Speech by Academician Yefim Malitikov —
Chairman of the Interstate Committee
for the dissemination of knowledge and adult education,
President of the International Association «Znanie»
IGMASS project
The International Academy of Astronautics is preparing a summit of heads of space agencies to be held in Beijing in late 2014 or early 2015.
The summit will be a follow-up to the 2010 summit of heads of space agencies, where leaders of thirty agencies welcomed the IAA summit declaration.
The IAA is to prepare a disaster management work plan for the coming decades with a specific approach.
Today, there are a number of international commitments between space agencies to share their space resources with disaster-affected countries. Some of these initiatives are:
— Working;
— Halfway through.
— In the initial stages of development.
The Global Earth Observation System (GEOSS) provides a platform:
— To integrate Earth observation data with other types of information.
— To help plan for vulnerability reduction, improve preparedness and create early warning measures, and, after disasters, rebuild housing and infrastructure in ways that minimize future risks.
UN-SPIDER acts as an open network of space-based solution providers to support disaster management.
It includes all types of information provided by Earth observation satellites, communications satellites and global navigation satellite systems.
Sentinel Asia is a «voluntary and best efforts initiative with a framework for action» led by APRSAF (Asia-Pacific Regional Space Agency Forum) to share disaster information in Asia and the Pacific through the Digital Asia (WebGIS) platform and best use of Earth observation satellite data for disaster management in the Asia-Pacific region.
The International Charter on Space and Major Disasters, proposed by ESA and the National Center for Space Studies after the third UN conference UNISPACE-III in 1999, has ten space agency members. An international agreement between the space agencies (not between states) makes their resources available to maximize rescue efforts at the request of authorized database users worldwide.
The Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC) consists of a group of satellites owned and operated by an individual state, but all satellites are evenly distributed in a sun-synchronous orbit to enable daily imagery. Participating countries are Algeria, China, Nigeria, Turkey, the United Kingdom and Spain.
As part of the GMES initiative, SAFER (Services and Applications for Emergency Response) The project aims to prepare for the rapid implementation of Emergency Response Services (ERS). SAFER provides civil defense and humanitarian relief agencies with real-time rapid mapping capabilities for natural disasters and complex crisis situations.
The United Nations Geographic Information Working Group (UNGIWG) is a network of mapping and geographic information specialists to build the United Nations spatial data infrastructure needed to achieve sustainable development and respond to emergencies.
The ESCAP (Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific)/WMO (World Meteorological Organization) Typhoon Committee and the WMO/ESCAP Committee on Tropical Cyclones are regional cooperative mechanisms with ESCAP to work with the World Meteorological Organization Tropical Cyclone Programme.
The International Global Monitoring Aerospace System (IGMASS) is a proposal of the IAA research team to establish a system to provide timely warning of disasters and emergencies, natural and man-made disasters as part of global forecasting, using ground, air and space monitoring and progressively integrating the navigation, telecommunications and information resources of the planet.
Current space-based methods of disaster management and various international networks show:
— Current capabilities are mostly at the level of post-disaster monitoring and damage assessment.
— Early warning is still the subject of research.
— Most international networks are limited to providing real-time post-disaster earth observation data.
The International Global Monitoring Aerospace System (IGMASS) is a proposal of the IAA research group to create a system to provide timely warning of disasters and emergencies, natural and man-made disasters as part of global forecasting using ground, air and space monitoring and the gradual integration of navigation, telecommunications and information resources of the planet.
Current space-based methods of disaster management and various international networks show:
— Current capabilities are mostly at the level of post-disaster monitoring and damage assessment.
— Early warning is still the subject of research.
— Most international networks are limited to providing real-time post-disaster earth observation data.
The work of most international networks comes down to providing real-time land observation data for post-disaster activities. Although this has been an important aspect, these requirements are not consistent with a space-based disaster management system.
The IAA should prepare a disaster management work plan for the coming decades with a specific approach to improve forecasting using space-based systems.
Now is the time to:
-Propose scenarios for future space exploration, compatible with each other and complementary, among the major space powers
— prepare for unprecedented international cooperation with changing political/economic conditions. Actions will be developed in conjunction with WAMI.
