Editors corner

News from the chairman

Working Group 5.5 on Reference Frame in Practice

Report from meetings in France during 1999 and 2000.

FIG Working Week in Prague

FIG-ACCO Meeting in Copenhagen the 13th and 14th January2000

Some thoughts concerning the co-operation between FIG Commission 5 and the International Association of Geodesy (IAG)

XIII. International Course on Engineering Surveying

The Mediterranean Surveyor in the new Millennium

3rd International Workshop on Mobile Mapping

Forthcoming events for FIG Commission 5

Contact addresses

Editors corner

FIG Working Week is coming closer in a very rapid way. It should be a good opportunity to meet colleagues. Prague is supposed to be a very interesting city and I am looking forward going there for my first time. I am sure that our Czech colleagues have put in a lot of effort to make sure that we will have a good time.

Otherwise, FIG Commission 5 is working on several frontiers at the moment. We are deeply involved in several seminars e.g. Malta in September and Cairo in January. There are also other seminars in the future that we will be involved in and we will always try to keep you updated through the Newsletter as well as our homepage. You need to have good material to present at these seminars and some major work is done in the different working groups at the moment.

We would like to take this opportunity to call for some input for future activities. We hope that our National Delegates can contribute to point out the most interesting fields of activity within surveying in respective country. This will help us in the preparation to e.g. FIG Working Week in Seoul next year as well as other seminars.

Please, let us know what you would like to see in our Newsletter in the future. I am sure that You have interesting projects that you would like to write about. Perhaps you have had an interesting discussion with some colleagues that you would like to share with the rest of the world? Or perhaps you have read an interesting article or book that you would like to review. We are happy to any contribution to the next newsletter.

Please, also visit our homepage. The adress is www.lm.se/fig5. A homepage can always be improved and please help us with that.

Dear readers,

As usual I will provide to you some short information concerning the activities from your chairman. I have worked again in full scale during the last half year. There has been a lot of work done by the commission since the last newsletter and I have personally participated to a lot of meetings, seminars and presented several papers regarding our professional activities.

In the following pages of this Newsletter you can read my reports about three different subjects namely:

• the meetings in France with our French colleagues Michel Kasser (WG 5.2) and Nicolas Paparoditis (WG 5.4) and their collaborators concerning their activities.
• a report from the ACCO meeting in Copenhagen January 2000.
• some thoughts concerning the co-operation with sister organisations like IAG

I actively represented our Commission in the following events:

• 83 Geodätentag, 1-3 September in Hannover, Germany. The annual Geodätentag is an unique event with the largest exhibition within our fields. The exhibition area as well as number of visitors is huge and it is an event that should not be missed byany of us. Several officers within the ACCO-group where there and we had an in-official meeting.
• 9^th FIG International Symposium on deformation Measurement 27-30^th September in Olsztyn, Poland. FIG Commission 6 organised the 9^th seminar in this serie. Even though it is sponsored by Commission 6 the presentations and discussions are very much dealing with the same problems that Commission 5 are involved with (instrumentation, reference frame, local networks, etc.)
• Geodesi-og-Hydrografidagene, 11 – 12 November 1999 in Hönefoss, Norway. Paper on Höydeproblematik sett med Nordiske Öyne (Height problems seen from Nordic perspective). It was a good opportunity to meet and discuss with our Norwegian C5 members and be informed about some of their problems.
• SLF’s Internationel Symposium in Sweden, Stockholm 21 March 2000. Paper on The International technical developments and their implications for the Land Surveyor. At the same occasion we had a meeting with FIG President Bob Foster who visited the Nordic countries and their member associations.
• I participated to the XIII International Course on Engineering Surveying in München March 13-17th. At that occasion I made a short presentation of the work of our Commission. This course was a real success especially the tutorials who preceded concerning the technical advances in Surveying. Hopefully in the future this course can be held in English so that more non-German can participate and hopefully other countries will follow this example and organise similar course in other regions as example Latin Amerika, Asia etc. At the same occasion FIG-WG 5.1 organised a meeting about their activities (see the report from H. Heister later). I also take the opportunity to have some interesting discussions with our Vice president Holger Magel, Michel Mayoud (C6) and all C5 members present at this event.
• 5. Norddeutschen Fachtagen, 30 March - 2 April 2000 in Neubrandenburg, Germany: Paper on Geodäsie im 3. Jahrtausend – Wohin gehen wir?(The Geodesy in the 2000 Millennium – Where are we going?). This purely German seminar was extremely interesting to follow because of the open forum discussions concerning the situation of the survey market, the profession and the surveyors (acting in the private and in official-public sectors) in Germany. Many of the problems are identical in most of the countries and connected to both the technical evolution, as globalisation, standardisation and automatisation and to the transition in the surveyor activities from classical capture of raw-data in the field to processing of information in real-time. It also appear claer that the surveyors need to be much more aggressive on the market and take over new type of work in a wider business area if they want to protect their own future.

