Hungary applied for membership in CERCO (today EuroGeographics) in 1991. Representative of the Department of Lands and Mapping of MoARD took part the CERCO General Assembly in Southampton first, together with the Polish partner Institution and offered Budapest as venue for one of the next Plenary. In 1995, the CERCO General Assembly was hosted by the Hungarian Surveying, Mapping and Cadastre Authority in the Old City Hall of Budapest. Since that time, to keep a steadily updated report on the latest developments for the forthcoming General Assembly is a permanent task for FÖMI, the Institute of Geodesy, Cartography and Remote Sensing as well as the Geoinformation Service of the Hungarian Defense Forces. In Hungary these two institutions are responsible to provide basic digital products for public use according to the Law on Surveying and Mapping Activities (1996). Both institutions are members of HUNAGI and prime stakeholders of UNSDI HUCO. HUNAGI is asked annually to contribute the Chapter on International Relations of the Report. Here you are the draft of the last contribution submitted by HUNAGI on 31 August. Illustrations can be viewed/downloaded here (annotations are underway):
http://picasaweb.google.com/gabor.remetey/ForEuroGeographicsAnnualReport2008
http://picasaweb.google.com/hunagi.hu/AdEuroGeographicsReport2008HUNAGI2
7.1.3 EUROGI
The Hungarian Surveying, Mapping and Land Administration keeps contact with numerous international organisations including EUROGI via the Hungarian Association for Geo-Information (HUNAGI). This national interdisciplinary umbrella organisation was founded in 1994 by seven professional organizations, including the Hungarian Society of Surveying, Mapping and Remote Sensing. After its court registration in January 1996, HUNAGI applied for and got membership in the European Umbrella Organization for Geographical Information (EUROGI) Today HUNAGI has 108 member organizations and associations including acknowledged representatives of the academic, governmental, and non-governmental institutions. More than 30 % of its members are small and medium size enterprises and additional 30 % representing the Surveying, Mapping and Land Administration branch. The operational infrastructure for the secretariat has been provided by the Department of Land Administration and Geoinformation of MoARD since 1994. HUNAGI had seated in the Executive Committee of EUROGI practically since 1998 and its representative was Treasurer of the European Organization between 1998-2003.
EUROGI membership facilitates the access and use of Geographical Information and the domestic and international networking of the spatial data interest communities. Since the beginning, the interdisciplinary community of HUNAGI plays an active role in international and cross-border actions, initiatives (ESMI, ECAI, EXADINT, GIS Day), projects (OLLO, ABDS, PANEL GI, SDILA, LIME, GINIE, GSDI6, GIS-Nature, eSDI-Net+) and policy formulations both on domestic and European level (GIS Data Policy, Europe Day, GI and Information Society, GIS and the EU Enlargement, EC GI/GIS Workshops, high-level expert and working group meetings of ETeMII and the INSPIRE Initiative respectively, INSPIRE Open Day as well as the active participation of the Workshop on PPP4SDI).
MoARD DLAG, in co-operation with HUNAGI EUROGI and JRC, hosted the first EU Workshop on “Use of cadastre as major component of the spatial data infrastructure in the implementation EU programmes”. The event was participated by 120 participants from 20 countries including representatives of the World Bank, FAO DG InfSo, DG JRC and DG Environment in Budapest in June 2001.
HUNAGI was one of the five models of National GI Associations selected by EUROGI. Supported by the European Commission, EUROGI and HUNAGI won the right to organise the sixth Global Spatial Data Infrastructure (GSDI) conference in Budapest in 2002. The event attracted over 250 participants of 55 countries.
Presidents and chief officers of EUROGI, DG JRC, CLGE, AGI, IMAGI, SOGI and other distinguished organisations and institutions participated the 10-year anniversary Forum of HUNAGI devoted to SDI. The event was hosted by MoARD DLAG on the international GIS Day in October 2004.
