GEO Contributes to UN Resolution on Geospatial Information and Services for Disasters
AOGEO: The Asia-Oceania Group on Earth Observations
The Asia-Oceania region boasts nearly two-thirds of the world's population and is characterized by a diversity of regional landscapes that are facing numerous environmental changes as well as frequent disasters.
The Asia-Oceania GEO (AOGEO), previously named AOGEOSS, was launched at the GEO-XIII Plenary in St. Petersburg in November 2016. AOGEO is co-led by Australia, China, Japan, and Korea to establish an effective cooperation framework at the regional level and to promote the Earth observation capacity of Asia-Oceania countries to confront the challenges facing the Asia-Oceania region.
Integrated Priority Studies for EO (satellite and in situ) for Mekong, Pacific and Himalayan regions
The purpose of these Integrated Priority Studies is to identify and incubate evidence-based tools, services and solutions to support decision making related to environmental challenges in these areas. Integrated Priority Studies work on utilizing data from both satellite and in situ measurements to monitor environmental changes over the Mekong River Basin (MRB), Pacific Small Island States (PSIS) and Himalayan Mountain Region (HMR).
AOGEO Workshops
Every year, an AOGEO Workshop is held to bring together multiple agencies and GEO Members in the region to improve regional observing ability, technology cooperation network, regional applications and so on. The first one was held in Deqing, China in 2018, and the second one was in Jakarta, Indonesia in 2019. The 2020 AOGEO workshop will be held in China again in the first half year.
AOGEO Workshops in China and Indonesia
AOGEO Symposiums (formally GEOSS-AP Symposium)
The AOGEO Symposium is a regional forum brings together the GEO community in Asia-Oceania to exchange scientific and technical views on Earth observations and their applications for regional and global priorities as well as to report of tasks in AOGEO. Historically known as the GEOSS Asia Pacific or GEOSS-AP Symposium, this year the 12th AOGEO Symposium will be held in Canberra, Australia, from 2 to 4 November 2019 to discuss the theme “Scaling up successful Earth Observation activities for all of Asia-Oceania - Share the results and design the future steps for three priority engagement areas.
AOGEO
Capacity
Building
AOGEO has made great efforts in capacity building in AO region. Four training workshops were held, and more than 90 young scholars from 14 countries in the AO region were financially supported.
AOGEO Data Hub integrates global data for decisions
Collecting data from Gaofen, ALOS, Kompsat, Sentinel, Landsat and other sources, the AOGEO Data Hub is now under discussion to integrate EO from this region and other regions as a readily available online hub.
China’s ZY-3 satellites images used for high accuracy maps in Laos
Satellite remote sensing used for surveying and mapping has become an important means of basic geospatial information acquisition worldwide. Due to limited budgets and human resources, the first version of Laos 1:50000 base maps were using only 0.5-meter resolution digital aerial photography. Due to the fast economic development and intensive human activities, there is a pressing need to update maps in order to improve the capacity of spatial data infrastructure for local sustainable planning and development.
Utilizing China’s ZY-3 satellites stereo images ranging from 2012-2018 for high accuracy map production, the initiative contributes to reliable, accurate, timely geoinformation data acquisition and updating through improving satellite remote sensing data.
Besides the basic geospatial information generation, satellite data has been deployed for the emergency information service. For example, in July 2017 data was provided for local dam break damage rescue evaluation in Laos. More than that, the applicability of the ZY-3 satellites multispectral and stereo imaging for local forest fires monitoring was demonstrated in March 2019. These activities significantly improved the local awareness of Earth observation for use during emergencies.