Strengthening ASEAN Disaster Risk Management by Harnessing Copernicus Data

Southeast Asia, including the Philippines, is prone to a variety of natural disasters such as typhoons, flooding, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions. Enhancing disaster risk management (DRM) across ASEAN is essential to mitigate the adverse impacts of these hazards. However, the challenges posed by climate change are becoming ever greater, with increasingly dramatic disasters.

Cooperation and collaboration are crucial to tackle the effects of climate change, which is why the Philippine government and the European Union have agreed to develop several initiatives aimed at mitigating the negative effects of climate change, while sharing experiences, innovations and technologies. The National Copernicus Capacity Support Action Programme for the Philippines (CopPhil) illustrates this concrete win-win cooperation. CopPhil is implemented by ESA, PhilSA, and co-hosted by the Department of Science and Technology of the Philippines government.

CopPhil is making a difference by establishing a data centre hub (mirror site) in order to download and store the open access Copernicus data from the Sentinel satellites and by developing three pilot services making use of Earth observation data: ground motion monitoring; land cover, forests and crop mapping; as well as marine environment monitoring. CopPhil will also enhance skills, capacity building and scholarships.

The efficiency of the whole system relies on appropriate data and relevant skills to develop DRM services. The session will highlight data needs to understand the impacts of climate change in the framework of the EU-Philippines cooperation, and the elaboration of climate information and knowledge products and services. In parallel, capacity building activities are conducted in the framework of CopPhil and other European-Philippines initiatives to enable useful solutions for end-users (i.e. flood prediction, mapping areas at high risk of infection by dengue fever or malaria). The session will highlight what skills need to be strengthened and how CopPhil addresses them through different application areas, courses and scholarships.

In addition, engaging the private sector can further drive innovation, resource mobilisation, and the application of advanced solutions in DRM, supporting the uptake of data for the creation of value-added services to benefit local private ecosystems and populations. Case studies will be presented during the session.

The planned regionalisation of CopPhil encourages regional collaboration in disaster preparedness and response. The approach will be introduced during the session, along with its connection with other European initiatives in the region that are building upon CopPhil. Thanks to the wealth of Copernicus data, the centre will support DRM through specific services, notably with a pilot on ground motion monitoring, which can be duplicated in other target areas in the future as part of the regionalisation prospects. In addition, other EU initiatives will build on Copernicus with its global coverage and open access to Earth Observation data, in view of expanding the use of Copernicus data across the ASEAN.

Session objectives:

• Raise awareness on Earth observation satellite data for DRM and the opportunity offered by the Copernicus Centre (mirror site) in the Philippines: Introduce the capabilities and benefits of satellite data for DRM at national and local level; understand the needs of the Philippines stakeholders and share the European lessons learnt to support local partners.
• Foster public-private partnerships to enhance the use of Copernicus data: Explore avenues for private sector participation in DRM, leveraging Copernicus data and technologies. Enhance knowledge sharing from EU innovations and the European public and private sector.
• Enhance regional DRM capacities with the regionalisation of CopPhil: Discuss strategies for integrating Copernicus data into national and regional disaster management frameworks, with ASEAN members.