Workshop Review

This workshop, held at the Paris headquarters of the French space agency (CNES) on January 15 and 16, 2002, reviewed the achievements of the Charter during the first fourteen months of its active existence. Substantial progress had been made with establishing and implementing Charter operating and activation procedures. As the majority of the first twelve Charter activations occurred during the first six months of 2001, it was critical that policies and procedures be implemented quickly and effectively. These activations concerned earthquakes, flooding and oil spills, with the most notable being the two El Salvador earthquakes occurring just one month apart at the beginning of the year.

The reappraisal session addressed issues such as initial Charter activation procedures, Earth observation satellite tasking and data processing time, utility of the data supplied to the end user, and definition of the most pressing requirements of the end user in a disaster situation. 2001 was noteworthy for the arrival of two new agency members, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). A first exploratory Charter workshop also was held in October 2001 to analyze problems encountered with the Charter project managers and the relationships with the Value-added Companies.

The final session of the workshop took a look at new Earth observation satellite systems-SPOT-5, Envisat, Cosmo-Skymed/Pleiades-as well as space telecommunication services-the pilot Project REMSAT, the CNES New Stentor Services (NSS) test project-both aimed at fire monitoring, and extended use of the Argos system (location and data collection) -and their potential contribution to disaster management. The workshop ended on a note of satisfaction with what had been achieved so far, but the workshop also stressed the extent and complexity of the tasks ahead, and the need for a more thorough understanding of user needs. One of the keys to this will be more ample feedback from the user end of the information supply chain.