Invitation

Dear colleagues,

On behalf of the Organizing Committee, I would like to welcome you to the FIG Working Week and the 8th International Conference of GSDI in Cairo from 16 to 21 April 2005. The Organizing Committee consists of the Egyptian Committee for Surveying and Mapping (ECSM), and the Egyptian Survey Authority (ESA), who together with the FIG office and GSDI office are in charge of the arrangements of the conference. ECSM is a non-governmental organization whose members are academics from universities and professionals from private sector companies and senior civil servants from governmental bodies. These members have the highest experience in the field of geographic information, geodesy, astronomy, surveying, information technology…etc

The theme of the conference “From Pharaohs to Geoinformatics” reflects thousands of years of working in the field of geoinformatics which comes from three fields (geography, information and mathematics); in addition geodesy and astronomy and other related sciences were introduced in Egypt a thousand years ago.

The conference will be held at the Intercontinental Semiramis Hotel in the centre of Cairo. The program of the conference contains in addition to the high profile professional part, a large entertaining part including social events, social visits, gala dinner and opening ceremony, which will be full of the Egyptian folklore filled with the ancient and modern history fragrances.

As the organizing committee we are happy to welcome you to Egypt before, during and after the conference. We wish you all the joy, and entertainment besides the scientific part of the conference.

Dr. Eng. Ahmed Fouad El-Sheikh
Chair of the Local Organizing Committee
President of the Egyptian Committee for Surveying and Mapping (ECSM)

Dear colleagues,

On behalf of the Egyptian Survey Authority (ESA); it is a pleasure for me to invite you to FIG Working Week 2005 and GSDI-8 under the theme “From Pharaohs to Geoinformatics“ to be held in Cairo April 16-21, 2005, where the pharaohs invented the first land measurement and surveying system. The Egyptian Survey Authority is the sole organization, which takes care of geographic information including digital maps in Egypt as well as building geographic information systems. It is located in central Cairo surrounded by shops and hotels from different categories, the Cairo University, which is the oldest in Egypt, and the Orman Garden, which is one of the most interesting botanical gardens in the world. It is also close to the Zoo with a collection of rare birds and animals, the Pyramids in Giza, which are more than 4000 years old. You will ask yourself, how people were able to build such a miracle tomb from the engineering, surveying and astronomical point of view. Among this entire feature you will find the life artery, the river Nile. If you look at Cairo at night you will know what the word magic means and you will know why we are very proud of our country.

By inviting you to the FIG and GSDI conference in Cairo we assure you that you will enjoy the Egyptian flavor in history, science, and joy.

Eng. M. Hisham Nasr
Chairman of Egyptian Survey Authority (ESA)
Vice Chair of the Organizing Committee

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

As President of the International Federation of Surveyors, FIG, I would like to welcome all surveyors, geodesists and GIS experts from all over the world to attend the first joint FIG / GSDI Conference in Cairo, April 16-21, 2005. The conference will include the FIG Working Week 2005 and the 8th GSDI International Conference within an integrated and well-balanced professional programme. It will be the first time when FIG is organising its annual working week together with another international organisation. We in the FIG Council feel that Egypt is the right venue to test this new initiative and that GSDI is the right partner to start with.

As the home of surveying and land readjustment Cairo and Egypt will offer the historical perspective to surveying and data collection and at the same time it will provide interesting sites for technical tours and social programme – and also for pre- and post conference tours. Modern Egypt is under big development and making its way towards information and knowledge society – or I would like to say towards geoinformation society. Thus the conference will offer platform for interesting dialogues about the role of new technologies in surveying and geodesy, while at the same time it also links surveying and geoinformation together. The theme of the conference “From Pharaohs to Geoinformatics” covers the interests of all hosting organisations – not only those of FIG and GSDI – but also those of the local organising committee and the Egyptian Committee on Surveying and Mapping (ECSM) and the Egyptian Survey Authority (ESA) as well as the local GIS experts.

