FIG Commission 3 in the years 1979 to 2002
The development of FIG Commission 3 and some highlights form the
discussion during the last 25 years of history of our commission may
help to see the ongoing changes. Speaking about the new challenges and
opportunities, which came up as a result of our fast changing
information society brings awareness about the changing demand on
infrastructure when we change our main source of income from producing
industrial goods to a service oriented “knowledge economy”. However is
everything really new or is it just a repeating story that we should
already know from the past, where also a longer process of trial and
error was needed for developing sustainable infrastructure and business
models, which are still under permanent improvement?
During the last decade the demand on better and faster access to
up-to-date spatial information for better decision making increased in
all countries. The rapid changes of tools for managing information and
information for monitoring all the changes is reflected in the
increasing speed of decision making within our societies with our
profession as one of the providers of tools for spatial information
management. An optimal development fully relays on qualitatively and
quantitatively sufficient information.
All over the centuries geodesists were dealing with tasks like
collecting, acquiring, processing and visualizing spatial information
and land related data. One repeating essential element of Land
Information Systems (LIS) is always the link of objects with a position
on the earth. Within a LIS a whole range of information for multiple
purpose is stored; and it is always positional information beside data
about use, legal facts or value that is needed. The processes of a
complete and correct collecting of land related information, modeling of
facts from our territorial infrastructure demands a commonly agreed
spatial concept, interdisciplinary accepted links, interfaces and
cooperation.
The Federation of International Surveyors (FIG) was on the lead by
issuing the topic „Land Information Systems“ (LIS). On the occasion of
the 13. FIG-Congress in Wiesbaden 1971 it was recommended to implement a
Task Force in order to bridge the specifications of databases currently
in use with the surveying demand and to propose how concepts fit best
and models are to be tuned for the surveying profession. The task force
started in 1972 under the chairmanship of Mr. H. L. van Gent and
presented in 1974 at the 14. FIG-Congress in Washington its first
report. Part 1 of this report was focusing on a general description of
demand and conditions for a successful implementation of a parcel
related LIS. It described the definition of the common basis as well as
geometric and semantic concepts. Part 2 of the report dealt with
geometric information more in detail.
The 15. FIG-Congress in Stockholm 1977 gave the frame for discussing
the „Resolution of Wiesbaden“ with the result of highlighting the
increasing demand on Integrated Surveying Systems (ISS). Such ISS will
be the frame for developing and maintaining up-to-date digital
information for map production as needed for land tasks like general
planning, developing, identifying, registering and land use planning.
The administration and the legal frame for maintaining such systems was
identified as one of the hot issues. Because of the importance and the
inter-commission relevance of that issues identified by the task force
it was agreed to review the current FIG-organizational structures in
order to deal best with the changing demand of the profession coming
from such ISS.
Reorganization of FIG
During the Permanent Committee meeting of FIG in Paris 1978 the Swiss
Bureau proposed to discuss and develop the issue of Land Information
Systems within a separate FIGCommission, which lead to organizational
changes as follows:
The tasks of Commission 2 are to be extended by merging their tasks
with the current tasks of Commission 3 about professional literature.
Commission 3 shall act as “Ad hoc"- Commission for the special tasks and
purposes, which should be the topic of LIS for the next two periods to
come:
"The (,ad hoc'-)Commission shall focus on tasks related with
collecting, updating, storing, processing and visualizing of land and
parcel related information – considering the administrative as well as
the technical point of view relevant for that issue”.
In 1978 the first international Symposium on LIS was organized by
Prof. Eichhorn in Darmstadt (D). This FIG-Symposium identified 8 topics
relevant for LIS to be discussed within an interdisciplinary approach
like: geometric, technical, methodological framework as well as pending
questions on data acquisition and legal frame. The participants agreed
on definition of terms within LIS and adopted the Darmstadt-Resolution.
The symposium in Darmstadt was lead by the common understanding that the
surveying profession with their experience about land related
information seems to fit best for new tasks like coordinating and
organizing LIS. Other profession’s opinion were considered as helpful.
In April 1979 a new team of Commission 3 chaired by Prof. Dr. Josef
Mitter (A), Sune Andersson (SWE) as Vicechair and Christoph Twaroch (A)
as Secretary started with their first Commission 3 meeting in Vienna.
