Recent visitors of the HUNAGI/UNSDI HUCO newsblog

The Hungarian Newsblog called "HUNAGI Napló" - which is even more frequently visited - can be seen by clicking on the header.

EUROGI ExCom Meeting in Budapest on 2-3 October 2009

HUNAGI member VATI will host the Executive Committee Meeting of the European Umbrella Organisation for Geographic Information.
The up-to date folder of the host National GI Association HUNAGI can be downloaded here:
http://www.fomi.hu/hunagi/pdf/2004/Flyer9sept29a.pdf
http://www.fomi.hu/hunagi/pdf/2004/Flyer9sept29b.pdf
For the newest HUNAGI UNSDI HUCO eNewsletter, please click on the header

UN-SPIDER on YouTube

From our daily mail: Miss Michele Kasdano, Consultant of the
United Nations Platform for Space-based Information for Disaster
Management and Emergency Response (UN-SPIDER) at the
UN Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) wrote in her letter this morning:
"It is with great pleasure that we invite you to view our UNOOSA /
UN-SPIDER promotional movie now posted on YouTube.
Produced in April of this year, the movie embodies yet another step in the
burgeoning UN-SPIDER awareness-raising campaign, capturing the essence of
what UN-SPIDER is all about. It taps into our efforts and activities as
part of the U.N. Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) framework,
providing valuable insight into our programme and highlighting the ways in
which we go about implementing our mandate.
Additionally, it offers a brief overview of the disaster management and
space communities, depicting ways in which these two can be brought
together. Throughout this short video, you will also witness theory morph
into practice, as it guides you through the sequence of events and
UN-SPIDER’s response following the Namibia 2009 floods.
Moreover, it familiarizes the viewer with the unfolding version of the
UN-SPIDER Knowledge Portal and with the means to navigate through the
prospective Space Application Matrix. Finally, the movie introduces the
people and minds behind UN-SPIDER and illustrates the ways in which their
work has been contributing to the prominence and success of the UN-SPIDER
Programme.
You can locate it by searching for UN-SPIDER on YouTube or by accessing
the link directly:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAnEZU5BIXM
Naturally, those of you with a good internet connection (bandwidth) are
encouraged to choose and view the High Definition (HD) version of the
movie.
We hope that this movie will prove to be up to your expectations and that
it will indeed help get our message through. We also smile upon efforts to
forward this movie to members of your respective organizations and support
us in its dissemination.
PS: For those of you who are present on more than one of our mailing
lists, we apologize for the email recurrence."
For more information please visit: http://www.unspider.org

HUNAGI invited to the 10th Plenary Meeting of UNGIWG held in Bonn, Germany

L. Czaran, Co-Chair of UNGIWG wrote earlier today, HUNAGI (which run the UNSDI Hungarian Coordination Office) will receive invitation to the UNGIWG-10 Plenary

UNGIWG tenth meeting
19-21 October 2009
Bonn - Germany

"The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), in their capacity of Co-chairs of UNGIWG for 2009-2010, cordially invite you to attend the Tenth Plenary Meeting of the United Nations Geographic Information Working Group (UNGIWG) to be held at the UN Premises (Langer Eugen Building) in Bonn, Germany between 19 and 21 October 2009.

Formed in 2000, UNGIWG is a network of UN professionals working in the fields of cartography, geospatial information management science and remote sensing to address issues of common concern - data collection, technologies, geospatial information exchange protocols, data and messaging standards, geographic naming conventions, cartographic production, positioning solutions, etc. Since its inception, UNGIWG has been also laying the foundations for a United Nations Spatial Data Infrastructure (UNSDI).

The Working Group and its more recent UNSDI efforts contribute substantively to the mission of the United Nations by promoting better inter-agency coordination and thus increased efficiency, and by also engaging with member states, regional organizations and partners in building consensus, promoting policy and governance mechanisms to ensure that geospatial data and information sharing practices are used widely in advancing peace, social, economic development, environmental and humanitarian agendas.

