SUPARCO hosts a UN backed conference in Islamabad on satellite early warnings for floods
About 250 delegates from 20 countries are meeting until 31 October to discuss how satellite data can flag floods, glacial lake outbursts and crop losses sooner.
Pakistan's space agency has gathered about 250 delegates from 20 countries in Islamabad to work on one practical question: how much earlier can satellite data warn people that a flood is coming.
The Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO) opened the conference on 27 October at the Serena Hotel. It hosts the meeting with the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), the UN SPIDER programme, the Asia Pacific Space Cooperation Organisation (APSCO) and the Inter Islamic Network on Space Sciences and Technology (ISNET). It runs to 31 October.
SUPARCO said early warning systems are "vital for protecting lives, livelihoods and infrastructure", and that the conference gives Pakistan a platform to build national capacity and international cooperation.
What is on the programme
The conference is titled Leveraging Space Technology for EW4All, Climate Actions and Disaster Risk Assessment. EW4All, the UN's early warning initiative, is one of the session themes.
The technical sessions cover flood modelling, multi hazard mapping, early warning for glacial lake outburst floods, satellite monitoring of glaciers, forests, farmland and water, climate risk financing and crop loss estimation. Others look at AI and geospatial tools for finding hazards, and at how the Sendai Framework for disaster risk reduction and the Paris Agreement are applied in practice.
The cost of the 2022 floods
Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal, the chief guest, tied climate risk to fiscal stability and poverty. He said the 2022 floods caused direct losses of about 2.2 percent of GDP. He called for data sharing, capacity building, innovative financing and regional cooperation, and asked the conference for recommendations his ministry could weigh in national planning.
SUPARCO chairman Muhammad Yousaf Khan welcomed participants. UNOOSA director Aarti Holla Maini, ISNET executive director Munir Ahmad Asad and APSCO secretary general Jiang Hui also spoke.
Who is attending
Delegates include representatives of Indonesian, Iranian, Iraqi, Turkish, Vietnamese and Nepali space and government bodies, along with the World Food Programme and the International Telecommunication Union. From Pakistan come the National Disaster Management Authority, the Pakistan Meteorological Department, the Climate Change Authority, the Planning Commission, the State Bank, the SECP, the Federal Flood Commission and the Punjab Information Technology Board, among others. The programme also lists the planned inauguration of a Pakistan Kazakhstan Joint Climate Laboratory.
The closing ceremony on 31 October includes presentations on SUPARCO's Space4Climate initiative and a technical visit to the National Disaster Management Authority, to show how satellite data is used in disaster response. A five day training course follows at the COMSTECH Secretariat in Islamabad from 2 to 6 November.
