Environment and Natural Resources Management Space Technology Applications Section

The Second Meeting of the Regional Working Group on Meteorological Satellite Applications and Natural Hazards Monitoring was held in Phuket, Thailand, from 8 to 11 April 1997. The meeting was jointly organized by the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and the National Research Council of Thailand (NRCT).

The meeting was attended by 31 participants and observers from 18 countries and two international organizations: Australia, Bangladesh, China, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Islamic Republic of Iran, Japan, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Viet Nam, International Center for Disaster-Mitigation Engineering, and ESCAP.

The following agenda was considered and subsequently adopted:

1. Opening of the meeting
2. Election of officers.
3. Adoption of the agenda.
4. Progress in the implementation of the Strategy for Regional Cooperation in Space Applications for Sustainable Development and the Action Plan on Space Applications for Sustainable Development in Asia and the Pacific, in the light of the recommendations of the Regional Working Group at its first meeting
   
   1. Regional report by ESCAP;
      
   2. Report of the Coordinator of the Regional Working Group on Meteorological Satellite Applications and Natural Hazards Monitoring;
      
   3. Country reports by the national contact points of the Regional Working Group.
      
5. Ways of implementing the Regional Space Applications Programme for Sustainable Development, with special reference to the area of meteorological satellite applications and natural hazards monitoring, and of realizing the objectives of the Regional Working Group on Meteorological Satellite Applications and Natural Hazards Monitoring
6. Medium-term plan for the period 1998-2001 and the cooperation mechanism, including formulation of the cooperative framework.
7. Tentative work plan, 1997-1998.
8. Venue and provisional agenda for the third meeting of the Working Group.
9. Other matters.
10. Adoption of the report.

The Regional Working Group also expressed its satisfaction with the work of the Coordination Office. It considered that the achievements of the Coordination Office in the past year were measurable and its contribution to the region was commendable.

The Regional Working Group considered that the operational mechanism created for the Working Group was practical and successful. The Meeting, in particular, considered that:

1. The annual meeting of the national contact points (NCPs) was an essential forum for the member countries to interact with each other, to exchange information, to review activities, to formulate cooperation plans and to develop strategies for implementation of cooperative programmes;
2. The substantive support of the host Government to the work of the coordination office and the commitment and dynamic leadership of the coordinator were important for the success of the Working Group;
3. The strong support of participating Governments and donor agencies was crucial for the successful operational activities of the Regional Working Group;
4. Direct interactions and frequent contacts between the coordination office and the national contact points were also important for developing meaningful operational activities for the participating countries. Such contacts and interactions could be facilitated through the use of modern communication technology, such as electronic mail;
5. The coordination office should act as an information broker in collecting relevant information and disseminating the same on a regular basis, to national contact points and other interested parties.

The Meeting acknowledged with appreciation, first, the offer of the Government of China for organizing a training workshop on meteorological satellite applications in Beijing with funding support for participants selected from developing countries and, second, the Coordination Office in China for taking initiative in preparing a poster on meteorological satellite applications.

The Meeting also expressed its appreciation to the Government of India for its offer to provide long-term fellowships to member countries to attend a meteorological satellite applications course to be organized by the Centre for Space Science and Technology Education for the Asia-Pacific region (affiliated to the United Nations) in 1998.

The Meeting considered that while financial support from traditional donors was essential, it was necessary to develop a self-sustaining mechanism for its future operational activities. It was recognized that there was a need to further stress technical cooperation among developing countries (TCDC) and to explore the involvement of the industrial sector in technical assistance programmes.

The Meeting considered that the progress achieved at the national level was encouraging. The said progress included formulating national policies on meteorological satellite applications, initiating new national programmes, developing national coordinating mechanisms and establishing national working groups, creating education and training programmes and implementing with enhanced efforts R&D projects for sustainable development.

The Meeting also considered that further effort was required at both the regional and national levels to (a) increase awareness of planners and decision makers of the importance of meteorological satellite applications and its specific relevance to natural hazards monitoring, (b) to enhance human resource development programmes and (c) to improve technological infrastructure in most of the developing countries for accessing various meteorological satellite data and for making full use of the potential of available data sources.

