2021 Digital Edition of the XXIV ISPRS Congress completed successfully
The 2021 Edition of the XXIV ISPRS took place online from July 5 – 9, 2021. While the 2020 digital meeting was basically a set of scientific presentations, this year’s event had nearly all features of a complete congress. In particular, the event included an opening session, a total of seven exciting keynotes, demonstrating the breadth and scientific depth of our field of work, and various awards ceremonies to honour those who have showed truly outstanding performance which has a lasting impact. A live science track with the best congress submissions, interactive poster sessions, and a technology track and a digital exhibition demonstrated the latest progress in our field, in both science and development, in academia and in industry. Two fora brought together different stakeholders, from within and beyond ISPRS, to discuss some of the most important applications of photogrammetry, remote sensing and geospatial information. Finally, on Friday, a geo-lecture day with various one-hour tutorials was held, which attracted a large number of participants as well.
Earth observation, space imagery and their use for science and society at large was a major topic of a number of key notes. Emanuel Flory from Airbus, introduced the Pléiades Neo constellation with four satellites, exhibiting a spatial ground resolution of 0,3 m. Airbus also asked ISPRS to organise an independent working group to independently assess the quality of the Pléiades Neo imagery and to report its results at the Nice Congress in summer 2022. Space imagery was also at the centre of the presentation by Claudio Almeida, from the Brazilian Space Agency INPE. Claudio presented the large and successful efforts INPE has carried out during the last two decades, to document and monitor vegetation and deforestation in the Amazon and other parts of Brazil. A.S. Kiran Kumar, the former chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation ISRO, reported on the Indian space programme and demonstrated its sustained success in linking the latest technology with the needs and desires of the common man. Sara Gallagher, an advisor to the Canadian Space Agency, discussed the important role of earth observation for sustainable development and presented Canada’s contributions to space imagery, the Radarsat satellite and the new Radarsat constellation.
The relationship of photogrammetry, remote sensing, spatial information sciences and computer vision / computer graphics and their link to artificial intelligence, machine learning and big data were other overarching topics of the digital event at large, and the keynotes, in particular. Marc Pollefeys from ETH Zürich discussed new possibilities of the hololens, a portable device to interactively mix human and virtual vision, resulting in new and fascinating augmented reality applications. Christoph Stiller, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, on the other hand, presented the current status of autonomous driving and, in particular, pointed out the relevance of geospatial data in this context – predicting safe traffic actions is only possible with precise knowledge the geometry of the lanes ahead, combined with traffic rules and thus admissible actions to be expected by other traffic participants.
Finally, Chenghu Zhou from the Chinese Academy of Sciences demonstrated the contribution of geospatial sciences and geospatial data in documenting, mitigating and overcoming health pandemics such as Covid 19. He clearly showed that mapping the distribution of the disease over time, detecting spatial and temporal infection patterns, investigating chains of infection, determining and tracking physical distances, as well as predicting future outbreaks based on mobility data all critically depend on data and tools made available by our community.
This topic was also in the centre of one of the fora, organised by Fazlay Faruque, University of Mississippi, and Laurent Polidori, Federal Rural University of Amazonia (formerly CESBIO/CNRS Toulouse) on “Geo for Pandemics”, in which experts from space agencies, the health sector and the geospatial field from around the world presented and discussed the overlap of the different fields in an attempt to define a roadmap for ISPRS to follow in the years to come.
The second forum, entitled “Towards Transformational Change: Potential Contributions of ISPRS and the Role of the Youth in Sustainable Development”, was organised by the ISPRS Student Consortium under the leadership of Sheryl Rose Reyes, University of the United Nations, together with Adele Roccato and Pierre Boileau, both from UNEP, the United Nations Development Programme. It featured, in particular, the GEO-6 for Youth report of UNEP, showing ways to limit and mitigate the effects of climate change, principally addressing the young generation.
During the first three days, the meeting featured a live track with the best papers accepted by the five ISPRS commissions after a rigorous double-blind peer-review process. In addition, pre-recorded videos of all accepted submissions were constantly available during the event. While, as usual, the papers are published in the ISPRS Annals and Archives proceedings series, the videos will be added to the ISPRS Media Library in the near future, and will thus also be available to the community. These videos form one new set of ISPRS assets, developed in, and due to the pandemic crisis. Another advantage of the online meeting was that participants around the world were able to join the congress, as there were of course no travel and accommodation costs, and the registration fee was kept to the absolute minimum; it was only necessary to have access to a suitable internet connection. As a result, scientists, practitioners and students from around the world, who would never have had a chance to participate in a traditional style ISPRS meeting, were able to join the digital edition of the congress. In all, this digital edition attracted 670 participants from 50 + countries with up to 470 per day.
