JICA Study Session - Monitoring the Environment and Disasters from Space - Japan, November 15, 2007

Since 2005, the Social Development Department of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has organized study sessions on how to use information and communications technology (ICT). In these study sessions, lectures are held in JICA's Tokyo office and broadcast to JICA offices all over the world.

On November 15, 2007, the 24th study session was held under the theme of "Monitoring the Environment and Disasters from Space." Professor Yuzo Suga, from the Department of Global Environment Studies of the Hiroshima Institute of Technology, was invited as a speaker. JICA's six offices located in China, Thailand, Pakistan, Palestine, Vietnam, and Nepal participated in this study session.

In the study session, Professor Suga introduced the structure and way of using remote-sensing satellites and cited some examples.
Examples of using satellites:
Land development program for Mekong River basin
Management of oyster rafts (Japan)
Monitoring of subsidence caused by earthquakes (Japan)
Monitoring the flooding of the Yangtze River (preventing secondary and tertiary disasters)

During the Q&A session, staff from each county's JICA office introduced the issues faced in their respective countries and discussed the possibility of using satellites to solve those issues.

This study session will help JICA staff in foreign countries to understand remote sensing and contribute to some counter measurements against the natural disasters.