Also Matt Higgins have been representing the commission at several occassions as e.g. the FIG-UN Roundtable in Melbourne the 27^th of October and 6th SE Asian Surveyors Congress, 1-5 November in Perth, Australia.

As you certainly have noticed we (Mikael and myself) have used a lot of time in the preparation of and representation at seminars, workshops etc. We are deeply involved in the technical organisation of the Malta Seminar (September 18-21) and for the time we have about 50 papers to be presented within 8 technical sessions. Still a lot of work has to be done before the final program can be published. I hope this can be done in Prague.

Our colleagues Naser el Sheimy (WG5.3) and Nicolas Paparoditis (WG 5.4) are also in full action for their seminars 2001 in Cairo and Paris. We have to support them as much as possible and contribute with presentations about our different activities. I also want in the future to participate and support as many regional seminars as possible. This is the best way to have direct contact with the reality, with the practitioners and of course also to meet all the people interested in our commission.

As mentioned earlier FIG C5 has obtained a official "liaison" position to ISO TC172/SC6 where several of our members are deeply involved in the standards work concerning different type of surveying instruments: EDM, levels, theodolites, electronic tacheometers, rotating lasers, etc.

During the last period our members have also published several articles, papers in international revues like GIM and POB concerning subjects C5 is working with.

Finally it is my hope that the work inside the different C5-WG’s will continue with the same intensity until the Congress 2002 in Washington where we have to publish the results of four years efforts. Before that we will actively participate to many events this year and prepare for 2001.

This report outlines some of the major activities of Working Group 5.5 on Reference Frame in Practice (WG5.5), during 1999 and plans for progress during 2000.

Several Working Group members, including the Chair (Paul Cross) and Vice Chair (Matt Higgins), attended the Commission 5 Conference in Gävle, Sweden in March on "Geodesy and Surveying in the Future: The importance of Heights". A Working Group meeting was held with good attendance by existing and interested new members.

The working group and its proposed products were outlined in a paper presented at the FIG Working Week 1999 in Sun City, South Africa, which was held from 29 May to 4 June. The emphasis in the paper was on presenting the concept of FIG Technical Fact Sheets on Reference Frame matters and Local Information Sheets describing the Reference Frame in different countries and/or Regions. For the paper, Paul Cross wrote an overview of WG5.5, Alan Dodson (University of Nottingham) and Matt Higgins drafted Technical Fact Sheets on Geoid and WGS84 respectively and Phil Davies (Ordnance Survey, UK) drafted a Local Information Sheet on the UK.

Both types of information vehicles presented were well received. The positive feedback indicates that this approach is useful for the practising surveyor and that work plans for the production of such fact sheets are well justified. In South Africa, several contacts were also made with people suitable to develop Local Information Sheets for their part of the world.

As acting Commission Chair in Sun City since Jean-Marie was not able to attend, Matt Higgins gave a report on Commission 5 to the Advisory Committee of Commission Officers (ACCO). That included an outline of the concept of FIG Fact Sheets proposed for Working Group 5.5. The Chair of Commission 4 (Hydrography) expressed interest in the Fact Sheet concept for his Commission.

