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.
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.
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