UNGIWG-10 will focus on the analysis of the Working Group’s achievements to date, on concrete and feasible actions for the next period, and a review of the UNSDI framework and progress with a view to accelerate its implementation. Case studies, best practices and other presentations are also foreseen.
Discussions will also address the very relevant theme of Climate Change, and ways to support Climate Change related work in the UN System in the next period."
Source: www.ungiwg.org

ROSA/ESA/DLR Radar Remote Sensing Course for PECS countries in Bucharest

ROSA/ESA/DLR Radar Remote Sensing Course in Bucharest
26-30 October, 2009
From our daily mail. Dániel Kristóf PhD, research fellow of the FÖMI Remote Sensing Centre submitted this Call for participation of PECS countries Hungary and Poland released by the Romanian Space Agency.
"Dear Madam/Sir,
Romanian Space Agency (ROSA) in cooperation with the European Space Agency (ESA) and the German Aerospace Center (DLR) is organizing a five-days intensive radar remote sensing course between 26 – 30 October 2009.
The training course is focusing on radar remote sensing theory and applications. It consists of two main components:
· theoretical fundamentals of radar remote sensing and introduction to SAR applications
· practical sessions using SAR data with focus on TerraSAR-X imagery for applications in water / oil detection and mapping
The course is opened primarily to Romanian students but also to students from other PECS countries (Hungary, Poland). Young scientist and university students who wish to expand and improve their knowledge and skills in the radar remote sensing research are invited to attend the course.
The candidates should have the following qualifications:
mandatory: MsC (or PhD) in Engineering or Physics or Science with knowledge of remote sensing
mandatory: good command of English language
desirable: knowledge of some remote sensing and GIS SW packages
desirable: needing/using GeoInformation for their profession
The students will be selected upon reviewing their CVs and motivation letters (explaining the relevance of this course for their present position) taking into account the qualifications mentioned above and the number of places in the classroom.
Deadline for application submission: 2 October 2009!
For further information about the program, registration, accommodation and application submission, you are kindly invited to access the website dedicated to this event:
http://events.rosa-rc.ro/index.php/radar_course_09/
Please forward this e-mail to anyone who might be interested!
Iulia DANA
Research Assistant, Romanian Space Agency
21-25 Mendeleev Str., 5th Floor, Sector 1, 010362 Bucharest, ROMANIA
tel. +40-21-316.87.22; +40-21-316.87.23; fax +40-21-312.88.04
iulia.dana@rosa.ro
http://www.rosa.ro"

GSDI Legal and Socioeconomic Committee actions

Very recently, Peter Woodgate, CEO of the Science Information Center in Australia and Dr. Robert S. Chen of CIESIN/NASA SEDAC and Secretary General of ICSU Codata expressed their interest to be involved or monitor the activities of this group co-chaired by Roger Longhorn and me. Dr. Chen contribution to the GSDI LSE Com Repository of Best Practices was his presentation delivered at the final plenary at the 6th Digital Earth Symposium in Beijing.

Forther links to CIESIN, NASA SEDAC and CODATA are:
CIESIN web site: http://www.ciesin.columbia.edu
SEDAC web site: http://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu
CODATA web site: http://www.codata.org

