Annual meeting of FIG Commission 7



Novotel City-SUD
Hamburg, Germany 14 - 19 May 2000

The venue for the first Commission 7 annual conference of the new millennium was the Novotel City-Sud in Hamburg, German between 14 - 17th May 2000.

Sunday 13th May 2000

Evening welcome session:

The DVW representative welcomed all delegates and guests and expressed his pleasure that DVW were able to host the FIG7 annual meeting in Hamburg. The FIG7 chair also welcomed delegates. 35 delegates attended from over twenty countries. The primary focus of the meeting was to update delegates on progress made by the working groups and to establish a programme of activities for the next 12 months.

The evening dinner went smoothly and a number of topics were discussed enthusiastically. Particular attention was given to the issue of Women's wealth/access to land.

Monday 14th May 2000

Apologies:

Bob Ashwin, Bob Foster, Peter Dent (Attending from Wednesday).

Agenda:

The agenda was agreed, Paul Van der Molen added an agenda item when he arrived.

Paul Munro Faure opened the conference, welcomed delegates and welcomed Mr Hagen Graaf as incoming president. Some significant increases in relations had been made between FIG and the United Nations. He thanked Professor Ian Williamson for his work as UN Liaison. He wanted to establish a clear view of FIG7's role for the forthcoming Prague meeting.

Paul suggested that the increased profile of FIG7 created greater demands on the commission and invited discussion on how these may best be addressed given the current capacity of FIG7. He expressed his view that FIG7 should strive to remain autonomous and not become a tool of the UN

Mr Graaf welcomed delegates and expressed his pleasure at having FIG7 here in Hamburg. He outlined the main agenda with particular regard to the Bathurst Declaration. He thanked Winfried Hawerk for the excellent work he had done in organising the meeting.

Winfried Hawerk also welcomed delegates. He thanked his team for their work in helping organise the conference and for looking after the accompanying persons programme. He thanked the sponsors (DVW, The Association of Licensed surveyors (DVI) and Megatel.

A brief question and answer session followed.

David Mercer, (FIG7 Webmaster) introduced himself to delegates as acting Secretary in place of Bob Ashwin. He then took the roll call.

A brief Photo call followed.

Progress and meetings held since New Zealand.

Ian Williamson: Bathurst Declaration

Prof Ian Williamson acknowledged the contribution of Don Grant in their joint efforts in setting up the Bathurst Workshop. He described how land has developed as a focus of attention and the increasing recognition that land administration systems are key to a country's infrastructure. The UN - FIG Bathurst workshop developed the declaration.

Ian presented a slide show outlining progress made. He expressed the view that Land Administration systems are key to a country's infrastructure.

Ian provided background information on the declaration, on those involved and on how the declaration was prepared. He also outlined the possible future impact of the declaration and its ongoing influence within the UN. He summarised and stated that it has created many opportunities that the commission should take advantage of.

Ian described the PCGIAP work plan 2000-2003.

Question and answer session:

Tommy Osterberg wanted to ensure that awareness was spread of the raised profile of the surveying profession and of the Commission worldwide but wanted to ensure that a way is found to address the resulting increased demand on the Commission.

Paul Munro-Faure suggested that Bob Ashwin prepare and issue a circular to ask for contributions from delegates for suggestions relating to this issue the results of which could be passed back to Markku Villika in response to his note to Paul.

Jan Sonnenberg asked how broad the scope of the Cadastre was and suggested that land use also be taken into consideration.

Jurg Kaufman asked for further background information on the Bathurst Declaration, which Prof. Williamson provided.

Future commission activities:

Prague
Paul Munro- Faure sought comments and suggestions for the 67th Permanent Committee meeting to be held in Prague on 22-26 May 2000.

Malta
David Mercer gave a brief outline of the forthcoming Mediterranean surveyors meeting to be held in Malta in September. He invited papers from delegates and provided some details about the scope and importance of the meeting. A primary aim of the meeting is to create a regional session to focus on Mediterranean issues and to identify those areas that are common on a global level.

Sweden
Tommy Osterberg outlined the details for the FIG7 meeting in Sweden in 2001

Korea
The Korean delegation presented a video and slide show outlining details for the FIG working week in Seoul 2001. Details may be obtained from the website at http://www.fww2001.or.kr Paul Munro-Faure sought input from delegates in order to ascertain an approximation of the numbers that would be attending.

Commission 7 Congress 2002 - Washington
Paul Munro- Faure outlined details of the FIG Conference to be held in Washington DC in 2002. A range of possible topics for the conference were explored including:

• Discussion of the various systems that exist in different countries with particular regard to rural and informal systems.
• The importance of creating economically viable surveying techniques.
• Plenary sessions to discuss core issues and to summarise what the commissions have been doing.
• Commission 7 to present a paper on the impact of the Bathurst Declaration
• A special session on the Bathurst Declaration to credit Commission 7's role in the establishment of the Declaration.
• A session on standards and the modern developments, possibly in conjunction with the 3 working groups with particular regard to mapping and cadastral systems.
• Role of the Marine Cadastre
• Role of the Cadastre in Spatial Data Structures
• A session on Rural Problems
• Land Management/Valuation
• Cadastral Systems
• Different approaches to the cadastre taken by various countries
• The impact of the Common Agricultural Policy on title to land, especially with regard to pre-accession countries
• Legal Impact of the Internet and WAP.
• Regional sessions - indigenous systems.
• Electronic Conveyancing and e-commerce
• Land conservation and reform
• Performance assessment for cadastral systems.

The possibility of sponsorship for African delegates was discussed. The inclusion of contributions from cadastral systems worldwide including Indonesia, Greece and Thailand was discussed.