The role of the SDI development and the Hungarian Land Administration from the perspective of HUNAGI and MoARD with special emphasis of the first year of EU membership was highlighted at the Helsinki Workshop of UNECE WPLA in September 2005.
Joao Geirinhas, Secretary General of EUROGI visited the National Mapping Agency DLAG MoARD and FÖMI ‘s Remote Sensing Center, the GIS lab and the Map and Orthophoto Archive in February 2006.
While not having a seat in EUROGI ExCom in 2005-2006, HUNAGI got the directorship of EUROGI Working and Advisory Group on International Affairs highlighting the strategy at the Extended Member Meeting hosted by CAGI in Prague in November 2006.
Cross-border event on Regional Planning with exhibitors from Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary was participated by HUNAGI, Bonaventura, VÁTI with posters of FÖMI and VÁTI in Schwechat in January 2007
Representing HUNAGI and EUROGI, an invited keynote presentation was delivered at the joint FIG Comm3 – UNECE WPLA/CHLM Meeting held in Greece in March 2007.
In June 2007 HUNAGI and EUROGI provided support for Ihlet Tisza Development Project Workshop hosted by the European Parliament in Brussels in June 2007
HUNAGI and MATISZ represented Hungary at the ePSIplus Workshop devoted to the NGOs in Copenhagen in August 2007
HUNAGI Forum has been arranged targeting Local Governments on the role of SDI hosted by the eGovernment Methodology Center of the Prime Minister’s office in October 2007. Numerous presentations were delivered by experts (developers and clients) of the Land Administration branch.
Two sessions have been co-arranged and chaired by HUNAGI at the 15th Congress on Logistics in November 2008.
In frame of the Annual Industry Day of EUROGI, HUNAGI and its members including FÖMI, DigiTerra and Ihlet participated a Workshop devoted to Public-Private Partnership in SDI organised jointly by the DG JRC SDI Unit and EUROGI in December 2007.
By invitation of MoARD, HUNAGI provided in-depth review and consultancy for the planned amendment of the Act on „Surveying and Mapping Activities“ in January 2008
Hungarian achievements have been reported to the General Assembly and Members‘ Day of EUROGI hosted by the GMES Bureau at the DG Enterprise in Brussels in March 2008.
The first international conference entitled „Space and Time in Logistics“ was jointly organised by HUNAGI and the Hungarian Asssociation on Logistics in April 2008
MoARD granted HUNAGI in order to support partially its membership in EUROGI . In August, 2008
Orchestrated by EUROGI in the eSDI-Net+ project’s Work Package 2, Europewide evaluation of Sub-national SDIs are underway using EUROGI’s methodology taking into account the INSPIRE directive. Organised by HUNAGI, two of the six selected Hungarian local/thematic SDIs namely VinGIS and PIR were provided by FÖMI Remote Sensing Centre in August, 2008
Ad EU projects….7.2.6 eSDI-Net+
eSDI-Net+ is an Europe-wide networking project supporting INSPIRE implementation financed by the eContentplus program. Orchestrated by the INI-Graphics of the Fraunhofer Institute in Darmstadt, HUNAGI and its members are twofold involved. One hand directly: HUNAGI offered dissemination activities via its website, blogs, eNewsletter and presentations in meetings, symposia and conferences, VÁTI offered multilingual capability upgrade of its TeIR system, on the other hand indirectly via EUROGI, taking part in the evaluation of sub-national SDIs according to recent methodology developed by EUROGI.
Ad 7.3.1 FIG
A workshop devoted to SDI to support Megacity Management, a joint action was proposed/seconded by HUNAGI at the GSDI telecon in August 2008, which received positive early feedback from FIG Comm3. The Workshop to be arranged with FIG WG3.2 chaired by Paul Kelly is tentatively planned for the GSDI-11 Conference.
