United NationsOffice for Outer Space Affairs

Available Information

• Training is provided free of charge
• Draft Programme
• Application Form (deadline for applications is 15 February 2026)

Introduction

The Earth Observation (EO) for Resilience and Humanitarian Aid Training Programme is an intensive five-day hybrid course designed to strengthen the ability of UN personnel to use geospatial and satellite-derived information in operational, programmatic, and emergency-response settings. Taking place at the United Nations Office in Vienna from 23-27 March 2026, the programme is jointly delivered by UNOOSA, UNU, CEOS, ESA, and partner institutions, bringing together technical expertise from across the international EO community.

Satellite data now plays an essential role across humanitarian response, development programming, disaster preparedness, and climate resilience. This training equips participants with the practical skills and conceptual understanding needed to integrate EO into workflows related to situational awareness, needs assessment, crisis monitoring, environmental analysis, and resilience planning.

Through hands-on sessions, guided exercises, and real UN case studies, participants will engage with optical, SAR, hyperspectral, and medium-resolution EO datasets, deep learning techniques for feature extraction, and integrated approaches for climate-health analysis. Special emphasis is placed on replicable workflows, open tools and platforms, inter-agency coordination, and the operational realities of using EO to support humanitarian and development mandates.

This training follows a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) modality, ensuring participants leave with tools and workflows they can immediately deploy in their own missions and field operations.

How this training advances UN 2.0

The programme of this course directly supports the UN system's UN 2.0 vision, strengthening a forward-looking culture and building cutting-edge capabilities across the UN's quintet of change, in particular, data, digital and innovation. Improving how EO and geospatial data is used and translated into decision-ready insights, using open and scalable methods that can be adapted across contexts and, using operational  platforms and workflows that improve timeliness and response.

Certificate

A certificate of participation will be issued by the United Nations University - Institute for Water, Environment and Health.

Target Participant Profile

The programme is designed for technical and semi-technical staff from UN entities who work with, or are expected to work with, Earth observation and geospatial information in the context of development, humanitarian aid, disaster risk reduction or climate-related operations. Please note that applicants will undergo a selection process as the number of seats available is only 30. On the first day, it is expected that representatives to the UN based in Vienna are attending.

Typical participants include:

• Programme or technical oficers integrating EO products into projects on technical assistance, development, climate, disasters, food security, displacement or related areas
• GIS / remote sensing / EO analysts supporting development, humanitarian operations, disaster response, recovery or resilience planning.
• Information management or data officers producing or using maps and geospatial analyses for decision-making.

Minimum prerequisites

• Affiliation with an UN entity working on technical assistance, humanitarian aid, development, disaster risk reduction, climate or related fields
• Clear motivation to apply EO and geospatial analysis in operational or programmatic work (e.g. situational awareness, needs assessment, risk mapping, monitoring...)
• Ability to participate actively  and follow discussions in English (spoken and written)
• Basic experience with GIS tools (QGIS, ArcGIS or web-based platforms)
• Knowledge of vector/raster concepts, layers/CRS and map production
• Basic awareness of optical vs radar imagery (helpful but not mandatory)
• Comfortable using a laptop for geospatial analysis and handling medium-size datasets
• Familiarity with software installation, plugins and EO web tools
• Basic familiarity with at least one programming language - preferably Python (ability to read and modify simple scripts)
• Availability for the full five days
• BYOD: access to a personal or work laptop capable of running the necesary software.

Programme Summary

The workshop programme will include plenary sessions and sufficient time for discussions among participants to identify the priority areas where pilot projects should be launched and examine possible partnerships that could be established. The Local Organizing Committee will arrange a half-day technical/cultural tour during the workshop. As a preliminary suggestion, the following sessions will be organized:

• Day 1 - EO Foundations for Humanitarian Aid: EO applications, platforms, tools, coordination mechanisms and hands-on exploration of EO resources
• Day 2 - Deep Learning for Building Extraction: Use of VHR imagery, SAM models, training and data preparation, and evaluation
• Day 3 - Crisis Monitoring with SAR: Flood mapping, subsidence, land-use mapping, emergency response.
• Day 4 - Agriculture, Health and Hyperspectral Applications: Optical and hyperspectral workflows for vegetation, crop health, and environmental monitoring.
• Day 5 - Climate Resilience and Multi-Source EO Integration: Climate monitoring datasets, EO-climate-socioeconomic integration, workflow challenge, and EO4Health applications