Based on the Darmstadt-Resolution” a workplan was developed.
In April 1980 the next Commission 3 in Budapest was an other
milestone for the development of Commission 3 and preparation for the
Montreux Congress.
Congress Montreux
Already at the 16. FIG-Congress in Montreux in August 1981 Commission
3 contributed with more than 30 papers in 6 sessions from the wide range
of LIS. It was the first time that a FIG-Congress provided the fame for
discussions focusing on data-theory, training needs for LIS, LIS for
developing countries, data structures and databases, national reports on
LIS. Sessions were well attended bridging several geodetic disciplines
in cooperation with other commissions.
The importance of cooperation among neighboring disciplines was
highlighted by a joint session with ICA and ISPRS.
The proposal of Commission 3 for the definition of “Land Information
Systems” was adopted by a resolution of the FIG-General Assembly:
Having in mind the need for close cooperation with other
professions in order to cope with the fast developments of methods and
technology the commission 3 aimed to cooperate with research groups as
well as users groups from different countries for developing a
conceptual model of LIS.
As a result of this in March 1982 the Commission 3 meeting in Rome
chaired by Mr. Sune Anderson focused on conceptual framework and
terminology for LIS – also preparing the FIG-Congress 1983 in Sofia.
Congress Sofia
In June 1983 the 17.FIG-Congress in Sofia was at the National Palace
of Culture “Ludmilla Schivkova”. The “ad-hoc”-Commission 3 focused on
theory of LIS, applications of LIS as well as technical, economic and
legal aspects of LIS.
The “Sofia resolution” as well as the workplan was adopted by the
General Assembly. The “Ad hoc"-Commission for the special tasks became a
permanent status named Commission 3 “Land Information Systems”.
In 1984 the Commission 3 was busy with meetings in Athens in Kawasaki
and Edmonton. The Annual Commission 3+7 meeting in Athens was hosted by
the Technical Chamber of Greece on the occasion of the ambitious
Cadastre project announced for Greece. The Greek Ministry of General
Planning, Condominium and environment stressed in his opening speech of
the Annual meeting of Commission 3:
“We need models, which proved to be successful in other countries –
and we need it quick. We are planning a two step approach: Firstly a
systematical cartographic data acquisition; secondly data for Cadastre
and Land Registry. The maintenance of all these data is crucial for the
success…. International experience is more than welcome.
The symposium in Edmonton in Canada in Oct. 1984 focused on the
interrelation of industrialized counties and developing countries in the
process of implementing LIS. It is obvious that sophisticated advanced
systems are offered to developing countries often causing additional
problems for sustainable long term continuation of an project. Using
simple tools and systems to be expanded later, but covering the current
demand seems to be a much better approach – not only for developing
countries.
Congress Toronto
In June 1986 Toronto – the city on the northern bay of lake
Ontario was called meeting place in the language of the Hurons – was the
meeting place for the 18. FIG-Congress. The final resolution referred to
the tasks of Commission 3 as follows:
- The cooperation of experts on Information and communication with
the decision makers on Land Policy and General Planning is needed
for a better resulting decisions.
- Case studies might facilitate the better understanding of
interrelated processes with benefits for system developers as well
as users.
- The Chairman might implement task forces and Working Groups
In 1987 Commission 3 met in Oslo on the occasion of the
FIG-CP-meeting and organized a two-days “Symposium on Digital Mapping”.
Participants of the symposium will well remember: The referents Bie,
McCullagh and Robb presented the conclusions within a futuristic sketch.
Based on the recommendations of the Toronto meeting a study group on LIS
for developing counties was implemented leaded by Prof. P. Dale.
In June 1988 a joint COM3/COM7 annual meeting in Bali (Indonesia)
focused on Management of rural and urban space and interrelations of LIS
with education and technology. That Workshop which was followed by the
South Asian Surveyors Congress was also an awareness campaign for the
use of LIS in Indonesia.