Nevertheless, networking and informal communication, which is another key part of such meetings, were not possible in the same way as when meeting in person. Therefore, we would like to wholeheartedly invite you to attend the face-to-face edition of the XXIV Congress next summer and we do hope to see you in Nice during June 6 -11, 2022.
Christian Heipke, ISPRS President
Nicolas Paparoditis, ISPRS Congress Director
The ISPRS Foundation (TIF) News
Position Available: The ISPRS Foundation (TIF) Operations Officer
The ISPRS Foundation (TIF) Board of Trustees is seeking expressions of interest for the Operations Officer position to replace John Trinder, whose term on the Board of Trustees has expired. Please consider applying for this position if you have enthusiasm for …. Read more here.
ISPRS Student Consortium News
The Youth Forum Track in the 2021 Digital Edition of the ISPRS Congress
In this years’ digital edition of the ISPRS Congress, the ISPRS Student Consortium (ISPRS SC) organized several events under the Youth Forum track. Our mentees for the ISPRS SC Leadership and Service Mentoring Programme joined us in organizing and hosting these events!
ISPRS Educational and Capacity Building Initiatives 2022
In accordance with the statutory mission and activities of ISPRS, the Society shall provide funds to support educational and capacity building initiatives, which will further improve its international status in education and training in the field of the photogrammetry, remote sensing and spatial information sciences, and will therefore benefit all ISPRS members. For 2022, the ISPRS Council is making up to SFr. 70,000 available to support winning projects under the educational and capacity building initiatives. The maximum funding assigned to any one project shall be SFr. 10,000 per annum. Projects should commence on January 1, 2022 and typically last up to 12 months. In exceptional cases, applications for projects lasting up to 24 months will be considered. Projects of greater than one-year duration will be subject to annual review before subsequent funding will be released.
ISPRS Working Group Officers are invited to submit applications to their respective Technical Commission President by the deadline below, using the template provided (download the template here as MS-Word / PDF). The submission must be compiled in one PDF document. Further details, including information on the topics and the application process, are available in Appendix 9 of the Orange Book at: http://www.isprs.org/documents/orangebook/app9b.aspx
All applications will be reviewed based on the following criteria:
Overall Benefits to ISPRS and its Community
Merit of the Proposal
Competence of the Team
Contribution to Education and Capacity Building
Budget and Feasibility
Any queries should be addressed to the ISPRS Treasurer, Songnian Li, at isprs-tr@isprs.org.
Timeline
Announcement of Scientific Initiatives: June 15, 2021.
Deadline for submission of proposals from WG Officers to TCPs: November 1, 2021.
Deadline for submission of recommendation from TCPs to ISPRS Treasurer: November 22, 2021.
Announcement of successful awards by Council: December 15, 2021.
Funding available from: January 1, 2022.
A report on the assessment of the Scientific Initiatives and Education and Capacity Building Initiatives projects have just been received from ISPRS Science Advisory Committee (ISAC). A short summary of ISAC’s recommendations is included in ISAC Recommendations on SI and ECBI Projects, which should provide additional guidance to the preparation of proposals. In addition, two thematic sessions on SI and ECBI initiatives will be organized on July 8, 2021 during 2021 ISPRS Virtual Congress. You are welcome to attend these sessions to learn more about the ISPRS initiative program.
ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information – Associate Editors
To maintain the high quality of the published papers and to respond to the increasing number of submissions we are pleased to announce the appointment of associate editors for the journal. We have identified 11 main areas that cover the scope of our journal. For every area an associate editor will
Manage the editorial process for papers submitted to the Journal in the respective areas under the leadership of the Editor-in-Chief,
Ensure high quality scientific content for the Journal,
Work closely with the Guest Editors of special issues in the respective area, and
Work closely with the Editor-in-Chief and the Publisher on matters of the Journal's strategic directions and manuscript decisions.
Six of the positions have already been filled; the open positions will be filled in the near future. We welcome the new associate editors and wish them much success.
Spatial Data Modeling
Sisi Zlatanova
Spatial Data Management
vacant
Spatial Analysis and Decision Making
vacant
Geospatial Artificial Intelligence
Maria Brovelli
Cartography
vacant
Spatial Data Infrastructures
vacant
Geospatial Web
Huayi Wu
Citizen Science, Crowd Sourcing and Volunteered Geographic Information
Wei Huang
Location Based Services and Trajectory Analysis
vacant
Urban Informatics, Smart Cities and Communities
Mingshu Wang
Advanced Geospatial Applications
Godwin Yeboah
ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information Impact Factor on the Rise
We are pleased to inform that the latest Impact Factor (2020) for the ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information is 2.899, increasing from 2.239 in 2019. Our Impact Factor has maintained its positive tendency of growth for 5 consecutive years!
