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Pacific Community receives international recognition for geospatial innovation

Thursday, 04 August 2016 16:24 administrator
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The Pacific Community’s (SPC) Geoscience Division is being bestowed the Asia Geospatial Excellence Award for Disaster Management by Geosmart Asia, a leading conference and exhibition for the Asia-Pacific region showcasing the capabilities of geospatial technologies for national development and industry growth.

 

The award recognizes exemplary innovation and practices in geospatial information and technology in the Asia-Pacific region.

 

“The Pacific region is prone to the vagaries of nature and geospatial information has proven to play a significant role in preparedness and mitigating losses. In such a scenario, the vision and initiatives of SPC’s Geoscience Division to promote geospatial information for safeguarding the region are commendable,” Geosmart Asia Pacific Vice President, Prashant Joshi said, in announcing the accolade.

 

 

 

SPC’s Geoscience Division is at the forefront of satellite image data and technology services that benefit the Pacific region across a broad range of sectors including  climate change adaptation and disaster management, forestry, land use planning, agriculture, fisheries, infrastructure and urban planning, biodiversity conservation as well as education.

 

The division has a number of ongoing initiatives with several development partners on developing decision support tools that produce realistic natural hazard impact scenarios for use in planning, disaster preparedness and response activities, using hazard and exposure spatial data.

 

SPC, through its Geoscience Division, also jointly hosts the annual Pacific Geographic Information Systems and Remote Sensing (GIS/RS) Conference with Fiji’s Department of Lands the University of the South Pacific which brings together over 300 participants from over 30 countries, including Pacific Island government representatives, consulting companies and the private sector.

 

“SPC is delighted to receive this award and due credit goes to the dedicated team of professionals in our Geoscience Division,” Pacific Community Director-General, Dr. Colin Tukuitonga said.

 

“Through their expertise and work ethic SPC is able to provide valuable support to Pacific Island countries and territories with recent examples being the provision of satellite imagery assistance in the immediate aftermath of Tropical Cyclones Pam and Winston,” Dr Tukuitonga added.

 

The Asia Geospatial Excellence Award for Disaster Management will be presented to SPC at the annual GeoSmart Asia Conference which will be held in Malaysia in October.

 

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Media contact:

Sachindra Singh, Senior Geospatial Systems Architect,  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or +679 338 1377
Wolf Forstreuter, SPC GIS and Remote Sensing Specialist,  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

 

Useful links:
GeoSmart Asia 2016
Pacific GIS/RS Conference

Last Updated on Thursday, 04 August 2016 16:45  

Newsflash

‘In country training is just what we need’

‘Cost benefit analysis is essential to make sure we do not waste government and donors' money,’ said Mr Terieta Mwemwenikeaki, Deputy Secretary of Office of the President, at a national workshop today.

The workshop, which is being delivered by SPC, SPREP and GIZ, is intended to guide government officers in how to do and use cost benefit analysis (CBA) in projects affected by climate change.

‘The workshop was originally requested by Fisheries to help guide which projects they should support,’ observed Mr Mwemwenikeaki. ‘However, this tool is useful to provide an evidence base to make the most of all our policies and projects.’

Mrs Kurinati Robuti from the office of National Economic Planning Office (NEPO) said, ‘NEPO is supposed to carry out a detailed CBA where necessary but often this does not happen since we have limited know-how about to undertake this.  We are grateful for this initiative.’

Marita Manley, Technical Adviser, Climate Change (GIZ) said that staff attending the workshop have been very enthusiastic. ‘The Government of Kiribati already has a national project appraisal template with a section on describing the costs and benefits of projects but it faces constraints in applying it. During the training, participants have already been discussing how to apply cost benefit analysis as a framework to help improve decision making and the quality of projects.’