FIG Commission 7 (Cadastre and Land Management) Annual Meeting and International Open Symposium on "Digital Cadastral Map"5-11 September 2010, Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic
FIG Commission 7 in cooperation with the Czech Union of Surveyors and Cartographers organized its Annual Meeting between 5 and 11 September 2010 in Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic. Commission 7 has had a 20 year tradition organizing annual meetings each year, separately from major FIG events, based on the consensus of Commission 7 delegates. The Annual Meeting 2010 was the last of a four year period chaired by Mr. András Osskó, Hungary. Commission 7 established its concept of activities about 15 years ago in line with the FIG long term professional strategy and selected topics to deal with: advanced cadastre, developing sustainable land administration, application of innovations creating secure land tenure and advanced technology in land administration. Following the tradition, Commission 7 Work Plan 2007-2010 helped to achieve FIG goals like working cooperation with other FIG commissions, working relation with UN organizations, World Bank and other professional organizations, organizing joint conferences, events, workshops, to contribute formulating the professional program for FIG congresses, working weeks supporting regional events to promote FIG activities in general and especially the new priorities of the land surveyor profession. There are many fields of interest for Commission 7 related to land administration, cadastre and land management matters. To achieve realistic results in the 2007-2010 period, Commission 7 had to prioritise the most important issues based on the Commission 7 activities having carried on during the past years, recent developments, challenges and priorities supported by UN and other professional organizations, NGOs. Selected important issues among others: pro poor land management and land administration, sustainable land administration supporting good governance, land administration in post conflict areas, public and state land management, innovative technology and ICT support in land administration and land management. There was a record number of participation in the Annual Meeting 2010 showing the importance of land administration matters world wide. 57 delegates attended this annual meeting from 32 countries representing all of the continents. We could welcome delegates from Japan, Eritrea and Cyprus, also a representative from the Organization of American States who never attended before. We were happy to meet again former Commission 7 chairs: Prof. Ian Williamson from Australia and Prof. Andzrej Hopfer from Poland after many years. The program of the 5 days Annual Meeting followed the tradition of the Commission 7 annual meetings: 3 days workshop with technical sessions, one day international open symposium and one day technical tour, sightseeing with social program. The meeting started with the introduction of the host country. Czech colleagues gave 8 presentations describing the land administration, cadastre activities in the Czech Republic, land surveying and cadastre education at Universities, private surveyors’ role in cadastre and other matters. The Czech introduction was followed by reports on FIG and Commission 7 activities during the last year. Mr. András Osskó gave a report on the FIG Congress 2010 in Sydney, Australia, which was a great professional success. Commission 7 was the major contributor with more than 150 presentations, 20% of the total number of presented papers. Mr. Daniel Roberge (Canada), chair elect Commission 7 for the 2011-2014 period introduced the draft Commission 7 Work Plan 2011-2014 for further discussion. The draft should be supported by the commission and final approval will be made by FIG Council and General Assembly. Mr. Daniel Steudler, Switzerland gave a report on FIG Task Force Spatially Enabled Society. FIG achieves its goals through 10 permanent commissions’ activities; commissions complete their work plan through commission working groups’ activities, which play a very important role in the achievements of commissions’ plan. The success of Commission 7 is also very much depended on the working group achievements. Working group chairs reported on their works and results of the past four year period.
Mr. Christiaan Lemmen (The Netherlands), chair working group 1 “Development on Pro Poor Land Management and Administration” asked Mr. Osskó to present his paper as himself could not be present this occasion. The development of Land Administration Domain Model (LADM) and Social Tenure Domain Model (STDM) were great success, thanks to Mr. Lemmen and his colleagues for this. STDM supports the development of pro poor land management approaches, and contains new definitions including customary and informal tenures. This is a development under ISO (ISO 19152 Standard Proposal). The procedure is going on. UN-Habitat very much supports the development of STDM - there was a joint special session on it in the FIG Congress in Sydney. Mr. Søren Fauerholm Christensen, Denmark, chair working group 2. “Development Sustainable Land Administration to Support Sustainable Development” gave a presentation on their activities. Working group 2 organized a very successful workshop on “Land administration for sustainable development” during the Geoconference in October 2-5, 2007 in Quebec, Canada, supported by UN organizations and World Bank. Working group 2 contributed to the work of many joint FIG/ UN events. Mr. Daniel Steudler, Switzerland, chair working group 3 “Application of Innovative Technology in Land Administration” introduced the activities performed. The working group mainly focused on open source software applications in cadastre and land registry. Working group 3 and UN/FAO have been running a joint project on “FLOSS Cadastre” since 2007. As a result of their activities, Commission 7 organized a technical session during the FIG Congress 2010 in Sydney with the contribution of Mr. Daniel Steudler, Mr. Christiaan Lemmen, Mr. Markus Seifert (Germany) and others. FIG and UN/FAO also issued a publication on this topic based on the joint Commission 7 and UN/FAO activities. Representatives of big IT companies have been regular participants in Commission 7 annual meetings since years presenting papers. This year, Mr. Matty Lakerveld, Bentley Systems Inc. gave a very interesting presentation on “Ubiquitous and 3D future of Cadastre”. Mr. Keith Hofgartner, Trimble gave us an overview about new applications of GPS in Cadastre.
