On 29 October 2024, the CopernicusLAC Panama Centre pilot service related to Flood Event Mapping for Preparedness officially kicked off its activities. This service will generate a catalogue of detailed maps of past floods by leveraging images from the Copernicus Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 satellites.
Following a rigorous analysis and consultations with local stakeholders, specific municipalities in Guyana, Jamaica, and the Dominican Republic have been selected for the service’s demonstration phase. These locations were chosen as a consequence of their high vulnerability to urban flooding, making them important areas for the implementation of this service.
The solutions implemented in these demonstration areas will be subsequently integrated into the Earth observation solutions portfolio of the CopernicusLAC Centre in Panama. In addition, the development of the pilot service will include the collaboration of regional institutions, such as the Caribbean Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology (CIMH) and the Caribbean Emergency and Disaster Management Agency (CDEMA), providing national disaster management authorities with a tailored tool for decision-making.
Each map in the catalogue of past floods will serve as a reference for users facing future flooding events with similar characteristics. Local authorities will be able to activate the service in advance upon the detection of potential threats, such as hurricanes.
This is the first of four CopernicusLAC Panama pilot services related to hydrometeorological phenomena in Latin America and the Caribbean. Its successful development highlights the value of Copernicus satellite data for improving disaster risk management in the region.
About the CopernicusLAC Panama Centre
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).