December 2020, Geneva, Switzerland – Between 2017 and 2019, UNOSAT has been committed to supporting the Lao People's Democratic Republic (PDR) to build resilience to the many hazards the country is exposed to, namely floods and tropical storms. The situation is especially urgent as Lao PDR is particularly vulnerable to these threats, as it is ranked one of the poorest or least developed countries in the Asia Pacific region.

UNOSAT delivered a week-long training in Serrekunda, The Gambia, on the use of Earth Observation (EO) and GIT applications to 18 November 2020, Geneva, Switzerland – support operational planning and decision-making for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and Climate Resilience to government officials in partnership with the Ministry of Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology (MoHERST) and the UN Technology Bank for Least Developed Countries.

30 October 2020, Geneva, Switzerland, New York, United States - In late 2016, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and UNITAR-UNOSAT entered into a three-year collaboration period with the purpose of developing a web-mapping interface for the monitoring and evaluation of 15 UNDP projects focused on infrastructure rehabilitation in Sub-Saharan Africa. The interface was customized to feature individual story maps depicting the project sites, which would convey the different projects’ objectives, activities, and their impact in an intuitive manner using the ArcGIS Online system. From this, the ‘Geolocalized Maps and Satellite Imagery Analysis’ interface emerged to include engaging story maps for 156 locations, in 7 countries: Guinea, Liberia, Libya, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, and Sudan.

16 October 2020, Geneva, Switzerland – UNOSAT and UNDP, longstanding partners, are cooperating on a new satellite imagery analysis application, through the production of maps used in the validation of the civil and electoral registries in Vanuatu’s 83 islands.

14 October 2020, Geneva, Switzerland – The United Nation’s Operational Programme for Satellite Analysis and Applied Research (UNOSAT) remotely joined the training on Information Management led by UNITAR Division for Peace. This training was delivered for the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) in September 2020 in Chad.

UNOSAT delivered the Advanced Training on Earth Observation (EO) and Geospatial Information Technology (GIT) for Climate Resilience in Fiji and Vanuatu. For this week-long training, delivered as part of the capacity development activities of the CommonSensing project, UNOSAT adopted a blended-type of delivery method.

2 October 2020, Geneva, Switzerland – UNOSAT hosted the Regional Technical Webinar Series on Flood Forecasting, Early Warning Systems and Geospatial Information Technology (GIT) for Flood Risk Management for ECOWAS member states. This is part of a wider effort to support the ECOWAS region in building resilience to the flood events it is facing.

31 August 2020, Geneva, Switzerland - Over the summer, UNOSAT introduced an Artificial Intelligence (AI) based method in its operational emergency mapping service. By reducing the process to a fraction of the time normally needed. ”This fully automated processing method is a game changer for humanitarian rapid mapping operations and a great tool for national disaster management authorities”, Einar Bjørgo, Director, UNOSAT.

3 July 2020 - UNITAR-UNOSAT and the University of Copenhagen co-organized and delivered a 3-week Masters level course entitled “Geo-information in disaster situations” ending on 3 July 2020. The beneficiaries were University of Copenhagen students registered in the Master of Disaster Management programme. Instruction during the first week focused on introductory concepts and essential software applications as well as data analysis and cartographic modelling; it was delivered by the Geography Section of the Department of Geosciences and Natural Resources Management at the University of Copenhagen.

9 March 2020, Kampala - UNITAR-UNOSAT and the UN Technology Bank, in partnership with the Ugandan Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI) have conducted a one-week training course from 2 to 6 March 2020 in Kampala on the use of Geospatial Information Technologies (GIT) to reduce the impact of disaster situations.