In FIG professional strategy, the active working relation with UN, World Bank and other professional organizations is one of the most important goals. Commission 7 organized and contributed to many joint events, among others, a joint FIG/FAO International Seminar on “State and Public Land Management” in 2008 September in Verona, Italy just before the Annual Meeting 2008. Following the seminar, the commission continued working on this topic, which is equally important in developed and developing countries, issuing a questionnaire to commission 7 delegates, prepared by Mr. Richard Grover (UK) and Mr. Elikkos Elia (Cyprus) who also coordinated activities. Mr. Grover gave a comprehensive report on the result of the evaluation of completed questionnaires. Country reports on new developments in land administration and cadastre world wide have always been one of the most interesting parts of the annual meetings. National delegates gave these reports informing participants about new developments; we could learn again from each other. In Karlovy Vary, we heard 21 country reports from all over the world. One Day International Open Symposium on “Digital Cadastral Map”The Symposium has been an essential part of the Commission 7 annual meetings since long. The selected topic is always chosen by the host association in a way that it is equally important both for the host country land surveyors and Commission 7 members. The symposium is open to the host and neighbouring countries’ professionals. Apart from Commission 7 delegates, about 200 land surveyors from Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany and Poland attended the event. FIG President Prof. Stig Enemark gave the keynote paper “The Evolving Role of Cadastral systems in Support of Good Land Governance”. The introduction of digital cadastral maps is an issue in every countries world wide, concerning accuracy, content and consistency with legal data, etc. We listened to presentations from Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany, Poland, Hungary, Lithuania, and Hong Kong.
Social EventsOrganizing Commission 7 annual meetings is always a hard work, but also a fun. Delegates visited the Karlovy Vary Cadastre Office combined with sightseeing, walking across the picturesque Karlovy Vary and its environment. At the end of the day, there was the Commission 7 dinner, which has been always the peak of social events. This time, the dinner was held in the old castle of the nearby scenic old town Loket. Thanks to the excellent local organizers, Commission 7 delegates enjoyed not only the food and drink, but also the historic atmosphere and the cultural program with medieval live music during the dinner. SummaryThe Annual Meeting 2010 held in Karlovy Vary was the last of the four year period. This was the last opportunity for delegates to discuss about the Commission 7 work plan 2011-2014, introduced by Mr. Daniel Roberge. Delegates supported the draft Work Plan, but the final approval will be made by FIG Council and General Assembly. Delegates voted for the venue of the next Commission 7 Annual meeting in 2011. The meeting will be in Innsbruck, Austria, September 2011. Mr. András Osskó, chair Commission 7 closed the Annual meeting. At the end of his four year term he summarized the work of the commission. Commission 7 continued its tradition and finished a successful four years period achieving its goals based on the Commission 7 work plan 2007-2010. The commission has been the major contributor to FIG congresses, working weeks, conferences. He expressed his thanks to Commission 7 delegates and friends for their activity. The annual meeting in Karlovy Vary was a great success as a professional event. Participants also enjoyed the historic, beautiful Karlovy Vary and Czech hospitality. Many thanks to the local organizers, Czech Union of Surveyors and Cartographers for the invitation and all arrangements, also Bentley Systems Inc. as sponsor. Commission 7 delegates and friends are looking forward to meet again in the next Annual meeting in Innsbruck, Austria, 2011. PPT presentations will be available on the FIG Commission 7 website soon.
15 October 2010 |