Congress Helsinki
In June 1990 the 19. FIG-Congress in Helsinki took place in the
Finlandia-Hall. The CPmeeting agreed on a new definition of the term
“Surveyor”. At the opening ceremony a control point on the rock in front
of the Finlandia Hall was unveiled - a plaque states the geographic
Coordinates, the surveying method as well as the occasion of erecting
that monument.
In the meanwhile Commission 3 was structured in three Working Groups.
The WG on “LIS for developing countries” attracted full awareness with
their newsletter on implementing LIS.
The Working Group “Managing large quantity of data” and the Working
Group “Aspects of access to data” contributed with their topics. The
final resolution highlighted the demand on facilitating access to
spatial data from public administration for improving the benefit of
using LIS.
In September 1991 the international FIG-Symposium and Commission 3
meeting in Innsbruck focused on “Environment and Land Information”
Papers from 14 countries contributed to LIS and shifting to the term
GIS.
Congress Melbourne
In March 1994 the 20. FIG-Congress took place in the World Congress
Centre in the Centre of Melbourne with about 1700 participants, 82
technical meetings and 334 papers coordinated by 9 commissions. The key
success of that congress was the vitality – also by facilitating the
exchange of experience and thoughts by balancing technical information
with social events and Kraft of the Congress.
In COM3 Helge Onsrud /Norway succeeded Ernst Höflinger /Austria as
commission chair. The work of Commission 3 showed the diversity of
demand (quite different organizational structures as well as challenges
of integrating GIS) coming from different countries
In October 1996 the Commission 3 meeting in Copenhagen attracted 50
experts from 16 countries to the seminar “GIS/LIS and the future –
sustainable development” . One of the discussed issues was the future of
commission 3 and the link with other commissions and organizations with
the result that COM3 should focus more on managerial than on technical
aspects of GIS/LIS, which leaded to the proposal of renaming Commission
3 to “Spatial Information Management”.
At the FIG-PC meeting in Singapore Commission 3 contributed with the
first session ‘Building National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI)”.
In Nov. 1997 Commission 3 annual meeting in Thessaloniki was hosted
by the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Professor Ioannis Maniatis:
The term "Sustainable Development" is much wider than the term
"Protection of Environment". It has important financial and social
dimensions and its founding principles are the equality of all people of
one generation as well as the equality of the present generation with
the generations to come”.
Congress Brighton
The 21. FIG-Congress in Brighton had the motto “Developing the
Profession in a Developing World” hosted by the Royal Institution of
Chartered Surveyors: “Surveyors must see themselves as members of an
international profession if they are to survive the enormous changes
taking place in the world economy”.
The main discussion at the General Assembly dealt about the new
FIG-statues including the implementation of an permanent FIG-Office in
Copenhagen.
Beside the technical program with about 120 speakers an “open forum”
gave opportunity to listen to speakers with high reputations discussing
global themes like technological development, global market and
infrastructure
For many years Commission 3 was concerned with issues related to the
automatisation of Cadastre. Its remit was later expanded to take a
broader view on issues related to GIS in general. During the period
1994-98 COM3 has concentrated on the strategic and political topics
rather than technical questions – GIS and legal issues, GIS for
developing countries and for sustainable development, and the building
of spatial infrastructure have been priority topics. As a result of this
the name of Commission 3 was changed in 1998 from Land Information
System and GIS to Spatial Information Management. The term Spatial
Information Management (or Geographic Information Management) has been
adopted by several involved in the traditional GIS businesses. The
headlines of Commission 3 meetings were like: “Spatial Data
Infrastructure”, “GIS and Legal Issues”, “GIS/LIS in Developing
Countries and Countries in Transition” and “GIS/LIS and Sustainable
Development” focusing on the results of Agenda 21.
The new name of COM3 “Spatial Information Management” underlined the
observation that nowadays the challenge is in forming information out of
all the data data acquired. How to transform data into valuable
information with value for the user resulting in better decision making.
In June 1999 the FIG-Working Week was hold Sun City, South Africa.
Commission 3 contributed with 8 presentations and had a meeting with 20
participants. The key note speaker Wolfgang Grulke from the company
Futureworld, had focus on the fact that the internet gives us the
possibility to sell our knowledge all over the world instantly. He
argued that the value of information is limited, whereas information
combined with knowledge is of great value. He recommended us to consider
that in a global information marked there is a risk that government
loose power and control. How can they tax intelligence?
