which could be fed into the 

Implementation Plan of GEO.  We would particularly 

like to thank the Office for Outer Space Affairs and the 

Programme Officers for Outer Space Affairs for their 

support of this activity. 

 

 

We planned further activities in this area 

which include an ISPRS Symposium on “Geospatial 

Databases for Sustainable Development”, to be held in 

Goa in India from 27 to 30 September.  And that is 

immediately after the Second International Symposium 

on “Geo-Information for Disaster Management”, also 

in Goa, which is supported by the Office for Outer 

Space Affairs. 

 

 

ISPRS will also organize sessions on 

capacity-building at the Conference of the African 

Association of Remote Sensing of the Environment, to 

be held in Cairo from 30 October to 4 November and 

also at the Map World Forum, to be held in Hyderabad 

in India in January 2007. 

 

 

Another activity of interest is the Symposium 

on the ISPRS Commission VIII on “Remote Sensing 

Applications for a Sustainable Future”.  This is to be 

held in Haifa from 4 to 7 September in 2006. 

 

 

Mr. Chairman, I would also like to mention 

that ISPRS is active within the International Council of 

Science, ICSU, where the Group of Geo-Unions is 

coordinating activities on environmental topics, 

particularly natural and human-induced hazards and 

disasters, and on health and well-being.  These are 

important interdisciplinary initiative which could make 

wide use of space technology and data from satellites 

and make a significant contribution to the development 

of the use of Earth observation data. 

 

 

ISPRS is also involved in the International 

Polar Year and is leading a project on the use of 

historical image data to monitor changes in the Polar 

areas. 

 

 

Mr. Chairman, distinguished delegates, I 

appreciate this opportunity to report to you and present 

the activities and goals of ISPRS.  I am sure that the 

activities of ISPRS will contribute to the work of 

COPUOS and I look forward to reporting further 

developments in the future. 

 

 Thank 

you. 

 

 

The CHAIRMAN 

(interpretation from 

French):  Thank you very much Professor for your 

presentation on the activities of the ISPRS.  It is a 

pleasure for me to note that your Society is so very 

active, organizing congresses and seminars on a regular 

basis.  You mentioned two of them, I think, in your 

statement.  I also note that you have close links with 

GEOSS and, of course, that is particularly relevant to 

this discipline.  Thank you once again for your 

statement and your contribution to the work of this 

Committee at this session. 

 

---

 

COPUOS/T.551 

Page 19

 

 

I do not see any further requests for the floor 

on this agenda item, General Exchange of Views, item 

5, this afternoon. 

 

 

I intend to close the list of speakers under item 

5, General Exchange of Views, tomorrow morning.  I 

would, therefore, request that delegations that wish to 

make a statement under the general exchange of views, 

please approach the Secretariat as quickly as possible 

and we will take up the general exchange of views 

once again tomorrow morning. 

 

Ways and means of maintaining outer space for 

peaceful purposes (agenda item 6) 

 

 

We will, therefore, start our examination of 

item 6 of the agenda, that is, Ways and means of 

Maintaining Outer Space for Peaceful Purposes. 

 

 

Might I recall that in resolution 60/99, the 

General Assembly requested that the Committee give 

priority to the question of ways and means of 

maintaining outer space for peaceful purposes and to 

report at its next session on this.  The Secretary-

General also agreed that in doing so, the Committee 

could continue making steps in this regard. 

 

 

I do not see any speakers on my list of 

speakers under this agenda item.  It might be that there 

will be requests in the next few days under this agenda 

item where the General Assembly also agreed the 

Committee could consider ways to promote regional 

and interregional cooperation based on experiences 

stemming from the Space Conference of the Americas 

and the role space technology could play in the 

implementation of the World Summit on Sustainable 

Development. 

 

 

We will, therefore, return to this tomorrow 

morning. 

 

 

Delegates, I intend to adjourn soon but I 

would like to make a few announcements with regards 

to our work tomorrow morning. 

 

 

We will meet at 10.00 a.m. tomorrow morning 

sharp and we will take up our consideration of agenda 

item 5 again, General Exchange of Views, and 6, Ways 

and Means of Maintaining Outer Space for Peaceful 

Purposes.  We will perhaps also begin our 

consideration of agenda item 7, Implementation of the 

Recommendations of UNISPACE III, the Third United 

Nations Conference on Space Exploration. 

 

 

And I believe that tomorrow morning Japan 

intends to make a technical presentation, at the end of 

tomorrow’s meeting. 

 

 

Do I see any questions or comments on 

tomorrow morning’s proposed schedule? 

 

 

I see no such comments. 

 

 

Might I also inform delegates that the Ad Hoc 

Expert Group on the possibility of creating a disaster 

management international space coordination entity 

will hold its meeting tomorrow morning in Conference 

Room C-0713, starting at 9.00 a.m. 

 

 

This meeting is, therefore, adjourned until 

tomorrow morning at 10.00 a.m. 

 

The meeting closed at 5.17 p.m.