Space Tools and Solutions for Monitoring the Atmosphere and Land Cover

UN/Austria/ESA Symposium

in Graz, 9-12 September 2008

From our daily mail: Levent Canturk of the UN OOSA Space Application Sector wrote today:

"We would like to inform you that  the United Nations/Austria/European Space Agency Symposium on “Space Tools and Solutions for Monitoring the
Atmosphere and Land Cover ” will be held in Graz, Austria from 9 to 12
September 2008.
The Symposium is part of a series of annual symposia held in Graz since
2003 concerned with the use of space applications for sustainable
development to support the Plan of Implementation of the World Summit on
Sustainable Development. It will be hosted and co-sponsored by the Federal
Ministry for European and International Affairs and the Federal Ministry
for Transport, Innovation and Technology of the Government of Austria, the
State of Styria, the City of Graz and by the European Space Agency (ESA).
Detailed information on the Symposium, including the application form, is
available online at http://www.unoosa.org/oosa/SAP/act2008/graz/index.html.
Within the limited funds available to the co-sponsors, a number of selected
participants from developing countries and countries with economies in
transition, will be offered financial support to attend the Symposium.
Applicants fulfilling the conditions and seeking financial support are
invited to fill out and return the application form by mail,  no later than
Friday, 20 June 2008.
If you or your organization wishes to contribute to the Symposium, e.g. by
making a presentation or demonstration of relevant space applications, or
by sending representatives, please also do not hesitate to contact us.
We also kindly ask you to forward this announcement to anyone who might be
interested."

Geographic Information as eContent. Open Day on the EU eContentplus Program

Marcel Watelet (DG InfSo) and Pál Lévai (FÖMI). Image: HUNAGI Visuals resource, 2008. By click the photo gallery of the event can be downloaded

eContentplusOpenDay 2008 Budapest, Hungary

eContentplus Open Day in Budapest. 

Organised by MATISZ and hosted by the Ministry of Economics and Transport the open day attracted 48 participants. Highlighting some best practices, the Hungarian Public Broadcast provided presentation on the Europeana program (www.europeana.eu)  of the European Digital Library. Best practices  related to the theme Geographic Information were presented by representatives of FÖMI and HUNAGI. Dr. J. Mlinarics, President of MATISZ and the eContentplus National Contact Point chaired the session devoted to the best practices. Marcel Watelet of DG InfSo, Ferenc Hargitai of MATISZ and Anikó Balogh of SZÁMALK, independent expert for DG InfSo gave useful hints for the participants how to submit application for the next (last) eContentplus Call scheduled for early June.

Details: http://ec.europa.eu/econtentplus 

The presentation delivered by HUNAGI is available here:

http://www.fomi.hu/hunagi/pdf/2004/RemeteyeContentplus.pdf 

In the European Digital Library theme, the presenter was Julianna Mátrai of the Hungarian Broadcasting. In the Education Content the Corvinus University and MÖGÉRT provided presentatin. All the ppts will be available on the www.matisz.hu website in some days.

Presidential Board of HUNAGI discussed topics including international affairs today

Participants of the Meeting. Image: HUNAGI Visuals resource, 2008

Presidential Board chaired by Zsolt Barkóczi, CIO of VATI, President of HUNAGI was attended by Dr. L.Alabér, Treasurer, L.Buga, MoD Mapping Co., Dr.Sz.Mihály, Director General of FÖMI, Zs. Keringer, CIO of the Municipality of Szombathely, Chair of the Association of the Cities having County Rigths, Zs. Sikolya, Chair of the Supervising Committee, Dr. S. Selinger, Director of Dennis Gabor Foundation.

ExCom of the Int'l Society for Digital Earth elected Hungarian member

Prof.Dr. Wang Changlin wrote in his letter today:

"Dear Gabor,
Please find the attached letter that you have been elected as
Executive Committee Member of the ISDE, and we wish to get your
sustainable help and contribution to ISDE.
We are looking forward to see you in Beijing.
Best regards

Changlin"

More on the International Society for Digital Earth:

http://digitalearth-isde.org

http://english.cas.cn/english/news/detailnewsb.asp?InfoNo=26052

More on the next Digital Earth Session at the XXth ISPRS Congress:

Beijing, July 2008

www.isprs.org

More on the Digital Earth Summit

Potsdam, November 2008

www.isde-summit-2008.org

More on the International Journal of Digital Earth

http://english.cas.cn/english/news/detailnewsb.asp?infono=27058

IYPE Hungarian Opening: successful start

Over 6000 people were attracted by the highly successful interactive exhibition devoted to the Hungarian Opening Event of the International Year of the Planet Earth. HUNAGI members and UNSDI HUCO stakeholders as the Hungarian Met Service, HAS Institute of Soil Sciences and Agrochemistry, Institute of Geodesy, Cartography and Remote Sensing (FÖMI), Hungarian Institute of
Geology as well as the ELTE Department of Cartography and Geoinformatics made excellent contribution. Some images taken during the weekend for the HUNAGI Visuals resource are already available here:

Sessions devoted to SDI at the ISPRS XXth Congress

Extracts from the official program received today from the Secretariat in Beijing:

