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Appendix to item 9.3
Report for the 24th General Assembly
FIG Working Week in Seoul, 6-11 May 2001
COMMISSION 3 - SPATIAL INFORMATION MANAGEMENT
General
Spatial information is an indispensable part of the basic infrastructure in
the individual country. It is generally accepted that spatial information
affects 80% of human decision making. Spatial Information Management is a
dynamic concept. It changes in line with the technological possibilities and the
political and organisational developments in society in general. Spatial
Information Management is also about human resources and organisational changes.
Being involved in spatial information management means to be in the centre
between man and technology.
Commission 3 works through working groups and by bringing people together. It
is an objective to offer people from different countries as well the possibility
to share experiences as to be members of a global network. It is very gratifying
to see an increasing number of participants to the various Commission meetings.
At the last meeting in Athens we had almost 100 participants.
Working Week 2000
To promote and stimulate the dialogue in the commission the delegates had
been encouraged to prepare short country reports for oral presentation. Seven
delegates followed the request. It was impressive to hear the individual
presentations. Because sharing of experiences and knowledge is a main objective
for the delegates, there is no doubt about, that this activity will be an
element in the agenda for future meetings Commission 3 had two meetings during
the working week in Prague with 26 and 17 participants respectively from no less
than 15 countries. The young female delegate from Belarus had travelled 24 hours
by bus to participate in the Commission meeting.
The Commission was responsible for one of the Quo Vadis sessions. The session
dedicated to Spatial Information Infrastructure was held as a panel discussion.
The president of EUROGI Professor Ian Masser opened the session with a keynote
on Developing Trends. The facilitator, Robin McLaren managed to involve the
audience in lively discussions for more than 45 minutes.
Annual meeting in Athens
Spatial Information Management, Experiences and Visions for the 21st Century
was the theme of the Commission 3 seminar and annual meeting in Athens, Greece
from 4 to 7 October sponsored by Ktimatologio S.A. and the Technical Chamber of
Greece. With 99 registered participants from 17 different countries the Greek
organisers sponsored by Ktimatologio S.A. and the Technical Chamber of Greece
were dealing with a real international event. As a special gesture students
could attend the meeting without paying registration fee and the Greek host
covered as well the registration fee as accommodation for two of the African
participants.
In the light of the country reports and the other presentations on Spatial
Information Management a list of statements on Experiences and Visions became an
essential outcome. The list is available on the Commission homepage
(http://fig3.boku.at).
Athens 2000 became a memorable Commission 3 event. The experiences confirmed
that Spatial Information and Knowledge Management is a growth area for
surveyors. At the same time it became clear for all of us that the country
reports ensures the involvement of the delegates in the future work of the
Commission.
Country reports
In Prague we introduced the concept Country Reports on Spatial Data
Infrastructure. Till know we have had presentations from 12 different countries.
The contributions from the various countries give on the one hand a standard of
reference and on the other hand a valuable input to the Commission 3 Working
Groups 1 and 2 dealing with National Spatial Infrastructure.
Homepage
All information on commission activities including proceedings from the
various arrangements and the country reports are or will be available on the
Commission 3 homepage: http://fig3.boku.at.
Future activities
The annual meeting 2001 will be in Nairobi in connection with the conference
Spatial Information for Sustainable Development. This conference is organised by
the Institution of Surveyors of Kenya in co-operation with UNCHS (Habitat),
Commission 3 and FIG Commissions 1, 2, 5, 7 and 9.
Working Groups
WG1 organised the Athens seminar in October 2000 and WG2 is preparing their
investigations on SDI.
The Memorandum of Understanding signed between UNCHS and FIG includes a joint
activity to extend the UNCHS Best Practice Database with experiences on Spatial
Information Management through a project called: 'Facilitating spatial
information and knowledge management for decision support in Urban Management in
Countries in Transition and Developing Countries'.
WG2 had decided to go out with a questionnaire. After it became clear that
another organisation had done something similar WG2 decided to base their
investigations on existing data from country reports, the GSDI cookbook etc.
WG3 has proposed to analyse project experiences in Africa to generate the
initial Best Practice examples of Spatial Information Management. In June the WG
chair had meetings in Nairobi with Habitat to establish how WG3 could most
effectively contribute to the UNCHS Best Practice Database; and to identify
existing projects in Africa that could be used to generate the Spatial
Information Best Practice.
The Newsletter
One issue of the joint Commission 3 and 7 Newsletter has been posted to more
than 500 addresses round the world. Another issue was planned for distribution
in December. It will show in first quarter of 2001.
Jes Ryttersgaard
Chair of FIG Commission 3 (Spatial Information Management)
Email: JR@kms.dk
28 January 2001
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