Joint FIG Commission 3, UN/ECE Working Party on Land
Administration and UN/ECE Committee on Housing and Land Management Workshop:
Spatial Information Management toward Legalizing Informal
Urban Development and Informal Settlements – Real Estate Market Needs for
Good Land Administration and Planning
Sounio, Greece, 28-31 March 2007
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Opening Ceremony of the Joint FIG Commission 3,
UN/ECE CHLM and WPLA Workshop on Informal Settlements - Real Estate
Market Needs for Good Land Administration and Planning. |
The joint workshop of FIG Commission 3 and UN/ECE Working Party on Land
Administration (WPLA) and Committee on Housing and Land Management (CHLM)
took place in Sounio, Greece, between 28-31 March, 2007. The workshop
focused on informal or unplanned development, a topic of major importance
for several countries worldwide. The initiative for this topic originated in
a vision identified in the current FIG Commission 3 work plan, announced at
the FIG ACCO meeting, during the FIG Regional Conference in Accra, Ghana in
2006. An objective of the FIG Commission 3 work plan is cooperation with
international sister organizations. Therefore a proposal was made to UN/ECE
WPLA Bureau that agreed to include this activity as an extra function in its
already-planned workshop calendar for 2007. The WPLA Bureau, in turn,
invited the participation of the UN/ECE Committee on Housing and Land
Management.
The local organizers were the Technical Chamber of Greece (TCG) and the
Hellenic Association of Rural and Surveying Engineers (HARSE). The major
sponsor was the Technical Chamber of Greece; other sponsors were the Attica
Bank, the Marathon Data Systems, the Region of Attika, the Municipality of
Lavrio, the Municipality of Anavissos, and the Municipality of Palaia
Phokea.
Experts and representatives of sister associations such as Dr.
Gabor
Remetey-Fülöpp, Head of the UN SDI Hungarian Coordination Office and
Director of EUROGI Working and Advisory Group on International Affairs and
Secretary of the Global Spatial Data Infrastructure Association, Ms. Victoria Stanley from the World Bank, Prof.
Sylvia Martinez from
the Commission for the Legal Empowerment of the Poor, Mr. Fernando De la
Puente Alfaro, President of the European Land Registry Association, and
Mr. Enrico Campagnoli from FIABCI, kindly responded to the invitation
made by the local organizers and offered to participate and support the
workshop and present papers.
In total 130 distinguished delegates were registered to the workshop,
coming from 42 countries: Albania (6), Armenia (1), Australia (1), Austria
(3), Azerbaijan (4), Belarus (1), Bosnia and Herzegovina (1), Bulgaria (1),
Canada (1), Croatia (3), Cyprus (4), Czech Republic (2), Denmark (3), France
(1), Georgia (4), Germany (5), Greece (32), Iceland (2), Ireland (1),
Hungary (1), Iceland (2), Ireland (1), Israel (1), Italy (4), Kosovo (3),
Kyrgyz Republic (2), Lebanon (2), Latvia (2), Lithuania (2), the Netherlands
(1), New Zealand (1), Nigeria (1), Norway (4), Poland (3), Romania (4),
Russia (2), Serbia Montenegro (2), Slovak Republic (1), Spain (3), Sweden
(2), Switzerland (3), Turkey (3), UK (3), USA (4).
In addition to the above mentioned delegates, twelve Greek officials
participated, including several members of the Hellenic Parliament, the
representative of the Minister for the Environment Physical Planning and
Public Works, the presidents of TCG, HARSE, and of the Association of Greek
Architects, local mayors, presidents of other professional associations, the
President of the School of Rural and Surveyor Engineers of the National
Technical University, and the General Secretary of the region of Attika.
In the two Opening Sessions, welcoming addresses were offered by
Yannis Alavanos, President of TCG, Chronis Akritidis, President
of HARSE, Prof. Stig Enemark, FIG President, Kaj Barlund,
UN/ECE EHLM Division Director, Dr. Chryssy Potsiou, FIG Commission 3
Chair,
Makis Apostolatos, FIG Commission 3 Vice Chair of Administration, Doris Andoni, UN/ECE CHLM Chair, and
Peter Creuzer, UN/ECE WPLA
Chair.
Keynote speakers were Prof. Stig Enemark, FIG President, Paul Kelly
Director Spatial Strategies Pty Ltd, and Gabor Remetey, HUNAGI Secretary
General.
