MÉTA, the multi-attributed vegetation Database of Hungary published by GIM International

Feature article in the GIM International. Image: by the courtesy of Reed Business, 2008
MÉTA in the GIM International

The Authors Ferenc Horváth, responsible for the development and maintenance of the database and Zsolt Molnar, program leader are with the Insitute of Ecology and Botany of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, The Institute is member of HUNAGI since many years and was the 1st prize winner of the GSDI Association's Small Grant Program some years ago.
The MÉTA, a grid-based, satellite-image supported and multi-attributed vegetation mapping method and database has also user interface on the Internet. Its portal has been chosen by HUNAGI as the Portal of the Week last year.
Background information:
Molnár Z. et al., 2007: A grid-based, satellite-image supported, multi-attributed vegetation mapping method (MÉTA), Folia Geobotanica, Vol. 42, pp. 225-247
MÉTA website:
www.novenyzetiterkep.hu/meta/
http://reports.eea.europa.eu/COR0-landcover/en
Communication: horvfe@botanika.hu

This news was also published on the HUNAGI Newsblog in Hungarian language at http://hunagi8.blogspot.com

Europeanwide PSI Alliance Launched in Prague

The PSI Alliance Launch Ceremony was hosted by the Ministry of Interior of the Czech Republic on 23 January last week. 14 private sector entities representing 380 private sector companies signed the Manifesto
Authentic News:
http://www.epsiplus.net/news/psi_alliance_launched
Presentations of the PSI Alliance Launch Event:
http://www.epsiplus.net/reports/psi_alliance/launch_presentations
Source of information:
http://www.epsiplus.net
Extract from the Press release of the UK based The Locus Association :
"The PSI Alliance is calling for the rapid development of Public Sector Information re-use activities across Europe, stimulating the development of a fair, innovative, dynamic and competitive marketplace , and releasing the very considerable economic and social benefits which are currently very under-exploited.
It is estimated that up to 25% of all information originates from Public Sector Information. PSI includes data about public law, statistics, geography, meteorology, hydrography, environmental issues, corporate and financial data, electoral data, data about governance and data about the economy. The terms upon which PSI is provided for re-use by the private sector and citizens are governed by convention and laws; primarily Competition Law and the Directive 2003/98EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of the 17th November 2003 on the re-use of public sector information. The Directive will be reviewed during the course of 2008.
For more information on the Alliance please contact info@psialliance.eu The PSI Alliance will be hosting a conference in June, more details of which will be released shortly. " (http://locusassociation.co.uk/industry77.php)

HUNAGI paper accepted for oral presentation at the ISPRS 2008 Congress

Official logo of the ISPRS 2008 Congress. Source: ISPRS2008-Beijing

On HUNAGI at the XXI. ISPRS Congress

Dr. Chaoying HE of the National Geomatics Center of China, Assistant for Scientific Program Committee, ISPRS Congress 2008 informed HUNAGI today, the submitted abstract of the contribution paper entitled
"Role of interdisciplinary networking in SDI supported actions towards sustainable development"
has been accepted as an Oral Presentation by "WG IV/1 - Spatial Data Infrastructure".
The draft program of the Congress will be published in the Congress Web (http://www.isprs2008-beijing.org) soon.

