24th FIG General Assembly, Seoul 2001
Minutes
Appendices



Appendix to item 28

Report for the 24th General Assembly
FIG Working Week in Seoul, 6-11 May 2001

REPORTS FROM THE COMMISSION CHAIRS TO THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY 11 MAY 2001

Commission 1

During the past week Commission 1 has been involved in a range of meetings including the Inter Commission meeting, meetings of the Advisory Committee of Commission Officers and the Annual meeting of Commission 1.

The Annual meeting attracted 11 attendees from 8 different countries. Unfortunately there were not any attendees from the Asian region. Discussions were held on the activities of the Working Groups, possible papers for next years Congress and future symposia and workshops in which the Commission will be involved.

Planning meetings were attended regarding the symposium in Kenya in October, in Puerto Rico in February, 2002 and in Mexico in September, 2002 and for the next Congress in Washington in April 2002.

The Guidelines on Business Practice that Commission 1 is preparing was progressed through presentation of papers in a Business Practice session and in a workshop. This will be presented at next years General Assembly with the view of publishing it as a FIG Booklet.

John Parker, Chair of Commission 1

Commission 2

Commission 2 coordinated three technical sessions in which altogether 10 papers were presented. Technical sessions were of the following themes:

  • Experiences and new approaches in Virtual Academy
  • Surveyors Curricula around the world
  • How to manage and keep the Curricula contents up-to-date

In the first two sessions on Wednesday we had an audience of 30-40 people. In the last session on Thursday there was about 20-25 delegates.

In addition Commission 9 organized one session on education "Non-geodetic fields in the Surveyors' Curricula" in which Commission 2 participated as audience and we got participants from that technical session to our Commission meeting.

Professors Cavero, Enemark and Virrantaus were chairing Commission 2 technical sessions. In technical sessions we had lively discussions, especially Virtual Academy session can be characterized even as spontaneous and intensive.

I want to mention that we got an additional presentation to the published program given by two surveying students from Poland. This is a very important thing for Commission 2 because one of our goals in our work has been to activate young surveyors and students to the work of the Commission.

We were also happy of have a Korean presentation on education, because we very much need descriptions of surveyors' curricula all over the world.

Commision 2 had two commission meetings, one on Monday and the other one on Thursday. A joint commission 2 and 9 meeting was organized on the Education of Valuers. Commission meetings were chaired in addition to the Chair of Commission by Vice Chair Pedro Cavero, Professor Esben Munk Sørensen and Professor Kauko Viitanen. On Monday the Commission meeting gathered 14 participants and on Thursday 24 participants. This was the highest figure for Commission 2 during the recent years. The core topics in commission meetings were:

  • achievements and final plans of Working Groups
  • reports for Washington Congress
  • topics and presentations for Washington Congress
  • the development of Surveying Educational Database into an Portal of Surveying Education in Internet
  • coming events and our participation in them
  • the Workshops and Symposiums organized by Commission 2 during the rest of the period.

We are going to produce reports on:

  • Experiences on the Virtual Academy
  • Surveyors curricula contents and the model of approach to describe and compare them

The Task Force for Mutual Recognition will produce a report which partly covers also Commission 2 WG activities.

Commission 2 technical program in Washington will include two sessions on Virtual Academy and two sessions on Surveyors Curricula. In addition there will be one session on each of the following themes: Professional education and CPD; Best practices in education; and Education evaluation procedures.

Commission has proposed following joint sessions with other Commissions: Education of Valuers (Commission 9); New Technologies in Education (Commissions 3, 5 and 8); and The Task Force on Underrepresented Groups (Commission 1). We also try to organize special activities for surveying students together with local organizers in Washington.

From other activities I would like to mention that Commission 2 will organize a Workshop and Seminar on Virtual Academy in Helsinki in June 2001 and a Symposium in Puerto Rico in February 2002. Commission is further given papers in the FIG/ISK/UNCHS International Conference in Nairobi in October 2001.