120 mins GSDI telecon chaired by President Prof. Abbas Rajabifard

HUNAGI representative made an overview on the Workplan of GSDI Legal and Socioeconomic Committee formulated by Chair Roger Longhorn and gave a summary on the sixth Digital Earth Symposium held in Beijing as well as the eSDI-Net+ project workshop held in Krakow last week. Mention was made on the forthcoming eSDI-NET+ Conference will be held in Torino in November devoted to the award ceremony on best practices on local, regional, subnational and thematic SDI categories
Detail from the draft minutes: "Referring to the agenda 9a: Legal and Socioeconomic Committee, Gabor Remetey reports the draft workplan prepared by Chair Roger Longhorn. There are five topics focused:
1. Increase members of the Committee and promote the e-mail list more widely,
2. Continue to complete the GSDI SDI Cookbook Wiki's new chapter with SDI Best Practices and enrich related repository (http://gsdidocs.org/GSDIWiki/ )
3. Information activities relating to Legal Issues, having 5 expected results mainly on legislative framework including INSPIRE and PSI matters
4. Information activities relating to Economic Issues, having 4 expected results related to repository, business models and SDI programme management
5. Information activities relating to Social issues having 3 expected results related to ethical aspects
These three last topics are orchestrated by Subcommittees.
Recently, interest was shown to join to or monitor the Committee's activities by Peter Woodgate from Australia and Bob Chen of CODATA/CIESIN respectively.
The 6th Symposium on Digital Earth was held in Beijing between 9-12 September. The event had a high profile on the host side and well attended by the international scientific community (including academies, space agencies, universities and R+D sites). Over 900 papers were received. The event was devoted to the tenth anniversary of the 1st DE Symposium and its Beijing Declaration of 1999.
The Declaration was revisited and a new document was formulated and accepted by the Closing Ceremony participants. The new Beijing Declaration refers to the spatial data infrastructure explicitely. GSDI Association provided good visibility. Past President Bas Kok gave a welcome speech and he made an in-depth presentation emphasizing the bridging between the geospatial and Digital Earth communities. Parallel sessions addressed SDIs, and many GSDI Board members delivered lectures on best practices, role of SDIs in Digital Earth, standards and data policy.
Also mention was made on a media-related issue in the GSDI12 context. In the Editorial Board meeting of the Int J of Digital Earth Ms. Christina Low, Managing Editor of Taylor & Francis Asia Pacific in Singapore expressed her interest to get more information on the GSDI12. Her coordinates: christina.low@tandf.com.sg."

HUNAGI at the showcase of the Canadian ICT industry

"A Nation of the Innovation - capabilities and opportunities offered by the Canadian Information and Communication Technology for the Hungarian companies"
Arranged by the Commercial Section, the Seminar was hosted by the Canadian Embassy in Budapest on September 21, 2009
Interesting series of presentations, useful break conversation helped to pave the way for further potential actions. The information was shared with the Hungarian GI/EO community immediately after the morning session at http://hunagi8.blogspot.com. For an overview on the Canadian ICT industry please click on the header.

J.Wayne Gudbranson of the Branham Group Inc in action. Image: HUNAGI visuals resource, 2009
Government of Alberta e.g. focused on the next generation economy targeting Life Sciences, Energy and Environment, Nanotechnology and ICT. In the ICT segment the geospatial technologies, wireless technologies, digital media and software developments are the components of the core business.

European SDI evaluation process in final stage

Snapshots of the project's Jury, Advisory and Consorium Member Meeting hosted by the University AGH in Krakow

eSDI-NET+ project consortium meeting hosted by Krakow, Poland

Details will be reported soon.
The historical city core with Wawel as seen from the approaching airplane. Image: HUNAGI Visuals resource, 2009

Beijing Declaration on Digital Earth accepted by the participants of ISDE6 held in Beijing

The Beijing Declaration on Digital Earth is referred here based on the snapshots taken during the presentation of Academician Deren Li who read the Declaration at the Closing Ceremony of the ISDE-6 in Beijing on 12nd of September 2009. The Declaration was accepted by the participants.

It is a great honor for the Hungarian GI community that all the recommendation made by HUNAGI representative in the final draft were accepted by the Executive Committee Meeting chaired by Prof. Lu Yongxiang, President of the International Society for Digital Earth and the Chinese Academy of Sciences on 9th September.

6th Digital Earth Symposium held in Beijing - a great success

Summary and photo portfolio here - asap

LAPSI project accepted by the European Commission

The project on Legal Aspects of Public Sector Information (LAPSI) was accepted by the EC as it was reported in a circular to the consortium members including HUNAGI last Wednesday.

Details will come asap.

HUNAGI's international activities during the past 12 months

The following text was compiled for use by the Editor of the National Report of the Hungarian Surveying, Mapping and Cadastral Agencies to be prepared for the next General Assembly of EuroGeographics.

