Interparliamentarian meeting on Space and natural disasters

Čt, 2010-10-21 10:31, Josef Šobra

On September 26th the International Meeting for Members of Parliaments on Space in support of the management of natural disasters took place in Prague on occasion of the 61st International Astronautical Congress.

Fig. 1: Czech MP Pavel Hojda (right) and Josef Šobra from CSO (left). Credits: CSO

This was only the second year of the interparliamentarian conference in history, for the first time the event was held in the Republic of South Korea and the delegations discussed the climate change topic. This year, twenty two delegates from fifteen countries took part in the meeting with significant participation from the Republic of South Africa, the hosting country for the next IAC 2011. The Czech Republic was represented by a member of parliament Mr Pavel Hojda and by Mr Vladimir Remek, the first Czech astronaut and member of the European parliament.

Fig. 2: Russian MP and former astronaut Mr Musa Manarov (left) and Czech astronaut and European MP Mr Vladimír Remek (right). Credits: CSO

The major part of the programme was composed from experts’ presentations of the American geological survey (USGS), the German aerospace agency (DLR) and United Nations (UNOSAT). During the following round table discussion, the delegations agreed that the presented tools and opportunities, which space offers to fight natural disasters, are not yet well-known and that there is a need for increased awareness about this topic both among decision makers and general public. Both satellite applications for disaster management and space topic in general should become an integral part of the curriculum of every citizen. The delegations agreed that they should strive to publicize and bring the space topic into discussions with colleagues in the national parliaments to raise the awareness on space at the decision makers’ level.