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1. The 1st Asia-Pacific Water Summit, Japan -December 3 - 4

2. Introduction of "Future Coasts: Preparing Victoria's Coast for Climate Change" Project in Australia.

3. Introduction of Malaysia Space Center and Status of Razaksat

4. Lunar Explorer KAGUYA Update 3: Initial Check of Mission Instruments with First Light Images, Japan

5. APRSAF-14 Results & Interviews, Bangalore - November 21- 23

6. [[Event Information and APRSAF Website Updates - January - March 2008]]

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1. The 1st Asia-Pacific Water Summit, Japan -December 3 - 4
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The 1st Asia Pacific Water Forum was held in Oita Prefecture, Japan from December 3 to 4, 2007 focusing on three priority themes: Water Financing and Capacity Development, Water-related Disaster Management and Water for Development and Ecosystems, attended by around 300 heads of state and government representatives from 49 countries and regions around the world.

The APRSAF secretariat had an interview with Mr. Basanta Raj Shrestha, Division Head of the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) who introduced the dangerousness of glacial lakes at Himalayan Region during the summit.

"The glacial lakes are becoming huge because of the melting caused by global warming, and there are about 200 lakes that could discharge and cause flooding. If that happens, the damage will extend to farms, roads and electric power plants in the downstream areas. Around 20,000 to 25,000 people in Nepal alone will have their lives put in danger," Dr. Shrestha warned.

Full text of the article:
http://www.aprsaf.org/feature/feature_38.html

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2. Introduction of "Future Coasts: Preparing Victoria's Coast for Climate Change" Project in Australia.
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The state of Victoria in Australia has a shoreline that extends some 2,000 km and there are urgent needs to identify those parts that are most vulnerable to the effects of global warming.

The state government, therefore, started a project on August 27, 2007 as a two-year program implemented with the Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) that aims to provide a much better understanding of the risks of rising sea levels and stronger storm surges.

As the first step, a high resolution Digital Evaluation Model (DEM) of Victoria's entire coast line, which will show the lie of the land 10 meters above and below sea level, will be developed using data collected by an airborne laser system.

Full text of the article:
http://www.aprsaf.org/feature/feature_36.html

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3. Introduction of Malaysia Space Center and Status of Razaksat
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The Malaysia Space Center, under the National Space Agency of Malaysia (ANGKASA), is a complex built on 400 acres of land in Banting, about 40 km south-west of Kuala Lumpur. Currently, two facilities have been completed, the Mission Operation Center (MOC) and the Optical Calibration Lab.

The MOC is to be used as ground command and control for the upcoming Malaysian Earth observation satellite, Razaksat. The Optical Calibration Lab was used to calibrate Razaksat's optical system before its launch.

According to Dr. Mustafa Din Subari, Deputy Director General of ANGKASA, Razaksat is now set to be launched in the first quarter of 2008, by the Falcon1 rocket developed by SpaceX of the U.S. Pre-flight calibration of the imaging system has already been completed.

ANGKASA's website:
www.angkasa.gov.my
Full text of the article:
http://www.aprsaf.org/feature/feature_35.html

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4. Lunar Explorer KAGUYA Update 3: Initial Check of Mission Instruments with First Light Images, Japan
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KAGUYA (SELENE) is a lunar explorer that was launched on September 14, 2007 from Japan. On October 18, 2007, it was injected into a lunar orbit about 100 km above the surface of the Moon (Japan Standard Time). After successfully being injected into its observation orbit, the functions of KAGUYA's 15 observation missions were verified as part of the initial checks that are to be performed until the middle of December 2007.

Mr. Shiichi Sobue, a senior researcher of the KAGUYA project said, "Although KAGUYA is still in the initial phase of being checked, it has already provided many beautiful pieces of lunar data which no one has ever seen before"

Full text of the article:
http://www.aprsaf.org/feature/feature_37.html

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5. APRSAF-14 Results & Interviews, Bangalore - November 21- 23
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The results of the fourteenth session of APRSAF held in Bangalore, India from December 21 to 23 have been posted on the following site:
http://www.aprsaf.org/text/ap14_info.html
- Recommendations of APRSAF-14
- Side Events Report by the Space Education & Awareness Working Groups:
Water Rocket Competition & Poster Contest

In addition, the presentation materials during the APRSAF-14 are now available on line.

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6. [[Event Information and APRSAF Website Updates - January - March 2008]]
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*January 7-8, 2008
Virtual Geographic Environments - An International Conference on Developments in Visualization and Virtual Environments in Geographic
Information Science
Hong Kong
http://www.iseis.cuhk.edu.hk/vge/index.htm

*January 14-25, 2008
Mountain GIS e-Conference
Kathmandu, Nepal
http://www.mtnforum.org/rs/ec/index.cfm?econfid=15

*January 17-18, 2008
ESRI Asia Pacific User Conference
Tokyo, Japan
http://gis2.esri.com/intldist/events/index.cfm

*February 6-8, 2008
Map India 2008
New Delhi, India
http://www.mapindia.org/

*February 26-29, 2008
IEEE-DEST 2008 - 2nd IEEE International Conference on Digital Ecosystems
and Technologies
Phitsanulok, Thailand
http://www.ieee-dest.curtin.edu.au/2008/index.php

*March 3-7, 2008
International Conference on Rivers in the Hindu Kush Himalaya: Ecology and Environmental Assessment
Kathmandu, Nepal
http://www.icimod.org/home/page.php?p=ann2

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Copyright 2007 The APRSAF Secretariat

APRSAF Secretariat
c/o. Remote Sensing Technology Center of Japan
Roppongi First Bldg. 12F, 1-9-9 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-0032,
Japan
Tel:+81-3-5572-6708 / Fax:+81-3-5572-6707