Ms. Maria Kadlecikova (r) and Jelle U. Hielkema in the Office of FAO SEUR in Budapest. Image: HUNAGI Visuals resource, 2007
Potentials of FAO (Sub)Regional Centres in the UNSDI context
Ms. Maria Kadlecikova, Representative of FAO at the Subregional Centre for Central and Eastern Europe in Budapest received Mr. Jelle U. Hielkema, SDI consultant for the UN Geospatial Information Working Group and Gabor Remetey-Fülöpp, Secretary General of HUNAGI, acting head of the UNSDI Hungarian Coordination Office today.
The 90 minutes talk included the potentials of SEUR and the FAO Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia in the UNSDI context. Ms. Kadlecikova was informed about the Digital Earth Conference in late 2009, which is a subject of decision in competitive environment at the ISDE 5 Conference will be held at the Berkeley University in 10 days. HUNAGI offered to arrange the event in Budapest since 2003 and there is a good chance to win the competition after Tokio (2005) and San Francisco (2007). The impact of climate change on agriculture in the SEUR region as well as the monitoring an geolocation of epidemic diseases harmful for the plants and animals are only two of the applications, where geospatial technologies can be applied effectively in the mitigation and policy planning, implementation and related controls.
Ms. Kadlecikova was informed on the UNSDI evolution and present stage including the review meeting based on the achievements of the Santiago UNGIWG Meeting and the UN SDI Global Partners' Meeting held in Frascati. The review meeting is scheduled for 7-8 June in New York hosted by OCHA (Operational Center for Humanitarian Affairs) at the UN HQ. Finally the IHLET Project proposal and its meeting scheduled for 20-22 June 2007 hosted by the European Parliament was mentioned as excellent initiative in the cross-border SDI supported sustainable development in a wide watershed area having anticipated positive results on both for socio-economic and environmental/natural preservations.
