This Charter Board meeting was held to discuss the future of space and the impact of major disasters.

Disaster mapping from space is used by an ever increasing number of the world's civil protection agencies to aid disaster management.

The International Charter: Space and Major Disasters is the leading source of free satellite data for disaster mapping in emergency response and every six months the Charter's member organisations meet together to steer the course of this unique global humanitarian effort.

Charter members gathered for the 37th Board, Executive and Communications meetings on 24-28th of April in the UK at the Satellite Applications Catapult in Harwell near Oxford, UK. The meeting was hosted by the UK Space Agency who assumed the role of the Charter's lead agency for the 6-month period from 28th April 2017 to October 2017.

Major topics of discussion included the forward looking strategic plan and Charter members welcomed the incorporation of 2 more authorised users under the Universal Access programme. This brings to 66, the total number of organisations worldwide who have been granted the status of authorised user, allowing them to directly call on the Charter for disaster assistance from space.