UN REGIONAL CONFERENCE IN MEXICO TO FOCUS ON USE OF SPACE TECHNOLOGY FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AND COMMUNICATIONS
Press Release
OS/1714
UN REGIONAL CONFERENCE IN MEXICO TO FOCUS ON USE OF SPACE TECHNOLOGY FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AND COMMUNICATIONS
19951030 VIENNA, 27 October (UN Information Service) -- The use of space technology, especially satellites, in drawing up sustainable development strategies and improving national and regional communication capacities is the main theme of a regional conference organized jointly by the United Nations and the European Space Agency, in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, to be held between 30 October and 3 November.Held in cooperation with the Government of Mexico, the conference is part of an ongoing effort by the Vienna-based United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs to promote the widest possible use of space technology in helping all countries in their efforts to overcome economic and social problems. Conferences and workshops organized by the Office aim not only at making key decision-makers, especially in developing countries, aware of the everyday, practical benefits of space technology, but also to focus on identifying how to make the best use of those benefits for them in their socio-economic development strategies.
Earth observation and communication satellites play a vital role in the timely collection and dissemination of data and information. That satellite capability can provide valuable, sometimes crucial, input for planning and execution of strategies for sustainable development such as those contained in Agenda 21. The capability of space technology to provide repetitive observations over large or inaccessible areas makes it a unique tool for monitoring and managing the environment or for use in global change studies.
Communication satellites also play an important role in the economic and social welfare of a country, and are now used for improving telephone communications as well as for the transmission of entertainment, health and educational programmes, particularly to rural areas. New areas of communications technology include the mobile communications and global positioning systems, both of which will have strong impacts on national economies. The use of communication satellites, particularly in combination with data from Earth observation satellites, is increasingly being used in establishing systems for preventing or mitigating the effects of natural disasters.
The programme of the "Regional Conference on Space Technology for Sustainable Development and Communications" will include technical
presentations by specialists in the above areas, including examples of usefulness of the Seismic Alert System of Mexico in the recent earthquakes that shook that country. The participants will also discuss and identify programmes in the areas of sustainable development and in communications that could be strengthened by the use of space technology, the actions which would be necessary for the decision-makers to include them as part of their planning and implementing process and ways of building up the capacity of institutions in developing countries to use space technology.
Sixty participants from 15 Latin American and Caribbean countries and from eight international and regional organizations will participate in the Conference. The participants are involved in the planning and implementing of development programmes, management of natural resources or in the use of communications for educational, health or commercial purposes in their own countries. The co-sponsors of the Conference also include the Instituto de Geografia, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico and the Instituto Mexicano de Comunicaciones.
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