INTERCARTO 12 - Conf Report -1

It is here that one learns about issues like Moscow's traffic congestion and how traffic for the 'mega city' is being planned. Moscow went from a city of few cars prior to the fall of the Berlin wall, to a city of millions of cars all within a decade or less.Did you know that most noise in the Swiss alpine region is generated from international traffic and impacts 87% of the Swiss citizens - needless to say the air pollution and trace element levels rise also.The UN Spatial Data Infrastructure includes 33 agencies and programs, FAO,UNEP, UNDP, UNESCO, WHO ISO and OGC. Did you realise that naming places on maps is a very sensitive issue for the UN, in fact, a whole working group works on place names. The UN also maintains data internally that is never seen at a much higher resolution. The UN does have a set of map production guidelines. In Germany, 12.6% of the land is dedicated to settlement and traffic. Both terrestrial and earth observation methods are combined for assessing land classification. About 13.7 million hectares of land produce 296 million hectares of dry mass agriculturally - an amount that could be increased by 60% and thereby used for bio-energy purposes. Harry Storch spoke about 'multi-layered urban topologies' and the concept of 'liveable neighbourhoods' for Ho Chi Minh city. A city where liveability relates directly to infrastructure. Also, where population density is largely unmapped and 'cluster mapping' is used for landuse administration purposes. David Fraser of Australia is working along the Mekong Delta in Viet Nam and says that land is being classified into one of 3 categories. -- prosperous farm-- sustainable farm-- poor farmA capability for agriculture rating system has been devised for the area and is highly related to sustainable indicators.The facts and initiatives keep coming at this conference. It is inspiring to see real applications for sustainable land use being developed.More tomorrow...

Author: Jeff Thurston

Bio.: Editor