Vice-President Stig Enemark visits Colombia at the “Week on Geomatics 2005”

Bogotá, Colombia, August 8-13, 2005

Vice-President Stig Enemark visited Bogotá, Colombia, 8-13 August under the celebration of the 70th Anniversary of the Agustín Codazzi Geographic Institute, IGAC. The celebration was held as an international event “Week on Geomatics 2005”, organized by IGAC and the Europe Union Project: “Improvement of Colombian Cartographic Systems”.

The conference was headed by the Director General Mr. Iván Darío Gómez Guzmán and the National Cadastral Director Gabriel Martinez, and was organized by Mrs. Dora-Ines Ray. During the conference, Vice-President Stig Enemark had the opportunity to discuss with these key people about the future of the cadastre and the surveying profession in Colombia and their role in contributing to a sustainable future.

The topics of the conference included Cadastre, Land administration, Urban Planning, Geographic Information Systems, Spatial Data Infrastructures, Remote Sensing, Digital Photogrammetry, Global Positioning Systems, and Digital Cartographic Production.

The focus was on the state of the art of Geomatics and its components presented by international and local experts, and some key persons from principal international organizations. The purpose was to share experiences on geographic information management, analyze trends, techniques, views, methodologies and tools used in modern approaches.

Week on Geomatics 2005 was organized in three sessions:

• Conferences (8 to 10 August), with 348 attendees. The conferences included 6 plenary lectures and 18 technical parallel sessions with 72 presentations. The plenary lectures were presented by high academic and science international experts were:
  • The Role of the Geographic Information in the Knowledge Society. Milan Konecny (President of International Cartographic Association – ICA).
  • A Cadastral Tale. Stig Enemark (Vice-President of International Federation of Surveyors, FIG).
  • Digital Cartography of Soils: Towards an information System for multiple purpose. David G. Rossiter (ITC, Netherlands).
  • Trends of Photogrammetry and Geoinformation. Karsten Jacobsen (Academic Director at the University of Hanover, Institute of Photogrammetry and Geoinformation, Germany).
  • Critical elements of a Cartographic Product Quality. Francisco Javier Ariza López (Professor in Cartographic, Geodesic and Photogrammetric Engineering Department, University of Jaén, Spain).
  • Cataluña Spatial Data Infrastructure (IDEC): State of the art and challenges. José Luis Colomer Alberich (Cartographic Institute of Cataluña).
• Theory-practice Workshops (11 to 13 August), with 121 students and eight international expert trainers. There were 6 Theory-practical Workshops oriented by international experts on these issues:
  • Digital Elevation Models – generation, manage and analysis. Karsten Jacobsen.
  • Introduction to quality evaluation in cartography (simples and basic controls). Francisco Ariza López and José Luis García.
  • Digital Cartography of Soils: Methodological aspects. David G. Rossiter.
  • Cartographic Generalization. Karel Stanek (International Cartographic Association - ICA).
  • Maps on Web. Temenoujka Luvenoba Bandrova and Milan Konecny (International Cartographic Association - ICA).
  • Geographic Names. Juan Deguara – NGA.
• Panel on State of the Art and Cadastral trends (11 August), with 100 attendees. In the third part of the event the National Cadastre Director from IGAC and decentralized cadastres of Colombia were invited. As key invited was Stig Enemark, Denmark, Vice President of International Federation of Surveyors. The principal projects on Colombian decentralized Cadastres in the two biggest cities Bogotá and Medellín, the Colombian National Cadastre were presented, and the vision and challenges were discussed compared to a presentation of the National Cadastre in Denmark.

Papers and presentations will be available in the web site of IGAC and formal proceedings will be published in Spanish in the near future.

During the closing speech the Director General of IGAC Mr. Iván Darío Gómez Guzmán mentioned, that the participation of international experts and key persons from important international organizations, universities and research centres is seen as cooperative efforts that create capacity and competence in the area of Geomatics and contribute significantly to promoting the development of common projects.

Due to this successful event and with the objective of promoting and strengthening the geographic information management in the country, IGAC is committed to organize another event: Week on Geomatics 2007.

• A Cadastral Tale. Presentation by Prof. Stig Enemark, Vice President of FIG at the Week on Geomatics 2005 in Bogotá, Colombia, 8-13 August 2005.
  • Presentation as a .pdf-file
  • Slides of the presentation as a .pdf-file
• The Cadastral System in Denmark. Presentation by Prof. Stig Enemark, Vice President of FIG at the Week on Geomatics 2005 in Bogotá, Colombia, 8-13 August 2005.
  • Slides of the presentation as a .pdf-file

Prof. Stig Enemark
Vice President of FIG

September 19, 2005