| 
    
      
      The 
	  German Council took over the administration of FIG January 1, 2003 - The Handover took place during the Intergeo 2002 in Frankfurt, 16 
	  October, 2002
 
    
      
        | 
         Gerhard Muggenhuber (on the left), Thomas Gollwitzer, Ralf Schroth, 
		Holger Magel, T.N. Wong and Andreas Drees.
 | The FIG Council 2003-2006 started its work 1 January 
		2003. The new Council is chaired by Prof. 
        Holger Magel, 
		President of FIG (Germany). The members of the Council are Vice 
		President, Dr.-Ing.
        
		Andreas Drees 
        (Germany), Vice President Dr.-Ing. 
        
		Ralf Schroth, Vice President 
		Bettina Petzold 
        (Germany) and Vice President 
        
		T.N. Wong (Hong Kong SAR, China). The remaining members of the 
		new Council are Congress Director 
		Thomas Gollwitzer (Germany) and Gerhard Muggenhuber 
		(Austria) as the representative of the Commission chairs. |  
        | 
         President Robert W. Foster gives the FIG chain to the 
		new President Prof. Holger Magel from Germany. Mr Foster is assisted by 
		Mr. Hagen Graeff, President of DVW.
 | The handover ceremony between the US and 
		German Councils took place at opening of the Intergeo 2002 in Frankfurt, 
		Germany 16 October 2002. The biggest tradeshow on surveying business 
		attracted more than 15,000 visitors and the exhibition space was bigger 
		than ever exceeding 10,000 square metres (net). The conference and 
		opening ceremony attracted abut 700 delegates and invited guests.The handover ceremony included performances of the Band of US Army and 
		cheerleaders from the Frankfurt Galaxy.
 Read more about the 
        handover with picture gallery 
		on the FIG web site. |  
    
   
      
      Working Group 3 of FIG Commission 3 - Spatial Information Management - has 
	  finalised its report 
	  Land Information Management for Sustainable Development of Cities - Best 
	  Practice Guidelines in City-wide Land Information Management which 
	  is now available on the FIG web site. The report was officially launched 
	  at the FIG 2002 Congress in Washington, DC in April 2002. The report is an 
	  FIG contribution to the UN-HABITAT Best Practices Database and of its 
	  learning and technical co-operation tools with good practices, policies 
	  and enabling legislation in LIM.  
    
      
        |  | FIG Commission 7 Working Group (1998-2002) Reforming the Cadastre 
		has published its report on Benchmarking Cadastral Systems. The report 
		compiled and edited by  Daniel Steudler and  Jürg Kaufmann 
		includes contributions from 9 case studies from different countries. The 
		report was launched at the FIG General Assembly in Washington, DC in 
		April 2002. The report is available on the FIG web site as .pdf-file
          (429 KB). Hard copies can be asked from the FIG Office. |  
    
      
        |  | Cadastre 2014 - A Vision for a Future Cadastral System was first 
		published by FIG Commission 7 in 1998. The report written by
          Jürg Kaufmann and Daniel Steudler with the Working Group 
		1 of FIG Commission 7 has now got its second edition and is available 
		from the FIG Office. The second edition was made possible by the support 
		of Leica Geosystems Ltd., a corporate member of FIG. Requests for the 
		report should be made to the FIG Office, email: 
		fig@fig.net. The report is also available on web: 
		  http://www.swisstopo.ch/fig-wg71/cad2014/cad2014/index.htm  |  
    
      
      FIG Multilingual Technical Dictionary 
    
      
        |  | The  FIG 
		Multilingual Dictionary can now be ordered via
          Internet. 
		Already 10 revised editions have been published and 5 volumes are under 
		preparation. The Multilingual Dictionary is a result of work carried out 
		by the FIG Multi-Lingual Dictionary Board - a permanent institution of 
		FIG - for many years. The responsible organisation for editing is 
		Bundesamt für Kartographie und Geodäsie in Germany. The terms and 
		definitions as used in surveying and mapping are published in German 
		with equivalent technical terms in English and French. You can obtain 
		the volumes or to get more information from the Bundesamt für 
		Kartographie und Geodäsie, Aussenstelle Leipzig, Karl-Rothe-Strasse 
		10-14 D-04105 Leipzig, Germany, Tel. + 49 341 5634 - 330, Mrs. Kollenda, 
		fax + 49 341 56 34 - 415, email: 
		kollenda@leipzig.ifag.de
          or from the web site: 
		http://www.ifag.de/Kartographie/Shop/index.html.   |  
    