On his way to the recent ACCO meeting in Copenhagen, Matt Higgins visited Paul Cross in London in January 2000. Paul and Matt were able to discuss steps required in 2000 to advance the WG5.5 Work Plan.

Paul has since developed draft web pages for WG5.5, which will be hosted at University College London. The web site outlines WG5.5 and publishes web based examples of the WGS84 Technical Fact Sheet and the Local Information Sheet on the UK (as in the Sun City paper).

Figure 1: WG5.5 Web Pages - "under construction"

Over coming months, the working group members will have an opportunity to discuss and refine the concept, suggest topics and begin developing more of these sheets. After that discussion, the web pages will go public by turning on a link from the main Commission 5 web site to the WG5.5 site. Interested readers are encouraged to check the Commission 5 web site for news of that link "going live".

The other activity on the horizon for WG5.5 is participation in the 2000 FIG Working Week to be held in May in Prague, Czech Republic. WG5.5 will present another paper and also plans to hold a meeting for any members or interested people attending the working week.

The chairman of C5 (J-M. Becker) was in France during two different occasions and had different meetings.

The first meeting took place in October 1999 when Jean-Marie had meetings with WG 5.4 members in Strasbourg and in Paris. The goal of these meetings was to discuss the work-plan and activities from WG 5.4 and to stimulate its members in this work.

A seminar was organised in Strasbourg at ENSAIS by Prof. Pierre Grüssenmeyer where Jean-Marie especially presented the activities of FIG C5. It was followed by discussion with Prof Grussenmeyer and his collaborators from ENSAIS concerning their ongoing projects and their possible involvement in WG 5.4. One of the projects concerns the creation of databanks of buildings where the capture of raw data is done with integrated methods. Others discussions made with Roger Schaffner concerned applications of ISO standards and the translation of technical terms into the French language.

The meeting in Paris at IGN together with Nicolas Paparoditis, chair of WG-5.4 concerned the whole activity work-plan for the WG. It was the first deep discussion on it and both participants were satisfied on the results. It was also decided that WG 5.4 should organise a workshop or seminar in France (Paris) during 2001 on the following subject: "Modern technologies for surveying in urban areas". This seminar should be a good opportunity to gather all French speaking surveyors from different specialities around an interesting common subject. It is our hope that the French colleagues will support Nicolas in his efforts. Unfortunately Michel Kasser could not participate to this meeting since he was forced to travel to Moscow on duty.

F

Figure: Matt, Jean-Marie, Nicolas and Michel.

The second meeting took place in January 2000 in Paris and it was a joint meeting with WG 5.2 and WG 5.4. Jean-Marie and Matt Higgins went to Paris after the FIG-ACCO meeting in Copenhagen. There was a full day meeting with Prof. Michel Kasser (WG 5.2) and Prof. Nicolas Paparoditis (WG 5.4) at IGN in Paris. Michel Kasser, newly nominated as leader for the French geodetic activities at IGN, made a presentation about his work plan for the future activities at the national level in France. During the day discussions the following subjects were on the agenda:

All participants agreed that these kinds of meetings are extremely helpful and benefit to the progress of the work inside our commission and for its WG. I believe that this is the best way to support and help our WGs.

We hope that you all have registered to FIG WW. All the details for FIG WW, including several of the papers to be presented can be found at www.fig2000.cz or www.fig.net. FIG WW will take place the 22nd to 26th of May in Prague.

FIG Commission 5 will contribute as usually in a good way and we have several papers to be presented as well as several business meetings. There will also be several other sessions organised by other commissions as well as several business meetings. The sessions that we are involved in are co-organised with commissions 4 and 6.

Mikael and Jean-Marie will both be staying in Hotel Ametyst, where the majority of FIG Bureau, commission chairs etc will stay. Matt Higgins has chosen Hotel Lunik. All three of us are scheduled to be in Prague during the whole week including the first weekend.

Monday 22nd of May:

14.00 - 17.00 FIG Commission 5 meeting. Open meeting for everyone!

