FIG Working Week in Seoul, May 6–11 2001
Korean hospitality makes FIG Working Week a real
Conference
 FIG
organised its 24th General Assembly and technical conference in Seoul,
Korea 6–11 May 2001. This year’s Working Week turned to be the largest
ever FIG annual gathering between the four-yearly congresses. It was also
among the most successful both by professional and social indicators
thanks to the effective Korean organisers and the famous Korean
hospitality.
With almost 1,000 participants
from over 50 countries and with more than 30 technical sessions and
workshops, in which about 150 papers were presented, the FWW2001 was more
like a congress. Similar to all FIG working weeks there was a range of
technical tours, during which the participants were able to learn about
the Korean cadastre and latest technology. The social programme was
flavoured with the Korean food and culture. The technical exhibition with
25 exhibitors gave a good opportunity to see the development on surveying
in Korea and in North East Asia. The conference was organised by the Korea
Confederation of Surveyors which was established by Korea Cadastral
Survey Corporation (KCSC) and the Korean Association of Surveying
and Mapping (KASM) in 1981 and which joined FIG in 1983. This year’s
meeting was generously sponsored by both KCSC and KASM and the Ministry of
Government Administration and Home Affairs. The FIG working week was also
part of the Visit Korea Year 2001 campaign.
Technology for a New Century
The opening ceremony with Korean
cultural programme attracted about 700 delegates. The opening address was
given by President Kim Jaeyoung, Korea Confederation of Surveyors
and the welcome address was given by President Robert W. Foster,
FIG. The technical conference titled Technology for a New Century
consisted of 29 technical sessions running parallel for three days. The
themes of the conference covered all nine technical commissions of FIG.
The two plenary sessions focussed on the visions on surveying, including
e.g. presentation on the relationship between surveying and politics given
by Prof. Holger Magel the incoming President of FIG. The other
important input to this session was the presentation on the mutual
recognition of professional qualifications. This paper prepared by Prof. Stig
Enemark and Dr. Frances Plimmer explained the concept tailored
for surveying profession, which FIG will launch in 2002. The two remaining
papers focussed on topics central for the whole conference, namely Korean
experiences, in this session an overview on the visions on the Korean
cadastre presented by Lee Myounwoo, Vice President of KCSC, and
location based services and personal navigation in mobile information
society given by Antti Rainio from Finland.
International co-operation
The second plenary session gave
insight views on the broad international co-operation that FIG is having
with the United Nations and its agencies and with other international
partners. At this conference the partners were represented by Jan
Meeuwissen from UNCHS (Habitat), who made a presentation on
establishing land administration in post-conflict regions, in this case in
East Timor and Willi Zimmermann, Germany/Cambodia, who made his
contribution from the perspective of a national aid programme (the German
Agency for Technical Co-operation).
The co-operation between FIG and
the UN will continue already this autumn when FIG together with the United
Nations Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat) and the Institute of
Surveyors of Kenya organises an International Conference on Spatial
Information for Sustainable Development in Nairobi, Kenya, October 2–5,
2001. FIG will together with the World Bank and PC IDEA further organise
an inter regional workshop to determine policies and programs for
education, training and professional capacity building in Mexico in
September 2002.
Technical programme
In the technical conference there
was extremely strong input from the commission on cadastre and land
administration, commission on spatial information management and
commission on positioning and measurement. Themes included e.g. cadastral
systems and sustainable development, legal and technical trends in
cadastre including 3D cadastre, spatial information infrastructures,
permanent GPS networks and facility management systems. In addition to
these technical themes topics like business practices and educational
issues were highlighted, especially virtual academy, international
surveying curricula and education of valuers.
Workshops
Further a series of workshops
were organised. These focussed on several reports and FIG guidelines that
will be prepared for the approval of the next General Assembly during the
FIG Congress in Washington. E.g. Commission on positioning and measurement
organised three workshops on the FIG guidelines for check, maintenance and
calibration of survey instruments. Another hot topic was standardisation.
The special session on standards in surveying (including ISO standards)
was followed by a workshop in which the FIG guide on standardisation was
discussed.
