Date: 22 September 2024
Location: Barbuda, Antigua and Barbuda
Credit: Copernicus Sentinel-2 image, processed by the CopernicusLAC Panama Centre
Description:
This Copernicus Sentinel-2 image, acquired on 22 September 2024, shows the island of Barbuda, part of the archipelago country of Antigua and Barbuda.
Situated in the Eastern Caribbean, Antigua and Barbuda ranks among the top five countries most exposed to multiple hazards. The whole country’s land area and its entire population are exposed to two or more hazards, including storms, earthquakes, floods and drought. The high exposure to these events is a consequence of the country’s geographical location in the hurricane belt, its low-lying terrain and the impacts of climate change.
For instance, since 2020, 13 named hurricanes have passed through the archipelago. In view of the islands’ small size, even a single storm can cause extensive damage, affecting the entire population. Open data from the Copernicus satellites and services delivers important insights before the formation of hurricanes, as well as during and after their passage. These inform preparedness activities and supports recovery operations in the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region. Read more about the applications of Copernicus data and services for hurricanes in this blog article.
To support Antigua and Barbuda and other Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries in addressing hydrometeorological and geological hazards as well as complementing exposure analyses in relation to disaster events, the CopernicusLAC Panama Centre is co-developing a set of Earth Observation services tailored to the local needs.
In addition, the Centre works to increase uptake of Copernicus data in the LAC region by providing trainings and educational resources on Copernicus data for disaster risk reduction (DRR). Materials from past training courses are made available for free to all registered users of the CopernicusLAC Panama Centre Digital Campus.
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Background Information
The Copernicus LAC Panama Centre’s activities take place within the overall context of the EU-LAC Digital Alliance, which is a strategic framework for promoting cooperation between the EU and the LAC region on digital and space issues under the EU Global Gateway umbrella. Within this context, the European Space Agency (ESA) is coordinating the Centre’s implementation on the basis of a Contribution Agreement with the Directorate-General for International Partnerships (DG INTPA) of the European Commission, and in close collaboration with Panama’s government, MIRE (Ministry of Foreign Affairs), Government Innovation Authority (AIG), and SENACYT (National Secretariat for Science, Technology and Innovation).
The CopernicusLAC Panama Centre will serve as a hub for innovation in the Latin America and Caribbean region, supporting national and local entities in leveraging Copernicus data and information to boost socio-economic benefits and resilience. In addition to providing engagement opportunities, the Centre is developing geospatial Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) Pilot Services (addressing hydrometeorological hazards, geological hazards, and hazard exposure) in close collaboration with local users and stakeholders, to whom they will be handed over to ensure that the unique needs of the region are addressed in the long term.
In addition, knowledge and skills transfer is a key element of the CopernicusLAC Panama Centre, which hosts a Digital Campus with access to training modules and educational resources for technical users and citizens alike. The Centre will also organise community-building events, policy dialogues and industry matchmaking, as well as hackathons and other Earth Observation (EO) data challenges to stimulate user adoption of Copernicus data and innovation. These events will also foster cross-collaboration among EO, disaster risk reduction (DRR) and other relevant ecosystems.
Finally, the Centre will support the development of a high-power computing and data storage cloud infrastructure for the LAC region. One of the final objectives of the Centre is to promote the development of communities of practice and to strengthen the knowledge and use of tools for DRR and other application areas in the public sector, academia, the private sector, and social organisations.
