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The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has joined a partnership with UNESCO, under which it will mobilise the Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS) for the study and safeguarding of World Heritage sites. ALOS is used for mapping, land observation, and the monitoring of disasters as well as resources

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The agreement, signed by JAXA president, Keiji Tachikawa and UNESCO director-general, Koïchiro Matsuura on 2 December, allows UNESCO member states, mainly in Asia, to access JAXA technology for acitivites conducted as part of the Open Initiative on the Use of Space Technologies for World Heritage Sites.

The Open Initiative, launched in 2001 by UNESCO and the European Space Agency, aims to harness space technologies in the observation, monitoring and management of natural and cultural sites. JAXA joins a group of more than 50 partners, including 25 space agencies.

In April this year, the Chinese government received approval to establish a dedicated UNESCO centre for the ‘Open Initiative’ in Beijing. The Centre will be located inside the Centre for Earth Observation and Digital Earth of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The Indian Space Research Organisation, the International Institute for Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation in Mongolia, and the Iraq Space Department are also partners of the initiative.

Remote sensing is an important tool for heritage conservation. Satellite imagery is being used in the mapping, inventory and conservation of the Frozen Tombs of the Altai Mountains, for example. These tombs, scattered across Russia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and China, are remnants of the Scythian civilization that flourished in the first millennium BC.

Satellite images are also being used to investigate the impact of global warming on the permafrost zone of these mountains.

Other activities of the Open Initiative include mapping the Great Wall of China, and monitoring and mapping Uruk-Warka in Iraq, one of the oldest metropolises of the ancient world.

ASM Newsletter is distributed by e-mail every week. It reports on events in the spatial industry in Asia and events outside the region which will impact on Asia.