A new posting on the UNISDR website by Vincent Fung entitled “Space: the Final Frontier of Disaster Risk Reduction,” examined a recent discussion between resilience and disaster risk experts. They were invited by the UNISDR and the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOSA) to “discuss the incorporation of space technology into the post-2015 disaster risk reduction framework.”

Fung noted that UNISDR's Deputy Director Helena Molin-Valdes, who also coordinates the Making Cities Resilient campaign, which has signed up over 1,300 cities said, "The question now is how do we link spaced-based technologies, and the information they capture, to the wider issue of disaster risk reduction and long-term sustainable development? Will urban planners, engineers, and development practitioner’s step up to the challenges of openly sharing data, building capacities, partnering, and innovating to build a disaster resilient future?"

Fung also quoted Juan-Carlos Villagran, head of the UN Platform for Space-based Information for Disaster Management and Emergency Response (UN-SPIDER), on the use of space technology, geographic information systems, and geospatial data. As he explained, these are tools that can help countries report against the Hyogo Framework for Action, the current 10-year international framework for DRR, which ends in 2015. He also proposed that, "countries use data and space technology to provide evidence when reporting against the future DRR [Disaster Risk Reduction] framework and that this will also provide recommended practices on how space technology can be used for resilience building."

In a separate but related story, the BBC website recently posted a story by “Science” correspondent Jonathan Amos about a new report from the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee, which concludes that, “Unless space debris is actively tackled, some satellite orbits will become extremely hazardous over the next 200 years.” The report’s research “found that catastrophic collisions would likely occur every five to nine years at the altitudes used principally to observe the Earth. And the scientists who did the work say their results are optimistic—the real outcome would probably be far worse.”

Amos writes that “There are some 20,000 man-made objects in orbit that are currently being monitored regularly. About two-thirds of this population is in Low-Earth orbit.  These are just the big, easy-to-see items, however. Moving around unseen are an estimated 500,000 particles ranging in size between 1-10cm across, and perhaps tens of millions of other particles smaller than 1cm. All of this material is travelling at several kilometers per second—sufficient velocity for even the smallest fragment to become a damaging projectile if it strikes an operational space mission. Two key events have added significantly to the debris problem in recent years. The first was the destructive anti-satellite test conducted by the Chinese in 2007 on one of their own retired weather spacecraft. The other, in 2009, was the collision between the Cosmos 2251 and Iridium 33 satellites.  Taken together, these two events essentially negated all the mitigation gains that had been made over the previous 20 years to reduce junk production from spent rocket explosions.”