UN/ISDR 2005 calendar
The UN/ISDR 2005 calendar presents 14 images selected from
over 450 artworks submitted for an international art
contest for young people aged 16 and under. The contest
was organized by the ISDR secretariat in conjunction
with the media organization Entico as part of the 2004
World Disaster Reduction Campaign, which focused on the
theme of education. 42 of the artworks were displayed
as part of the Public Forum at the WCDR.To view the artworks
selected for the calendar and the WCDR Public Forum exhibition,
please seeTo download the entire calendar (in pdf format),
please refer to http://www.entico.com/projects/profiles/slide_show/entries_non_flash.html
2005 nomination process of the UN Sasakawa Award for Disaster Reduction
Nomination booklets are now available for the annual nomination
process of the UN Sasakawa for Disaster Reduction. Join us
in rewarding individuals and institutions from around the world
that contributed, through innovative practices and outstanding
initiatives, to reducing the risk and vulnerabilities of communities
to natural hazards! Nomination forms are available in English,
French and Spanish at http://www.unisdr.org and must be submitted
by 29 July 2005.For further information on the UN Sasakawa
Award for Disaster Reduction, please refer to:
http://www.unisdr.org/eng/sasakawa/sk-about-eng.htm or contact rosec@un.org
Intensive training programme on Disaster Reduction with focus on floods and droughts, Prague, June-July 2005
This workshop is sponsored by the Czech Government,
the Central European Disaster Prevention Forum (CEUDIP) and
UN/ISDR, and supported by UNESCO. It is designed for students
and professionals who want to enhance their knowledge of
disaster risk reduction and will have a focus on disasters
triggered by hydro meteorological hazards. The course will
be held in Prague, from the June 24th to July 1st, at the
School of Forestry and Environmental Sciences, Czech University
of Agriculture Prague. Lectures will be delivered by professors
from Czech Republic, Austria and experts from USA and UN
agencies. For more information you can contact Ms. Michalkova
(Tel. +420-224382147; +420224 382148, Fax: +420 234-381 854,
E-mail: michalkova@fle.czu.cz
World Water
Day - 22 March 2005
The Water Sanitation and Health Unit at the World Health
Organization is pleased to announce and launch, on behalf
of UN-Water, "Celebrating Water for Life: The International
Decade for Action 2005-2015" advocacy guide. The guide
is a comprehensive resource intended to support and facilitate
national and local celebrations to mark and celebrate the
Water for Life Decade to be launched on World Water Day,
22 March 2005.To download the advocacy guide, please refer
to http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/2005advocguide/en/index.html
Japan hosts dialogue on tsunami early warning system
On 22-24 February UN/ISDR organized the Dialogue for High
Level Administrative Policy Makers on Establishing a
Tsunami Early Warning System in the Indian Ocean in Tokyo,
in cooperation with the Japanese Cabinet Office, Ministry
of Foreign Affairs and ADRC. The meeting provided an
opportunity for technical and administrative representatives
from the Indian Ocean basin tsunami-affected countries
to learn about Japan's considerable experience in alerting
communities and responding to tsunami events to enhance
their own early warning capabilities. Issues discussed
at the Dialogue were pursued in a larger international
dimension during the International Meeting for Tsunami
Early Warning convened by IOC/UNESCO from 3-8 March in
Paris.Further information from jeggle@un.org
Paris meeting agrees tsunami alert plan, timetable for Indian Ocean
Experts from the United Nations and the Indian ocean countries
affected by the December tsunami gathered in Paris on 3-8
March 2005 to decide the ground rules for establishing a
tsunami warning network in the Indian Ocean. The Intergovernmental
Oceanographic Commission (IOC) organized the five-day meeting
with support from the secretariat of ISDR and other UN organizations
at UNESCO’s headquarters in Paris. The meeting agreed
on a communiqué that sets out a package of principles
that will allow immediate action on the development of a
system by the end of next year. It was agreed that the system
should be based on national tsunami centres and the free
exchange of necessary data among countries. Participants
also agreed that the tsunami warning system had to include
substantial awareness raising and public education, in order
that warnings were understood and acted upon. The system
also had to be well integrated into other types of warning
systems and to national disaster management systems, consistent
with the guidance of the International Strategy for Disaster
Reduction. Another meeting will be held in Mauritius in April
to settle the details of the plans and to clarify the responsibilities
of national, sub-regional and regional warning centers.For
further information refer to: www.unisdr.org
26 December tsunami provokes high jump in disaster death figures
More than 320,000 people perished last year in 366 natural disasters, according
to figures announced today in Geneva by the Center for Research on the Epidemiology
of Disasters (CRED) based in Brussels. The number of deaths is still provisional
as the death toll for the December tsunami in the Indian Ocean is not yet definitive.
The tsunami took the lives of around 300,000 people out of the 320,000 total
people killed by disasters last year. The number of affected people by disasters
is nevertheless lower than the previous year, with more than 139 million people
affected in 2004, significantly less than the 254 million people affected in
2003.For further information and statistics from CRED and the International
Disaster Database EM-DAT, please refer to www.cred.be
WMO to host the Secretariat of the Group on Earth Observations (GEO)
The third Global Earth Observation Summit (GEO-III) met in Brussels on 16 February
2005. The Summit met for the first time in 2003, when thirty-three nations
plus the European Commission adopted a Declaration that signifies political
commitment to move toward development of a comprehensive, coordinated, and
sustained Earth observation system(s). The Summit committed to enhance the
coordination between existing systems, and complement information where needed,
to monitor continuously the state of the Earth, to increase understanding of
dynamic Earth processes, to enhance prediction of the Earth system, and to
further implement environmental treaty obligations. To further this goal, the
Summit participants launched in 2003 the inter-governmental ad hoc Group on
Earth Observations (GEO) that developed a 10-Year Implementation Plan n the
context of the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), co-chaired
by the United States, the European Commission, Japan, and South Africa and
joined by more than 21 international organizations (including ISDR). The plan
was adopted at GEO-III in Brussels. The US NOAA in Washington initially hosted
the secretariat. GEO-III announced that WMO would host the Secretariat of the
intergovernmental GEO as of Mid-2005. The Secretariat will oversee the 10-year
implementation plan. WMO will be the venue for the initial meeting of the GEO
from 2 to 4 May 2005. See more: earthobservations.org, www.noaa.gov, www.wmo.ch
UN/ISDR web statistics
The world Conference on Disaster reduction has created a lot of interest and
multiplied by five the number of people who have been consulting the website
during the month of January 2005.
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