In the technical session and commission meeting we had a long and lively discussion on the development of Surveyors Educational Database. Several opinions exist on the best approach. We will continue according to the conclusions of discussions and produce at least plans and a prototype of the Portal of Surveyors Education. This Portal will let access to SEDB, home pages of academic members, Virtual Academy applications and other relevant material. This prototype will be demonstrated in Washington Congress.

Commission 2 had very good working week. It seems evident that education is more interesting topic also for surveyors in practice than before. We try to make the last year before Washington very active and productive.

Kirsi Virrantaus, Chair of Commission 2

Commission 3

The commission meeting on Monday 7 May was well attended. More than 20 delegates or substitutes from 13 countries participated. This core-group of active delegates is very important for the commission. It gives us the power to plan the future activities.

The Korean delegate gave a short introduction to the Spatial Data Infrastructure in Korea. In addition two national reports were presented, one from Germany and one from Hungary.

In the first conference session Chryssy Potsiou from Greece presented a model for how we can harmonize the country reports, and how we can make the structured content available for all interested.

Since 1986 Commission 3 has had a Newsletter that has been distributed to more than 500 addresses twice a year, the last 7 years in co-operation with Commission 7. We decided to move this publication from a paper to an electronic version. We will make the information available for all interested via the home page.

The name of the commission was touched at the meeting with the President and the Vice President. It was acknowledged that Spatial Information has a broader meaning than Geographic Information.

In the technical conference Commission 3 was responsible for 5 sessions with 20 presentations from 12 different countries. They covered the whole spectrum of special information management. One of the sessions was chaired by a Korean colleague. This was a very positive experience. After each presentation he gave a resume in Korean.

Wednesday morning we had a workshop dedicated to planning of the future of the Commission with more than 40 participants. There were linguistic hindrances for active participation from the Koreans. The outcome of the workshop was although a very preliminary but essential contribution to the work plan 2002-2006. We developed an overall structure and on this background we focused on the following topics:

  • The individual versus business
    • The mobile society
    • Common understandings
    • The consumer approach
  • Technical issues
    • Integration of data
    • The x-dimensional challenge
  • Organisational issues
  • General aspects
    • Knowledge management
    • GSDI
    • Semantics in data
    • Technical versus legal aspects

The results are a good platform for the incoming chairman.

During the working week the International Conference in Nairobi has been discussed and further planned with the President of the Institution of Surveyors of Kenya and the Commission chairs. It is very positive that more than half of the commissions have planned to participate.

A possible outcome of the Nairobi conference is a statement on Spatial Information and Sustainable Development.

Jes Ryttersgaard, Chair of Commission 3

Commission 4

The Commission officers participated in the following working week meetings: the inter-commission meeting; two ACCO Meetings; and the General Assembly and the associated breakout groups. In addition, the Commission sponsored one technical session that was well attended and generated some interesting discussion.

The Commission held its annual commission meeting and the following topics were discussed:

  • The 2002 Congress in Washington - Topics for the technical sessions were discussed. In addition, ideas for technical tours were developed and the possibility of combining a technical tour with a social evening received a favourable response.
  • The 2001/2002 Workplan - The Commission has provided input to the work of the task forces on Sustainable Development and Standards. This work will continue for the Standards task force. In addition, the Commission will look at what can be done to start to implement the recommendations in the Sustainable Development report that pertain to hydrography.
  • The workplan for the 2002-2006 period was discussed. The Commission decided to apply the following principles when developing this plan:
    • Align the work with the strategic directions of the FIG Council
    • Look for opportunities to work cooperatively with other Commissions
    • Ensure that the interests of the Commission delegates are addressed.
  • The meeting also reaffirmed its intent to involve more delegates in the activities of the Commission.

During the week, the Commission met informally with the Chairman of the Task Force on Sustainable Development to discuss ways of implementing the recommendations of the report and received some valuable suggestions.

In addition, the Commission met with the Australian delegation to discuss possible participation in The Institution of Surveyors, Australia's annual conference in Brisbane in September, 2001.

Following the cancellation of the WW2001 tour to the National Oceanographic Research Institute, the Commission organized a tour of the Korean Hydrographic Offices. The tour was very interesting and informative. The Korean Hydrographic Office produces 273 paper nautical charts. It has recently converted 205 to Electronic Navigation Charts making it one of the major produces of Electronic Navigation Charts in the world.

