United Nations Coordination of Outer Space Activities
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Mandate
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations works to alleviate poverty and hunger by promoting agricultural development, improved nutrition and the pursuit of food security. The Organization offers direct development assistance, collects, analyses and disseminates information, provides policy and planning advice to governments and acts as an international forum for debate on food and agriculture issues.
FAO operates and participates in, among others, the following programmes:
GeoNetwork
- through the application of multitemporal low and high resolution satellite imagery, and GIS map services:
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- establishment of ISO and OGC compliant access to and use of FAO spatial data and information, and establishment of interoperability between UN agencies and partners;
- spatial information support to decision making in agriculture, forestry, fisheries and food security;
- promotion of multidisciplinary approaches to sustainable development;
- enhancement of understanding of the benefits of geographic information.
AsiaCover
- through the application of GIS maps and high resolution satellite imagery:
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- generation of consistent, timely high resolution land cover and supplemental information for seven countries in South East Asia;
- collection of detailed metadata on existing datasets in compliance with ISO 19115 standard, using the GeoNetwork technology
AFRICOVER - Land Cover Mapping and Global Land Cover Network (GLCN) Initiative
- through the application of high resolution satellite data (Landsat TM/ETM)
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- establishment of a digital georeferenced database on land cover and a geographic referential for the whole of Africa; being extended to global level under the GLCN initiative.
Global Terrestrial Observing System (GTOS)
- through the application of integrated ground and space-based environmental observations:
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- observations, modelling, and analysis of terrestrial ecosystems to support sustainable development;
- access to information on terrestrial ecosystems so that researchers and policy makers can detect and manage global and regional environmental change
AgrometShell (AMS)
- through processing and modelling of low resolution, high frequency satellite imagery and ground observations:
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- development of analytical software tools to evaluate the effect of weather on crop yields.
Global Information and Early Warning System (GIEWS) with the use of the Advanced Real Time Environmental Monitoring Information System (ARTEMIS)
- through the application, among others, of global low resolution satellite data and ground observations from meteorological stations:
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- establishment of a system for monitoring global food supply and demand situation using, in addition to socio-economic data and information, remote sensing and ground based environmental observations for crop condition assessment.
www.fao.org/giews
http://metart.fao.org
Southern African Development Community (SADC) Regional Remote Sensing Unit with the use of ARTEMIS
- through the application of low and high resolution satellite data and ground observations from meteorological stations:
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- development of regional remote sensing and GIS capacity to support food security early warning and environmental assessment in the SADC countries.
http://www.sadc-fanr.org.zw
http://metart.fao.org
FAO Focal Point
Mr. Jeffrey B. TSCHIRLEY
Chief
Environment and Natural Resources Service (SDRN)
Sustainable Development Department
E-mail:
jeff.tschirley@fao.org
Contact information:
Office for Outer Space Affairs
Vienna International Centre
P.O. Box 500, A - 1400 Vienna
Austria
Phone: (43-1) 26060-4950
Fax: (43-1) 26060 5830
E-mail:
OOSA@unvienna.org