Joint FIG Commission 3, UN/ECE Working Party on Land Administration and UN/ECE Committee on Housing and Land Management Workshop:Spatial Information Management toward Legalizing Informal Urban Development and Informal Settlements – Real Estate Market Needs for Good Land Administration and PlanningSounio, Greece, 28-31 March 2007
The joint workshop of FIG Commission 3 and UN/ECE Working Party on Land Administration (WPLA) and Committee on Housing and Land Management (CHLM) took place in Sounio, Greece, between 28-31 March, 2007. The workshop focused on informal or unplanned development, a topic of major importance for several countries worldwide. The initiative for this topic originated in a vision identified in the current FIG Commission 3 work plan, announced at the FIG ACCO meeting, during the FIG Regional Conference in Accra, Ghana in 2006. An objective of the FIG Commission 3 work plan is cooperation with international sister organizations. Therefore a proposal was made to UN/ECE WPLA Bureau that agreed to include this activity as an extra function in its already-planned workshop calendar for 2007. The WPLA Bureau, in turn, invited the participation of the UN/ECE Committee on Housing and Land Management. The local organizers were the Technical Chamber of Greece (TCG) and the Hellenic Association of Rural and Surveying Engineers (HARSE). The major sponsor was the Technical Chamber of Greece; other sponsors were the Attica Bank, the Marathon Data Systems, the Region of Attika, the Municipality of Lavrio, the Municipality of Anavissos, and the Municipality of Palaia Phokea. Experts and representatives of sister associations such as Dr. Gabor Remetey-Fülöpp, Head of the UN SDI Hungarian Coordination Office and Director of EUROGI Working and Advisory Group on International Affairs and Secretary of the Global Spatial Data Infrastructure Association, Ms. Victoria Stanley from the World Bank, Prof. Sylvia Martinez from the Commission for the Legal Empowerment of the Poor, Mr. Fernando De la Puente Alfaro, President of the European Land Registry Association, and Mr. Enrico Campagnoli from FIABCI, kindly responded to the invitation made by the local organizers and offered to participate and support the workshop and present papers. In total 130 distinguished delegates were registered to the workshop, coming from 42 countries: Albania (6), Armenia (1), Australia (1), Austria (3), Azerbaijan (4), Belarus (1), Bosnia and Herzegovina (1), Bulgaria (1), Canada (1), Croatia (3), Cyprus (4), Czech Republic (2), Denmark (3), France (1), Georgia (4), Germany (5), Greece (32), Iceland (2), Ireland (1), Hungary (1), Iceland (2), Ireland (1), Israel (1), Italy (4), Kosovo (3), Kyrgyz Republic (2), Lebanon (2), Latvia (2), Lithuania (2), the Netherlands (1), New Zealand (1), Nigeria (1), Norway (4), Poland (3), Romania (4), Russia (2), Serbia Montenegro (2), Slovak Republic (1), Spain (3), Sweden (2), Switzerland (3), Turkey (3), UK (3), USA (4). In addition to the above mentioned delegates, twelve Greek officials participated, including several members of the Hellenic Parliament, the representative of the Minister for the Environment Physical Planning and Public Works, the presidents of TCG, HARSE, and of the Association of Greek Architects, local mayors, presidents of other professional associations, the President of the School of Rural and Surveyor Engineers of the National Technical University, and the General Secretary of the region of Attika. In the two Opening Sessions, welcoming addresses were offered by Yannis Alavanos, President of TCG, Chronis Akritidis, President of HARSE, Prof. Stig Enemark, FIG President, Kaj Barlund, UN/ECE EHLM Division Director, Dr. Chryssy Potsiou, FIG Commission 3 Chair, Makis Apostolatos, FIG Commission 3 Vice Chair of Administration, Doris Andoni, UN/ECE CHLM Chair, and Peter Creuzer, UN/ECE WPLA Chair. Keynote speakers were Prof. Stig Enemark, FIG President, Paul Kelly Director Spatial Strategies Pty Ltd, and Gabor Remetey, HUNAGI Secretary General. Robert W. Foster, FIG Honorary President, Markku Villikka, FIG Office Director, Gerhard Muggenhuber FIG Commission 3 past chair, Helge Onsrud, FIG Commission 3 and WPLA past chair, Bengt Kjellson, WPLA past chair, Elena Szolgayová past CHLM chair also participated in the workshop. The workshop consisted of eight technical sessions (TS), and one plenary session (PS):
Fifty papers were presented in the eight technical sessions and nine presentations were made in the plenary sessions. The technical program also included a round table discussion. The resolutions of the workshop will be available soon. All papers, resolutions and discussions, will be published at the workshop’s final proceedings, which will be published and distributed by the TCG, and on FIG Commission 3 website. According to FIG Commission 3 delegates decisions and common understanding, all papers presented to FIG Commission 3 workshops are considered to be of great value and importance. To satisfy specific requests, and to bring together experts coming from the private and public sectors with the academic members to jointly address issues of major importance, Commission 3 initiated an optional double blind peer review process for presenters of papers at this workshop. A number of FIG academic delegates provided peer review of papers as requested by authors. For this and future workshops of Commission 3, reviewers will not review their own papers or papers coming from their own countries; reviewers will be selected according to their expertise in the topic; papers accepted for peer review shall be the result of original research and shall not have been published previously. Twelve papers received successful peer review for this workshop. Other papers presented at the workshop may also include original research, information and ideas but their authors did not select the peer review process. Dr. Chryssy Potsiou, Commission 3 Chair and Prof. Yerach Doytsher, Head of the peer review group, will serve as editors for the additional specific publications of the peer reviewed papers. The workshop’s success is the result of an exceptionally hard joint work and good spirit built up among all presenters and delegates. The local organizers, and FIG Commission 3 chair, wish to express their acknowledgments to all participants and promise to promote the results of their joint work by all possible means. The workshop’s program also included lunches, dinners, transportation, and social events e.g., archaeological sightseeing in the regions of Lavrio, Sounio and in the Athens’ historic center, offered by the sponsors. This was the first FIG Commission 3 annual workshop and meeting in a series of three planned for the new term 2007-2010. The next FIG Com3 workshop (follow up) is planned to be held in January 2008 in Valencia, Spain, under the topic: “Spatial Information toward Environmental Management of Mega Cities”. More detailed information about the local organizers, the exact date and the specific topics will be published soon. More information:
Dr. Chryssy Potsiou |