HUNAGI

The Hungarian Association for Geo-information (HUNAGI) is a non-for-profit umbrella organisation serving the spatial data interest community in Hungary since 1994. Its major objectives are to encourage and facilitate the availability, accessiblity and useability of geographic information according to the INSPIRE legislation framework. To achieve these goals, using its European and global relations emphasis is given to awareness raising, dissemination of knowledge and best practices in association with EU directives INSPIRE and PSI also enabling innovative solutions and good governance in eAdministration. Having 101 member institutions and organisations, HUNAGI’s interdisciplinary community includes governmental agencies, NGOs, academia and private sector. The Hungarian Mapping and Cadastral Agencies are well represented in HUNAGI since the beginning. Some recent activities are summarized as follow:

• Based on the previous consultancy services provided for the Ministry of Communication and Informatics (theme: InfoSo & SDI Strategy) and the Ministry of Economics and Transport (PSI), the governmental links emerged since 2008 significantly, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (INSPIRE), Ministry of Environment and Water (GMES, INSPIRE and related Economic Impact Study) , Hungarian Space Research Office of the National Office for Research and Technology and very recently interest was raised on behalf of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Consultancy is underway with the State Audit Office, whereas the exploitation of international best practices in use of GI will play important role.
• HUNAGI has emerging links with the Geoscience Committee of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Presidents of the UNESCO National Committee and the President of HAS invited HUNAGI to the IYPE National Committee devoted to the framework on the International Year of Planet Earth (2007-2009). HUNAGI joined the VAHAVA Network lead by HAS on the Climate Change-related actions, where geospatial information plays key role.
• HUNAGI was invited to attend the domestic Intergraph User Seminar, and provided keynote to the ESRI Hungary User Conference, both event participated by international staff members of the companies.
• As far as the links and joint actions with non-member NGOs are concerned, partnership with ITS Hungary (navigation), MLBKT (Hung. Society of Logistics, Purchase and Inventory), MAGISZ (Hungarian Society of Content Industry), as well as he SZVT (Hung. Society of Management and Organisation) have to be mentioned. Dissemination of innovative solutions, the INSPIRE and PSI are the issues addressed.
• HUNAGI contributes news to domestic and international media regularly (Geodézia és Kartográfia, terinformatika-online, PSI Platform, and has seat in the Editorial Advisory Board of GIM Magazine (NL), the Int.J. of Spatial Data Research (EU) and regularly invited to the Int.J.of Digital Earth (CN)
• Earth Observation is a field where HUNAGI plays disseminator and facilitator role, promoting activities and actions such as ESA PECS, EUMETSAT Info Day. HUNAGI was invited to the Space Research Council a board supporting the activities for the Hungarian Space Research Office.
• By the invitation of the European Umbrella Organization of Geographical Information (EUROGI) the Hungarian Association for Geo-information (HUNAGI) joined the consortium of the eSDI-Net+ project with the aim to apply internationally elaborated evaluation methodologies in spatial data infrastructure services according the principles of the EU INSPIRE directive. Six domestic best practice candidates were selected including KOMVIR, MÉTA, PIR, TeIR, VINGIS and ZEG-INVATER.
• HUNAGI or staff is involved in several additional EU projets such as Humboldt(INSPIRE, reviewing) , Cascadoss (INSPIRE, GEMS oriented opensource), EURADIN (European Address Infrastructure and European Address Forum), Thematic ePSIplus, PSI Platform and LAPSI project proposal (all related to PSI directive with special emphasis on GI supported by the EU eContentplus program).
• As well as the international links and activities of HUNAGI during the past year is concerned, four entities should be mentioned: EUROGI, GSDI, ISDE and UNGIWG.

