Mexico is extremely susceptible to hurricanes along its Pacific and Gulf of Mexico coasts every summer. The hurricanes and torrential rains cause tremendous damage to Mexico’s agriculture sector and public infrastructure, affecting livelihoods and the national economy. To combat this chronic climate challenge, the Mexican Space Agency (AEM) is preparing to train its youth in using satellite technology to support social tasks such as civil protection against floods.
Salvador Landeros Ayala, the General Director of AEM, announced that AEM has partnered with the Autonomous University of the State of Mexico (UAEMEX), where the youth capacity building will be based on a training module called “Technologies Based on Satellite Information for Flood Management,” which is coordinated by the UN Platform for Satellite-based Information for Disaster Management and Emergency Response (UN-SPIDER), in collaboration with the German Space Agency.
Xanat Antonio Némiga, a renowned professor from UAEMEX, will coordinate this training exercise. Landeros Ayala made clear that in the medium term, Landeros Ayala added that this human capital, trained via UN-SPIDER, specialised in satellite technologies and computational analysis, could generate accurate flood forecasts to support the affected Mexican provinces of Tabasco and Chiapas, among others. In the long term, the AEM aims to attract university students to the aerospace and telecommunications sectors, which have registered the fastest growth in Mexico in the last decade.
AEM already has strong partnerships with Mexican universities. Recently, it has held conferences and training modules at the CREDES, the Regional Center for Space Development, for more than 600 young university students who could embrace satellite technology as a way of life. The initiative is part of AEM’s efforts to leverage space science, technologies, and applications to promote the sustainable development of Mexico.
