GICON 2006

The international conference GICON 2006, Geoinformation Connecting Societies, was held from 10th to 14th July 2006 at the University of Vienna. On 10th and 11th July the pre-conference event PreCARTO provided a mix of practical and theory-oriented workshops, innovative forums and cartographic outdoor activities. GICON 2006 embraced three scientific events: the Central European Cartographic Conference (CECC), a Mid-term Symposium of ISPRS Technical Commission II, and the 12th International Symposium on Spatial Data Handling (SDH 2006).

For the first time, representatives of large scientific societies, namely the International Cartographic Association (ICA), the International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS), and the International Geographical Union (IGU) and local associations focusing on geoinformation participated in this joint event.

The opening ceremony was held at Vienna’s Palais Ferstel, where Joel Morrison presented a keynote speech entitled ‘Whither Where? Remarks on the Future of our Profession’. The scientific programme comprised four parallel sessions, one for CECC and the ISPRS Symposium, and two for SDH. A total of 122 papers were presented. The proceedings of the three events were published for CECC as Volume 17, Wiener Schriften zur Geographie und Kartographie. For the ISPRS Symposium they appeared in Vol XXXVI Part 2 of the International Archives of Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences. SDH had them published as Progress in Spatial Data Handling from Springer Verlag. GICON was attended by nearly four hundred participants from more than thirty countries.

36th Scientific Assembly COSPAR
The 36th COSPAR Scientific Assembly was held from 13th to 16th July in Beijing, China. About two thousand delegates from over seventy countries and regions participated, including experts from such famous space-science research institutes as ESA, CSA, CNES, CNSA, DLR, ISRO, ASI, NASA, JAXA, NSAU, SUPARCO and RKA. Chinese Vice-Premier Zeng Peiyan in his welcoming address to the opening session confirmed that China would support various activities concerning the exploration of outer space and push forward bilateral and multilateral collaboration in space exploration.

Elections for office-bearers including president, vice-president, remaining bureau and financial committee took place during the first session of the COSPAR council meeting. Roger-Maurice Bonnet was re-elected as president. Congress director Chen Jun attended the COSPAR council meetings representing ISPRS president Ian Dowman.

Six awards in the field of space science were presented at the opening ceremony. The COSPAR Space Science Award went to Prof. Atsuhiro Nishida of the National Committee for Space Research of the Science Council of Japan and to Prof. Eberhard T. Grun, University of Heidelberg. The next COSPAR Scientific Assembly will be held in Montreal, Canada, from 13th to 20th July 2008.