Hungarian proposal: IYPE Declaration should include SDI

The draft Paris Declaration was commented by request of the IYPE (International Year of the Planet Earth) Secretariat with the intention to make the role, importance and scope of the development of SDI visible in the text of the Declaration. Also the related information systems and services (which includes the data acqusition, information management, analysis and visualisation and their technologies as well) was explicitly emphesized.
..." Production of a global, digital and publicly available information system of the subsurface, based on the current OneGeology Project and the recently launched United Nations Spatial Data Infrastructure (UNSDI) to ensure better geospatial information access and interoperability between information systems and services related to the Earth's subsurface, surface, hydrosphere and atmosphere. "....
After the suggested change has been submitted to the IYPE Secretariat through the Hungarian Committe on IYPE, HUNAGI consulted with the Secretary General of the EuroGeoSurvey who not only agreed with the proposal (recommending the use the word biosphere instead of surface, hydrosphere and atmosphere) , but made additional significant enhancements in the original sentence. EUROGI, GSDI, UNGIWG, FGDC and DG JRC was informed on the HUNAGI proposal for comments as well. It is expected, a second version will be submitted via the Hungarian IYPE Committee in the following days.
Meantime the Executive Director of the IYPE Secretariat Eduardo de Mulder and the Chair of the IYPE Board Larry Woodfork invited the Secretary General of HUNAGI, member of the Hungarian IYPE Committee (chaired by Dr. Károly Brezsnyánszky) to take part on the Global Lauch Event of IYPE hosted by the Headquarters of the UNESCO scheduled for 12-13 February.
Péter Gresicki, Secretary General of the Hungarian National Commission for UNESCO, member of the UNSDI HUCO Steering Committee and the IYPE National Committee sent a recent publication of UNESCO entitled "Planet Earth: From Space to Place". More information:
www.unesco.org/en/general-conference/exhibition-planet-earth

Hungarian contribution to the GSDI-10 Conference

The Hungarian member of the GSDI Board will present a Liasion Report for the Board Meeting will be held in St. Augustine on the relation with CEOS WG Information Systems and Services as well as the GEOSS/GEO. Also the impact and potentials of the UNSDI, the Digital Earth and the International Year of the Planet Earth (IYPE) will be mentioned in the Appendix of the Report. The Conference will provide good opportunity to share experiences of the Hungarian Land Administration gained through its ICT-related development towards the Digital Land Offices with special emphasis on the capacity building for the staff members and their clients.
Some Members of HUNAGI from the Land Administration branch including the Institute of Geodesy, Cartography and Remote Sensing (FÖMI, www.fomi.hu), the Budapest Land Office (BLO, www.takarnet.hu , www.foldhiv.hu), the University of West Hungary, Faculty of Geoinformatics (UWH Geoinfo, www.geo.info.hu) and the ICT Development Project of the Land Office Network at the Dept of Land Administration, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (www.fvm.hu) contributed as co-authors to the paper and its presentation in the Session on Land Administration at the GSDI-10 Conference. The paper can be downloaded from the www.gsdi.org website.
The presentation will address the issues related to the development and applications provided by the SDI-based Land Administration and Geoinformation sector.
Additional Hungarian contribution is scheduled in the GSDI-10 Session devoted to the Group of Earth Observation System of Systems, which is annotated in the program as follows:
"TS 29 Organized Session: GEO and GEOSS
Organizer: Doug Nebert (USA), Moderator: Gabor Remetey-Fulopp (Hungary)
This session will involve a combination of short presentations and panel responses by parties that have been heavily active in the Group on Earth Observations and the Global Earth Observation System of Systems. The audience will be actively engaged. Among the speakers will include Ivan Deloatch with the US Federal Geographic Data Committee, Alessandro Annoni with the European Commission Joint Research Council (EC-JRC), and Robert Thomas from Compusult who will provide a private sector perspective on the various initiatives. Moderators and respondents will include, among others, Doug Nebert of the US Federal Geographic Data Committee and Gabor Remetey-Fulopp (Hungary) who is the GSDI Association official liaison to GEO/GEOSS."

First post of the Geospatial Hungary blog in 2006

It was the first post at the launch of the Geospatial Hungary HUNAGI Newsblog in English two years ago. Now, the http://hunagi.blogspot.com is not anymore maintained and the site serves as important source of information reflecting the news and actions of the time period 2006-2007 .
The first post can be read here:
New DG appointed for the Department of Land Administration and Geoinformation#links#links

Welcome to HUNAGI56, the New Newsblog Service of HUNAGI and the UNSDI HUCO

The previous HUNAGI Newsblog in English at http://hunagi.blogspot.com was launched on 28 January 2006 and was maintained till January 5 2008 providing 398 spots on News and Actions attracted 11,500 visitors from about 100 countries.