TS-14: WgS IV/1(1) Spatial data infrastructure

Date: July 4, 2008

Time: 16:00-17:30

Room: 305C Conference Room

Chair: JIANG Jie; National Geomatics Center of China, THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA

Co-Chair: P. S. Roy, National Remote Sensing Agency, INDIA

 

Integrating Land Cover and Topographic Reference Data in Germany; Andreas Busch, Bundesamt für Kartographie und Geodäsie (BKG), GERMANY (Abstract_ID: 2007101700526033)

Development of A Performance Assessment Model for  Local Government Departments of India for Spatial Planning : A Case Study for Bankura District, West Bengal, India; Debapriya Dutta, Dept.of S&T, Government of India, INDIA (Abstract_ID: 2007110101740427)

Reference3D Alpha: A Milestone toward Reference3D Products Worldwide Coverage; Eric Breton, IGN, FRANCE. (Abstract_ID: 2007101900985826)

Role of Interdisciplinary Networking in SDI Supported Actins towards Sustainable Development; Gabor Remetey-Fülopp, HUNGARY. (Abstract_ID: 2007110602735457)

SDI in China：Progress and Issues; Pengde Li, Shaanxi Bureau of Surveying and Mapping, CHINA, THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF; etc. (Abstract_ID: 2007111602921333)

 

TS-127: WgS IV/1(2) Spatial data infrastructure

Date: July 11, 2008

Time: 10:30-12:00

Room: 305B Conference Room

Chair: JIANG Jie, National Geomatics Ceter of China, THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA

Co-Chair: Gabor Remetey-Fülopp; HUNAGI, HUNGARY

 

New Data Base Structure and Coding System for the Israeli National GIS; Baruch Shiryon, Survey of Israel, ISRAEL; etc. (Abstract_ID: 2007110401919287)

A Watermarking Algorithm for Vector Spatial Geo-data Based on Integer Wavelet Transform; Chanq-qing Zhu, Nanjing Normal Univeraity, CHINA, THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF. (Abstract_ID: 2007102801580166)

E-Government Concept and Spatial Information: A Case Study in Islamic Republic of Iran; Mohammad Sarpoulaki, National Cartographic Centre of Iran (NCC), IRAN, ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF; etc. (Abstract_ID: 2007102101406443)

Establishing an Environmental Data Platform for Promoting Coastal Zone Environmental Management; Hideo Nakajima, Kokusai Kogyo Co., LTD, JAPAN; etc. (Abstract_ID: 2007102001312855)

Self-Adaptive Spatial Information Multi-Grid Database; Tao Hong, Wuhan University, CHINA, THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF; etc. (Abstract_ID: 2007110401978999)

More information: www.isprs.org

Hungarian Opening Event of the International Year of the Planet Earth

Some of the UNSDI HUCO stakeholders including the Hungarian Met Service, FÖMI the Institute of Geodesy, Cartography and Remote Sensing, MAFI the Hungarian Institute of Geology, Chair of the Cartography and Geoinformatics of the Eötvös Loránd University of Sciences prepared excellent exhibition booths for the wider public and visitors organised for and by schools. At the opening of the Exhibition welcome addresses were given by Natural History, by Prof. Eduardo de Mulder Director of the international programme of IYPE as well as by dr. Károly Brezsnyánszky, Chair of the National IYPE Commission.
(HUNAGI is also member of the National IYPE Committee.)
The Photo Gallery of the Event

IYPE Hungarian Opening Event

For more details please visit http://hunagi8.blogspot.com

F:acts! project manager's visit at HUNAGI office hosted by MoARD

Actions related to adoption of Climate Change knowledge for Territorial strategies

MoARD building in Budapest downtown. Image: HUNAGI Visuals resource, 2008

Dr. Frank van Holst of DLG, The Netherlands, manager of the former FARLAND project (Future approaches in land development) and manager of the recent F:acts! project paid a visit at HUNAGI's office hosted by MoARD.

F:acts! is for Adaptation Climate Change for Territorial Strategies

F:acts! consortium members include institutions and organisations from Spain, Greece, Italy, Bulgaria, Germany, Belgium, The Netherlands, Lithuania and Hungary (MoARD).

In order to keep the momentum, a possible continuation of the Farland project independent from project finance was also discussed. The Hungarian champion of the project was Ms. Zsuzsanna Flachner of MTA TAKI, member of HUNAGI. The academic Institute of Soil Science and Agrochemistry is one of the stakeholder of the UNSDI HUCO

Spatial and temporal dimensions in logistics

Tools for connectivity in mobile environment
The Conference will be held in Budapest on 15th April 2008.
This is the first conference on GI/SDI in Logistics devoted to novel and innovative technology solutions related to improved location based services and using RFIDs and sensor webs. Target audience: solution providers and users in logistics. Also the ITS community will be represented. More news with detailed program at http://hunagi8.blogspot.com
Logistics are supported by novel navigation technologies and location based services. Growing number of larries are equipped by ITS components Illustration: HUNAGI Visuals resource, 2008