EUROGI

HUNAGI joined EUROGI, the European Umbrella Organisation of Geographical Information in 1996. Since 1998 it has seat in the Executive Committee. Some of the major actions since August 2008 are as follow:

• Organising a eSDI-NET+ National Workshop in Budapest
• Participating eSDI-NET+ consortium meeting at La Sapienza University in Rome Participating EUROGI ExCom Meeting in Rome
• Delegation incl. Hungarian member of the INSPRE Committee and FÖMI INSPIRE expert at the EUROGI Extended Member Meeting (EMM) in City Hall, Gothenborg
• Participating EUROGI ExCom Meeting hosted by IGN Spain in Madrid
• Participating at the EUROGI Members‘ Day and Annual General Meeting in Brussels, participated by DGs incuding JRC, InfSo and Envi.
• Organisation of EURADIN National Workshop in conjuction with FÖMI and Geox Ltd) in Budapest, hosted by FÖMI
• Next: EUROGI ExCom Meeting in Budapest hosted by HUNAGI

GSDI

HUNAGI joined GSDI, the Global Spatial Data Infrastructure Initiative and later Association in 1996. Since 1998 it has seat in the Advisory Committee, later Executive Committee. The mandate expired in 2009. Some of the major actions since August 2008 are as follow:

• Representing GSDI Association at the CEOS WGISS-26 Meeting in Boulder hosted by NOAA, participating the WGISS-GEO Intercom Meeting hosted by UCAR
• (WGISS is for Working Group on Information Systems and Services of the Committee on Earth Observation)
• Member of the GSDI Delegation attending the GEO-V Plenary in Bucharest
• Representing GSDI Association at the CEOS WGISS-27 Meeting in Toulouse hosted by CNES
• Promoting and participating the GSDI-11 Conference (a joint event with the 3rd INSPIRE Conference and the Closing Event of the Dutch SDI Program „Space for GI“)
• HUNAGI received Co-chairmanship in the GSDI Legal and Socio-Economics Group.

ISDE

HUNAGI joined ISDE, the International Digital Earth Initiative – later International Society of Digital Earth in 2003. Since 2008 it has seat in the Executive Committee. Some of the major actions since August 2008 are as follow:

• Participating the 2nd Digital Earth Summit organised by the German Society of Geoinformation and hosted by the German Geoscience Center in Potsdam.
• First participation of the Executive Committee of the International Society of Digital Earth chaired by Gua Huadong Director General of CEODE, Beijing
• Meeting of President and Secretary General of the HAS Geoscience Committee, Director General of FÖMI and Secretary General of HUNAGI to discuss about the possible alternatives on the involvement of the Hungarian Geoscience community into the digital Earth-related international actions (encouraged by HSO, the same topic was already exploited for the Hungarian Space Research council too).
• Participating the next ISDE-6 Symposium and ExCom Meetings in Beijing with planned promotion of Hungarian achievements to be published in the Science Citation Index registered Int. Journal of Digital Earth.

UNGIWG

By invitation HUNAGI joined UNSDI, the United Nations Spatial Data Infrastructure Initiative after The Netherlands and the Czech Republic as third country coordinator in 2006. This initiative was ochestrated and supervised by the UN geographic Working Group (UNGIWG). Since 2007, HUNAGI is invited to take part the UNGIWG Meetings, which is a forum of delegated experts from about 30 UN agencies and some NGOs.

Some of the major actions since August 2008 are as follow:

• UNGIWG-9 Plenary Meeting hosted by OOSA in the UN-City of Vienna
• HUNAGI- UN SPIDER Bonn Office consultations at WGISS-27 and at GSDI-11
• HUNAGI proposal on behalf GSDI Association to extend GSDI SDI Cookbook Wiki with a chapter formulating requirements (data availability, accessibility, useability, - logistical, legal, financial issues, capacity building, communication) and describing best practices in disaster response applications. The issue might be revisited and addressed by the WGISS-28 in Pretoria.
• HUNAGI promotes SPIDER actions. Next: Bonn Conference on Disaster Management using satellite based technologies and UNGIWG-10 Anniversary Plenary.

For further informationon the listed activities of HUNAGI, detailed news are available in English at the HUNAGI/UNSDI newsblog: http://unsdihu.blogspot.com For actions related to any abbrevation above, please use the search blog function.

1st EURADIN National Workshop in Budapest - major goals achieved

Cover slides of the presentations
by the permission of the authors, the presentations in pdf form (eProceedings) are already available at the website

http://euradinhu.blogspot.com by clicking on the header. (Please note, few of the files are more than 10MB)

Report will be available soon.