IAP activities for Africa showcased at IAC

he Integrated Applications Promotion programme has recently showcased a number of its activities that contribute to the development of the African continent, at the 62nd edition of the International Astronautical Congress (IAC). The associated papers and presentations are now available for download.

The IAC is the world's premier annual global space conference, and was held in Cape Town from 3-7 October, with the theme "African Astronaissance". It was directly preceded by the 21st UN/IAF Workshop on .Space for Human and Environmental Security. from 30 September to 2 October.

21st UN/IAF Workshop on Space for Human and Environmental Security

This workshop covered four sessions followed by lively plenary discussions: Space and Climate Change, Space for Food and Water, Space for Health and Space for Environment.

The IAP programme participated with the following presentations with topics ranging from e-health and epidemiology via demining to improving literacy in rural areas.

UN/IAF Workshop Presentations 

62nd Edition of the International Astronautical Congress

At the IAC, user and IAP representatives highlighted a number of activities that take place in or have relevance for the African continent.

In the Smallsat session (B4.4), the development of a Satellite-based AIS (Automated Identification System) for vessel tracking was reported that can help e.g. in the identification of hijacked ships.

Integrated application end-to-end solutions were presented in session B5.1. Ms. Annemarie Klaasse from the Grapelook project explained how satellites can help to reduce the water consumption for vineyard irrigation in South Africa. Mr. Neo Modise, a user representative from SASOL Gas in Johannesburg, clearly illustrated the need for improved and more efficient monitoring of pipelines integrity and related threats (PIMSIS project). Mr. Marco Giancarli from the S2BAS project described how satellite navigation, Earth Observation and satellite communication can be used to improve the safety for planes landing at small, underequipped and remote airports. Dr. Michiel Kruijff, technical officer of the VECMAP feasibility study, reported the successful development of a system for disease vector mapping (moquitoes in particular) that is now moving towards pre-operational service demonstration in twelve countries including Benin. Other IAP activities presented covered veterinary epidemiology in Senegal (PREDICT project) and demining assistance service development (SADA project) in which mine action users from e.g. Sudan and Egypt are involved.

In the session for Integrated Application Tools (B5.2), Prof. Dr. Alexander Horsch (Institute for Medical Statistics) stressed the importance of e-Health to save lives and detailed IAP.s newly started programme e-Health for 48 countries of Sub-Saharan Africa.  Finally, the presentation of the IRISS project showed how TITAN, a compact integrated system can be fitted retroactively in older trains to make more efficient and effective their tracking and operations and maintenance management.

IAC Abstracts & Presentations