Tuesday 23rd of May:

15.30 - 17.30: Sessions 2: Future Technologies (Chair: Michel Mayoud, C6)

Jaroslav Simek and Jan Kostelecky: Modern Geodetic Network and Datum in Europe
Nicolas Paparoditis: Integration of techniques for digital mapping
Michel Kasser: New modern height determination techniques
Naser El-Sheimy: Integrated systems and their impact in the future of positioning, navigation and mapping applications.
Alojz Kopacik: Trends of the highway tunnel building in Slovakia.

Tuesday 23rd of May:

17.30 - 19.30: Raisuv Sal

Wednesday 24th of May:

8.30 - 10.00 Session 4: Technical standards and quality (Chair: Jean-Marie Becker, C5)

Hansbert Heister, Vaclav Slaboch and Jean-Marie Becker: New technical standards improving the quality in positioning and measurement

Paul Cross, Matt Higgins and Roger Lott: Reference Frame in practice, The role of professional, scientific, standards and commercial organisation.

Otto Heunecke and Karl-Hans Klein: Aims and activities in German standardisation respective engineering surveys.

Sean Hinds: Quality in transition, a journey for CHS (Canadian hydrographic service).

Dan Sharni and Haim Papo: The Carmel Mountain Precise Geoid

10.15 - 12.30 Steering Committee meeting of FIG Commission 5 (SC5), room 11.

This was the first ACCO meeting to be held at the FIG Permanent office in Copenhagen and all commissions participated under the leadership of Prof. Holger Magel (FIG - Vice president). This was also the first time that Holger M. was chair of ACCO since Bob Foster now is President of FIG.

The following questions were discussed during the two-days.

Most of the work was done in 3 different working groups.

The results can be summarised as follow:

Tom Kennie (UK) presented the results from the "Task Force on the future governance of FIG". The draft was discussed. It appears that several questions need more discussions before the commissions can support them. It was agreed that the current administration with Task forces and Director, FIG/UN Liaison is unclear when discussing the responsibilities: as example interference’s between the Commission work plans and the requests/tasks given by the task forces. The financial impact on the FIG-organisation is still a very important factor that cannot be neglected if we want to be a more professional working organisation. Concerning the Commissions activities they may be revised continuously and updated so that new areas and projects can be started when needed on a regular base.

Coming FIG events like the FWW in Prague 2000, in Seoul 2001 and especially the Congress in Washington 2002 were also discussed. Mary Clawsons presentation on the current progress in the preparations was also discussed. Furthermore a lot of attention was focussed on FIG activities at regional level. It was noted that the Seminar in Malta is an excellent example of regional seminars.

The ACCO meeting provided opportunities for the different commission representatives to have both internal (chair and v. chair of the commission) and bilateral (between commissions) discussions regarding plans and activities. Jean-Marie used this occasion to discuss and update the technical part of the Malta seminar and the contributions from each commission.

Conclusions: After two days of discussions the ACCO members agreed the following:

The good thing with the ACCO meeting in Copenhagen was that the number of participants was limited which made it possible to have good discussions between the responsible for the execution of the FIG work plans (Bureau and Commissions). Fundamental questions related to the reorganisation, structure were debated and have not yet found their final solution.

The most important result is the official recognition of the importance of the commissions for FIG by the V-Pd. Holger Magel: "They are the spirit, the resources and the heart of FIG"

At the General Assembly in Sun City in June 1999 it was decided that FIG should terminate its membership with IUSM. Commissions 5 and 6 especially pointed out that these commissions believe that FIG should enter bilateral agreements with e.g. IAG (International Association of Geodesy). This because we have several members who are working actively in both organisations and because the organisations work plans covers very much the same topics but usually from different angels.

IAG decided at their General Assembly in Birmingham in July 1999 that they have a need to look over their structure to have a more efficient organisation to meet the demands that the members put on IAG as well as make IAG more attractive for new members. As a step, FIG has been asked to give their view on future co-operation between the organisations and the Bureau has asked the commissions to give their view on the matter. The following is taken from the answer that I gave from Commission 5 to FIG Bureau.

