Blog / Tingting Lv & Zhou Xiang / August 2, 2021
The Regional Capacity Development Center (RCCD) for Asia-Oceania Group on Earth Observations (AOGEO) was launched online on 12 July 2021 by the National Remote Sensing Center of China (NRSCC), International Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) and Aerospace Information Research Institute of Chinese Academy of Sciences (AIRCAS), marking the first step in building a regional capacity development network to promote EO applications in the Asia-Oceania region.
Earth observations play a crucial role in global efforts to address climate change and implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Paris Agreement within the UNFCCC and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, but a significant gap remains in improving how these data are used to support the three sustainability frameworks for action.
RCCD under the framework of AOGEO is a voluntary association of interested stakeholders engaged in EO-related capacity development who are willing to share information and technologies on good practice in their work. The purpose of RCCD is to support the efforts of GEO to strengthen the capacity of developing countries to use space technology and applications to achieve the sustainable development agenda by raising awareness of the value of EO data products and enhancing the use of EO data and products for climate change, carbon neutralization, agriculture and food security, disaster risk reduction, ecosystems and biodiversity, etc. Meanwhile, exploring new hybrid approaches to strengthen EO-oriented capacity development, in the face of the global impact on COVID epidemic is another important task of RCCD. With a focus on AOGEO's Integrated Priority Studies (IPS) in the pilot phase, RCCD will collaborate with other AOGEO task groups and GEO initiatives, as well as global and regional initiatives, such as CEOS, UN-SPIDER, etc., to offer broader training objectives and make the power of EO accessible to more users.
As Ms. Yana Gevorgyan, the GEO Secretariat Director, said during the launching ceremony, this year will see the launch of the UN Decade of Action and delivery on SDGs and the UN Decades on Ecosystem Restoration and on Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, which will be bridges for us to communicate the technical work we are doing within GEO to our policy communities. The launch of the RCCD is going to drive and accelerate EO-related capacity development efforts in the Asia-Oceania region.
Following the RCCD launch ceremony of, the 2021 AOGEO Training Workshop opened synchronously online in Beijing, China and in Kathmandu, Nepal. More than 230 trainees from 24 countries registered and attended the online training.
If you would like to get involved in AOGEO RCCD or learn more about the series of trainings and workshops please contact Ms. Wang Jin at wangjin@aircas.ac.cn and Mr. Rajesh Bahadur Thapa rajesh.thapa@icimod.org
Ms. Tingting Lv is a Research Assistant at Aerospace Information Research Institute (AIR), the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). Over the past few years, she has been involved in a number of EO-related training and capacity-building workshops held by CODATA-PASTD and AOGEO in China, Madagascar, Laos and Sri Lanka.
Mr. Zhou Xiang is professor of Aerospace Information Research Institute (AIR), the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), and head of Science and Technology Division. His research interests focus on geospatial information sciences and open EO data. He is Co-chair of CODATA Task Group in Preservation of and Access to Scientific Data in/for/with Developing Countries, and Member of AOGEO Coordination Board.
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