UN/Austria/ESA Symposium "Space Tools & Solutions for Monitoring the Atmosphere & Land Cover"

The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, the Government of Austria and the European Space Agency (ESA) are jointly organizing in 2006-2008 the second series of three consecutive symposia to promote the use of space technology and its applications in support of activities to carry out the Plan of Implementation of the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), held in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 2002. The symposia held from 2003 to 2005 focused on water-related issues, while the present series of symposia is dedicated to the Earth's atmosphere. The first symposium, held in September 2006, addressed the benefits provided by space technologies for monitoring air pollution and energy production and use for sustainable development. Building on this event, the Symposium in 2007 focused on space tools and solutions for monitoring the atmosphere in support of sustainable development, with the aim to enable and support participants to develop and implement projects in this area, and to provide reliable data and information for policy- and decision-making related to such issues as air quality, climate change, changing weather patterns, ozone depletion and monitoring of ultra-violet radiation.

The Symposium in 2008 will be the third and concluding symposium of the present series dedicated to atmosphere-related issues and aiming to promote the use of demonstrated capabilities of space technologies and their applications to support actions called for in the Plan of Implementation of the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD). It will also provide for a transition to issues related to the monitoring of land cover, focussing on the particular interactions between landcover and the atmosphere including issues such as agriculture, rural development, land, drought and desertification, which have been identified as issues under consideration in the thematic cluster of the Commission on Sustainable Development for the two-year cycle 2008/2009. Participants will review the outcome and recommendations of the previous symposia in the series in light of recent developments, report on ongoing follow-up activities as well as consider additional activities. It is also anticipated that the Symposium will provide input for selecting the theme and content for the forthcoming series of symposia.

The Symposium will be hosted and co-sponsored by the Government of Austria (Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs and Federal Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology), the State of Styria and the City of Graz. It will also be co-sponsored by ESA. This will be the fifteenth in a series of symposia organized through the United Nations Programme on Space Applications in cooperation with these co-sponsors since 1994. The Symposium programme is supported through contributions by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and others.

The deadline for application for participants seeking full or partial funding is 20 June 2008.