Space for Civil Protection Workshop

During major disasters there are often shortcomings in the quantity and quality ofavailable satellite capacity and relevant services. The need for services arises from the
fragmented nature of both demand (structure of civil protection) and supply (the many satellite service providers and systems).
Specifically, Civil Protection (CP) communications systems have more stringent requirements than those available via mass market commercial systems. This results in
high costs, problems of interoperability due to lack of standardization, poor mutual awareness of needs and capabilities and inadequate security and quality of service. As a
result, a consolidation effort is needed to ensure that the development of new generations of services is in line with the CP environment.

The present workshop will reflect preliminary activities as well as the results of the ESA short term action plan for the European Civil Protection. It offers a great possibility for operational people from the Civil Protection community to present key examples of lessons learnt experience from past disasters. Furthermore, it will reflect the strategies and perspectives of several countries and CP agencies. The workshop aims at identifying the way forward and setting up a roadmap for further activities, together with the Civil Protection community.
The workshop is held under the auspices of the Austrian Ministry of the Interior. It will have a special focus on the needs of Central and Eastern European countries.Expected outcomes

• Preliminary identification of key focal areas as follow-on of previous ESA IAP activities, in improving the overall operational capabilities of European civil protection agencies through the use of satellite communication based services.
• Preparation of the elements to set up a roadmap for generating space-based user driven activities of direct benefit for the European Civil Protection.
• ESPI Report which contains an inventory of the current situation and users’ needs. The report will analyse problems with currently used services and the demand for new innovative services for civil protection as well as the need to provide an adequate regulatory framework in this field.