Ad 7.3.3 ISPRS
HUNAGI was introduced with oral presentation at the SDI Session of the XXIth ISPRS Congress highlighting some relevant projects and operational services provided by FÖMI in the „information from imagery“ context. Secretary General of HUNAGI took part in the Hungarian Delegation as advisor of the Delegate Dr. Miklós Gross, participated in the open discussion of the ISPRS Commission IV strategic meeting and was invited to serve as co-chair of two sessions devoted to SDI together with Prof. Bas Kok, President of GSDI Association and Dr. Jang Jie, Chief of the ISPRS Congress‘ Technical Committee respectively, in Beijing in July 2008.
Ad 7.4.3 UNSDI HUCO
HUNAGI got the mandate to run the UN Spatial Data Infrastructure Hungarian Coordination Office (UNSDI-HUCO) from the leading stakeholders at a Meeting jointly organised and hosted by FÖMI on 28th September 2006.
The UNSDI-HUCO stakeholders were the following organisations and institutions:
Hungarian Association for Geo-information
Hungarian Meteorological Service (OMSZ)
Hungarian Space Office, Ministry of Environment and Water
Institute of Geodesy, Cartography and Remote Sensing
Hungarian Geological Institute
Mapping Service of the Hungarian Defence Forces
Ministry of Defence Mapping Company
Ministry of Economy and Transport
National Directorate General for Disaster Management
Research Institute for Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry
University West Hungary Faculty of Geoinformatics
VÁTI Hungarian Public Nonprofit Company for Regional Development and Town Planning
FÖMI/HUNAGI Proposal for setting up UNSDI HUCO
Department of Natural Resources, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development
Department of Land Administration and Geoinformation, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development
Introductory presentations of the Stakeholders at the UNSDI HUCO Kick-off Meeting are still available at www.unsdi.hu
UNSDI HUCO was invited to the INSPIRE-UNSDI consultation to DG JRC, Ispra, in December, 2006
The 2nd UNSDI HUCO stakeholders’ meeting was hosted by the Hung.Met Service in January, 2007, while the 3rd UNSDI HUCO stakeholders’ meeting was devoted to the visit of the Delegation of the Chinese NSDI Strategy Committee hosted by FÖMI in May 2007. Some HUCO stakeholders’ including HUNAGI, Regional Development and Town Planning Public Benefit Co, Institute of Geodesy Cartography and Remote Sensing, Ministry of Defense Mapping Company, Ministry of Environment and Water made contribution to the 1st UGPM organised by UNGIWG and hosted by ESA in Frascati in April, 2006. Due to financial reason HUCO was not able to attend the 2nd UNGIWG Meeting devoted to UNSDI held in Geneva, but the Hungarian Statement was well accepted and acknowledged at the Meeting of UN Office of the Outer Space in Vienna as it was reported by the Head of the HSO Delegation.
Ad 7.5.1 GSDI
Hungary has been involved in the evolution of the Global Spatial Data Infrastructure Initiative since September 1996. The early achievements on SDI inHungary were introduced at GSDI-3 in Canberra. Via the Hungarian Association for Geo-Information (HUNAGI), Hungary had a seat in the Steering Committee of the Initiative between 1998 and 2002. Budapest hosted the 6th International Conference. After six year of evolution, the registered incorporation of the GSDI Association was announced in Budapest. At the GSDI Association assembly meeting in 2004, HUNAGI has been voted as member of the Board of Directors representing the NGO sector for one year with responsibility including to be active in the Conference Planning Committee. By the Board Meeting of GSDI held in Cairo at the FIG-GSDI8 Conference, HUNAGI’ presence in the Board was extended by additional two years and the Hungarian representative was appointed as Secretary for the Board of Directors. HUNAGI‘s seat in the Board was extended third time in February 2008.
HUNAGI representative used all occasion to highlight the European and Hungarian achievements in the different for a especially at GSDI-7 in Bangalore (European Cadastral Systems and GIS), GSDI-8/FIG Congress in Cairo (Hungarian SDI developments), GSDI-9 in Santiago (Hungarian SDI projects and services s well as European SDI Roundtable Panel participant), GSDI-10 in Trinidad (Introducing the role of the Land Administration in SDI via the case of Hungary based on the contribution of HUNAGI members including FÖMI, Budapest Land Office, University of West Hungary Faculty of Geoinformatics and others). The frequent GSDI teleconferences gives excellent opportunities to represent the interest of the Hungarian SDI stakeholders and user community (e.g. success in GSDI Small Grant Programs of HAS Institute of Ecology and Bottany).
Ad 7.5.3 CEOS WGISS
Committee on Earth Observation (CEOS) WGISS & WGCV Meeting was held in Budapest on May 8-12, 2006. The CEOS WG Meetings on Information Systems and Services as well as Calibration and Validation were attended by the technical experts of space agencies from all parts of the world.
Special Session at CEOS WGISS 21 & CEOS WGCV 25 Meeting was offered to Hungary for giving a showcase on Hungarian EO achievements. CEOS WGISS & WGCV Meeting participants at the plenary on May 10 learned more on the Hungarian EO applications and developments in agriculture, environment and nature protection. Executive Director of GSDI Association Prof. Harlan Onsrud and WGISS Co-chairs from ESA and NOAA agreed to set up liasonship to exchange news on development in SDI and the ground segment of Earth Observation related issues nominating Gabor Remetey-Fülöpp for this role. He introduced GSDI in Budapest participated the follow-on WGISS Meeting hosted by NASA in Annapolis and highlighted GSDI achievements at the WGISS-24 Meeting in Oberpfaffenhofen, hosted by DLR in October, 2007. In his presentation, also the regional and country level SDI issues were introduced ie. EUROGI and HUNAGI illustrated by ongoing projects and services with special emphasis on the activities of FÖMI RSC.
Ad 7.5.4 GEO
Hungary joined the GEO in 2006 as 67. country. The 6 member Hungarian GEO Committee was nominated and reported in 2006. Since that time the Principal designator was replaced due to the structural changes of the government. Dr. Zoltán Dunkel of the Met Service serves as Prime Delegate but representatives of the MoEW, MoARD/FÖMI (Dr. Szabolcs Mihály), Hungarian Space Research Office and HUNAGI as correspondent members remain unchanged.
Gabor Remetey-Fülöpp was nominated and reported by GSDI Association to GEO Sec in Genevain 2007 to serve as principal designator (liason) to GEO and he lead the GSDI Delegation at the IV Plenary and Ministerial Summit in Cape Town. GSDI delegation with members from HUNAGI, FGDC and ESRI made important contribution to the Cape Town declaration emphasizing the importance of SDI and explicitly the UNSDI initiative.
Mention should be made, similar contribution was arranged by HUNAGI with the support of the Hungarian IYPE Committee and the Secretary General of EuroGeoSurvey for the Global Launch Event of the International Year of the Planet Earth, the worldwide action of the geoscience communities. Here the Paris Declaration accepted suggested explicite formulation in the ‚UNSDI‘ context.
Recently, SDI was evangelised at the HUNGEO 2008 Meeting of the international Hungarian geoscientist community in August 2008.
Ad 7.5.5 ISDE
Since 2003, HUNAGI as interdisciplinary umbrella organisation plays active role in the International Society of Digital Earth. Participating with oral presentations on the three consecutive Symposia in Brno, Tokyo and Berkeley, HUNAGI representative was invited to the review board and editorial meetings of the International Journal on Digital Earth in Berkeley and Beijing and was invited to the Program Committee of the ISDE Summit hosted by the German Geoscience Centre in Potsdam scheduled for November 2008 and to the ISDE Executive Committee in June 2008.
HUNAGI applied three times to host the ISDE Symposium but failed against Japan, USA and China. It is anticipated, there is an increased chance now to bring the event back to Europe for 2011. The issue is addressed in consultations with representative of the Hungarian Academy of Science in the National IYPE Committee since 2007.
