Workshop focus: Innovations and the latest ICT advances in disaster management and risk reduction
Intended audience: UNDP Country Offices in the Balkans, Caucasus, Central Asia; National Focal Points of International Convensions; relevant government officials (e.g. Ministries of Emergencies, Environment, Communications); researchers and civil society representatives.
Technologies covered: remote sensing, geographic information systems (GIS), mobile technologies, data portals, etc.
Workshop Directors
Viktor Lagutov, Systems Laboratory, Central European University (CEU), Budapest, Hungary
Armen Grigoryan, UNDP Bureau for Policy and Programme Support (BPPS), New York, USA
Workshop Faculty
Milica Begovic Radojevic, UNDP Regional Centre for Europe and CIS, Istanbul, Turkey
Lorant Czaran, United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, Vienna, Austria
Jens Danzeglocke, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Cologne, Germany
Kirstin Miller, Ecocity Builders, California, USA
Vasko Popovski, UNDP, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
Workshop Information
The overall aim of the workshop is to highlight the advances in ICTs and how they are increasingly empowering both decision-makers and citizens to play a more proactive role in managing disaster risks and more effectively respond when disasters hit. The stream aims at staff of the UNDP Country offices in Balkans, Caucasus and Central Asia, National Focal Points of International Conventions (e.g. Black Sea Commission), relevant government officials (e.g. Ministries of Emergencies, Environment, Communications), researchers and civil society representatives.
The workshop builds upon existing UNDP experience in disaster management and risk reduction. Advances in ICTs are increasingly empowering citizens to play a more proactive role in managing disaster risks and more effectively responding when disasters hit. The ability of development workers to tap into this local energy and know-how, go beyond the usual actors (e.g. NGOs, think tanks) and partner with outliers (e.g. citizens, informal groups) and link their efforts with the institutional response and resources will play a major role in supporting communities' resilience. Therefore, applying innovations and the latest ICT advances in this regard will be the key topic of the program. A range of technologies will be presented including Remote Sensing, Geographic Information Systems, mobile technologies, data portals, etc.
The workshop will cover a number of themes, including ICTs for disaster risk reduction (DRR), innovation in climate risk management and disaster preparedness and response, integration of innovative solutions in climate risk management (CRM) and DRR into sectoral and municipal development, and more.
To increase the scope and impact of the event and its benefits for participants, this workshop will be collocated with an additional workshop (ICTs in Water Security) conducted at CEU under the “Bridging ICTs and Environment” framework. These workshops are preparatory activities for the Eye on Earth Summit 2015.
Proven experience to any aspect of Disaster Management is a prerequisite for the workshop.
Additional Information
This workshop is a part of the ISEPEI Project and run under the organizational framework of the CEU Summer University and in cooperation with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). more information can be found at http://isepei.org/innovations-drr-2015