ISPRS Centenary Celebrations - Vienna, Austria, 4 July 2010

FIG President Stig Enemark attends the ISPRS Centenary Celebrations

Vienna, Austria, 4 July 2010

Prof. Orhan Altan, President of ISPRS and Prof. Stig Enemark, President of FIG at the ISPRS Centenary Gala Dinner at the Vienna City Hall.

The International Society for Photogrammetry ISP (now International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, ISPRS) was founded 4 July 1910 by Prof. Eduard Dolezal, at the Technical University of Vienna. It was therefore appropriate to celebrate the 100 year anniversary of ISPRS at the place of birth.

The celebrations included at Centenary General Assembly with official opening and congratulation speeches, recognition of former Presidents of ISPRS, election of ISPRS Fellows, and presentation of the new ISPRS Strategic Plan. Following the General Assembly a plaque was unveiled in the university courtyard to commemorate the founding of ISPRS. The afternoon lecture Series included three presentations on the past, present and future of ISPRS. Professor Gottfried Konecny (Germany) gave a presentation on the History of ISPRS, Director Lawrie Jordan (ESRI, USA) presented GeoImagery – A new paradigm, and Professor Norbert Pfeifer (Austria) talked about Future Developments in ISPRS´s areas of interest. The celebration concluded with a gala dinner at the Vienna City Hall.

The celebration event further included a two day symposium of Commission VII (Thematic Processing, Modeling and Analysis of Remotely Sensed Data) 5-6 July with a range of presentations and poster sessions.

Former ISPRS Presidents being recognized at the Centenary General Assembly.

President Orhan Altan unveiling a plaque at the university courtyard

FIG is working closely with ISPRS, especially within FIG Commission 6 and also within the Joint Board of Geospatial Information Societies (JB-GIS) see http://www.fig.net/jbgis/. As part of the celebrations JB GIS launched a new publication “Geoinformation for Disaster Risk Management” at a press conference 2 July at the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs (UN-OOSA). The aim of the booklet is to explain to governments, decision makers and disaster professionals the potential uses of geoinformation technologies for reducing disaster risks and losses, based on experience from best practice and knowledge from experts in these fields. The booklet also includes a short presentation of the societies (FIG, ISPRS, ICA, IAG, GSDI, and IMTA) and their approach in this area. The FIG contribution is available at: http://www.fig.net/council/enemark_papers/2010/jbgis_fig_final.pdf.


Two key publications were launched during the ISPRS Centenary Celebrations: A booklet presenting an colorful overview of the 100 years of the ISPRS Society and a booklet on GeoInformation for Disaster and Risk management produced by the Joint Board of Geospatial Information Societies (JB GIS).

12 July 2010