UN Headquarters in New York.

FIG president Stig Enemark attended the second preparatory meeting of the Proposed United Nations Committee of Experts on Global Geographic Information Management held in New York in May 2010. This meeting, organised by United Nations Statistics Division of the Department for Economic and Social Affairs in co-operation with the Cartographic Section of the Department of Field Services, followed an initial meeting held in Bangkok in October 2009 with the purpose of establishing a global mechanism for discussion and co-ordination over critical issues in the field of GI management.

New Millennium
There is a need, in order to meet the challenges of the new millennium, to develop appropriate institutional, legal and technical processes for integrating land administration, cadastre and land-registration functions with topographic mapping programmes within the context of a wider national strategy for spatial data infrastructure (SDI). This should be reflected in the UN strategy for Global Geographic Information Management.

LAS and Rights
All countries have to deal with the management of land; including, in some way or another, the four functions of land tenure, land value, land use, and land development. A country may have advanced capacity, able to combine all activities within one conceptual framework supported by sophisticated ICT models. It is more likely, however, that capacity will involve very fragmented and basically analogue approaches. Land Administration Systems form the basis for conceptualising rights, restrictions and responsibilities relating to people, policies and places. Property rights are normally concerned with ownership and tenure, whereas restrictions usually control use and activities on land. Responsibilities relate more to social, ethical commitment; or attitude towards environmental sustainability and good husbandry.

Global Architecture
The May meeting reviewed practical models for a global architecture on Global Geographic Information Management within the UN Strategy for GGIM. It was recognised that the model should include well-defined official national membership and regular annual meetings. It was further recognised that in the field of geographical information professional organisations such as Global Spatial Data Infrastructure (GSDI), the FIG, ICA, ISPRS, the Joint Board of GIS, and UNGEGN would have an important supportive role to play and would in turn see their specialised initiatives facilitated under the wider UN umbrella.

Formalising Plans
Concluding that a global mechanism on geographic information management under the auspices of the United Nations was required, the meeting supported the idea of moving ahead with plans to organise and formalise this. The United Nations Economic and Social Council will provide the opportunity to develop detailed proposals on the scope and modalities of the global mechanism for adoption in 2011.