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The plenary sessions ranged from surveyorsâ response to changing city management, through pro-growth land management to global and regional professional and institutional reforms. Among the speakers were Professor Emeritus Dr Armin Gruen, of the Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich, who spoke about the next generation of smart cities and the role of geomatics. A series of new tools is available for documentation, analysis and dissemination of environmental data. A multi-sensor, multi-resolution approach helps in getting results of better quality, completeness, and greater levels of automation and new concepts for 3D mapping/modelling are required.â©
2015-2016 is International Map Year and Georg Gardner, president of ICA, talked about the importance of maps now and in the future with the use of 3D and 4D visualisation. It is necessary to promote information advocacy and awareness from a data-centric âproviderâ focus to a knowledge-enabled âuserâ focus and to find a future direction for data creation, maintenance and management as well as the use of Big Data. Trends in technology include that sensors will be pervasive, data increasingly interconnected and there will be emerging relevance of providing relevant data. â©
Daniel Roberge of the World Bank talked about the forces shaping the land agenda: growing prosperity, urbanisation, food production, rising demand for land and climate change. Accurate information about land, people and resources is needed. This requires transparent and inclusive institutions, and cadastral infrastructure is essential to deal with these challenges. â©
Dr Clarissa Agustinus of the Global Land Tool Network, UN-Habitat, highlighted the need for land administration reform for pro-growth land management and Dr Ionut Savoiu, a member of the Romanian parliament, talked about the challenging role of surveyors in the land-management issues related to growing economies. Land consolidation was one of the key issues. â©
Bengt Kjellson focused on global geospatial information management from a global and a regional perspective and the importance of the fact that UN-GGIM has decided to form regional bodies. UN-GGIM is a global initiative and its role is to make accurate, reliable and authoritative geospatial information readily available to support national, regional and global development. â©
It is, however, also important to be able to act regionally and the aim of UN-GGIM-Europe is to identify European issues relevant to geospatial information management, recommend necessary actions. It also tries to ensure that the national mapping and cadastral authorities and national statistical institutes in the European UN member states, European institutions and associated bodies work together to contribute to the more effective management and availability of geospatial information in Europe, and its integration with other information, based on user needs and requirements.â©
Sessions and activitiesâ©
In any case, participation will increase and substantially support the development of land administration worldwide, including the marine environment. 3D modelling for cadastre is under development. Ethics in relation to our profession is also under continuous attention. â©
The FIG Young Surveyors Network organised a âMapping response â contributions for Nepalâ. Participants joined with their laptops to the already established Open Street Map initiative to map Nepal. â©
FIG president Chryssy Potsiou said: âFIG has a long-term commitment to support the global campaign for security of tenure for all and will endeavour to solve these land issues through partnerships. FIG, as a recognised NGO, will work closely with the global family of UN organisations to support solutions to the 21st century global challenges of climate change, food security, social justice, and urbanisation.ââ©
Future ambitionsâ©
FIG will work with UN-GGIM in its mandate to include land administration activities in the domain of global information management.â©
Scalability of security of tenure solutions will involve the use of a network of grassroots surveyors from the communities. FIG will embrace and manage the change to encourage the use of innovative, scalable approaches to recording and securing land rights, including informal and customary rights. This will include fit-for-purpose land administration and property valuation solutions. â©
FIG also supports ideas for the development of a new generation of global surveyors working locally. Global surveyors are aware of global issues and contribute solutions to the global agenda. They should be able to identify, initiate and foster research and develop a clear professional and scientific vision.â©
FIG has a long-term commitment to the global agendaâ©
Louise Friis-Hansen is FIG manager (www.fig.net)