Journal Impact Factor (2020): 2.899;
5-Year Impact Factor (2020): 2.971;
CiteScore (2020): 4.6;
Ranking in Q1 (76/704) in the category 'Geography, Planning and Development', Scopus;
Ranking in Q1 (27/106) in the category 'Earth and Planetary Sciences (miscellaneous)', Scopus;
Ranking in Q1 (13/52) in the category 'Computers in Earth Sciences’, Scopus;
Ranking in Q2 (76/162) in the category 'Computer Science, Information System', Web of Science;
Ranking in Q2 (23/50) in the category 'Geography, Physical', Web of Science;
Ranking in Q3 (19/32) in the category 'Remote Sensing', Web of Science.
Last Call for Papers
Special Issue "GIS in Healthcare" ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information
The entire healthcare sector, including health businesses, academia, and policy makers, is facing a challenge to become more efficient by reducing costs while reaching out to a broader range of communities. GIS is a proven tool for improving efficiency and planning in different areas of healthcare. From non-critical applications, such as primary care or preventive care, to critical situations, such as emergency care or organ replacement, GIS is increasingly being utilized to develop better business models and make lifesaving decisions. This Special Issue of IJGI is expected to serve as a knowledge exchange platform presenting the latest advancements in GIS applications in a dynamic healthcare landscape.
Visit the following link to submit your manuscript.
Mary Ann Kutny, Deputy Director of International and Interagency Affaires Division, NOAA, has taken over the position of Chair of ICORSE from her predecessor, Yana Gevorgyan (also from NOAA).
ISPRS congratulates Mary Ann on her new position and looks forward to continuing the fruitful collaboration of the past. We also thank Yana for her work chairing ICORSE, and wish her all the best for the future.
General Announcements
The GeoUnions Standing Committee on Disaster Risk Reduction
Recent devastating floods in Germany and Heatwaves in Northern America, especially in Canada, showed us that Disasters (Disaster Risk Reduction, DRR) are one of the most important research items of the future. It has also proven that the Government and society must prepare better for these types of events.
The GeoUnions Standing Committee on Disaster Risk Reduction (ISC-GU-SC-DRR) was established in July 2020, initiated and led by Prof. Orhan Altan, who was nominated by International Science Council (ISC) GeoUnions Steering Committee and ISPRS. The newly established Committee seeks to strengthen the long-standing ISC leadership in advancing DRR. It also honours the ISC’s (former ICSU’s) role in the preparation of world conferences on DRR. The Committee will work to:
Facilitate communications amongst international geoscience bodies, governmental and non-governmental organizations to identify, support, and advance initiatives to implement the Sendai Framework through interdisciplinary action.
Coordinate and support implementation initiatives for disaster risk management in accord with the principles and goals of the Sendai Framework.
Organize conferences and workshops at a regional and global level to advance disaster risk management initiatives.
Advise on the rationale and role that science should play in disaster risk management and work to strengthen that rationale and role.
Increase the awareness and action by the GeoUnions in Disaster Risk Reduction and the implementation of the Sendai Framework as further defined by the ISC report and focus that interest through the publications of the periodic reports on its progress.
Seek for proper financing to continue its activities. The Committee will work with the ISC and possible other donors and/or agencies to consider options for adequate funding.
Release statements on DRR from time to time on changing situations.
The Committee Membership will include a maximum of 10 regular voting members. The representatives of the GeoUnions will comprise the sustaining members. The following GeoUnions are represented:
International Astronomical Union (IAU)
International Cartographic Association (ICA)
International Geographical Union (IGU)
International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS)
International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG)
International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS)
International Union of Quaternary Research (INQUA)
International Union of Radio Sciences (URSI)
International Union of Soil Sciences (IUSS)
The latest developments, especially the Covid-19 spread in the world and recent major environmental problem that occurred in Istanbul and around the Marmara Sea off coast alarmed the Committee to publish Policy Briefs to the Governments, Decision Makers and International Institutions, Communities on how to react to these disasters.
Orhan ALTAN
Chair of the ISC GUSC DRR
Major new Geomatics Publication by Mathias Lemmens
Lemmens has a long record of developing and teaching courses at DUT Netherlands, