On March 28th, the Centre organized a technical visit to National Disaster Reduction Center of China (NDRCC). Participants from 2017 MASTA & DOCSTA Program enjoyed this technical visit, and wrote about this meaningful and interesting visit. We select one journal article and some excerpts from the participants.

Excellent Excerpts:

CRISTIANO STRIEDER from Brazil wrote in his article: “During the visit, I saw the installations of NDRCC and learned about the operations conducted there. It was interesting to visit NDRCC and observe the whole idea of disaster reduction implement, an advantage just a few countries can afford. It was good to hear in one of the talks that China had agreements with neighbor countries to share the benefits that NDRCC provides. Participating in this technical visit made me realize the importance of such an institution and perceive how it was linked with space technology. I am from Brazil, a country lucky enough not to have hurricanes, tornadoes, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and tsunamis, and the need for such institutions are not immediately noticed by many people. But I believe it is a urgent issue to a disaster reduction centre integrated with space technologies, as it is of great significance and would be beneficial to any country.”

MD. MASUDUL HAQUE from Bangladesh said: “The Interesting/meaningful things I found of NDRCC is its variable functions, like integrating, processing and sharing the disaster information; providing technical service, application research and training; helping the government to make decision for disaster reduction and relief; and international cooperation on disaster reduction.

The responsibilities of NDRCC I noticed during the visit were to develop and implement the national plan on disaster reduction, to develop the guidelines and policies as well as activities, to propel international exchange and cooperation in disaster reduction, to supervise the relevant work in the provincial levels, and to organize and coordinate the disaster relief work.”

ELYKA ABELLO RODRIGUEZ from Venezuela wrote: “ It was a great technical visit and made me think of the application of my research field, Micro-satellite technology. Satellite project is done to solve people’s need, meaning to provide a service to the user. The user defines the mission of the satellite depending on its the application. NDRCC is also a satellite technology application center, even if it is not directly related to the Micro-satellite Technology courses. It is important to know the different applications that a satellite can provide, because applications define the requirement for satellite design. ”

Journal Article from One Thai Participant --CHITSUTTI PATSHARAWADEE

On 28^th March, 2018, We, students in 2017 MASTA Program, got an opportunity to visit National Disaster Reduction Center of China (NDRCC) under Ministry of Civil Affairs of China. NDRCC is one of the leading scientific and technical centers to provide the support for government in addressing disaster-related issues by focusing on the whole cycle of disaster management, including a national disaster database which local civil affairs departments access to enter details about the disaster. NDRCC has built up its unique capacities by applying leading-edge technologies and other software resources to conduct the work in disaster preparedness, disaster reduction, emergency response, post-disaster rehabilitation and reconstruction.

In the center, the experts of NDRCC guided us to visit some working areas such as Comprehensive Analysis and Estimation Section, Airborne Remote Sensing Section, Satellite Remote Sensing Section and Disaster Assessment Section. The experts gave an overall introduction, showed how to use National Natural Disaster Report System to get the data and images, and explained some disaster information which occurred in China. They mentioned eight (8) major disasters including Drought, Flood, Earthquake, Snow, Forest Fire and Tropical Storm in the introduction. For Disaster Management, NDRCC works on six (6) parts preparedness, disaster reduction, reconstruction, disaster incident, relief and recovery.

The interesting things I found of this technical visit were in Disaster Monitoring part. The NDRCC monitors in routine with using satellites HJ-1, GF Series and commercial cooperation satellite such as FY, MODIS, NOAA to check local disaster and provides three (3) kinds of Routine Monitoring products disaster element (e.g. vegetarian, water), risk area (drought, flood), recovery and reconstruction. In addition, these products are utilized in Land Cover and Land Use, Residential Distribution, Vegetation Distribution and Growth condition. In case of Emergency Monitoring, they monitors 24 hrs to get the 1st post disaster RS data with five (5) kinds of disaster monitoring and loss assessment products such as Reference Mapping, Delineation Mapping, Damage assessment Mapping, Secondary Disaster Monitoring and Disaster Relief Monitoring.

Then, Dr. Liu Ming gave a lecture titled “Space-based Technology Application for Disaster Management in China”, giving a detailed introduction about disaster characteristics and management in China, space-based technology in disaster monitoring and assessment, etc. He mentioned that China joined the International Charter Space and Major Disaster formally on May 24, 2007 and improved its remote sensing data acquisition capacity. NDRCC acted as the Authorized User (AU) and Project Manager (PM) of the mechanism. He also introduced Remote Sensing Data, Disaster Monitoring and other professional and technical knowledge.

Finally, to visit the NDRCC, I am grateful and impressed with the efficient use of technology in China. In my opinion, this center is the best center for learning in disaster management and reduction because it serves disaster information sharing, technical services and plans for disaster reduction, coordinating major disaster activities. Its main specified functions can be managed disaster effectively to assess and analyze the occurrence and development of major disasters, and provide services on forecast, assessment and supporting disaster reduction decisions and information, collect and analyze disaster reduction information both at home and abroad for information sharing and also provide technical assistance and supporting decisions for major emergency relief work. Moreover, NDRCC gives guidance to local governments in their disaster reduction work which lead in promoting international exchanges and cooperation.