Since its establishment in 1991, the Central American Integration System (SICA, in Spanish) has served as a force for integrating the eight countries of Central America and the Dominican Republic, and in recent years, SICA’s General Secretariat and its various technical secretariats have focused on integrating Earth observations into various regional and national processes. In 2019, for instance, a joint statement was signed between SICA’s General Secretariat and NASA, toward strengthening the region’s use of Earth observations. SICA has also pursued cooperation with the Group on Earth Observations’ AmeriGEO regional initiative, the Japanese Aerospace Agency (JAXA), the United Nations Office of Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), and the Copernicus program, among others. Just in the framework of the NASA-SICA Joint Statement, and towards the goal of strengthening the region’s use of Earth observations across sectors, a large number of training webinars has been conducted, particularly benefiting national institutions, non-governmental organizations, and universities. Additionally, targeted support has been provided in the areas of environmental monitoring and disaster management. From 2019 through 2021, for instance, a number of feasibility studies were implemented by NASA’s DEVELOP program in collaboration with SICA technical secretariats. In 2020, in response to devastating Hurricanes Eta and Iota, the SERVIR program also provided support for extending the HYDRAFloods algorithm which had been originally developed for the Mekong to Central America. Support is also being provided toward monitoring land cover change across the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor. In the framework of the “observing the Earth for the benefit of all” theme, this presentation will also focus on how Central America can serve as a case study for the development of Earth observation capacity, applicable to other regions of the world.


    Access

    Access via TIB

    Check availability in my library


    Export, share and cite



    Title :

    Application of Earth Observation Data for Improved Environmental and Disaster Monitoring in Central America



    Conference:

    22nd William T. Pecora Memorial Remote Sensing Symposium (Pecora 22) ; 2022 ; Denver, CO, US


    Type of media :

    Miscellaneous


    Type of material :

    No indication


    Language :

    English