As most of you are aware of, Commission 5 members are also actively involved within IAG or other organisations like ISPRS, IAARC. Some of them even chair Working Groups in both IAG and FIG as Naser el Sheimy.

If the activities of the organisations (and their Working Groups) are complementary and for the common benefit of the End User (Surveyor) then it is positive and helpful. But this is not always the case, often they are dealing with the same (small) part of the subject and in a conflict situation which means only satisfaction for a small number of people in their work and no benefit for the surveyors.

This phenomena exist also inside FIG.

Since 1998, when I took over C5, I have taken contact with some of our sister organisations to clarify the action field of each, especially concerning the specific WG’s. I have discussed the item at several occasions (Vienna 1998, Gävle and Bangkok 1999) with responsible from IAG namely Klaus Peter Schwarz (Past President); Heribert Kahmen (S1-SC4), etc and also with responsible from ICA (Pd. Bengt Rystedt) and ISPRS (Pd. Lawrence Fritz and Secretary General John Trinder).

The following has been agreed:

IAG and ISPRS concentrate their efforts especially on the scientific/theoretical and FIG on the practical/implementation part.

This means that FIG is the link between the scientists, the developers and the end-users (the surveyors) by helping the surveyors to implement the new developed techniques, instruments, etc in their practical work. FIG should also inform the scientists about existing problems and stimulate them in their developing activities. FIG has to follow up the scientist activities so that they cover all end-users needs. Therefore FIG is also the voice and ambassadors for the.

This repartition between IAG/ISPRS and FIG is also quite normal regarding the origin of the members of each association. Very few surveyors (practitioners) are IAG or ISPRS members, their members are mostly University people or people from administrations.

For me it seams evident that we need co-operation between WG’s from each organisation or through Joint Working Group (JWG) on common project.

Therefore consultations between IAG and FIG are necessary before the creation of WG’s and at regular time interval (each year). This exchange of information and co-operation has to be done on the horizontal level between Commissions from FIG and IAG.

The work that we are doing within FIG-C5 and its WG’s are of high interest for IAG and collaboration and co-operation is absolutely necessary to help the surveyors. The best example is WG 5.5 (Chair Paul Cross) concerning "Reference Frame in Practise" where several items are common for IAG and WG-5.5. There exist also other areas common for IAG and C5 WGs and it should be greater collaboration between the organisations for the best purpose for the end-users.

The same discussion can of course also be made about other organisations as example ISPRS. It is essential that we are clear concerning the titles of objectives of our Working Groups so that it will not be any room for misunderstandings.

I have proposed that JWG’s be created on well-defined subjects for common action. The goal is practical (not only theoretical) solutions for the best use for the practitioners.

Note: As illustration from above Jean-Marie has taken contact with the IAG organisers of the International Symposium on Vertical Reference Systems, Cartagena, Colombia February 20-23, 2001 to offer them the collaboration from FIG-C5. We believe that FIG and IAG have to joint their efforts in this region of Latin America for the best of the surveyors in this region.

by Hansbert Heister

The XIII International Course on Engineering Surveying (Ingenieur-vermessung 2000) took place this time at the Technical University Munich and was organised by Prof. Dr.-Ing, K. Schnädelbach and Prof Dr.-Ing M. Schilcher, Geodetic Institute of the TUM. This course was first initiated in 1953 by Prof. Dr. Max Kneißl at the same Institute and is arranged every four years at the Technical Universities Zürich, Graz and Munich. For the first time the Course was supported by IAG and FIG and was as well Symposium of Commission 5 "Positioning and Measurement" and 6 "Engineering Surveys". The objective of this event is to give all in engineering surveys interested people the chance for further education in this field as well by theoretical contributions as well by reports on practical projects and instrumental developments.

This time the character of further training was emphasised by the following tutorials:

· Reference systems in position and height

· Application of modern methods in parameter estimation

· GPS in engineering surveys

· Digital signal and time series analysis

· Lab calibration of surveying instruments

· GIS in practical engineering

These tutorials were held in parallel sessions during Monday 13th and Tuesday 14th. The general interest was very high and the presentations of high quality.

