Hello, my name is Basir Yordanov and I'm from Politecnico di Milano, and I would like to present to you our contribution, entitled Capacity Building for Disaster Management in Mozambique through Teaching Public Participatory GIS and Special Data Infrastructure. Our contribution is part of the CIDMA project, which is co-funded by the Erasmus Plus program by the European Union.

CIDMA stands for Climate Change Induced Disaster Management in Africa and involves a consortium formed for partnering countries Sweden, Portugal, Italy and Mozambique.

In those countries there are 8 partnering institutions and there involved 17 more associated partners in Mozambique. The main objective of the project is to build education capacity to improve disaster management in Mozambique through the use of geospatial information technology.

There are several objectives that are implemented in the course of the project. The first one is to develop innovative courses in GIS and remote sensing for disaster management. Then is the training of trainers, which means that the faculty members at the partnering universities will be trained on how to develop and teach the courses.

And of course those developed courses will be implemented in those partnering universities. Another objective is to improve the quality in education and teaching, which means that

all Mozambican partners will be equipped with e-learning and open network learning tools. Another objective is to improve the infrastructure at the partnering universities, where the specific aim is to build physical capacity in the form of well-equipped laboratories.

Another objective is to develop and implement a disaster management tool that will be able to capture, store, analyze and disseminate data and information related to disaster management. Of course, the results, the outputs should be disseminated to course participants, general public, as well as environmental management

authorities, organizations or policy makers, planning and operational interventions that will become aware of all of the applications and advantages of the spatial modeling and public web-based system, which eventually will increase the quality of the project.

and decrease the impact of climate-induced disasters in Mozambique. Moreover, the project aims to develop higher education institutions within society, which aims

to strengthen these links, making stakeholders aware of the skills and technologies needed, as well as an educated group of graduates that can be employed later to support all the previous needs. The project has a duration of three years, starting at the end of 2019.

Through the courses are implemented distance and blended teaching mode, which will allow the students to follow the courses in a location different than the one of the universities. There are defined four main target groups that will be benefiting from the courses.

Of course, the higher education students, the universities and university personnel, of course, local authorities, organizations and companies occupied with disaster management, and the local communities, which are considered the most vulnerable to disasters.

There are three courses set and developed within the signal project related to GIS and remote sensing for disaster management. This is the disaster risk and climate change spatial modeling for disaster analysis and public participatory GIS and spatial data infrastructure in disaster management.

All of them are ten credits, seven week courses, which are defined with separate knowledge and skill goals. All the courses will be started with a common core week, which is aiming

to provide students from different backgrounds with a basic knowledge of GIS and remote sensing. Mozambique is a developing country that is constantly facing climate-induced challenges. The country is even more vulnerable to frequent climate-related hazards, such as floods, drafts, wildfires and cyclones.

The most devastating impacts are mainly affecting the population and the livelihood, which is predominantly agriculture. Now, I will focus on the public participatory GIS and SDI in disaster management

course, which is prepared in collaboration between Polytechnico di Milano and University of Luria. The overall aim of the course is to prepare the students with the knowledge and skills needed to produce disaster maps through state of the RGS and remote sensing techniques, including the invaluable contribution of public participation for data gathering.

The course is also introducing valuable knowledge in the field of GIS, geospatial data management and mapping, which can be very helpful and needed by decision makers and stakeholders for implementing the right mitigation measures and strategies.

As you can see from the timetable of our distribution, it is given more focus on the practical applications in terms of exercise and project preparation. The course is distributed in seven weeks, divided into three blocks, where the first week is dedicated for the core week, the core module.

The second and the third are thematically focused on the volunteer geographical information and climate change, where week four marks the end of the second block and with the time dedicated for the students to develop their topic assignment.

Similar structure can be seen in week five and six, with the main topic is focused on the spatial data infrastructure. And the week seven is again for the project assignment. The course is designed in such a way that it will be introduced only free and open software solutions, services and geospatial data.

The core week is the same for all three courses, which has the main aim to provide fundamental knowledge and practical skills in GIS and remote sensing. The students will become independent users and be able to perform spatial analysis and thematic maps.

Moreover, they will learn how to perform image preprocessing, transformations and classifications. At the end of the core week, students have to successfully carry out a test to prove their knowledge obtained in that week and to be able to proceed with the following course.

In the public participatory GIS, the students are introduced to how volunteer geographic information can contribute to climate change related issues and hazards.

Moreover, they learn how they can contribute to volunteer mapping through field surveys, mobile or desktop mapping. Through mostly practical activities, the students will learn how to fully use a mapping service, such as OpenStreetMap, and how to contribute to it through different OSM editors, such as IDE and JOSM.

The practical sessions are focused on filling the missing information in Mozambique. For example, the missing medical amenities obtained via the humanitarian OpenStreetMap team and the export tool.

Mobile tools useful for collecting geo data are introduced, such as mobility, Q -field, geo-paparazzi, and similar mobile but hazard-related oriented Landslide Survey app. During the second week of this block, the students are introduced to collaborative mapping events, such as mappatons and mapping parties.

In the SDA block of the course, the students will get familiar with the basic concepts of SDA, starting from its components and architecture up to practical disaster-related implementations.

The focus is said to be practically introduced to the different services and platforms developed under the Copernicus program, which is providing to the public up-to-date, free-of-charge, and services useful for various thematic domains related to the protection and management of the environment.

For example, Copernicus Climate Change Service, which is providing high-quality datasets and processing tools useful for various applications. Moreover, I introduced the two services from Copernicus Emergency Management Service, rapid mapping and risk and recovery mapping.

Moreover, I introduced automatic Copernicus platforms, such as the global flood awareness system, global wildfire information system, and global drought observatory. Students will also have hands-on practicals using Google Earth Engine

for disaster-related applications, such as deforestation and monitoring air quality. Throughout the course is devoted time also for thematic seminars, which will be held by external experts.

They are going to discuss topics as humanitarian operations, using geospatial information. Other topics will be like Data Cubes, the Inspire Initiative, Mapillary, and the ASES Thematic Exploitation Platform and the Diocese. The course that I have presented to you, Public Participatory GIS and Spatial

Data Infrastructure in Disaster Management, is very much oriented to provide valuable practical expertise. The very popular topic of voluntary geographic information is introduced with very well -known platforms, such as open street map and applications, such as mobility and QGIS.

Also, spatial data infrastructures are presented, including different programs, for example Copernicus. Most of the exercises have been prepared for country-related issues, using data from Mozambique to increase the students' interest and involvement.

It is expected that the CIMO project will foster the use of new technologies, providing adequate knowledge to future technicians in order to help the public administrations, organizations, and companies in protecting the environment, taking advantage of the updated and reliable data.

I would like to thank you for the attention, and also I would like to thank to everyone included and contributing to the project. I am leaving below the website of the project, where you can follow the news and the project development. Thank you for the attention.