Bula, Kia ora, Good day everyone !

I hope everyone is doing well , despite many of us being stuck in the lockdown.

It’s my pleasure to announce that the 2021/01 Issue of the Pacific Islands GIS & RS Newsletter (ISSN: 1562-4250) has been fianlly released here !

Quick summary of what is included in the current issue:

• OSM Fiji: Building a Resilient OpenStreetMap Community
• Uses of satellite-derived relative bathymetry and DEM data for disaster risk management: outputs from the Common Sensing project Satellite Knowledge is Power
• Missing Maps Mapathon
• 23 – 24 February 2021: THE Pacific Islands Earth Observation Conference
• Deimos Imaging

A special thank you goes to Iara Forstreuer for the fantastic work with the design of the newsletter.

At the same time we would also like to ask for submission of the articles for the next newsletter and encourage especially for the contributors from Pacific Islands !

PGRSC website has been recently updated as well with some small improvements, so please head to http://www.picgisrs.org/ and have a quick look !

Thank you to Remi , Eric and Tubeiri for the great work you have all have put into re-designing of the website. It’s still work in progress, so more updates are on it’s way !

Conference organizing committee is working on preparations for the next PGRSC User Conference, which is planned for November in Vanuatu.

Our website includes update for the Vanuatu Travel arrangements,  but with the Covid lockdowns across Oceania and Pacific committee has decided that the Conference will be reduced to two days and with parallel sessions. We are making arrangements to host conference as a hybrid event - for those local in Vanuatu participating in person and the rest as online event.

Registrations and more info will open shortly and we will make a separate announcement when it goes live.

In the meantime we are asking for the Call for Papers !  If you have interesting topic to present please send expression of interest to Wolf <wolf.forstreuter@gmail.com>

Finally, I would like to give a quick shout out to competition called Space for Planet Earth Challenge. The Challenge is open to high school students and university/startups in New Zealand, Australia, and the Pacific Islands. The competition has up to $30,000 in cash prize, mentorship and data for the winning teams.  Team proposals to participate in an online research incubator can be submitted between now and 31 October 2021. Go to spaceforearth.org to apply.

Thank you and stay safe !

On behalf of PGRSC board,

Rafael