FOR PARTICIPANTS ONLY

 

  A/AC.105/2003/CRP.10

  16 June 2003

 

  ENGLISH ONLY


______________________________________________________________________________________

COMMITTEE ON THE PEACEFUL USES

   OF OUTER SPACE

Forty-sixth Session

Vienna, 11-20 June 2003

Agenda item 7

Implementation of the recommendations of the

Third United Nations Conference on the Exploration

and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNISPACE III)

 

 

Implementation of the recommendations of the Third United Nations Conference on the Exploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNISPACE III): information received from Action Team on Environmental Monitoring Strategy (recommendation no. 1 of UNISPACE III)

 

 


Draft minutes of the meeting

 

Implementation of the Recommendations of the Third United Nations Conference on

the Exploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNISPACE III)

 

ACTION TEAM NO. 1

 

Develop a Comprehensive Worldwide Environmental Monitoring Strategy

 

Fourth Meeting, 13 June 2003, Vienna, Austria

 

 

1.              Fourth meeting of the action team #1, Develop a Comprehensive Worldwide Environmental Monitoring Strategy was held in Vienna, Austria on Friday, 13 June 2003. The participants adopted the agenda of the meeting as contained in Annex I.

 

2.              The representatives from Iran, Syria, Japan, Portugal, Russian Federation, Mexico, Nigeria,  USA, SGAC (Space Generation Advisory Council), ISPRS (International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing) and UN OOSA attended the meeting.

 

3.              Dr. A. R. Loulou opened the meeting by welcoming the participants and stressing on necessity of the contribution of the members of the action team to implement the aims of the team.

 

4.              Dr. Parviz Tarikhi from the Iranian Remote Sensing Center (IRSC) of Iran was elected as the chairman of the meeting.

 

5.              The participants of the meeting adopted the draft minutes of the third meeting of the action team that was held on 20 February 2003 in the margins of the 40th meeting of the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee of COPUOS.

 

6.              A report on the activities of the team for the period from 20 February 2003 to 13 June 2003, was given by the representative of I. R. Iran, Dr. Parviz Tarikhi (Annex II).

 

7.              A presentation by Mr. A. R. Loulou, the Syrian Co-chair of the Action Team on the application of Remote Sensing to study the desertification was presented.

 

8.              A presentation entitled “Global Environmental Monitoring: Current State and Problems” was presented by Mr. Alexey Movlyav, the Russian Co-chair of the Action Team.

 

9.              The representative of ISPRS noted the monitoring of the indicators important and asked the team to include in the issues for investigation by the team.

 

10.          Open discussion conducted by the meeting on the preparation of the draft report of the Action Team based on the agreements that has been made in the third meeting of the team.

 

11.          In addition to co-chairs of the action team, Mexico, ISPRS and Japan announced their interest to contribute in compiling the draft report of the action team for submission to the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee by next December.

 

12.          ISPRS announced its readiness to schedule for the meeting of the Action Team in the next Congress of ISPRS that will be held in July 2004 in Istanbul, Turkey.

 

13.           The team agreed to hold its fifth meeting in the margins of the 41st meeting of the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee of COPUOS that will be held early on 2004. The meeting date of the team will be announced to the members after finalizing with OOSA. 


Annex I: Agenda of the meeting

 

 

Action Team Meeting for the Recommendation 1 of UNISPACEIII

“Develop a Comprehensive Worldwide Environmental Monitoring Strategy”

 

Friday, 13th June 2003

Vienna, Austria

Conference Room VII, Vienna International Center

09:00-12:00 hrs.

 

09:00               Opening and welcome note by one of the chairpersons

 

09:05               Presentation of participants and election of the meeting chairman 

 

09:15               Approval of the Agenda

 

09:20               Adoption of the minutes of the third meeting, 20 February 2003

 

09:25               Report on the activities carried out since the third meeting of the Action Team on 20 February 2003 by the Iranian co-chairperson of the action team

 

09:35               Presentation by Mr. A. R. Loulou, the Syrian Co-chair of the Action Team on the application of Remote Sensing to study the desertification

 

09:55               Discussions and questions on the presentation of Mr. A. R. Loulou

 

10:00               Presentation by Mr. Alexey Movlyav, the Russian Co-chair of the Action Team on Global Environmental Monitoring: Current State and Problems

10:15               Discussions and questions on the presentation of Mr. Movlyav

 

10:20               Break

 

10:30               Open discussions on how to prepare the draft report of the Action Team to be submitted to the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee of COPUOS based on the inputs from the members and selecting a compilation team for working on and finalizing the report

 

11:15               Discussion on other expected activities as agreed by the action team, including: (a) undertaking demonstration and pilot projects related to environmental monitoring at national, regional and global levels, and (b) convening a global conference with support by the United Nations.

