27 February 2023
WINNERS ANNOUNCED!
The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) and the Space Generation Advisory Council (SGAC), are thrilled to announce the results of the 2022 edition of the Space4Youth Essay Competition!
The winners are (in alphabetical order):
Cannelli Selene, Italy. Title of the essay: " A Picasso in the sea. So beautiful, so deadly"
Carlos Marco, Angola. Title of the essay: " EFUNDJA: an Angolan geospatial project for flooding control"
Das Sia, India. Title of the essay: " Women, Water and Space: Role of Indigenous Women in using Geospatial Tech for Conserving Water"
Joshi Prayon, Nepal. Title of the essay: " Water quality monitoring of Lake Cluster in Pokhara Valley, Nepal with satellite images and machine learning"
Kitambo Benjamin, Congo. Title of the essay: " Application of radar altimetry in surface water bodies monitoring of the second largest worldwide river basin"
Venn Rachel, United Kingdom. Title of the essay: " Climate risks and capability sharing in the Asia-Pacific region: Exploring a future GNSS-based early warning system for tsunami"
Thanks to the generous support of the Permanent Mission of the U.S. to International Organizations in Vienna, the authors of the best 6 essays will have the opportunity to participate in a trip to the United States to meet with representatives of the U.S. space sector and attend an Adult Space Camp at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama*.
UNOOSA and SGAC would like to thank all participants for their inspirational contribution and insights! Water scarcity is a major global challenge and we are proud to see the engagement and passion of many young people committed to take action. Thank you!
The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), in collaboration with the Space Generation Advisory Council (SGAC), launched the 2022 edition of the Space4Youth Essay Competition! Water scarcity is a major global challenge. Young people play a key role. UNOOSA and SGAC want to give a voice to and promote youth's ideas on the use of space for water resources management and aquatic ecosystem preservation.
Participants will submit an essay on the theme "Space as a tool to accelerate change in sustainable water resources management, hydrology and the protection of aquatic ecosystems" but can choose their own topic within that theme. Participants will focus on how space can be used to tackle water challenges by underlining concrete, realistic and original examples of how space science, technology and its applications can inform and, or support the delivery of actions and commitments for water management problems and adaptation of policies at local, national, regional and, or international levels.
To apply, please read the guidelines and rules in the call for abstracts and essays. Submissions for the abstract must be received by 24th November 2022. Successful candidates will be communicated by 14th December 2022 and must submit their essays by 15th January 2023.
The Competition is open to all students and young professionals from any Member State of the United Nations.
In view of the Midterm Review of the Decade of Action for Water, which will take place at UN Headquarters in New York in March 2023, co-hosted by Tajikistan and the Netherlands, the UNOOSA Space4Youth and Space4Water projects developed the competition with the theme of "Youth4Water - Space as a tool to accelerate change in sustainable water resources management, hydrology and the protection of aquatic ecosystems", aiming at highlighting good practices and experiences in terms of experimentation, application, evaluation and dissemination of techniques, methods and innovative approaches that use space to address water-related environmental or water management issues.
The U.S. will support this year's Space4Youth competition by providing the authors of the best 3 essays with
a trip to the United States to meet with representatives of the U.S. space sector and attend an Adult Space Camp at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama*.
The 3 best essays will be uploaded on the "Space for Youth" webpage and the "Space4Water Portal" of UNOOSA.
The authors of the best 3 essays may be invited to attend other international events.