The Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space in its sixty-fourth session, which took place form 25 August-3 September 2021 in Vienna, adopted the below on its agenda item "Space and water":
- The Committee considered the agenda item entitled “Space and water”, in accordance with General Assembly resolution 75/92.
- The representatives of Argentina, Canada, France, India, Indonesia, Iran (Islamic Republic of), Japan, Mexico, the Russian Federation, South Africa and the United States made statements under the item. During the general exchange of views, other member States also made statements relating to the item.
- The Committee heard a presentation entitled “The use of satellite information in solving problems of ensuring water security”, by the representative of the Russian Federation.
- In the course of the discussion, delegations reviewed water-related cooperation activities, giving examples of national programmes and bilateral, regional and international cooperation that demonstrated the beneficial effect of international cooperation and policies on the sharing of remote sensing data.
- The Committee noted that water and related issues had become one of the most critical environmental problems of the twenty-first century. The Committee also noted that in order to contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals it was important to make use of space technologies, applications, practices and initiatives for space-borne observations of water.
- The Committee noted that a large number of space-borne platforms addressed water-related issues and that space-derived data were used extensively in water management. The Committee also noted that space technology and applications, combined with non-space technologies, played an important role in addressing many water-related issues, including the observation and study of oceans and changing coastal features; global water cycles and unusual climate patterns; the mapping of surface water bodies, water courses and transboundary basins; water volume levels in dam reservoirs; the estimated values for water quality parameters; the estimation of snowmelt run-offs; the monitoring of ground water resources; the planning and management of reservoirs and irrigation projects; the monitoring and mitigation of the effects of floods, droughts, cyclones and lake outbursts; the monitoring of soil moisture; the reuse of agricultural drainage water; the harvesting of rain; the improvement of the timeliness and accuracy of forecasts; and the identification of emergency situations such as fires, pollution, salinization, water blooms, pipeline accidents and oil spills.
- Some delegations expressed the view that climate change had become a crucial issue for a stable water management because it had caused serious droughts and water-related disasters at a global level.
- The Committee took note of the holding of the United Nations/Islamic Republic of Iran Workshop on the Space Technology Applications for Drought, Flood and Water Resources Management, which was hosted by the Iranian Space Agency from 9 to 11 August 2021.
- Some delegations expressed the view that there was a need for policy development, capacity-building, knowledge exchange, transfer of technology, access to space-based data and in situ data, and interdisciplinary thinking on the Sustainable Development Goals in order to build capacity among stakeholders to use space-based information and promote innovation to empower communities to deal with emerging risks related to water resources.
