The Scope Of the Charter
The Charter’s purpose is to promote cooperation between space agencies and space system operators in the use of space facilities as a contribution to the management of crises during or shortly after natural or technological disasters.
In Charter terms, a natural or technological disaster is defined as a situation of great distress involving loss of human life or large-scale damage to property caused by a natural phenomenon such as a cyclone, tornado, earthquake, volcanic eruption, flood or forest fire, or by a technological accident such as pollution by hydrocarbons, toxic or radioactive substances. The term ‘crisis’ refers to the period immediately before, during or immediately after a natural or technological disaster in the course of which warning, emergency or rescue operations take place.
The Charter also seeks to pursue the following objectives:
- During periods of crisis, to supply data and critical information to countries, states or communities whose population, activities or property are exposed to an imminent risk or who are already victims of natural or technological disasters.
- To facilitate the coordination and flow of satellite information, data and images obtained or derived from Charter member space organisations, satellites and service providers to national public safety organisations in order to enhance their emergency assistance, reconstruction and subsequent operations.
The full Charter text can be viewed at disasterscharter.org.
The International Charter:
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