16 August 2011, Geneva, Switzerland - In yet another practical development of the recent UNOSAT-ADPC partnership , the well-known GIS training course offered by Asian Disaster Preparedness Centre will include as of this year new UNOSAT modules on post-disaster impact and damage analysis in emergency response mapping. The course will be held in Bangkok from 17-28 October 2011.

The new curriculum of the GIS4DRM course has been re-designed jointly by the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC), the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), the Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation of the University of Twente, the Netherlands (ITC), and UNOSAT, with the objective of providing an overview of the use of spatial information in Disaster Risk Management using modules based on concrete experience, innovation and reality.

Luca Dell’Oro of UNOSAT explains: “the new curriculum of the GIS4DRM course has been enhanced with new modules designed by UNOSAT on emergency response mapping. By using satellite imagery and GIS datasets of recent natural disasters, participants will learn GIS methodologies and techniques to perform rapid analysis to assess impacts and structural damages caused by natural disasters”.

As ADPC explains: “The course not only reveals what spatial data is and how it is collected, but also emphasize on the use of such spatial data during pre- and post-disaster management such as during early warning, hazard, vulnerability and risk assessment, damage assessment, as well as in the design of risk reduction measures”.

Information on risk and disasters is spatial by nature so that GIS solutions are gaining a central role in risk assessment and disaster management. The UNOSAT-ADPC partnership is based on the principle of strengthening national disaster risk management systems by mobilising methodologies and training resources focused on practical solutions.

The course is currently open for applications. To download the brochure, please visit the ADPC page.