The second part of the course started Wednesday 15th and expired on Friday 17th. During this time 26 invited papers were presented allocated to the following topics:

· Subject area A: Topical engineering projects

· Subject area B: Metrology and evaluation techniques

· Subject area C: Information systems and telematics

· Subject area D: Project and quality management

On Wednesday afternoon in a humorous atmosphere the organizer opened a poster session combined with an exhibition of geodetic and surveying instruments. This meeting, which encompassed 23 posters was accompanied by the icebreaker party and opened for everybody the possibility to exchange technical information and to enjoy Bavarian "Schmankerl" and beer.

Several posters and invited papers were contributed by FIG C5 members (Becker, Brunner, Gottwald, Heister, Ingensand, Maurer, Staiger, Sternberg, Takalo). Subject area D, which covers the scope of FIG WG 5.11, was organised by Heister and Staiger.

All presented papers and posters are published in Schnädelbach/Schilcher (Edts): Ingenieurvermessung 2000 – XIII. International Course on Engineering Surveying – Beiträge /Contributuions. Verlag Konrad Wittwer, Stuttgart, 2000 (DM 68:-) and were handed out to all participants (about 370 registered) already at the beginning of the congress.

Altogether it was a successful event, which did not only impart current and specialised knowledge but also left time enough for personal contacts. Congratulations to the organiser Prof. Dr. Schnädelbach and to all his people behind the scenes.

During the course we had a FIG meeting of Commission 5, which took place on Thursday noon and treated essentially the forthcoming events. But as well out of this we (Becker, Slaboch, Ingensand Heister Staiger, Maurer, etc.) had enough possibilities to treat FIG affairs. Jean-Marie Becker together with Michel Mayoud (chair of FIG Commission 6) also had a meeting with FIG Vice President Holger Magel at his office in Munich to discuss subjects concerning the technical commissions.

Several FIG Commissions will jointly organise a seminar on Malta during 18-21 September, 2000. The venue for the Seminar "The Mediterranean Surveyor in the new Millennium" will take place at the newly built Golden Tulip Vivaldi Hotel in St. Julians. Visitors to Malta are invariably struck by the rare sense of hospitality and friendliness of the Maltese people. The Maltese welcome the company of foreigners and being helpful to them comes naturally. They have an admirable sense of humour and like most Mediterranean people, tend to be rather jovial. These qualities endear the Maltese to the foreign visitor. The climate is warm and healthy. The temperature averages 15° C in Winter (November – April) and 32° C in Summer (May – October). Rain falls for only very short periods. The island is seldom too hot even in the height of summer as hot summer days and nights are regularly tempered by cool breezes from the sea. In September the sun shines for 10 hours and the sea temperature is normally about 25° C.

The seminar is a unique opportunity for surveyors to meet and discuss common problems and we believe that it is of great importance that everyone uses this opportunity. The program will cover the state-of-the-art for many of the working fields for a traditional surveyor as well as look forward to foresee where our occupation is heading. A number of distinguished international and national speakers will present and discuss their views in areas as education, standards, measuring techniques, engineering surveys, hydrography, land information and cadastre. We will focus mainly on the application view of these subjects. Even though the theme is Mediterranean Surveyors in the Future many of these questions are relevant to other areas around the world and we believe that any surveyor in the world will benefit from the interesting program in an excellent environment.

The technical presentations will run for almost three days (Monday — Wednesday) and the seminar ends with a technical tour. The presentations are divided in eight different sessions and the discussions focus on the surveyors role and activities in the future. Welcome addresses will be given by the President of the Malta Land Surveyors Society and the Chairman of the Technical Committee and the main speakers will be the President of FIG, The Minister for Works and the Environment and the Ambassador of the European Commission to Malta. FIG Commission 5 is responsible for the technical part of the seminar. The sessions will cover the following themes:

The workshop is for anyone who is interested in real-time and mobile mapping research and applications. The workshop will bring researchers, industry developers, users and those interested in Mobile Mapping Systems together to introduce the most recent technologies, exchange experiences and promote future research, development, and production.

