Once every three years the Austrian, German and Swiss Societies of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing hold a joint conference for their members, the venue chosen among them on a rotating basis; a tradition now established over several years. This year the Swiss Society was responsible for the so-called Joint Conference (Dreilaender Tagung) in Muttenz-Basel at the University of Applied Sciences North-western Switz-erland. Prof. Stephan Nebiker from the same university chaired this very well organised conference.

Sessions
More than 320 participants, most from the organising societies, attended the event. One of the two plenary sessions was dedicated to the memory of Prof. Karl Kraus, with speakers Prof. O. Altan, Prof. F. Ackermann and Prof. N. Pfeifer. The centennial of the establishment of the Austrian Society, presented by Prof. P. Waldhäusl, was also celebrated. The other plenary session included very interesting presentations on “Close-Range Photogrammetry in the Operating Room” presented by W. Berner, “Real-Time 3D Imaging using Time-of-Flight: Technology, Applications and Trends”, by T. Oggier, and “Recent Space Technology Developments at EPFL for Earth Observation” by M. Borgeaud. There were further absorbing presentations during Technical Sessions on developments in Digital Airborne Cameras, 3D-GIS, and the use of Remote Sensing Data in Geological and Hazard Mapping.

Karl Kraus Award
One of the highlights of the conference was the Gala Dinner at the Roman Ancient Village Augusta Raurica. This was arranged as a Roman-style summer-night festival, with guided tours of the village followed by dinner in a marquee. There was a very interesting and much-appreciated speech by Dr H.C. Peter Schmid, president of the high school council of Universities of Applied Sciences of North-western Switzerland. During dinner the winners of Karl Kraus Awards were also announced. The next Joint Conference will be held in Vienna in July 2010.