Visual flashback (1)
Visual flashback (2)
Some important actions should be also mentioned:
- Cross-border meetings, conferences, exhibitions in Vienna , Schwechat, Bratislava and Cluj organised by AGEO, CAGI, SAGI and Local Government respectively
- GSDI Advisory Meeting as satellite event of the Cambridge Conference,
- GSDI-Atlantic Institute organised brainstorming at MIT, Cambridge, Mass. on SDI and the cultural diversity
- ePSIplus Open Days in 2007 and 2008 organised by MATISZ and hosted by MoET in Budapest and strategic Meeting at DG InfSo in Luxembourg in 2006
http://picasaweb.google.com/hunagi.hu/AdEuroGeographicsReport2008HUNAGI2
7.1.3 EUROGI
The Hungarian Surveying, Mapping and Land Administration keeps contact with numerous international organisations including EUROGI via the Hungarian Association for Geo-Information (HUNAGI). This national interdisciplinary umbrella organisation was founded in 1994 by seven professional organizations, including the Hungarian Society of Surveying, Mapping and Remote Sensing. After its court registration in January 1996, HUNAGI applied for and got membership in the European Umbrella Organization for Geographical Information (EUROGI) Today HUNAGI has 108 member organizations and associations including acknowledged representatives of the academic, governmental, and non-governmental institutions. More than 30 % of its members are small and medium size enterprises and additional 30 % representing the Surveying, Mapping and Land Administration branch. The operational infrastructure for the secretariat has been provided by the Department of Land Administration and Geoinformation of MoARD since 1994. HUNAGI had seated in the Executive Committee of EUROGI practically since 1998 and its representative was Treasurer of the European Organization between 1998-2003.
EUROGI membership facilitates the access and use of Geographical Information and the domestic and international networking of the spatial data interest communities. Since the beginning, the interdisciplinary community of HUNAGI plays an active role in international and cross-border actions, initiatives (ESMI, ECAI, EXADINT, GIS Day), projects (OLLO, ABDS, PANEL GI, SDILA, LIME, GINIE, GSDI6, GIS-Nature, eSDI-Net+) and policy formulations both on domestic and European level (GIS Data Policy, Europe Day, GI and Information Society, GIS and the EU Enlargement, EC GI/GIS Workshops, high-level expert and working group meetings of ETeMII and the INSPIRE Initiative respectively, INSPIRE Open Day as well as the active participation of the Workshop on PPP4SDI).
MoARD DLAG, in co-operation with HUNAGI EUROGI and JRC, hosted the first EU Workshop on “Use of cadastre as major component of the spatial data infrastructure in the implementation EU programmes”. The event was participated by 120 participants from 20 countries including representatives of the World Bank, FAO DG InfSo, DG JRC and DG Environment in Budapest in June 2001.
HUNAGI was one of the five models of National GI Associations selected by EUROGI. Supported by the European Commission, EUROGI and HUNAGI won the right to organise the sixth Global Spatial Data Infrastructure (GSDI) conference in Budapest in 2002. The event attracted over 250 participants of 55 countries.
Presidents and chief officers of EUROGI, DG JRC, CLGE, AGI, IMAGI, SOGI and other distinguished organisations and institutions participated the 10-year anniversary Forum of HUNAGI devoted to SDI. The event was hosted by MoARD DLAG on the international GIS Day in October 2004.
The role of the SDI development and the Hungarian Land Administration from the perspective of HUNAGI and MoARD with special emphasis of the first year of EU membership was highlighted at the Helsinki Workshop of UNECE WPLA in September 2005.
Joao Geirinhas, Secretary General of EUROGI visited the National Mapping Agency DLAG MoARD and FÖMI ‘s Remote Sensing Center, the GIS lab and the Map and Orthophoto Archive in February 2006.
While not having a seat in EUROGI ExCom in 2005-2006, HUNAGI got the directorship of EUROGI Working and Advisory Group on International Affairs highlighting the strategy at the Extended Member Meeting hosted by CAGI in Prague in November 2006.