In 1999 FIG elaborated jointly with UN “The Bathurst Declaration on
Land Administration for Sustainable Development“.
In Oct. 1999 the Annual meeting of COM3 in Budapest was hosted by the
DLM. Keynote speakers came from World Bank (Jaime Vazquez-Caro: The
Vienna Initiative - Real Property Rights in ECA Countries) and from
UN-FAO (Fritz Rembold: Importance of GIS and related data in Rural
Regional Development ).
The annual COM3-meeting 2000 in Athens with the title "Spatial
Information Management - Experiences and Visions for the 21st Century"
was hosted by Technical Chamber of Greece, Ktimatologio S.A. (Hellenic
Cadastre) and the National Technical University of Athens. On the
excursion to Ktimatologio participants learned about the new ambitious
Hellenic Cadastre project for Greece starting again with a new
cartographic data acquisition before collecting Cadastral data in the
field supported by 75% from EC-funds. The real challenge seems to be the
cooperation of surveyors with other professions like with the Land
Registry - working in Greece since many years.
In October 2001 the Commission 3 Annual meeting was held in Nairobi
on the occasion of the International Conference on Spatial Information
for Sustainable Development hosted by the Institution of Surveyors of
Kenya (ISK) organized jointly with the FIG-COM3 and the United Nations
Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat).
The Conference included the International Symposium on Cost
Management of Low-Cost Housing organized by the Institution of Quantity
Surveyors of Kenya (IQSK), International Cost Engineers Council (ICEC),
the Africa Association of Quantity Surveyors (AAQS) and FIG Commission
10 on Construction Economics and Management.
The conference was co-sponsored by the UN- Economic Commission for
Africa, the UNEnvironment Programme, the University of Nairobi,
Department of Surveying and Department of Land Development, ICA and
ISPRS.
The success of the conference with the huge number of 450
participants may be considered as a milestone for Commission 3.
The final Nairobi-resolution was published as FIG-publication No.32:
„The Nairobi statement on spatial information for sustainable
development“ in co-operation with the United Nations.
In 1999 as a follow-up on the Memorandum of Understanding between
UN-HABITAT and FIG Commission 3 agreed on preparing a Best Practise
study on "Land Information Management for Sustainable Development of
Cities" . The result of the work is documented in FIGpublication No.31
“Land Information Management for Sustainable Development of Cities –
Best Practice Guidelines”.
Congress Washington
The 22. FIG International Congress in Washington, D.C. USA in April
2002 attracted almost 4,000 participants from almost 90 countries. The
technical programme included the FIG technical programme with more than
450 presentations in more than 110 sessions. In addition in the domestic
programme almost 160 papers were presented. Further there were several
workshops organized by ACSM and ASPRS.
Commission 3 had the responsibility for 11 technical session and
three joint sessions. In total 43 speakers showed up. In addition the
Commission was involved in five more joint sessions. The commission 3
held two formal meetings during the congress. Both meetings were well
attended with in average 30 participants from 21 countries.
The discussions in the sessions revealed that several in audience had
strong interests sharing knowledge in best practice in data-modeling,
XML and other technical issues. One proposal is that FIG or one of the
sister-organizations establish a best-practice web-site as a basis for
knowledge-sharing. Knowledge-sharing might be one of the issues that
could strengthen the cooperation between the FIG Commissions and the
sister organizations.
In Sept. 2002 Commission 3 hold it’s Annual Meeting in Istanbul on
the occasion of the GIS2002 Conference. The president and the director
of FIG attended the annual meeting. The president of FIG, Bob Foster,
thanked the Turkish colleagues for their successful organization of the
GIS2002 Conference and for the great hospitality.
Outlook
The new technologies imply new methods for data capture in digital
form. There will be more data - with lower costs per unit - to be used
in public and private administration as well as in business. These data
will seek for tools to manage, model, integrate for decision making and
to visualize the results.