 Local
Organising Committee at the Welcome reception.
Good attendance from Asia
It was delightful that both
participation and number of papers from the North East Asian countries was
higher than ever. Special thanks belong to the Korean presentations that
added the local and regional perspective to all themes discussed.
Furthermore participation not only from Japan and China but also from
other Asian countries like the Mekong region (Cambodia and Vietnam) was
most encouraging. The Korean organisers introduced a new concept of
regional meetings by organising an Asian night for the participants from
Asia. This special meeting attracted almost 40 representatives.
Fully democratic organisation
The working week in Seoul was
historical for FIG in many ways. It was the biggest working week in the
FIG history, and also a turning point in the governance of the Federation.
The General Assembly adopted unanimously on the last day of the conference
the new statutes and internal rules for FIG. This means that FIG is now on
a way towards a fully democratic organisation. In the future the members
of the Council will be elected by the General Assembly so that the first
Vice President will be elected by the General Assembly in 2002; the new
structure is in full operation in 2007. At that time all members of the
Council will represent not only different countries but also, hopefully,
different continents. This is a big step in the process of changing the
FIG to a truly international surveying organisation. The renewal of the
governance will continue with the review of the Commission structure. The
first draft was discussed during the breakout sessions in Seoul.
FIG Agenda 21 and Women’s
Access to Land
The General Assembly further
adopted two important reports namely FIG Agenda 21 which is the FIG
response to the implementation of Agenda 21 adopted in Rio de Janeiro 1991
and to the Habitat Agenda adopted in Istanbul in 1996. The second report
is the FIG Guidelines on Women’s Access to Land, which is a part of the
FIG contribution to the discussion on promoting the security of tenure.
These guidelines, prepared by FIG commission on land management, highlight
the importance of equal access to land for the women as well as give
practical guidelines to those working with land administration projects in
developing countries.
 Dr.
Jungho Kim, Secretary General of the LOC, hands the FIG Banner over to
Mary Clawson, Congress Director of FIG Congress 2002. – See you in
Washington, DC in April.
New member associations
The General Assembly further
admitted six new member associations to the Federation. These come from
Armenia, Finland, Mongolia, Morocco and Puerto Rico. The total number of
FIG member associations is 85 representing 72 countries after the meeting
in Seoul. To help the member associations from the developing countries
the General Assembly decided to change the membership fee structure so
that the members from the poorest countries will pay only 50 per cent of
the standard membership fee from year 2003. In addition a new affiliate
member was admitted from Cambodia and the number of academic members rose
to 37 (from 25 countries). The number of corporate members in FIG has
risen quickly during the current US Council. The campaign and new benefits
offered to the corporate members have increased the total number already
to 17, which is an increase by 7 since the General Assembly in Prague, May
2000. The General Assembly further endorsed the statutes of the FIG
Foundation that was established by transferring the former Education
Foundation from Australia to the FIG office in Denmark. The new Board of
Directors has already started a fundraising campaign to raise funds to
help the developing countries in educational issues.
The papers of the FIG working
week 2001 and the technical conference are available on the FIG home page
at www.fig.net.
Six new member associations and one
affiliate join FIG in Korea
 Dr.
M. Enkhbayar, President (on the right) and Dr. M. Saandar, Vice President
of the Mongolian Association of Surveying and Mapping (MASM) after having
received the membership certificate in Seoul.
The FIG General Assembly admitted six new member
associations to FIG as member associations in Seoul. These are the Association
of Private Surveyors APS and the Professional Association of Real
Estate Specialists and Surveyors – PARESS from Armenia, Maanmittausalan
ammattikorkeakoulu- ja opistoteknisten Liitto MAKLI ry from Finland,
the Mongolian Association of Surveying and Mapping (MASM) from
Mongolia, the Ordre National des Ingénieurs Géomètres-Topographes
ONIGT from Morocco and the Colegio de Ingenieros y Agrimensores de
Puerto Rico
In addition the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and
Construction of the Kingdom of Cambodia has been admitted as an
affiliate member of FIG. The Bureau has further admitted Mr. Nchottou
Issofa from Cameroon to join FIG as a correspondent.
