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Joint Workshop Commissions 3 + 8, Athens December 2022

13-14 December, 2022, Athens, Greece

Spatial Information and Planning in a World Facing Multiple Crises - A Surveyors' Perspective - Joint Workshop FIG Commissions 3 and 8

The workshop took place as the first edition of the "International Scientific Conferences of European Surveyors"; it was organized jointly by EGoS (European Group of Surveyors), FIG Commission 3 (Spatial Information Management) and FIG Commission 8 (Spatial Planning and Development) in Athens on 13th and 14th December 2022. The event started the evening before already with a lively ice-breaker to welcome participants from 10 countries and catch up in person. The workshop officially started on the 13th of December with speeches chaired by Nikos Zacharias, President of EGoS.

Figure 1: The participants came together in Athens on the first day of the workshop.

The opening ceremony was followed by a plenary session with speeches of Rudolf Staiger, FIG President, and John Hohol, President of FIG Foundation, who gave a presentation on FIG Foundation’s role in providing possibilities for surveyors all around the world. The first technical session addressed the theme of “SDIʼs and the way forward”, with presentations on different cases from the Balkans and Greece in addition to the insights into the role of SDI’s for the next generations. The second technical session was on the LADM model for spatial planning and the new roles of the surveyors in project management. The third technical session addressed a variety of subjects related to contemporary land management issues that were well discussed.

The second day of the workshop started with the fourth technical session on the theme of “Fostering applications and the use of geospatial data” where authors presented the FIG publication No 78 Geospatial data in the 2020ʼs, followed by several presentations of Young Surveyors reflecting on their perspectives and experiences. The fifth technical session again addressed current land management issues. The workshop was concluded with notes from the organizers, reflecting on the contributions and key themes from the discussions in view of the theme of the event. Overall, it was perceived very valuable to meet in person again – in some cases for a very long time after the pandemic – and to catch up with developments and latest research.

Figure 2: The authors of the FIG publication provided brief presentations on their chapters. From left to right: Markus Schaffert, Hartmut Müller, Marije Louwsma, Maria Scorza, Cemre Sahinkaya, Cemal Kivilcim

 

Figure 3: The Young Surveyors also participated in the closing session. From left: Cemre Sahinkaya, Cromwell Manalato, Cemal Kivilcim (FIG Commission 3 and Young Surveyors Joint Working Group Chair), Nikos Zacharias (EGoS President), Hartmut Müller (FIG Commission 3 Chair), Rudolf Staiger (FIG President), Chryssy Potsiou (FIG Honorary President), Marije Louwsma (FIG Commission 8 Chair)

 

The activity ended with a very nice visit to Acropolis.

Figure 4: The participants enjoyed Acropolis with a guided tour after the workshop.

 

The proceedings of the Workshop can be found here.

Download he full report here

Reported by Cemre Sahinkaya
January 2023