The Commission wishes to thank the organizing committee of the Working Week 2001 for their assistance in organizing this tour and for their support throughout the week.

Dennis St. Jacques, Chair of Commission 4

Commission 5

Commission 5 was in charge for 31 presentations that were included in four technical sessions inside the general program and three in the separate Workshop on Guidelines for check, maintenance and calibration of survey instruments. In reality there were only 28 presentations because of some cancellations. The attendance to all our technical session and the workshop was 98 %; the rooms were full that means minimum 56 (Rose) and maximum 100 persons (Cosmos) assisted to each separate event. The arrangements were perfect with the exception that there was no interpretations from English to Korean for the Korean attendants (80 per cent of the participants).

The general opinion is that it was a successful week and a very interesting workshop both with presentations of high quality and good discussions especially during the workshop panel discussion which was well appreciated. The presence of the president of ISO TC 172 SC6, Karl Zeiske and other members of this TC 172 (Heister and Becker) made it to a better comprehension of FIG needs and requirements on standards. FIG has to engage more experts in ISO and contribute to the distribution of the standards to the surveyors community.

We missed the possibility to participate to the sessions of other Commissions because of the parallel sessions. This is a serious shortage in promoting the understanding between commissions and has to be changed in the future!

Commission had also to specific meetings: one open meeting for everybody (20 participants) and one closed Commission 5 Steering Committee meeting (12 persons). Only two WG chairs were absent.

In the ACCO meetings Commission was much involved in the discussions concerning the commissions structure and work.

We also discussed the future of the commission and the forthcoming events e.g. Budapest (IAG/FIG collaboration), Banff (IAG/C5), Vienna (IAG/ISPRS/FIG5,6), Berlin (2002), Cologne (Intergeo, Becker), Fulda (instrument calibration: Heister, Becker, Slaboch etc.), Tokyo (ISO/FIG Becker, Heister, Seto), Nairobi and Hanoi and Washington together with other FIG Commissions.

Several FIG publications are in preparation for Washington 2002.

Jean-Marie Becker, Chair of Commission 5

Commission 6

Commission 6 had two dedicated sessions in the technical programme, plus contributions in other sessions - mainly with commission 5. The commission meeting was held on May 7 with the following agenda:

  • Past and future activities, forthcoming meetings
  • Ideas for the next Work plan
  • Preparation of the Congress
  • Open forum on trends, changes and facts in engineering surveys

The question of local participation to commission meetings remains an issue, and it must be clearly said - and written - at each Working Week that such meetings are opened to everybody. To that respect, for the future, Commission 6 will manage to have the local delegate acting effectively as "convenor" of his national fellows and presenting the professional situation of his country to the audience.

The discussion in the open forum has been the most interesting, and some major points are worth to be reported:

  1. A fact is that the "art of measuring" is no longer an "art". If this simplicity calls for less knowledge, it seems that it also generates less and less cares - at a critical point. Beside a possible educational problem, this has to be counterbalanced by strict specifications - hence an increased need for norms, standards, calibrations, field (routine) checks and procedures. It is then wise to make such constraints being legal or simply contractual, in order to guarantee the Quality of the works - and this is indeed a general trend and practice in engineering surveys.
  2. Most of engineering problems call for integrated solutions. For Civil engineering, construction or structural engineering, as well as for large scale metrology, many measurement and monitoring problems are solved by multi-sensors solutions, in a multidisciplinary approach, where surveying techniques are mixed with others. To better respond to that, surveyors have to know more and more in various related disciplines and technologies, like geophysics, geomechanics, optronics, etc. Conversely, a good teaching of surveying in such other disciplines is also a factor of better complementarity. In all cases, inter-professional meetings would favour a better inter-professional practice.
  3. There has been fast significant changes in large scale metrology. Beside motorised total stations with automatic target recognition and pointing, laser trackers (now equipped with a very accurate absolute distancemeter) are quickly taking a major part in industry. Optical (laser) scanners are also more and more an efficient solution for "as built" survey of complicated pieces and structures. Digital photogrammetry with high-density CCD cameras proves to be a reliable solution for bigger and bigger objects. Inserted sensors based on new technologies (like interferometric extensometers on plastic strips) are competing with classical surveying measurements. Monitoring with Hydrostatic Levelling Systems (HLS) and Wire Position Sensors (WPS) can be good at micrometer level, and such sensors are implemented in the survey and monitoring of various industrial and scientific equipment.

