Islam Abou El-Magd

Bio: Islam Abou El-Magd, Vice President of the Egyptian Space Agency, Egypt

• He is currently is the Executive Vice-President of the Egyptian Space Agency, Egypt. 
• He is also acting the Counsellor for the Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research for Space Technology and African Affairs.
• Prof. Abou El-Magd has obtained his PhD from the School of Civil Engineering and The Environment, University of Southampton, UK where he also worked there for few years. His research area of interest is image processing and computational modelling of satellite data in environmental related issues for societal benefits such as climate changes, coastal zone management, cultural heritage, etc. He is also lead and participated in many international joint projects funded from international funding agencies such as EC “FP7, H2020”; WB; UNDP and UNEP.
• Prof. Abou El-Magd is heavily involved in many international and national committees that contribute to the society in policy, technology and applications such as:

1. Contributed author to the AR6 report on climate change published by the IPCC in 2022 and presented in the COP27.
2. Co-Chair of the Space Working Group developed the African space policy and strategy. 
3. Cahir the national committee to prepare Egypt file to host the African Space Agency.
4. Co-Chair of the Implementation Plan Working Group that developed the 2016-2025 strategic implementation plan for GEO (Group on Earth Observation. 
5. General secretary of the national space council of Egypt. 
6. Member of the High Level Policy Dialogue for EU-AU partnership in science and technology and innovation. 
7. Member of the STC - EST Bureau for the African Union Commission
8. Member of the board of directors of the Egyptian Space Agency.
9. Member of Board of Directors of the National Authority for Remote Sensing and Space Sciences.
10. Member of the UNESCO MAB committee.
11. Vice president for African Association of Remote Sensing and Environment for Northern Africa
12. Member of the Supreme Council Faculty of Navigation Science & Space Technology, Beni Seuif University, Egypt. 
13. Member of the Supreme Council Faculty of African Studies and research, Cairo University, Egypt. 

• Academically, Prof. Islam Abou El-Magd published nearly 100 papers in international and national peer reviewed journals and conference proceedings. He is also supervised more than 35 students for PhD and MSc degrees in different thematic areas that function remote sensing and geoinformatics in environmental related issues and space.

Abstract: "Space technology and earth observation applications as potential collaboration to achieve SDGs and Climate Actions in the Arab region"

There are 22 Arab member states that are geographically extended in North Africa and Gulf area.  It extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the far west, Mediterranean Sea to the Red sea, Arabian Gulf and Indian ocean in the far east. They are shared regional environmental and climate challenges that require regional and global observation to outlook such challenges and generate decision making actions. Nearly 10-member states are taken progressive steps towards advancement of their national space technology and launched earth observation satellites. There are opportunity for collaboration in space technology and remote sensing applications to serve the national and regional challenges and achieve SDGs. Many cross border challenges such as marine resources and pollution could be collaboratively monitored by joint remote sensing satellites between the Arab member states. Other climate drivers could be managed using regional platform that enable data, services and products among the Arab region for solving critical issues. It is proposed to initiate a regional coordination between the member states to develop an earth observation platform to analyze the remote sensing data and provide solution to the regional critical problems of dust storms, marine pollution, air pollution, epidemiology and victor born disease. Cooperation in development of a satellite constellation would be opportunity to strengthen the space technology among the Arab countries and enable flow of data that target our national and regional needs. This abstract presents insights on the way forward to coordinate and manage space technology and its applications within the Arab region for mutual benefit and position our fleet in the global space arena.