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Amid the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, professionals like Serhii are expanding their skill sets to adapt to new challenges. Serhii, a dedicated architect and a member of the UNESCO country team in Ukraine, shared his insights into his evolving role and the impact of recent training programmes on his work.
Serhii’s role involves the application of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to cultural heritage preservation and damage detection. Initially, he began with a foundational understanding of GIS and tools, primarily using them for basic mapping and documentation tas...
Franklin University Switzerland and UNITAR organized a joint event during the Open Geneva Hackathon Festival. The online Hackathon "Food as a nexus for synchronic urban and rural development" offered a platform to generate innovative ideas to rethink and improve food as a linkage for development in rural and urban areas. The hackathon lasted three days and was delivered entirely online, allowing participants worldwide to join the event.
The event included the participation of UN-Habitat, FAO and UNITAR experts to facilitate workshops and group work activities. Four w...
10 June 2022, Geneva, Switzerland - On Saturday 15th January 2022, the ongoing volcanic eruption of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai triggered a tsunami across the Pacific. The scale of the explosion was so large, undersea communications lines were damaged, leaving the population of the Kingdom of Tonga out of reach. The dense ash clouds, added to the poor meteorological conditions, limited the flying capabilities and visual confirmation of the situation on the ground. Satellite imagery, therefore, became a key source of information to assess the extent and severity of the damages...
Title: Chief Operations Officer of the National Emergency Operations Center
Country: Solomon Islands
Partnership: CommonSensing Project
Tropical Cyclones are regular and disastrous occurrences for the Solomon Islands. Each year the cyclone season brings powerful wind speeds and high storm surges, threatening SIDS. George Baragamu, Chief Operations Officer of the National Emergency Operations Center (NEOC), situated in the National Disaster Management Office (NDMO), in the Solomon Islands, knows the risks of such weather events too well.
George works to protect the country...
Name: Chika Ohashi
Organization: United Nations Development Programme
Functional Title: Programme Analyst
Country: Japan
Course participated in: 13th International Course on GIS for Disaster Risk Management
Chika Ohashi is a Programme Analyst with the United Nations Development Programme. She took a course on Geographic Information Systems (GIS) with UNITAR’s Operational Satellite Applications Programme (UNOSAT).
Chika’s passion is the environment - she has a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Management and a Masters’ degree in Environment and S...
UNOSAT is the operational satellite applications programme of UNITAR, promoting evidence-based decision making for peace, security and resilience by using geospatial information technologies (GIT). One of UNOSAT’s main strategic objectives is to build and develop capacities of Member States to use earth observation (EO) and GIT. As a part of its capacity development activities, UNOSAT delivered a one-week training entitled “ASEAN Regional Training Course on Geospatial Big Data Applications for Sustainable Development” f...
The increase in disaster occurrences and the high numbers of victims resulting from conflicts are urgent issues that require effective and rapid action. Satellite imagery analysis is a vital tool essential in this response, as it can cover large areas and provide accurate information in near real time. The Emergency Mapping Service (EMS) at the United Nations Satellite Centre (UNOSAT) supported by funding from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (NMFA), delivers satellite image analysis during humanitarian emergencies/crises that stem from disasters, complex emer...
The increase in disaster occurrences and the high numbers of victims resulting from conflicts are urgent issues that require effective and rapid action. Satellite imagery analysis is a vital tool essential in this response, as it can cover large areas and provide accurate information in near real-time. UNOSAT’s Emergency Mapping Service (EMS), funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (NMFA), provides satellite image analysis during humanitarian emergencies related to disasters, complex emergencies and conflict situations. With a 24/7 year-round availability ...