The series of natural and man-made disasters in 2005 and 2006 have highlighted the role that GIS and its users can play in safeguarding society, said Prof. David Rhind, Vice-Chancellor of the City University, London.
He was presenting a paper on "GIS and the safety of society" during the first plenary session of the Map Middle East 2006 at Dubai World Trade Centre on the second day of the conference.
The first plenary session called "Geospatial For All, All For Geospatial" was addressed by three experts in the field of geospatial technology. The Map Middle East 2006 conference and exhibition will continue until Wednesday.
Rhind said that coping with disasters - natural or man-made - is an area where GIS can potentially make a major contribution. "GIS have been used for risk assessment, preparedness, mitigation, response to disasters and recovery from them. On the other hand, GIS can also be used to plan to cause trouble," he pointed out.
His keynote paper examined the range of benefits and threats GIS provides, describing some examples of actual use and the importance of institutional structures within which the GIS is operated.
It highlighted the tension between the value and the danger of having wholly open access to Geographical Information, especially over the web. The paper concluded by assessing the management issues involved and how best to use GIS skills and tools in a world where threats to society are endemic.
Rhind said the greatest contributions can be made if GIS is integrated into the work of all the responsible authorities long before any particular threat materializes.
"But the prime factors which determine whether GIS actually contribute to the safety of citizens are management ones. We need many more managers of organizations who have good GIS experience and this suggests the need for appropriate education and training and career development for GIS personnel," he said.
The second paper of the day called "Earth Observation and Society: Opportunities and challenges for all" was presented by Ian Dowman, President ISPRS, University College, London.
He said there is an enormous potential for earth observation data to serve society, but there are still many problems in this field.
Dowman's presentation dealt with the current technical and political developments which reflect the value of earth observation, and the challenges which the geospatial community must meet to extend and enhance the value of Earth observations data.
The third paper, titled, "How Can We Attract 'All' to Geospatial?" was presented by Prof. A R Dasgupta from the Bhaskaracharya Institute for Space Applications and Geoinformatics, Gandhinagar, India.
He said mobile services are the future for ubiquitous GIS therefore convergence of ICT with GIS and GPS is the key.
"Service provider must have the geospatial database and processing power to be able to deliver only the desired and relevant information," said Dasgupta, adding that Geovisualisation needs to be developed beyond maps.
He said geospatial industry has to become service centric instead of data or technology centric. "Information must be delivered instead of data and the geovisualisation challenge is that information must be in a form which is readily comprehended. The device challenge is that information should fit to a cellular phone screen," said Dasgupta.
He said public acceptance comes when an individual willingly accepts and adopts a technology and pays for it.
Referring to the Magic Wand Technology with GPS enabled cell phone with a digital compass; he said the user points his cell phone towards an object and queries for information about the object and he gets information about all objects in that direction and within his view.
"Here the service provider computes position of user and from the direction of the device identifies all features within his visibility range and sends feature details and distances and for specific selected feature sends directions to destination," said Dasgupta.
The first keynote session of the day, "Satellite Photogrammetry Emerging Trends," was addressed by Prof. Christian Heipke of the Institute of Photogrammetry & Geoinformation, University of Hanover, Mr. Rich Turner, Senior Product Manager, ESRI, Mr. John W Allan, Director, Sales & Marketing, BAE Systems, and Mr. Styli Camaterous, Vice President, Geospatial, Bentley Systems.
Christian Heipke talked about "Emerging GIS and mapping trends" and Mr. Rich Turner about"GIS - Trends driving GIS evolution in our rapidly changing world,"
The second keynote session of the day, "Positioning And Locational Intelligence," was addressed by Mr. George Moon, Chief Technology Officer, MapInfo Corporation, Mr. Michael Jones, CTO, Google Earth, Dr. Vanessa Lawrence, DG and Chief Executive, Ordnance Survey, UK, and Mr. Ron Lake, President & CEO , Glados USA.
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© Press Release 2006