Cross-border event on Regional Planning with exhibitors from Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary was participated by HUNAGI, Bonaventura, VÁTI with posters of FÖMI and VÁTI in Schwechat in January 2007
Representing HUNAGI and EUROGI, an invited keynote presentation was delivered at the joint FIG Comm3 – UNECE WPLA/CHLM Meeting held in Greece in March 2007.
In June 2007 HUNAGI and EUROGI provided support for Ihlet Tisza Development Project Workshop hosted by the European Parliament in Brussels in June 2007
HUNAGI and MATISZ represented Hungary at the ePSIplus Workshop devoted to the NGOs in Copenhagen in August 2007
HUNAGI Forum has been arranged targeting Local Governments on the role of SDI hosted by the eGovernment Methodology Center of the Prime Minister’s office in October 2007. Numerous presentations were delivered by experts (developers and clients) of the Land Administration branch.
Two sessions have been co-arranged and chaired by HUNAGI at the 15th Congress on Logistics in November 2008.
In frame of the Annual Industry Day of EUROGI, HUNAGI and its members including FÖMI, DigiTerra and Ihlet participated a Workshop devoted to Public-Private Partnership in SDI organised jointly by the DG JRC SDI Unit and EUROGI in December 2007.
By invitation of MoARD, HUNAGI provided in-depth review and consultancy for the planned amendment of the Act on „Surveying and Mapping Activities“ in January 2008
Hungarian achievements have been reported to the General Assembly and Members‘ Day of EUROGI hosted by the GMES Bureau at the DG Enterprise in Brussels in March 2008.
The first international conference entitled „Space and Time in Logistics“ was jointly organised by HUNAGI and the Hungarian Asssociation on Logistics in April 2008
MoARD granted HUNAGI in order to support partially its membership in EUROGI . In August, 2008
Orchestrated by EUROGI in the eSDI-Net+ project’s Work Package 2, Europewide evaluation of Sub-national SDIs are underway using EUROGI’s methodology taking into account the INSPIRE directive. Organised by HUNAGI, two of the six selected Hungarian local/thematic SDIs namely VinGIS and PIR were provided by FÖMI Remote Sensing Centre in August, 2008
Ad EU projects….7.2.6 eSDI-Net+
eSDI-Net+ is an Europe-wide networking project supporting INSPIRE implementation financed by the eContentplus program. Orchestrated by the INI-Graphics of the Fraunhofer Institute in Darmstadt, HUNAGI and its members are twofold involved. One hand directly: HUNAGI offered dissemination activities via its website, blogs, eNewsletter and presentations in meetings, symposia and conferences, VÁTI offered multilingual capability upgrade of its TeIR system, on the other hand indirectly via EUROGI, taking part in the evaluation of sub-national SDIs according to recent methodology developed by EUROGI.
Ad 7.3.1 FIG
A workshop devoted to SDI to support Megacity Management, a joint action was proposed/seconded by HUNAGI at the GSDI telecon in August 2008, which received positive early feedback from FIG Comm3. The Workshop to be arranged with FIG WG3.2 chaired by Paul Kelly is tentatively planned for the GSDI-11 Conference.
Ad 7.3.3 ISPRS
HUNAGI was introduced with oral presentation at the SDI Session of the XXIth ISPRS Congress highlighting some relevant projects and operational services provided by FÖMI in the „information from imagery“ context. Secretary General of HUNAGI took part in the Hungarian Delegation as advisor of the Delegate Dr. Miklós Gross, participated in the open discussion of the ISPRS Commission IV strategic meeting and was invited to serve as co-chair of two sessions devoted to SDI together with Prof. Bas Kok, President of GSDI Association and Dr. Jang Jie, Chief of the ISPRS Congress‘ Technical Committee respectively, in Beijing in July 2008.