Robert W. Foster, FIG Honorary President, Markku Villikka,
FIG Office Director, Gerhard Muggenhuber FIG Commission 3 past chair,
Helge Onsrud, FIG Commission 3 and WPLA past chair, Bengt Kjellson,
WPLA past chair, Elena Szolgayová past CHLM chair also participated
in the workshop.
The workshop consisted of eight technical sessions (TS), and one plenary
session (PS):
- PS: Policy makers for planning and land administration
- TS 1: Technical aspects for informal urban development monitoring
and planning control
- TS 2: Necessary tools for good land administration and planning
- TS 3: Informal urban development
- TS 4: Land policies for lower economies
- TS 5: Land tools for planning and property registration
- TS 6: Illegal urban development in the ECE
- TS 7: e Governance - participatory democracy
- TS 8: Urban planning and property registration
Fifty papers were presented in the eight technical sessions and nine
presentations were made in the plenary sessions. The technical program also
included a round table discussion. The resolutions of the workshop will be
available soon. All papers, resolutions and discussions, will be published
at the workshop’s final proceedings, which will be published and distributed
by the TCG, and on FIG Commission 3 website.
According to FIG Commission 3 delegates decisions and common
understanding, all papers presented to FIG Commission 3 workshops are
considered to be of great value and importance. To satisfy specific
requests, and to bring together experts coming from the private and public
sectors with the academic members to jointly address issues of major
importance, Commission 3 initiated an optional double blind peer review
process for presenters of papers at this workshop. A number of FIG academic
delegates provided peer review of papers as requested by authors. For this
and future workshops of Commission 3, reviewers will not review their own
papers or papers coming from their own countries; reviewers will be selected
according to their expertise in the topic; papers accepted for peer review
shall be the result of original research and shall not have been published
previously. Twelve papers received successful peer review for this workshop.
Other papers presented at the workshop may also include original research,
information and ideas but their authors did not select the peer review
process. Dr. Chryssy Potsiou, Commission 3 Chair and Prof. Yerach
Doytsher, Head of the peer review group, will serve as editors for the
additional specific publications of the peer reviewed papers.
The workshop’s success is the result of an exceptionally hard joint work
and good spirit built up among all presenters and delegates. The local
organizers, and FIG Commission 3 chair, wish to express their
acknowledgments to all participants and promise to promote the results of
their joint work by all possible means.
The workshop’s program also included lunches, dinners, transportation,
and social events e.g., archaeological sightseeing in the regions of Lavrio,
Sounio and in the Athens’ historic center, offered by the sponsors.
This was the first FIG Commission 3 annual workshop and meeting in a
series of three planned for the new term 2007-2010. The next FIG Com3
workshop (follow up) is planned to be held in January 2008 in Valencia,
Spain, under the topic: “Spatial Information toward Environmental
Management of Mega Cities”. More detailed information about the local
organizers, the exact date and the specific topics will be published soon.
More information:
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Dr.
Chryssy Potsiou, President Stig Enemark and Mr.
Gerassimos Apostolatos at the Opening Session of the FIG
Commission 3 Workshop on Spatial Information Management toward
Legalizing Informal Urban Development. |
Gerasimos Apostolatos making his welcome address.
|
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Dr. Chryssy Potsiou making her opening address at the FIG Commission
3 workshop. |
President Stig Enemark making his welcome address. |
|
Paul Kelly making his keynote address at the FIG Commission 3
workshop. |
Dr.
Gabor Remetey-Fülöpp presenting his keynote address.
|
|
Opening Ceremony of the Joint FIG Commission 3, UN/ECE CHLM and WPLA
Workshop on Informal Settlements - Real Estate Market Needs for Good
Land Administration and Planning. |
Audience at the Joint Workshop participated actively in the
discussions.
|
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Welcome address by
Yannis Alavanos, President of the
Technical Chamber of Greece. |
Welcome address by
Chronis Akriditis, President of HARSE. |
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Peter Creuzer, Chair of WPLA and Chryssy Potsiou, Chair of
the Organising Committee and Chair of FIG Commission 3. |
Stig Enemark making his keynote address at the Joint Seminar.
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Commission 3 had its annual meeting during the seminar - here at a
pre-meeting. |
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The seminar was organised at the Grecotel Cape Sounio hotel that
offered excellent facilities for the seminar... |
... facing the famous Poseidon Temple.
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FIG Honorary President
Robert W. Foster together with
President Enemark and Chryssy Potsiou. |
Representatives of international partners at the closing ceremony. |
Dr. Chryssy Potsiou
Chair, FIG Commission 3
Bureau Member, UN/ECE WPLA
Email: chryssy.potsiou@gmail.com
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