Global Change - Scientists call for urgent governmental actions

Building of the Hungarian Parliament. Image: HUNAGI Visuals resource, 2008
28th Session of the UN IPCC hosted by MoEW in Budapest

"UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer stresses link between policy-making and science at twenty-eighth session of IPCC
Budapest, Hungary
09 April 2008
Speaking at the opening of the IPCC's 28th session in Budapest, Hungary (9-10 April), the UNFCCC Executive Secretary, Yvo de Boer, said that the link between policy-making and science needed to be stronger than ever before. "The task ahead is daunting," he said. "Parties have to negotiate one of the most complex international agreements in history in a very limited period of time, so they will need all the scientific support they can get."
Speech (32 kB)
website "

More on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change:

http://www.ipcc.ch/about/index.htm

The Hungarian Climate Change Strategy 2008-2025 has been released for the public by MoEW:
http://www.kvvm.hu/cimg/documents/nes080214.pdf

National IYPE Commission Meeting hosted by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences

Commission Meeting Participants. Image: HUNAGI Visuals resource, 2008

Short report will be given soon.
Folder on the Programme of the National IYPE Opening Event will be downloadable here asap

GEO Workplan 2008-2009

Experts of the IEEE at a Technical Committee meeting of GEO in Cape Town. Image: HUNAGI Visuals resource, 2007

The most recent version of the approved workplan of the GEO is available now for the Member countries (including Hungary) and for all of the 54 partners from the non-governmental organisation sector (including GSDI Association).

For more information: www.earthobservations.org

Notes for the President

Bas Kok, President of GSDI Association with Ex-President Jarmo Ratia (r) and Vice-President Abbas Rajibafard at the GSDI-10 Gala Dinner. Image: HUNAGI Visuals resource, 2008. By request, in his capacity as Secretary of the GSDI Association, HUNAGI SG submitted a two page notes to the President Prof. Dr. Bas Kok in the context GSDI Association and the global developments with special emphasis on UNGIWG/SDI and GEO/GEOSS. Also actions and events of CEOS WGISS (September, Boulder) and the Digital Earth Summit (November, Potsdam) were mentioned. The new biodiversity arm of the GEOSS, the inaugural meeting of the GEO Biodiversity Network (GEO BON) under the leadership of DIVERSITAS and NASA is scheduled for the next week. Before taking notes usually short consultations with relevant people have been arranged.

HUNAGI's presentation delivered at the EUROGI Members Day is available

The EUROGI Members Day Meeting was in the premises of the DG TREN, about 300 m from the newly face-lifted Berlaymont Building of the European Commission. Image: HUNAGI Visuals resource, 2008

The download link of the Hungarian presentation is:

http://www.fomi.hu/hunagi/pdf/2004/Hungary.pdf

Please note only 10 minutes was allocated for each speakers

Socio-economic Impact of SDI in Catalonia

Dr. Robin S. Smith, member of the eSDINetplus consortium, GIS Analyst at the Informatics Collaboratory of the Social Sciences (ICOSS) (University of Sheffield) wrote in his letter today:
I imagine most of you have already seen this but I felt everyone should be informed. The JRC have just published "The Socio-Economic Impact of the Spatial DataInfrastructure of Catalonia" report:
http://www.ec-gis.org/inspire/reports/Study_reports/catalonia_impact_study_report.pdf
I will read it with interest."
The coordinates of Dr. Robin S. Smith:
robin.smith@sheffield.ac.uk http://www.shef.ac.uk/icoss http://www.shef.ac.uk/gis
HUNAGI is also member of the eSDI-NETplus. A presentation on the project goals, objectives and present stage will be given for the participants of the HUNAGI Annual General Assembly scheduled on 16 May 2008
Venue: Budapest More information: http://hunagi8.blogspot.com/

UNSDI-related overview: recent state of the play

The presentation held by the Head of the UNSDI Secretariat Mr. T. Suha Ulgen recently at a Conference in Geneva. Link: http://www.fomi.hu/hunagi/pdf/2004/UNSDI2008March.ppt

UNSDI HUCO website became known globally

UNSDI HUCO website was visited from 55 countries in the single month of March 2008
During the last 31 days we had 332 visitors
As an illustration, the last 15 visitors were logged as follow as of 14:31 1st of April, 2008:
Inter-american development bank United States of America
Adsl-go-plus Belgium
Mediacom communications corp United States of America
Trw space and defense sector United States of America
Trw space and defense sector United States of America
Org_unit_en: gts-datanet telecommunic.. Hungary
Casema bv Netherlands
National aeronautics and space admini.. United States of America
Comcast cable communications holdings.. United States of America
Road runner United States of America
Nottinghamshire county council United Kingdom
Ministerio de administraciones publicas Spain
Org_unit_en: gts-datanet telecommunic.. Hungary
Foldmeresi es taverzekelesi intezet Hungary
Foldmuvelesugyi es videkfejlesztesi m.. Hungary
Take a look also on the HUNAGI-UNSDI HUCO Newsblog in English http://hunagi56.blogspot.com/
and in Hungarian http://hunagi8.blogspot.com/