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tation for the Commission VII flagship session in Am-
sterdam.
The UNISPACE Ill Conference and Exhibition was held
in Vienna in July 1999. The Earth Observation session by
was actively attended in WG VII/2 Chair Dasika.P. Rao,
WG VII/2 Co-chair Vernon Singhroy, the TCP and both
Commission Secretaries (Peter Winkler and Frank
Hegyi). In Vienna, lecturers were selected and invited for
the ISPRS Congress session TC VII-1 devoted to the
event's topics: “Geo-information for All”. The person-
alised invitation was accepted by Prof. Gottfried
Konecny, He Changchui of FAO, Gabor Csornai of FOMI
RSC and D.P. Rao of NRSA.
ISPRS Council and Technical Commission Presidents’
Meeting.
In September 1999, G. Remetey-Fülópp attended the
ISPRS Council and TCPs joint meeting held in
Enschede and Delft, having also the opportunity to
make a site inspection of the RAI in Amsterdam, venue
of the Congress.
The International Symposium on Spectral Sensing
Research (ISSSR) was for a second time organised by
the US Army Topographic Engineering Center's
GIS/Remote Sensing Center in co-operation with
ISPRS Working Group VII/1, with the personal active
involvement of Chair Karl Staenz. TEC Director Dr.
William E. Roper and ISPRS Commission VII President
G. Remetey-Fülópp opened the event in the Tropicana
Hotel of Las Vegas, on November 1, 1999. Jan Clevers,
Secretary of WG VII/1 and liasion officer of the ISPRS
Congress to Commisssion VII, as well as Prof. James
Taranik Co-chair of WG VII/7, took part in the event
having the motto “Systems and sensors for the New
Millennium". The Symposium was attended in by 117
experts of 11 countries. The 27 exhibited posters
included two last minute contributions from Europe
highlighting applications in operational countrywide
crop monitoring and yield estimation, as well as water-
log monitoring featuring integrated use of remote sens-
ing and GIS. (both prepared by Gábor Csornai et al of
FÓMI RSC).
Workshop on Geographic Information Management.
Using the Space Imaging electronic press release, the
first Ikonos digital, high resolution satellite imagery was
introduced for the first time in Hungary to the wider pro-
fessional community at the FIG Commission 3 Interna-
tional Workshop on Geographic Information Manage-
ment in a lecture delivered on the knowledge transfer
project called PANEL-GI, in Budapest in October, 1999.
Workshop on Data Policy.
Attended by invited experts from ten countries, an
EUROGI-European Commission Data Policy Workshop
was held in Amersfoort, the Netherlands on 15th
November, 1999. National and Regional Perspectives
were highlighted and discussed. G. Remetey-Fülópp
used the occasion to underline the emerging impor-
tance of "imaging". Attention was called to recent,
related policy actions and can be found in the most
recent following references: ASPRS policy on Earth
Observation data acquisition and distribution policy
with special emphasis on the advancement in imaging
and geospatial information related technology (Pub-
lished in: Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote
Sensing, November, 1999) and "Earth Observation
Data Policy and Europe" (EOPOLE) Newsletter Issue 1-
4, 1999 with information on data volume, ground infra-
structures and distribution technologies, e-commerce,
metadata, property rights, data policy etc.) More infor-
mation: Prof. Ray Harris of ISPRS Commission lI
(rharris@geog.ucl.ac.uk). The Newsletter summarises
the output of the workshop held on the subject in
Oberpfaffenhofen from 7-9 July 1999. Also, the CEOS
WGISS 8 Pre-workshop on EO data policy /intellectual
rights 11 May 1999 are described in IACGEC - the
Framework Principles on Data Policy agreed by the UK
Inter Agency Committee on Global Environmental
Change. The framework principles are introduced in
the UNISPACE Ill Folder presented by University Col-
lege London (same source as above). The edited pro-
ceedings prepared by Prof. Max Craglia has been pub-
lished by the Space Application Institute of DG JRC.
5th Conference on the use of remote sensing in the con-
trol of agricultural area-based subsidies.
The operational use of remote sensing in agriculture is
more and more inevitable. The 5th Conference on the use
of remote sensing in the control of agricultural area-
based subsidies, chaired by Olivier Leo of SAl JRC, was
held in Stresa in November 1999. The appearance of the
new, very high resolution satellites will open a new line for
cost-benefit analysis and pilot applications.
3rd GEIXS (ESPRIT) Workshop.
The Workshop held in Budapest in December 1999 was
devoted to “The future of geo-referenced information
exchange in Eastern Europe and the NIS area”. About
70 participants from more than 30 countries (mainly
representatives of national Geological Surveys) were
present, incl. president of ISPRS Commission VII.
Established by EuroGeoSurveys, GEIXS has set up a
new, harmonised metadata architecture for European
environmental and natural resource information. The
follow-on actions (year 2000-2002) focus on environ-
mental data such as natural hazards, pollution and con-
taminated land. GEIXS put the weight on a public-
access one-stop shop of interlinked information
catalogues and indexes, which are accessible on-line
and based on a pan-European GIS and a multilingual
keyword index (www.eurogeosurveys.org.en/geodata).
The geo-science community now uses the momentum
provided by EU support for the topic: Remote Sensing
of Environment. Main conclusion was the call for co-
operation, standardisation and patience.
Preparation for the ISPRS Congress.
The officers of Commission VII evaluated more than
threehundred incoming proposals for the ISPRS Con-
gress 2000. The well-organised schemes and proce-
dures applied by Congrex and Internet worldwide com-
munication enabled the Commission to fulfill the
enormous task in due time.
ISPRS Council Meeting Budapest.
Hosted by the Hungarian Society of Surveying, Map-
ping and Remote Sensing Conference venue: FÓMI
RSC, April 5-6 and 11, 2000
ISPRS Seminar on Photogrammetry and Remote
Sensing at the Millennium.
Held in Budapest on April 7, 2000. Council and Techni-
cal Commission Presidents delivered lectures to an
audience mainly of representatives of the Hungarian
remote sensing community.
International Archives of Photogrammerty and Remote Sensing. Vol. XXXIII, Part A. Amsterdam 2000.
