[Sdi-latinamericacaribbean] New UN-SPIDER Regional Support Office established for West Indies

[Kate Lance]

http://www.un-spider.org/news-en/3765/2010-10-19t121000/new-un-spider-rso-established-disaster-risk-reduction-centre

New UN-SPIDER Regional Support Office established for West Indies
On 8 October 2010, the University of the West Indies (UWI) and the UN Office of 
Outer Space Affairs signed the cooperation agreement that established the tenth 
UN-SPIDER Regional Support Office (RSO). UWI is the first university to host an 
RSO and to contribute its experience and capabilities to the UN-SPIDER programme 
by doing so.

The Disaster Risk Reduction Centre at the University of the West Indies, which 
hosts UN-SPIDER RSO, reports to the Department of Geomatics Engineering and 
Land. It is a multi disciplinary Centre of Excellence in the field of disaster 
risk reduction and disaster management in the Caribbean and globally, especially 
in Small Island States. The particular strength of the Centre and its new role 
as an RSO lies it its capacity-building facilities, namely its GIS and 
photogrammetry laboratory and its short-courses in all areas of geoinformatics. 
The university also offers a BSc in Geomatics and an MSc in Geoinformatics. It 
has faculty members and technical staff in remote sensing, GIS, and GPS, and 
disposes of the respective soft- and hardware infrastructure, and of base data, 
DEM, and Landsat imagery of most of the Caribbean countries.

UN-SPIDER ( http://www.un-spider.org/ ) aims at providing universal access to 
all types of space-based information and services relevant to disaster 
management by being a gateway to space information for disaster management 
support; serving as a bridge to connect the disaster management and space 
communities; and being a facilitator of capacity-building and institutional 
strengthening.



      
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