      
      The 2nd International Conference on Engineering Surveying – INGEO 2002 
    
      
        |  | The 2nd 
		International Conference of Engineering Surveying INGEO 2002 was 
		held in November 11–13, 2002 in the Congress Centrum of Slovak Savings 
		Bank in Bratislava. The conference was organised by the Department of 
		Surveying (DS) of the Faculty of Civil Engineering (FCE) of the Slovak 
		University of Technology (SUT) in Bratislava under the auspices of the 
		Dean of the FCE SUT Bratislava, Prof. 
            Dušan Petráš, PhD. |  The co-operation bodies of the conference were: FIG Commission 6 WG 
		6.2 – Engineering Surveys for Industry and Research; the Chamber of 
		Surveyors and Cartographers and the Slovak Union of Surveyors.  Specialists from the 9 various countries in the world, who work at 
		universities, research centres, in geodetic and building organizations 
		as well as in industry, have participated in proceedings. Total number 
		of participants was 76, out of which 36 participants were from foreign 
		countries and 40 participants from Slovak Republic.  Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference of Engineering 
		Surveying was aimed at a discussion about actual problems of engineering 
		surveying, about conclusion of knowledge and results, which were 
		acquired by the using of new modern technologies.  
    
      
      The Second International Symposium in Surveying (Education and 
      Professionalism) at the University of Puerto Rico in
      Mayagüez, October 3-5, 
	  2002
 
    
      
        | 
        
         FIG representatives at the Symposium in Mayagüez: Prof. 
		John Parker (left), President Robert Foster, Prof. Stig Enemark and 
		Prof. Pedro Cavero.
 | The Second International Symposium in Surveying 
		(Education and Professionalism) was organised at 
		the University of Puerto Rico in Mayagüez October 
		3-5, 2002. With the participation over 150 people 
		from several countries including USA, 
		Latin-America, and Europe, the conference was declared a success by
        Mr. Robert W. Foster, President of FIG. 
		After an 
		opening address by 
		Mr. Foster, 18 technical presentations followed in the topics of 
		education, research and professional practice. A panel composed of 
		officials from different participating institutions and a student 
		debated motions and resolutions on Saturday. The Assembly of over a 
		hundred participants approved the 
        following motions 
		and resolutions October 5, 2002. More 
		pictures from the Symposium. 
         |  
    
      
      GIS 2002 and Commission 3 Annual Meeting in Istanbul, 
	  23-26 September 2002 
    
   
    
      
        | 
           Prof. Jüri Randjärv, Jan de Graeve and Jim Smith at the Struve 
		  monument outside Tartu Observatory.
 | From 25 to 28 September 2002 the Association of Estonian 
		Surveyors, Estonian Land Board, Estonian Agricultural University and 
		Tartu University held a conference in Tallinn and Tartu on “Struve Arc 
		150”. 50 delegates from 10 countries attended- namely Norway, Sweden, 
		Finland, Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, 
		Belgium and UK. Essentially it was commemorating the 150th anniversary 
		of the completion of the Struve Geodetic Arc that ran from near North 
		Cape in Norway to the Black Sea, but was an ideal opportunity to discuss 
		the arc in detail and to progress the efforts of the International 
		Institution for the History of Surveying & Measurement to have selected 
		points in each country recognised by UNESCO as a World Heritage 
		Monument. |  13 of the 15 technical papers were published in a special 
	  booklet. In addition to the technical presentations the group visited the 
	  remaining Struve survey stations marking the terminals of the Simuna 
	  baseline and the starting point of the whole arc in Tartu (formerly 
	  Dorpat) observatory. At the latter point the Rector of Tartu University, 
	  Professor
      Jaak Aaviksoo, unveiled a special plaque at the point set by Struve 
	  on the meridian through the observatory. Four resolutions were passed, see 
	  attached report. 
    
