GEO supports UNSDI

The Cape Town Declaration was approved by the Ministers today. Please visit www.earthobservations.org for the official document already released.

Final draft of the Cape Town Declaration ready for the Ministerial Summit scheduled for tomorrow

The partly cloudly Table Mountain as seen from the Cape Town International Convention Center. Image: HUNAGI Visuals resource, 2007
In the declaration there is a paragraph on the recognition that GEOSS can contribute to the development of the UNSDI

500 participants at the GEO IV Plenary and Ministerial Summit

GSDI Delegation at the plenary the SG of HUNAGI and USGS representatives Ivan DeLoatch, Director of FGDC. HUNAGI Visuals resource, 2007
News in short will follow soon including:
Hungary represented by the former President of the Met Service Zoltán Dunkel
Exchange of views with Alessandro Annoni
Talks with R.Navalgund of SAC, India and Stephen Ungar NASA/CEOS WGCalVal
GSDI seconded UNEP on comment the drafted Ministerial Declaration in the context UNSDI.
Digital Earth and HUNAGI talks in the break
Talks with OGC on possible partnership of HUNAGI
Talks with former CEOS WGISS Chair Ivan Petiteville and UNEP representative
GSDI Delegation at the first Plenary Day
Talks with John Latham of FAO on UNSDI and GeoNetwork

GEO Ministerial Summit and Exhibition will open tomorrow

The Cape Town International Convention Center with Africa's tallest building, venue of the Summit as seen from the highway. Picture was taken from the taxicab just coming from the airport. Image: HUNAGI Visuals resource, 2007
Report on the highlights will be given with references and sources asap.

GEOSS User Interface Committee Meeting started

Cape Town International Conference Center. Image: HUNAGI Visuals resource, 2007
Chaired by Gary J. Foley, Science Advisor of the US Environmental Protection Agency the meeting of the GEOSS User interface Committe opened the GEO week in Cape Town.

UNSDI Governance Report received for internal comments

In the next minutes, the UNSDI related draft documents will be circulated by UNSDI HUCO for the 16 Hungarian stakeholders for quick internal comments and feedbacks. The UNSDI Governance Report will be presented and discussed at the UNGIWG Plenary in Bangkok next week. It is anticipated, the document has vital impact on the National Coordination Offices, also for the UNSDI HUCO point of view. NCO contribution was provided by the coordinator of the UNSDI NLCO Mr. Jan Cees Venema. The submitted Hungarian model was also taken into account. More news in early December.

HUNAGI representative at the GEO IV Plenary in Cape Town

GEO Sec hosted by the WMO in Geneva. Image: HUNAGI Visuals resource, 2006

GEO IV Plenary now in Africa

Report on the UIC meetings and the Plenary will follow soon.


Tentatively, also a visit at the Division Geomatics of the Department of Architecture, Planning and Geomatics is scheduled for 30th November.


At the Plenary, the Hungarian participant will represent the GSDI Association in a high profile Delagation including leading experts and decision makers of USGS, FGDC, ESRI, CIESIN/Columbia University and OGC.


GEO has 73 countries as members including the European Commission. Pakistan was the 73th entry some days ago. Hungary join the organisation in 2005 as 67th country. GEO Secretariat is hosted by the WMO in Geneva, Switzerland.

UNSDI in the IYPE 2008

The Head of our partner National Coordination Office in the Netherlands Mr. Jan Cees Venema just informed te NCO NL's stakeholders on the actions related to UNSDI and the International Year of Planet Earth in 2008.
"Geachte collega's,
Eind deze maand wordt op de achtste plenaire vergadering van de UN Geographic Information Working Group (UNGIWG) een besluit genomen over de implementatie van UNSDI. De vergadering staat in zijn geheel in het teken van UNSDI: "UNSDI in the Year of Planet Earth". Informatie over de vergadering is hier te vinden...."
In the case of UNSDI HUCO, IYPE is an issue which will be addressed also by HUNAGI in its action plan foreseen for the next year. It was discussed already at the 2nd Meeting of the Hungarian National IYPE Committee on October 30 and will be revisited at the next meeting hosted by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences scheduled for December 5. That time the UNSDI follow-on plan will be known according to the decisions made by the 8th UNGIWG Meeting.

8th UNGIWG Plenary Meeting

Image source: Dusit Thani Bangkok, 2007
UNGIWG will make decision on UNSDI Worldwide Network later this month

From our daily mail today:
"The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN-OCHA) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) as Co-chairs of the UNGIWG will organise the Eighth UNGIWG Plenary Meeting at the Dusit Hotel in Bangkok between 28-30, 2007. UNGIWG-8 deliberations will focus on the adoption of an institutional and technical governance framework for UNSDI while addressing the many-faceted theme of "UNSDI in the Year of Planet Earth." The participants will hear from the UNGIWG Secretariat and Task Group Managers who will report on past year's activities and share their 2008 plans. Innovative and challenging projects related to Geospatial Information Management and SDI (Spatial Data Infrastructure) in Asia will be presented in a number of modalities including a poster session. More then 30 UN agencies, departments, funds and many local, national or regional partners are expected to attend UNGIWG-8."

Telecon succesfully completed

The telecon focused on the preparation of the UNGIWG-8 Meeting will be held in Bangkok by the end of this month. Invited telecon participants included Jan Cees Venema, Head of NLCO, Prof.Dr. Michael Gould, Head of the ESCO and the Head of the UNSDI Hungarian Coordination Office (HUCO).

The concept of the institutional strengthening of the worldwide network was introduced by the Co-Chair of UNGIWG while the technological details represented by Mr. Suha Ulgen, Coordinator of the Geneva-based Coordination Office were not discussed here. The National Coordination Offices will have the chance to submit additional comments during the next 10 days to be taken into account in the prepared Bangkok document.

UNGIWG telecon scheduled for 6th November 2007

UNSDI Global Partner Meeting speaker Alessandro Annoni in Frascati. Illustration: HUNAGI Visuals resource, 2007
Aspects related to the UNSDI on the Agenda
By invitation, the teleconference will be also participated by all national coordination office representatives including The Netherlands, Czech Republic, Spain and Hungary.

Danny Vanderbroucke (Catholic University of Leuven), Jack Delincé (IES DG JRC) and Suha Ulgen (UNGIWG) at the GSDI-9 in Santiago. Image: HUNAGI Visuals resource, 2006
The invitation cames from Mr. Suha Ulgen, Coordinator of the UN Geographic Information Working Group Secretariat (UNGIWG), Field Information Services Unit (FIS) of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Geneva, Switzerland. The date and time was decided today. The call for the telecon will be kindly arranged by UNGIWG. The information on this action will be shared by the stakeholders of the UNSDI HUCO by direct e-mail and using the http://hunagi8.blogspot.com/ the newsblog of HUNAGI in Hungarian language.