Real time and post processed surveying will be increasingly important
parts of the Spatial Data Infrastructure or better to say: “Spatial
Information Management” “Personal navigation” is another hot issue. The
online access to spatial information can already now provide
individualized information as part of Location Based Services. The
Internet as a information network will grow together with the mobile
services provided through hand-held devices. Spatial information will be
available independent of space and time. All that has great influence on
development of organizational and business structures, but also the way
of visualizing spatial information will change a lot. Not only is this
setting new challenges to all those who manage and serve geospatial data
but it also means that it is necessary to reconsider database
architectures and technologies on a much shorter cycle than ever before.
And last but not least the Commission should continue to act a strong
strategic adviser on ongoing developments within Spatial Information and
Knowledge Management for the FIG Council, the other FIG commissions, the
member associations, the Unit Nations, the World Bank, the Aid Agencies
etc.
The topic of Spatial Information Management is still the key issue
for all of us contributing to the development of our information society
being used as headline for questions like:
- Cooperation of organizations?
- Which data are of value for decision making?
- Completeness and reliability of data / information?
- Use of information for a better decision making process?
- How to cooperate with other organizations on Knowledge-sharing
- Developing new models like Clustering for improving the
efficiency
FIG as organization bridging the professional diversity of the
worldwide surveying profession, providing the frame for giving and
taking information and sharing knowledge facilitates to a smoother
process of coping with all the changing world and contributes in shaping
the changes. Commission 3 is covering one part off all that. Chukwudozie
Ezigbalike, UN-ECA, stated 1996 at the FIG-Commission 3 meeting in
Copenhagen:
The word "technology" means an association of methods, techniques and
equipment which together with the people using them, can contribute
significantly to solving a problem. This implies that technology should
be in keeping with the local culture. it should preferably be easily
understood and applied by workers.
FIG Commission 3 communication
The FIG-Commission 3 newsletter was initiated and started by Peter
Dale and provided all over the years valuable information to all
recipients. Mr Sune Andersson /Sweden, Mr.W. A Robertson from the
Department of Surveying and Land Information in New Zealand and Mr. Bo
Lauri fulfilled a tremendous good job as editors, keeping the newsletter
interesting for all of us.
Following an agreement with Commission 7 in 1994 a joint newsletter
was issued until 2000 twice a year with about 800 copies each time.
Later on this newsletter was replaced by the FIG-Commission 3 homepage
which was implemented in September 1997. In 2002 a FIG-Commission 3-CD
with more than 600 MB of information was distributed among COM3.
Former Chairmen of Commission 3 passed away
Mr. Gerhard Eichhorn, honorary member of FIG since
1990, passed away in March 1999. Gerhard one of the initiators of
FIG-Commission 3 in 1978 and 1985-87. Both as the chairman of DVW and as
COM3 chair his dedication led to the establishment of a comprehensive
land information system inc which surveying data, played and leading
role.
Mr. Sune Andersson, passed away in February 1999.
Early, Mr Anderson saw the possibilities to rationalize activities
through Information Systems, and he played a very important role when
the Land Data Bank in Sweden was developed and implemented.
Internationally Sune Andersson was recognized as a prominent expert
within the field of Land Information Systems, and contributed through
FIG, as well as through other international expert groups, to
acknowledge the importance of Real Property Information in the society.
Sune was chairmen of FIG-Commission 3 in the years 1998-94.
Mr. Ernst Höflinger, honorary member of FIG since
1998, passed away in February 2001. Since 1981 Mr. Ernst Höflinger
contributed with ideas and concepts as Austrian delegates to FIG. He has
contributed a lot to the development of this organization and its
members. FIG has lost a very important person spreading the ideas of
developing the profession on an FIG3_History.doc - 8 - international
level and encouraging the exchange of experience among international
professional associations. Additionally Ernst has become a friend of
many delegates coming from more than 80 countries in FIG commissions.
Ernst was chairmen of FIG-Commission 3 in the years 1992-94 , just the
period of time when the “iron curtain” in Eastern Europe was broken down
and new approaches of private ownership were implemented, which was the
starting point for global restructuring also with the result of
increasing demand in GIS for new ways of better decision making. Ernst
was a milestone for all of us by highlighted and facilitated the
cooperation and the interdisciplinary approach.
Christoph Twaroch and Gerhard Muggenhuber
Composed from reports and minutes of Congress and meetings in addition
to publications and own sources.
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