Six new academic members
The number of academic members is now 37 from 25
countries after the following six institutions have joined FIG during the
past months:
-
Wuhan University, Resources & Environment
School; Geodesy School; and Urban Planning School (China, P.R.)
-
Vilnius Gediminas Technical University (Lithuania)
-
Lithuanian University of Agriculture, Water and
Land Management Faculty, Land Management Department (Lithuania)
-
Department of Geodesy of the Mongolian Technical
University (MTU) (Mongolia)
-
University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez Campus, Civil
Engineering Department (Puerto Rico)
- The University of Nottingham, Institute of Engineering Surveying and
Space Geodesy (United Kingdom).
New corporate members
The FIG General Assembly decided in Seoul to change the name of FIG
sponsors to a new Corporate Membership category. In addition to the name
change this will give the corporates new benefits that are linked to their
membership category. During this year totally seven new corporate members
have joined FIG. After Hansa Luftbild Sensorik und Photogrammetrie GmbH
joined FIG in March the following six companies have joined FIG as
corporate members.
Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. (ESRI)
With annual sales of more than US$340 million, ESRI has
been the world leader in the geographic information system (GIS) software
industry for more than 30 years. Additionally, ESRI provides powerful GIS
solutions to more than 300,000 clients in more than 189 countries.
Headquartered in Redlands, California, ESRI has regional offices
throughout the United States, several subsidiary companies overseas, and
more than 1,000 industry leaders and business partners who partner with
ESRI to provide software, data, and hardware that complement ESRI’s
suite of GIS software. Working with location information, ESRI’s GIS
software and solutions give the power to solve problems you encounter
every day. Organisations around the world, as well as local, state, and
federal government agencies, are using ESRI GIS software to make smart and
timely decisions.
As leader in GIS technology, ESRI offers innovative
solutions that will help you create, visualise, analyse, and present
information better and more clearly. ESRI software is built on standard
and open information technology and has been designated to operate with
all relational database management systems. ESRI’s software is developed
with open (nonproprietary) development tools, and the software is built on
new, modern, object-component software standards (COM) that are easily
customised and embedded for a wide range of application needs. ESRI’s
comprehensive product line ranges from desktop GIS to GIS for the
enterprise – and the Internet software revolutionises the way users can
access and interact with Internet mapping and GIS data at the desktop,
thereby making the promise of distributed GIS a reality that is easy to
accomplish.
ESRI will continue to lead the world in providing mapping technology
that meets the needs of today’s competitive market. Look to ESRI for GIS
solutions to help unlock the spatial component of your valuable data and
see your organisation’s information from a new perspective. Membership
category C. For more information about the company, visit www.esri.com.
GeoInformatics
GeoInformatics is the magazine for Geo-IT Professionals
in Europe. GeoInformatics provides information about the growing role of
geo-informatics and related technologies in our current society and –
just as important – analyses the impact on specific disciplines.
GeoInformatics is published ten times a year and has a circulation of
9,000 copies. Under the umbrella term of Geo-IT one understands the
activities of professional groups that occupy themselves with the
gathering, processing and presentation of spatial information, in short,
geoinformation. Some examples of Geo-IT are: land surveying (the gathering
of data from the earth); remote sensing (the gathering of data from outer
space) and advanced management and manipulation techniques, such as can be
found in GIS. Membership category E. More information about the journal
can be found on Internet web site at www.geoinformatics.com.
GTZ (German Agency for Technical Cooperation)
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) GmbH has
been operating as a service company in international development
cooperation since 1975. The primary goal of GTZ’s work is to improve the
living and working conditions of people in the partner countries and
sustain the natural basis for life. GTZ deals with a wide range of issues
and tasks. They include, for example, protecting the tropical forest in
Indonesia, AIDS prevention in Kenya, vocational training in Argentina and
advisory services to governments of countries of the former Soviet Union.
With over 10,000 employees in more than 120 countries throughout the
world, GTZ is the largest German organisation of its kind. Membership
category E. For further information, visit www.gtz.de.
MicroSurevy Software Inc.
