History

< Last Update: March 2020 >

At the proposal of Japan, SAFE was established in 2008 as one of international cooperation initiatives of EOWG (Earth Observation Working Group, pre-Space Applications Working Group) of APRSAF (Asia-Pacific Regional Space Agency Forum).

The first year, SAFE Prototyping activities started with 2 prototyping in Vietnam (construction of supporting system for solving issues in water resource and land use monitoring). In 2010, SAFE activities were expanded to agriculture, coast and fisheries. As of today, 10 countries (Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam) and one organization (Mekong River Commission) participate in 5 fields: water resource, agriculture, forestry, coast and fishery.

There have been 27 prototyping completed (as of March 2020) since 2008 when the first SAFE project started. SAFE achieved great results in participating countries and Asia-Pacific regions. Systems constructed through prototyping were adapted by internal organization’s project, operated as a steady system in local organization, re-examined environment protection plan by utilizing the system. For environment issues, many countries face similar challenges. SAFE framework enables promotion of international cooperation by deploying established methods in different regions. SAFE also promotes flexible use of space technology. For example, SAFE uses other space technologies such as positioning satellites in combination with earth observation satellite data.

In 2018, at APRSAF-25 in Singapore SAFE Project activities was endorsed. The SAFE project entails multilateral collaboration with space agencies, research institutions, and international organizations in the Asia-Pacific region, developing the achievements of SAFE prototyping.

SAFE is currently promoting 2 projects: the Agromet Project and the Crop Monitoring Project. By sharing the earth observation data, application, and knowledge among the organizations, the SAFE project contributes to solving environmental problems in the Asia-Pacific region.