Ad 7.4.3 UNSDI HUCO
HUNAGI got the mandate to run the UN Spatial Data Infrastructure Hungarian Coordination Office (UNSDI-HUCO) from the leading stakeholders at a Meeting jointly organised and hosted by FÖMI on 28th September 2006.
The UNSDI-HUCO stakeholders were the following organisations and institutions:
Hungarian Association for Geo-information
Hungarian Meteorological Service (OMSZ)
Hungarian Space Office, Ministry of Environment and Water
Institute of Geodesy, Cartography and Remote Sensing
Hungarian Geological Institute
Mapping Service of the Hungarian Defence Forces
Ministry of Defence Mapping Company
Ministry of Economy and Transport
National Directorate General for Disaster Management
Research Institute for Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry
University West Hungary Faculty of Geoinformatics
VÁTI Hungarian Public Nonprofit Company for Regional Development and Town Planning
FÖMI/HUNAGI Proposal for setting up UNSDI HUCO
Department of Natural Resources, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development
Department of Land Administration and Geoinformation, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development
Introductory presentations of the Stakeholders at the UNSDI HUCO Kick-off Meeting are still available at www.unsdi.hu
UNSDI HUCO was invited to the INSPIRE-UNSDI consultation to DG JRC, Ispra, in December, 2006
The 2nd UNSDI HUCO stakeholders’ meeting was hosted by the Hung.Met Service in January, 2007, while the 3rd UNSDI HUCO stakeholders’ meeting was devoted to the visit of the Delegation of the Chinese NSDI Strategy Committee hosted by FÖMI in May 2007. Some HUCO stakeholders’ including HUNAGI, Regional Development and Town Planning Public Benefit Co, Institute of Geodesy Cartography and Remote Sensing, Ministry of Defense Mapping Company, Ministry of Environment and Water made contribution to the 1st UGPM organised by UNGIWG and hosted by ESA in Frascati in April, 2006. Due to financial reason HUCO was not able to attend the 2nd UNGIWG Meeting devoted to UNSDI held in Geneva, but the Hungarian Statement was well accepted and acknowledged at the Meeting of UN Office of the Outer Space in Vienna as it was reported by the Head of the HSO Delegation.
Ad 7.5.1 GSDI
Hungary has been involved in the evolution of the Global Spatial Data Infrastructure Initiative since September 1996. The early achievements on SDI inHungary were introduced at GSDI-3 in Canberra. Via the Hungarian Association for Geo-Information (HUNAGI), Hungary had a seat in the Steering Committee of the Initiative between 1998 and 2002. Budapest hosted the 6th International Conference. After six year of evolution, the registered incorporation of the GSDI Association was announced in Budapest. At the GSDI Association assembly meeting in 2004, HUNAGI has been voted as member of the Board of Directors representing the NGO sector for one year with responsibility including to be active in the Conference Planning Committee. By the Board Meeting of GSDI held in Cairo at the FIG-GSDI8 Conference, HUNAGI’ presence in the Board was extended by additional two years and the Hungarian representative was appointed as Secretary for the Board of Directors. HUNAGI‘s seat in the Board was extended third time in February 2008.
HUNAGI representative used all occasion to highlight the European and Hungarian achievements in the different for a especially at GSDI-7 in Bangalore (European Cadastral Systems and GIS), GSDI-8/FIG Congress in Cairo (Hungarian SDI developments), GSDI-9 in Santiago (Hungarian SDI projects and services s well as European SDI Roundtable Panel participant), GSDI-10 in Trinidad (Introducing the role of the Land Administration in SDI via the case of Hungary based on the contribution of HUNAGI members including FÖMI, Budapest Land Office, University of West Hungary Faculty of Geoinformatics and others). The frequent GSDI teleconferences gives excellent opportunities to represent the interest of the Hungarian SDI stakeholders and user community (e.g. success in GSDI Small Grant Programs of HAS Institute of Ecology and Bottany).