The program is designed to promote information exchange among mobile mapping experts who are using the Global Positioning System (GPS), Inertial Navigation System (INS), and imaging sensors from a moving platform and who are merging positional data with attribute features for a Geographic Information System (GIS). Participants and attendees will come from local, regional and federal agencies, private industry and universities. The symposium will include plenary sessions with leaders in the field, and paper presentations on such topics as: data acquisition systems, sensor integration, sensor orientation and calibration, imaging systems, GPS/INS methodology for high accuracy, dynamic positioning, mobile mapping applications, and data integration in Precise Mobile Positioning and Navigation Applications.

The seminar will be held at Paradise Hotel in Cairo between January 3-5, 2001. Naser El-Sheimy is responsible for the technical program. Please contact him for more information. Details on how to contact him can be found on the last page of the Newsletter.

22-26 May, FIG Working Week, Prague, Czech Republic, Contact: Czech Union of Surveyors and Cartographers, Novotneho lavka 5, 116 68 Praha, Czech Republic Fax +420 2 210 82374 Email geodeti@csvts.cz

18-21 September, The Mediterranean Surveyors in the New Millennium, Malta, Contact: Mikael Lilje, National Land Survey, 801 82 Gävle, Sweden, Fax: +46 26 61 06 76 Email: mikael.lilje@lm.se. Nadia Polidano or Michelle Camilleri, The Land Surveyors’ Society – Malta, c/o Sky Apartments, Flat 13/16, 179, Marina Street PIETA – MSD 08, MALTA, Tel: ++356 237 914, Fax: ++356 251 040, Email: rcsltd@global.net.mt

Internet: www.lm.se/fig5

A joint seminar between several commissions within FIG will be held on Malta. Commission 5 is responsible for the technical program while Randolph Camilleri from Malta is responsible for the local organisation.

3-5 January, 3rd International Workshop on Mobile Mapping, Cairo, Egypt. Contact: Naser El-Sheimy, Department of Geomatics Engineering, The University of Calgary, 2500 University Dr. N.W., Calgary, Alberta T2N 1N4, Fax: (+1) 403 284 1980, Email: naser@ensu.ucalgary.ca

Internet homepage: http://www.ensu.ucalgary.ca/~nel-shei/MMT2001.htm

The 3rd International Workshop will be held in Cairo and more information can be found in a special article in this Newsletter.

Jean-Marie Becker chair fax: +46 26 61 07 76 email: jean-marie.becker@lm.se

Matt Higgins v. chair fax: +61 7 3891 5168 email: matt.higgins@dnr.qld.gov.au

matt.higgins@uq.net.au

Mikael Lilje secretary fax: +46 26 61 06 76 email: mikael.lilje@lm.se

Vaclav Slaboch chair fax: +420 2 685 7056 email: vaclav.slaboch@cuzk.cz

Hansbert Heister v. chair fax: +49 89 60 04-39 04 email: heister@glabse.bauv.unibw-muenchen.de

Michel Kasser chair fax: (+33) 2 4343 3102 email: kasser@esgt.cnam.fr

Hilmar Ingensand v. chair fax: (+41) 1 633 11 01 email: ingensand@geod.ethz.ch

Naser El-Sheimy chair fax: (+1) 403 284 1980 email: elsheimy@ensu.ucalgary.ca

Orhan Altan v. chair fax: email: oaltan@srv.ins.itu.edu.tr

Yang Gao v. chair fax: (+1) 403 284 1980 email: gao@ensu.ucalgary.ca

Nicolas Paparoditis chair fax: (+33) 1 43 98 85 81 email: nicolas.paparoditis@ign.fr

Paul Cross chair fax: +44 171 380 0453 email: paul.cross@ge.ucl.ac.uk

Matt Higgins v. chair fax: +61 7 3891 5168 email: matt.higgins@dnr.qld.gov.au

matt.higgins@uq.net.au