On 28 August, the 3rd Central Asia GIS Conference was closed by conference chairs Akylbek Chymyrov and Josef Strobl from the Austria-Central Asia Centre for GIScience. The conference was held at the University of Construction, Transportation and Architecture in Bishkek in the Kyrgyz Republic. The two-day program brought together speakers from Central Asia, Central Europe and Russia, India, Iran, US and several other countries. CAGC was truly an international event.
Within the conference theme of "GIScience for Environmental and Emergency Management" 28 paper presentations highlighted trends such as the building of spatial data infrastructures- and innovative applications such as environmental monitoring, risk assessment and planning for sustainability to logistics and navigation.
Over 100 registered participants had the opportunity to continue building a Central Asia - focused network of GI experts and professionals at the social events supported by Trimble Navigation and SAFE Software.
A keynote on ‘Thinking Spatially' by ESRI's Michael Phoenix recognised the importance of capacity building and human resources development as the single most important success factor for geospatial methods and technologies in this region.
This was further supported by educational workshops facilitated by SAFE Software and various other learning opportunities for participants, such as access to exhibits of publications and technologies by GIS companies.
Pre-conference workshops attracted particular attention. For the first time in the region, UN-SPIDER held a meeting of experts on "Managing Disasters using Space-Based Technologies". A three day OpenSolar-Workshop attracted 25 participants to assess ‘Solar Energy Potentials in Central Asia'. The workshop went far beyond this. It explored sustainable energy for the region.
The OpenSolar event and GISCA'09 were made possible through generous support from the Austria-based Eurasia-Pacific Uninet. Its president, Prof. Brigitte Winklehner spoke at the GISCA opening ceremony together with KSUCTA Rektor Akymbek Abdykalykov and Austrian ambassador HE Ursula Fahringer. They emphasised the value of international cooperation in managing environments, resources and societies.
Participants received a copy of the conference proceedings at registration (jointly published by KSUCTA and Salzburg University's Centre for Geoinformatics), this volume and further information is available from the conference website.
Plans for the 2010 conference are currently being finalised for late May 2010 - striving to recognise GIS as an indispensable technical resource for the development of the emerging Central Asian economies.
Source: www.asmmag.com