We expect that the conference will be the biggest FIG working week ever and that the technical programme with almost 40 technical sessions together with the largest ever technical exhibition and a very attractive social programme will gather the biggest audience that we have had to any FIG event outside the four-yearly congress. For FIG this conference will be the last one before the FIG World Congress in Munich in 2006. Thus there will be a lot of meetings to prepare the future work plans.

I would like to inspire especially all GIS experts to this conference joining our global family of surveyors. It is my conviction as FIG President that surveyors and GIS people should come and speak together more often.

I am confident that thereby the conference in Cairo will efficiently help not only to bridge but even to remove the often lamented mental gap between surveying and GIS!

I look forward to meeting you all in Cairo in April 2005.

Univ. Prof. Dr.-Ing. Holger Magel
President of FIG

Dear Friends,

The Global Spatial Data Infrastructure (GSDI) Association is pleased to invite the global spatial data community to the Joint GSDI/FIG Conference in Cairo, Egypt during April 16-21, 2005. This will be the 8th of the international GSDI Conferences and the programme will be integrated and knit with the International Federation of Surveyors (FIG) Working Week 2005.

GSDI-8 will be different from GSDI-7 and previous GSDIs in many ways – first, we are joining with FIG – thus providing a broader canvas of technical sessions and networking opportunities to the SDI community. Surveying has been at the core of spatial data availability and thus we feel that the opportunity to network between surveyors and SDI professionals is the right thing to happen. While “From Pharaohs to Geoinformatics” has been selected as the overall theme of the joint conference, GSDI-8 would focus on SDI in an Information Society – thus bringing to fore issues and perspectives of how SDI would play a role in an Information and Knowledge Society. For society to be informed and knowledgeable, spatial information is an important “content”. These spatial information sets are vital to make sound decisions at the local, regional, state and central level, implementation of action plans; natural resources management; infrastructure development; disaster management support; and business development. With the availability of satellite- and aerial-based remote sensing data and modern surveying methods, the organisation of spatial databases around a Geographical Information Systems (GIS), combined with the Global Positioning System (GPS), has become very easy. Thus, the process of semantic spatial data infrastructures have now became a reality. We believe that in an information Society, SDI will be an important element.

The GSDI-8 Conference sessions will offer tremendous opportunities to government, industry and academia to discuss and plan their future SDI activities. GSDI would also bring focus on investing into the future – in terms of education, training and capacity building. Industry sessions would bring industry perspectives to SDI and information Society. There would be special sessions of GSDI devoted to SDI topics and technical issues. A pre-Conference Tutorial is also being planned that will provide a good exposition to Standards, SDI Technologies and Applications. A large exhibition is also planned and this will provide SDI industries to show-case their products, services and solutions and provide opportunity to link with the surveying industry.

At Cairo, GSDI will also conduct its other administrative and technical business to make the GSDI Association more strong and professional. We will use the opportunity to network with Egyptian professionals. At the same time, we look forward to a fruitful and long-lasting partnership with FIG and hope that we could network in the coming years also.

Cairo is a fascinating place and is the place where the perspective of land, surveying and precision geometry has led to some of the best marvels of history. Trailing history to see the pyramids and the history of pharaohs will be as interesting as the technical sessions. The Egyptian Survey Authority and the Egyptian Committee for Surveying and Mapping (ECSM), the local agencies for the joint Conference, are gearing up for making the joint Conference a success. ESA hope to bring focus on SDI as it is embarking on the use of modern tools and techniques and is also considering a SDI. Cairo, therefore, will offer the best backdrop for the GSDI-8.

On behalf of the GSDI Association, and as its President, I urge one and all to plan to be in Cairo during April, 2005 and make best use of this joint opportunity that would be available.

Looking forward to Cairo and GSDI-8.

Dr. Mukund Rao
President, Global Spatial Data Infrastructure Association