The community of surveyors dealing with engineering surveys has to adapt to such trends and changes, and it remains essential that FIG keeps an appropriate technological level in these advanced fields of application.

Michel Mayoud, Chair of Commission 6

Commission 7

Commission 7 took the opportunity in Seoul to prepare the next annual meeting of the Commission in Gävle (Sweden) in June 2001. There will be a first attempt to standardise the country reports, a symposium on benchmarking of cadastral systems, and a further discussion on the work plan 2002-2006.

Furthermore the Commission discussed the Washington Congress, and proposed to avoid co-incidence of technical sessions and technical excursions in the field of Commission 7. A first draft work plan 2002-2006 was presented, and there seems to be good opportunities to align this with the overall strategy of FIG and to cooperate with other Commissions.

Paul van der Molen, Vice Chair of Commission 7

Commission 8

Commission 8 had two technical sessions in Seoul with about 80 participants. Only one paper from Lithuania was missing from the technical programme. Seven national delegates participated the Commission 8 meeting on Thursday 10 May. It was decided to prepare two technical tours during the Congress week in Washington. The first tour will be a one-day tour into the Washington region to study its problems while the second tour will be a half-day tour to visit the planning authorities in the City of Washington, DC.

In addition to the open call for papers Commission 8 will prepare 3-5 sessions with no more than three papers on the topics of the three working groups: urban regeneration; mega-cities; and public-private-partnership probably with linkage to other Commissions.

Noticing the fact that only a small number of national delegates participates in urban items of Commission 8, the participants of the annual meeting decided to request all national delegates to submit their current professional biography to the Commission chair with the aim to circulate the results among the Commission members. This should promote the knowledge of the profile of Commission 8 within the Commission and the FIG.

Commission chair is planning to participate the FIG/ISK/UNCHS International Conference in Nairobi, October 2-5, 2001.

Helmut Brackmann, Chair of Commission 8

Commission 9

During the past year Commission 9 has participated in an International Conference in Sofia, Bulgaria and arranged for a meeting of FIG President Robert Foster with government officials and officers in the China Institute of Real Estate Appraisers.

The annual meeting was held in Seoul with attending delegates from 13 countries. In addition to the customary introductions, scheduling and official reports, the primary topics of discussion included creating two new working groups, the changes in titles for commission officials, outlining the Work Plan for 2002-2006, and preparation of technical topics and sessions for 2002 Congress.

Commission 9 will jointly present workshops and technical sessions with other Commissions, especially Commission 2. Commission 9 will also seek participation in the educational program from major valuation organizations in the USA including the FIG member the Appraisal Institute, International Valuation Standards Committee (IVSC), International Association of Assessing Officers (IAAO) and the American Society of Appraisers.

All existing working groups will conclude their mission with reports at the 2002 Congress. Working Group 9.3: Financial Grants-in Aid to Facilitate Research Papers for Commission 9 chaired by Simon Adcock will continue its successful solicitation of grants from major companies that benefit from professional valuation and appraisal services.

Two new working groups were created or started their work in Seoul:

Working Group 9.5: Education of Valuation Professionals established in Prague in 2000 is chaired by Dr. Kauko Viitanen, Finland. Interim report to be presented in a joint program with Commission 2 at the Congress 2002.

The new Working Group 9.6: Organizations of Valuers and Appraisers in Emerging Eastern European Markets is chaired by David Smejkal, Czech Republic. Interim report to be presented in joint program with Commission 2 at the Congress 2002.

Commission 9 expresses special thanks to the Korean Appraisal Board for its participation and support at the Seoul Working Week.

Michael Yovino-Young, Chair of Commission 9


FIG Office

31 May 2001



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