Working group Reports:

The working group chairs updated delegates on progress to date. Several 'break-out' sessions took place during the week that enabled further progress to be made on existing issues and future work programmes to be formulated.

Working group 7.1 - Reforming the Cadastre
Chair -Jurg Kaufmann
Jurg presented a slide show giving details of progress to date. Creating a framework and formal methods had not been easy. Benchmarking by Rob C Kemp had been used. Particular difficulties had been found in evaluating the performance of surveyors.

Working Group 7.1.1 - Definition of Commission 7 ISO Standards
Chair - Winfried Hawerk
Since New Zealand a great deal has happened although standardisation develops very slowly. The statement of Cadastre was submitted to the ISO 18 months ago but nothing was heard until November 1999 when the submission was returned for structural amendments and resubmitted.

Work is progressing on an FIG guide on standardisation. This will provide information on the working methods of the ISO and provide guidance on managing complex standardisation procedures. The aim is to present this guide at the Washington conference in 2002. A task force will meet to discuss standards in Prague.

Working Group 7.2 Land Ownership in the 21st Century
Chair - Paul Van der Molen
In New Zealand in 1999 the breakout sessions found that the topic is a very broad one. There was a clearly identifiable need for more research.

There is evidence of a link between land administration developments and sustainable development. The group has also studied papers on culture and behavior, this is related to land rights and tenure. There was a need to have institutional systems in place before talking about managing land administration. Other publications considered included "The Benefits of Land Administration" that was published by the UN ECE.

There is a need to narrow the subject to "Access to Secure Land Tenure".

What capacity building increase is required, extra attention to this subject is required, probably the Washing conference in 2002. The next step was to try to identify areas that have successfully implemented systems of land tenure in areas where indigenous land tenure systems already existed.

Working Group 7.2.1 - Women's Access to Land
Chair - Agneta Ericson
Agneta provided a an update of the task force's activities:
Areas where surveyors could contribute had been considered. To establish a methodology, financing was required. The proceedings for the seminar had been finalized:

• Registration
• Land Law
• Customary Law
• Institutional Development
• Educational Dissemination
• NGOs
• Land Use Planning
• Development of an LIS (Land Information System)

Working Group 7.3 - Land Markets
Chair - Andras Ossko
Andras outlined the steps that were followed in preparing the for the one day symposium (To be held on Thursday). In New Zealand, it was decided to focus on the rural land market only (for the second questionnaire). Andras asked that the questionnaires be completed and returned on time because there is a program into which to fit these.

Tuesday 16th May

FIG7 Business:

Bathurst Declaration
Professor Ian Williamson described FIG7's role in the Bathurst Declaration

Website
David Mercer provided a brief update on the Website. This has now been moved to a new hosting company that has proven to be more reliable than the initial choice. The lists of delegates will no longer be held on the site but rather on the main FIG site.

A more comprehensive list of relevant publications will be collated and an index posted on the Website.

Adaptation of French Thesaurus
Paul Munro- Faure is making progress on this task. The thesaurus will be Web based and is intended to be multilingual. It will also contain a cross-reference to other websites; it contains approximately 75,000 words at present.

Women's Wealth
Professor Ian Williamson passed out a questionnaire to be completed by delegates. The aim of this was to try and improve on the accuracy of the 1% figure for the percentage of wealth owned by women.

Preparations for 2002 Congress
Paul Munro- Faure handed out a summary of proposed sessions for Washington 2002.

Country reports

Wednesday 17th May 2000

A full day excursion including visits to:

• Department of Geoinformation and Surveying, Hamburg
• Land consolidation projects at the Elbe River
• The ancient city hall and a tour of the city of Lubeck.

Dinner was held in a local restaurant.

Thursday 18th May 2000

Symposium on Land Markets
Chair - Andras Ossko

Winfried Hawerk welcomed delegates before handing over to Krista Sagar, Deputy Mayor of Hamburg.

Krista Sagar expressed her pleasure at being invited to open the symposium and welcomed delegates to Hamburg. She outlined some of the problems that still remained with the former GDR.

Paul Munro- Faure thanked Krista and the sponsors of the symposium:

• DVW
• Association of Licensed Surveyors
• Megatel

Evening Session:

The commission 7 Dinner was held on board the Rickmer Rickmers. The venue was unique and enjoyable.

Friday 19th May 2000

The remainder of the national delegates reports were presented (see appendix) and future activities for the commissions were discussed.

Results of the working group breakout sessions:

Working Group 7.1
It was agreed that the working group would prepare the draft standard country questionnaire in time for the meeting in Sweden. This would attempt to standardise information in order to establish trends as well as providing a valuable source of information. The questionnaire would be based on a revised version of the Penang Questionnaire.

The use of standard reports would
· Reduce cost of preparation and analysis
· Provide a framework for country reports that could be re-used
· Provide a means of delivering structured presentations based around the country reports

Working Group 7.2
A lot of time had been spent on the issue of women's access to land. The working group thanked Professor Ian Williamson for his help in preparing guidelines on how to proceed.

A paper will be prepared to help guide the approach taken by the working group and how to introduce land administration systems in countries that have indigenous tenure systems. It will focus on a small group of countries:

• Fiji
• South Africa
• Tanzania

The next 12 months will be spent trying to obtain details about the systems in these countries.

Working Group 7.3
Two main achievements have been made:

• Creation of a second questionnaire for Rural Land markets.
  (This is to be completed and returned to Jan Sonnenberg).
• Finalisation of a short questionnaire for developing countries

Paul Munro- Faure thanked all delegates for attending expressed his appreciation for the excellent organisation by Winfried and his team. The meeting was a great success and both delegates and accompanying persons had had an enjoyable and productive time.

The visit to Hamburg will be fondly remembered by all.

David Mercer
Acting Secretary