UNOOSA’s 5th Space Technologies Conference on Water Management

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Rationale

The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) and the Government of Ghana are jointly organizing a Conference with the support of the Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water (PSIPW) to promote the use of space technology in water management to the benefit of developing countries.

The Conference will be held in Accra, Ghana, from 10- 13 May 2022, hosted by the University of Energy and Natural Resources on behalf of the Government of Ghana.

The Conference is the fifth international event focusing on applications of space technology for water in the series of conferences organised with financial assistance of the PSIPW and the Inter-Islamic Network on Space Sciences and Technology (ISNET). The initial event, on the use of space technology for water management, took place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in April 2008, the second conference was organized in March 2011 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the third conference in Rabat, Morocco in April 2014 and the fourth in Islamabad, Pakistan in February-March 2018.

Conference themes

Space technologies such as Earth observation and the resulting data, satellite navigation and communication are increasingly important in observing the Earth’s water bodies at regular intervals and in the most remote corners of this planet. Moreover, spin-off technologies such as filtering techniques used in space programmes find their application in water management. This conference will include inputs selected through a call for abstract and will aim at exchanges on the themes listed below:

1. Space-based technology and data for managing water-related extremes: Floods

2. Space-based technology and data for managing water-related extremes: Water scarcity and drought

3. Space and water quality

4. Space, water and health

5. Space-based assessment – monitoring of groundwater resources

PARTICIPATORY WORKSHOP FOR INDIGENOUS WOMEN AND THEIR EVERYDAY LIVES RELATED TO WATER

On one day of the conference, UNOOSA organises a participatory workshop for Indigenous women or female Indigenous communities’ gatekeepers and community activists as a side event, to make Indigenous women’s voices heard. The aim is to collect indigenous communities’ user needs in terms of water resources management and the protection of the water cycle towards the space sector. Participatory design thinking methods and rapid prototyping will be used to ease communication and knowledge exchange between indigenous women, the workshop hosts and supportive community stakeholders. Such rapid prototyping techniques have proven to be successful in eliciting implicit knowledge and manifesting in the prototype. This can aid to overcome potential language barriers. The working language of the workshop will be English.

To re-empower and support Indigenous women in their role as water stewards, as well as to learn from them and include them into the water governance dialogue UNOOSA invites them to this participatory workshop to address challenges. Read more

Participants

The Conference is being planned as a hybrid event with a maximum number of 100-150 participants in Accra. Participants include decision-makers, technical experts, researchers and educators drawn from the following groups: international, regional, national and local institutions, academic institutions, multi-lateral and bi-lateral development agencies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and also from private industry. Experts and professionals from both space-related entities and water resource management institutions will be invited, providing an opportunity to exchange experiences and strengthen networks and partnerships that will contribute to the increased use of space technology-based solutions for water resources management.

Find out more here: http://www.unoosa.org/oosa/en/ourwork/psa/schedule/2022/un-Ghana-water.html