 

11:40               Conclusions

 

11:55               Next meeting: venue and date

 

12:00                         Adjourn


Annex II: Report of the Iranian Chairperson of the Action Team No. 1 to the team members

 

Implementation of the recommendations of the Third United Nations Conference on

The Exploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNISPACE III)

 

ACTION TEAM FOR RECOMMENDATION NO. 1

"Develop a comprehensive worldwide environmental monitoring strategy"

 

Fourth Meeting of the Action Team

Friday 13 June 2003

VIC, Vienna, Austria

 

Report on the activities that have been carried out since the Third Meeting of the Action Team on 20 February 2003 on the margins of the 40th Scientific and Technical Subcommittee Meeting of COPUOS

 

 

Since the third action team meeting held on 20 February 2003 on the margins of the 40th Meeting of Scientific and Technical Subcommittee of the Committee of the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS), a report of which was presented to the Subcommittee of COPUOS, some activities have been carried out a detail of which is given below:

 

 

 

 

 

 

The following members agreed to contribute for preparation of the parts of the draft report as below:

a)         Syria, on the examples of environmental monitoring,

b)         Japan, on space technology applications,

c)         Russian Federation, on the examples of applications and ground truth techniques.

d)         The Scientific and Technical Subcommittee, on providing the Action Team with the information and data about the inventory of existing strategies.  

 

 

Thank you.


Annex III: Progress Report of the Action Team No. 1 (by 6 June 2003)

 

ACTION TEAM FOR RECOMMENDATION NO. 1, "Develop a comprehensive worldwide environmental monitoring strategy"

State(s) leading the action team

Iran, Syria, Russian Federation

 

Members

States:

Argentina, Australia, Belarus, Brazil, China, France, Iran, Iraq, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Portugal, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Syria, United Kingdom, United States of America.

 

Organizations:

European Space Agency (ESA),

International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS),

Manila Observatory,

Space Generation Advisory Council (SGAC),

United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Statistics Division,

United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP),

United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (ECE),

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO),

United Nations International Drug Control Program (UNDCP)

Aquatic Ecosystem Health and Management Society (AEHMS).

 

Objectives

Address the needs and requirements for use and protection of environment through improvement and control methods approved by different countries, and develop a comprehensive worldwide environmental monitoring strategy for long-term global observations by building on existing space and ground capabilities.

 

Organizational structure

Iran and Syria and Russian Federation that joined other co-chairs since the 3rd Meeting of the Action Team on 20 February 2003, coordinates the activities of the action team jointly. The secretariat of the action team is in the Iranian Remote Sensing Center (IRSC) based in Tehran, Iran.

Principal products to be delivered

  • Undertake and demonstrate pilot projects related to, for example, environmental monitoring in national and regional as well as global levels
  • Host a global UN supported Conference on the subject in 2003 (?) which venue will be agreed by the members.
  • Preparing a report demonstrating the practical utility of space-based monitoring systems

 

Note: Assessment Report should

  1)   Analyze the current structure of environment monitoring by different countries and NGEs.

  2)   Develop a preliminary assessment of the establishment such a system technically and economically.

  3)   Clarify the benefits, advantages and disadvantages of such a strategy.

Propose a 2-year work plan beginning from March 2003 to conduct the efforts of the team.

 

Work plan

·       Establish Team: Contacts from Member States an 3rd parties        Apr 02

·           Develop first draft of Preliminary Report                                           Jun 03

·           Develop draft of Assessment Report                                                 Oct 03

·           Develop final draft of Assessment Report                                        Jan 04

·           Prepare Presentation for S&T Subcommittee                                    Feb 04

·           Obtain Subcommittee inputs/direction                                              Feb 04

 

Activities that have been carried out since the third action team meeting held on 20 February 2003

 

 

 

Since the third action team meeting held on 20 February 2003 on the margins of the 40th Meeting of Scientific and Technical Subcommittee of the Committee of the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS), a report of which was presented to the Subcommittee of COPUOS, some activities have been carried out a detail of which is given below:

 

  • The Russian Federating joined the team of co-chairs of the action team including Iran and Syria.

 

  • Following the agreement between the action team coordinators from the Islamic Republic of Iran and Republic of Syria and the Russian Federation, the secretariat of the action team continues its activities at the Iranian Remote Sensing Center (IRSC) based in Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran.  

 

  • AEHMS joined the Action Team as its new member following the invitation by the team co-chairs of the team.

 

  • Syrian and Russian co-chairs of action team announced their interest and readiness to give presentation in the 4th Meeting of the Action Team on 13 June 2003. Syrian Co-chair of the Action Team Dr. A. R. Loulou will give a presentation on the application of Remote Sensing to study the desertification and the Russian co-chair of the action team Mr. Alexey Movlyav, will give a presentation on Global Environmental Monitoring: Current State and Problems.

 

  • Based on the agreements of team members in the third session on the preparation of the draft report that will include the chapters,
    1. Background and justification,
    2. Inventory of the existing strategies on regional and international levels,
    3. Space technology application for monitoring of environment in integration with other related techniques,
    4. Samples of the applications in land, water and air environments,
    5. Guidelines for the Comprehensive worldwide strategy (strategy model based on education, training and capacity building),

 

Following members agreed to contribute for preparation of the parts of the draft report as below:

a)       Syria, on the examples of environmental monitoring,

b)       Japan, on space technology applications,

c)       Russian Federation, on the examples of applications and ground truth techniques.

d)       The Scientific and Technical Subcommittee, on providing the Action Team with the information and data about the inventory of existing strategies.  

 

  • Syria and Russian Federation has provided their inputs for the draft report by now and the secretariat of the action team waits to receive the inputs from Japan and the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee support.

 

  • The Fourth Action Team Meeting will be held in morning on Friday 13 June 2003 on the margins of 46th COPUOS Meeting. The agenda is as attached.

 

 

Measures that have been taken to encourage the participation of non-governmental entities

 

No particular commitment.

 

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