      
      Commission 7 Annual Meeting and Symposium 
	  on Land Re-distribution in Southern Africa, Pretoria, South Africa, November 4-9 2002
 
    
      
        |  | FIG Commission 7 Annual Meeting was 
		held in Pretoria, November 2002. This two 
		day seminar focused on land redistribution in 
		southern Africa 
    	and was held in conjunction to the annual meeting of Commission 7. 
		This seminar 
    was part of Working Group 2 on ‘instruments for land 
		distribution’, chaired by Mikko Uimonen, and is included in the 
		Commission 7 Work Plan 2002-2006.   |  
    
      
        | 
           New chairs were elected to the ten technical Commissions at the 
		  General Assembly in Washington, DC.
 | At the FIG General Assembly Association four new member 
		associations were adopted: Association des Géomètres et Topographes du 
		Burkina (AGT-B), Asociación de Agrimensores del Uruguay (AAU), 
		Association of Authorised Land Surveyors Malaysia and Ordré National des 
		Géomètres du Cameroun (OGEC). In addition Nepal and Mexico joined as 
		affiliate members. |  The FIG Working Week 2007 was admitted to Hong Kong, China and the 
	  Working Week 2003 that was planned to be held in Israel was postponed to 
	  year 2009. The venue for Working Week 2003 will be confirmed by the 
	  Council in June 2002.
       Mr.  T. N. Wong  from Hong Kong, China was elected as a  Vice 
	President of FIG for 2003-2006. He is the first Vice President that is 
	directly elected by the General Assembly following the new statutes and will 
	be a member of the German lead Council. The 10 FIG technical Commissions got 
	new officers who started their work at the end of the Congress. The new work 
	plans will be published on this site within short. Memoranda of Understanding were adopted with UN-FAO, UN-HABITAT, ISPRS, 
	ICA and IFHP. The FIG Foundation managed to collect almost US$ 50,000 in conjunction to 
	the Congress which allows to give the first grants before the end of this 
	year. The 
	minutes with all appendices are now available on this site.
     
    
      
      FIG Congress 2002 in Washington, D.C. April 19-26, 2002 attracted almost 
	  4,000 surveyors from almost 90 countries - in the FIG programme more than 
	  450 papers were presented in more than 110 sessions  
    
      
        | 
         The Opening ceremony of the FIG Congress in Washington gathered a full 
		house.
 | The XXII FIG International Congress was held in 
		Washington, D.C. USA April 19-26 2002. The Congress attracted almost 
		4,000 participants from almost 90 countries. The technical programme 
		included the FIG technical programme with more than 450 presentations in 
		more than 110 sessions. In addition in the domestic programme almost 160 
		papers were presented. Further there were several workshops organised by 
		ACSM and ASPRS. The report from the 
		conference with pictures.  |  The FIG Congress Prize 2002 was given to Mr George Oner 
	Ogalo from Kenya for his presentation "GPS 
	in Cadastres: A Case Study of Kenya". The 
	papers from the FIG Technical Programme are now available on this web 
	site. You are also able to view the  
	extended abstracts. Proceedings (DC-Rom and extended abstract) can be 
	ordered from the FIG Office, price US$ 50 including postage.
       
      The 
	  FIG Standards Network (Joint Commission Working Group WG1.1 under 
	  Commission 1) is continuing the work of an FIG Task Force which was 
	  established in 1998 in response to concerns from the Commissions, the 
	  Council and the General Assembly that standards were becoming increasingly 
	  important in the work of surveyors, and that the issue was not being 
	  addressed sufficiently by FIG. The Network's terms of reference are as follows:
       
        Building and maintaining relations with the secretariats of 
		standardisation bodies;Proposing priorities on FIG's standardisation activities, including 
		advising the Council on priorities for spending;Setting up necessary Liaison relationships with standardisation 
		bodies;Ensuring that lead contacts to Technical Committees etc are in 
		place;Maintaining an information flow on standardisation to FIG members, 
		including through the FIG website and FIG Bulletin, and more directly to 
		relevant Commission Officers;Maintaining the Guide 
		on Standardisation, and related material on the FIG website;Working with other NGOs, within the framework of the MOUs signed by 
		the Council; andAdvising FIG's officers and members on standardisation activities as 
		necessary. The Network sees itself as at the hub of FIG standardisation activity, 
	  making the necessary linkages and providing the necessary advice to 
	  commissions and others.
   |