The Meeting believed that the sustainability and success of the Regional Working Group would rest upon the extent of benefits it would create for the member countries. It therefore strongly felt that the Regional Working Group needed to adopt an action-oriented and result-driven approach in developing a practical and realistic cooperative programme, which should emphasize measurable outputs and tangible achievements.

The Meeting considered the needs and existing capabilities in the region and developed a medium-term plan and strategy for its work. The medium-term plan prioritized the following three themes for regional cooperation:

1. Applications of meteorological satellite data for non-meteorological purposes in support of sustainable development;
2. Natural hazards monitoring and assessment systems;
3. Monsoon monitoring and forecasting.

The Meeting agreed to set up three ad hoc task forces to develop a detailed framework and strategy for each of the three themes and to submit it to the Coordination Office with a copy to the ESCAP secretariat before the end of 1997.

The Meeting also decided to design a common format for a homepage to facilitate development of Web sites by the national contact points for exchanging information on the work and activities of the Regional Working Group and for promoting co-operation activities.

The Meeting revised its terms of reference, in response to the request of the Intergovernmental Consultative Committee (ICC) made at its last session, held in Kuala Lumpur in June 1996, to reflect the relationship between NCPs and national focal points (NFPs) and to specify the duration for the hosting of the coordination office.

The Meeting requested Japan to explore the possibility of hosting the third meeting of the Regional Working Group in April 1998. It believed that organizing the meeting in Japan would provide a unique opportunity to expose NCPs to the latest technical developments and application achievements in the field of meteorological satellite applications, including natural hazards monitoring.

The Meeting recommended that the poster on meteorological satellite applications, initiated during the first meeting, be published by the end of 1997, mainly in CD-ROM form with a small number of hard copies in order to reduce the cost and enlarge its distribution.

In connection with paragraph 17, the national contact points were requested to submit their finalized contributions by 15 August 1997 to the Coordination Office, which would review and compile the final text with the support of NCPs from Australia, India and Japan, and submit it to the ESCAP secretariat for approval by the end of October 1997.

The Meeting, based on the agreement of the priority themes selected for the medium-term plan, decided to establish three ad hoc technical task forces to formulate a detailed strategy and framework, as well as an action plan for each of the themes. Those were:

1. Technical task force one: Applications of meteorological satellites for non-meteorological purposes to support sustainable development, with major emphasis on crop yield forecasting, fishery ground analysis and solar power site selection, using an integrated approach and multiple data sources. That task force would consist of NCPs or their designated experts from the following countries: Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Islamic Republic of Iran, Japan, Mongolia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. It was recommended that China act as the convenor of technical task force one;
2. Technical task force two: Natural hazards monitoring and assessment systems with major focus on flood disaster prediction, mitigation and management, forest fire monitoring and volcanic eruption monitoring through integrating meteorological satellite data with other information technology. That task force would consist of NCPs or their designated experts from the following countries: Australia, Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Islamic Republic of Iran, Japan, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Thailand and the expert from the International Centre for Disaster-Mitigation Engineering. It was recommended that India act as convenor of technical task force two;
3. Technical task force three: Monsoon monitoring forecasting. Based on the existing national R&D programmes, that area would have a major interest in the exchange of technical information, academic exchange and visiting scientists, training and education. That task force would consist of NCPs or their designated experts from the following countries: Bangladesh, Indonesia, Islamic Republic of Iran, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, and Sri Lanka. It was recommended that Indonesia act as convenor of technical task force three.

The convenor of each task force was requested to inform the Coordination Office in writing about the progress of their work and to submit a final output containing details of objectives, outputs, time frame, implementing strategies and cost estimation by the end of October 1997, as well as to report its work at the next meeting in April 1998.

The Meeting also decided to develop a common format for developing homepages using the Internet to facilitate exchange of information concerning the work of the Working Group. The Meeting recommended that the National Research Council of Thailand act as team leader in designing the format, with NCPs from Australia, Japan and the Republic of Korea as team members. Thailand was requested to submit the technical report for the consideration of the Regional Working Group at its next meeting.

All the designated national contact points were recommended to plan well in advance both financially and technically for participating in the next meeting, to be held in April 1998, so as to ensure the continuity of the work of the Regional Working Group.

The meeting recommended that ESCAP should continue to explore funding possibilities with donors, including requesting the participating Governments to make their pledges at appropriate intergovernmental fora to provide financial support for the operational activities initiated by the Regional Working Group.