News in 2015
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Kathmandu, Nepal, was from 25 – 27th of November 2015 the host of the International Workshop on the Role of Land Professionals and SDI in Disaster Risk Reduction in the context of Post 2015 Nepal Earthquake. What started as an initial idea for a possible FIG Commission 2 Workshop resulted in a large joint event together with ISPRS Technical Commission IV, and was supported by FIG Commission 7. Over 300 participants attended this very successful workshop organized by the Nepal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (NICS) and the Nepal Remote Sensing and Photogrammetric Society (NRSPS). FIG Commission 2 is very grateful to President Mr. Buddhi Narayan Shrestha of NICS and President Mr. Rabin K. Sharma of the NRSPS to organize this workshop.
Chair
of FIG Commission 2, Ms. Liza Gronendijk together with
Mr. Buddhi Narayan Shrestha, President, Nepal
Institution of Chartered Surveyor
This FIG – ISPRS international workshop offered an excellent program covering the various aspects of spatial technologies and the role of spatial data infrastructure in the context of disaster risk reduction. In particular, it offered a rich picture of the Nepal Post 2015 Earthquake experiences and the lessons learned, including innovative and unique approaches and tools developed in this context. The keynote speakers were well chosen, adding high value by placing the Nepal experiences in the global and scientific context. It was a great honor and pleasure that former FIG President Chee Hai Teo attended the workshop and addressed the audience during the plenary session on the last day. Dr. Donald Grant represented FIG Commission 7 and was one of the plenary speakers.
It became very clear from the presentations and the discussions during technical sessions that disaster risk reduction is a knowledge domain of its own. Disaster risk reduction has its own particular issues, own approaches and own technologies. To include disaster risk reduction in the curriculum of the surveyor and land professional means allocating enough quality time and think carefully about the set-up and content of the program and the teaching approaches.
The FIG Young Surveyors Network, under the guidance of Eva Maria Unger and Paula Dijkstra organized a special session for the Nepalese young surveyors, which was attended by more than 50 participants. In groups, four disaster risk reduction ‘tools’ were proposed and elaborated and ‘pitched’ in a so-called market place.
FIG
Young Surveyors Network at the Workshop in Nepal
With its focus on the Post 2015 Nepal Earthquake, this FIG –ISPRS Workshop in Nepal can be considered of having been a pre-event of the upcoming FIG Working week in New Zealand. The contribution of Alistair Greig and Christofer Pearson from New Zealand was much appreciated in this regards.
What the Nepal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (NICS) and the Nepal Remote Sensing and Photogrammetric Society (NRSPS) have achieved can only be considered an amazing success. The resolution of the workshop presented by Ms. Reshma Shrestha during the closing session of the workshop has been submitted to the Minister from the Ministry of Land Reform and Management (MoLRM) which showed the action points in land sector and capacity building for disaster risk reduction.
Chair of FIG Commission 2, Ms. Liza Gronendijk and Co-Chair FIG Commission 2.1 Ms. Reshma Shrestha
Considering the difficult situation in Nepal after the 2015 Earthquake and the recent fuel crisis in the country the organizers have achieved the almost impossible. In particular the chair of the local organizing committee, Ganesh Prasad Bhatta, did a tremendous job, beyond expectations. He really deserves an ‘honorable membership’ of our FIG Commission 2.
Conference website
Proceedings
Liza Groenendijk, Chair FIG Commission 2. Professional Education
Reshma Shrestha, Co-chair of Working Group 2.1. Towards educating the
land professional, FIG Commission 2.
Kathmandu, Nepal, 30.11.2015
10 December 2015