Ad 7.5.3 CEOS WGISS
Committee on Earth Observation (CEOS) WGISS & WGCV Meeting was held in Budapest on May 8-12, 2006. The CEOS WG Meetings on Information Systems and Services as well as Calibration and Validation were attended by the technical experts of space agencies from all parts of the world.
Special Session at CEOS WGISS 21 & CEOS WGCV 25 Meeting was offered to Hungary for giving a showcase on Hungarian EO achievements. CEOS WGISS & WGCV Meeting participants at the plenary on May 10 learned more on the Hungarian EO applications and developments in agriculture, environment and nature protection. Executive Director of GSDI Association Prof. Harlan Onsrud and WGISS Co-chairs from ESA and NOAA agreed to set up liasonship to exchange news on development in SDI and the ground segment of Earth Observation related issues nominating Gabor Remetey-Fülöpp for this role. He introduced GSDI in Budapest participated the follow-on WGISS Meeting hosted by NASA in Annapolis and highlighted GSDI achievements at the WGISS-24 Meeting in Oberpfaffenhofen, hosted by DLR in October, 2007. In his presentation, also the regional and country level SDI issues were introduced ie. EUROGI and HUNAGI illustrated by ongoing projects and services with special emphasis on the activities of FÖMI RSC.
Ad 7.5.4 GEO
Hungary joined the GEO in 2006 as 67. country. The 6 member Hungarian GEO Committee was nominated and reported in 2006. Since that time the Principal designator was replaced due to the structural changes of the government. Dr. Zoltán Dunkel of the Met Service serves as Prime Delegate but representatives of the MoEW, MoARD/FÖMI (Dr. Szabolcs Mihály), Hungarian Space Research Office and HUNAGI as correspondent members remain unchanged.
Gabor Remetey-Fülöpp was nominated and reported by GSDI Association to GEO Sec in Genevain 2007 to serve as principal designator (liason) to GEO and he lead the GSDI Delegation at the IV Plenary and Ministerial Summit in Cape Town. GSDI delegation with members from HUNAGI, FGDC and ESRI made important contribution to the Cape Town declaration emphasizing the importance of SDI and explicitly the UNSDI initiative.
Mention should be made, similar contribution was arranged by HUNAGI with the support of the Hungarian IYPE Committee and the Secretary General of EuroGeoSurvey for the Global Launch Event of the International Year of the Planet Earth, the worldwide action of the geoscience communities. Here the Paris Declaration accepted suggested explicite formulation in the ‚UNSDI‘ context.
Recently, SDI was evangelised at the HUNGEO 2008 Meeting of the international Hungarian geoscientist community in August 2008.
Ad 7.5.5 ISDE
Since 2003, HUNAGI as interdisciplinary umbrella organisation plays active role in the International Society of Digital Earth. Participating with oral presentations on the three consecutive Symposia in Brno, Tokyo and Berkeley, HUNAGI representative was invited to the review board and editorial meetings of the International Journal on Digital Earth in Berkeley and Beijing and was invited to the Program Committee of the ISDE Summit hosted by the German Geoscience Centre in Potsdam scheduled for November 2008 and to the ISDE Executive Committee in June 2008.
HUNAGI applied three times to host the ISDE Symposium but failed against Japan, USA and China. It is anticipated, there is an increased chance now to bring the event back to Europe for 2011. The issue is addressed in consultations with representative of the Hungarian Academy of Science in the National IYPE Committee since 2007.
Visual flashback (1)
Visual flashback (2)
Some important actions should be also mentioned:
- Cross-border meetings, conferences, exhibitions in Vienna , Schwechat, Bratislava and Cluj organised by AGEO, CAGI, SAGI and Local Government respectively
- GSDI Advisory Meeting as satellite event of the Cambridge Conference,
- GSDI-Atlantic Institute organised brainstorming at MIT, Cambridge, Mass. on SDI and the cultural diversity
- ePSIplus Open Days in 2007 and 2008 organised by MATISZ and hosted by MoET in Budapest and strategic Meeting at DG InfSo in Luxembourg in 2006
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