MicroSurvey Software Inc. is a B.C. corporation, which
manufactures a family of specialised computer software for surveyors,
mappers, civil engineers, and Accident Reconstruction Specialists.
MicroSurvey is presently Canada’s leading provider of software for
surveyors, with almost ½ of all registered Canadian Land Surveyors using
MicroSurvey software to complete their designs and maps. Initial
MicroSurvey Software Inc. product offerings were called MicroSurvey 11 and
InCAD 10.
In 2000 MicroSurvey released a major upgrade to MS-CAD
Pro called MicroSurvey CAD 2001. This version greatly extended the
computation power of the program. In addition, MicroSurvey purchased the
source code for Quicksurf and it became completely integrated into
MicroSurvey products. In the fall of 2000 MicroSurvey announced the
development of a new line of data collectors based primarily upon the
Windows CE Pocket PC platform. This development is scheduled to be
released in the second quarter of 2001. With this addition, MicroSurvey
offers a true field to finish solution. Recent surveys have shown that
MicroSurvey is recognised as having tremendous value for the surveyor in
all its products.
There are now 24 hard working people at MicroSurvey. In
March 2001 the office was expanded again. Revenues have continued to climb
since 1996. MicroSurvey now offers one of the most complete survey design
and mapping product lines in the industry. Membership category E. For
further information, visit www.microsurvey.com.
SECO Manufacturing Co., Inc.
SECO Manufacturing Co., Inc. of Redding, California
specialises in equipment accessories for surveying, GPS and robotics.
Products include prisms, prism poles, bipods, tripods, GPS rover rods,
hand levels, tribrach adapters along with backpacks and carrying cases.
The main factory in Redding accommodates all phases of production
including a complete engineering and documentation department, CNC
machine shop, anodising, powder paint, silk screening, welding, tube
bending and sewing. SECO has a second factory in Tecate, Mexico that
produces soft goods such as prism bags, surveyor vests and stake bags.
Membership category D. For more information, visit www.surveying.com.
SurveyPlanet, Inc.
SurveyPlanet, Inc. was created because there was a
belief that the surveying industry can benefit significantly from the
Internet. It offers a single, Internet-based resource for technology that
will improve the way surveyors conduct their business as well as provide
new and unique ways for land surveyors to develop revenue and advance
their profession. With the development of patent pending technology such
as qualification based selection proposal process (ProposalPlanet) and now
with the Global Survey Data Network (GSDNet), SurveyPlanet is leading the
way for surveyors into the 21st century and beyond. The core offerings
include:
Find a Surveyor – A qualification based proposal
software that mirrors real world business practices online. This software
is available as an industry-wide search and proposal management tool as
well as a private label product that allows surveying firms to provide a
proposal process on their own website.
GSDNet – The Global Survey Data Network technology is
a revolution in data management and dissemination for the land surveying
and GIS industries. Our patent pending technology provides a system for
the identification, collection, conversion, storage and retrieval of
accurate survey-grade data for use by surveyors and GIS professionals
worldwide. In addition to this software we are also developing two
industry specific products; SIMS or a Survey Information Management System
which allows the surveyor to manage and maintain surveying data and
records in a geographic framework and SAS a Survey Archive System that is
an enterprise-wide version of SIMS developed for agencies that manage
surveying records for the public.
SurveyPlanet Portal – Everything a surveyor may need
to help improve their business and make intelligent purchasing decisions
including industry news, equipment comparison charts, regular and reverse
auctions, message boards and resources. SurveyPlanet.com is the only web
site that brings all this information together for the land surveying
profession.
Software – Our patent pending online proposal
software has applications in many industries from doctors to engineers and
architects. We are actively seeking the right partner to package and
market our proposal software and comparison chart software. In the
meantime, we are entertaining licensing proposals from any interested
parties.
Membership category E. For further information, visit www.surveyplanet.com.
|
Developing
Surveying Profession
Dr.
Anna K. Tibaijuka, the new Executive Director of UNCHS (Habitat) met with
the international NGOs in Nairobi during the 2nd Prep. Com. of Istanbul+5
discussing the role of NGOs at the UN Special Session in June, 2001.