FIG Working Week 2012 - High-profile Keynotes

One of the highlights of the Working Week in Rome in May will be the keynote addresses that were preliminarily announced on the FIG Page of the April 2012 issue of GIM International. These main presentations will address the key areas of the conference.

In the first plenary session, Alexander Mueller, assistant director general of FAO, will present details of the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the context of national food security. These guidelines are intended to assist states, civil society and the private sector in improving the governance of tenure, and thus contribute to alleviating hunger and poverty, empowering the poor and vulnerable, enhancing the environment, supporting national and local economic development, and reforming public administration. They are due to be finally approved by FAO in May 2012. Stefania Prestigiacomo will speak about knowledge to manage the environment and the contribution of professionals. Ms Prestigiacomo speaks from her experience as Minister for Environment and Protection of Land and Sea in Italy 2008-2011. Franco Maggio, director of Agenzia del Territorio, will introduce the Italian cadastral system and its fiscal aspects.

In the second plenary Norbert Lantschner, director of ClimateHaus (Italy), will speak about global climate change. Our society needs to slim down in terms of energy consumption. For a European, sustainable behaviour means cutting the current total primary energy consumption by two-thirds and gradually replacing fossil fuels with alternative energy sources.

The first major sector of society to transform is the construction industry, which in Europe is responsible for 40% of all energy used. Professor Orhan Altan, president of ISPRS, will demonstrate how space technology can be efficiently integrated into disaster management, encompassing data collection (remote sensing, sensor networks and mobile systems), data processing and production of maps, which are further integrated, analysed and visualised in GIS/WebGIS. Professor Karl-Friedrich Thöne, president of DVW (Germany), will address the increase in political awareness of precise, actual and 3D digital geoinformation in Europe. Geodesy, geoinformation and land management play an important role in all key socio-political issues such as global change, climate policy, energy supply, disaster prevention, inner security, demographic change, e-government or modernisation of the state as well as data protection and data security. The fundamental role of a connected geocommunity – shaping networks between politics, government, administration, private economy, industry, science, research and education – will be discussed.

In the final session Fabio Remondino, FBK (Italy), will introduce 3D surveying and modelling technologies for the digital preservation of cultural heritage. This presentation is strongly related to the congress theme. Mario Resca, general manager of the Ministry for Cultural Heritage, will provide an insight into how Italy is approaching this topic from a cultural perspective. RICS president See Lian Ong will talk about preserving the built environment and the importance of building information modelling.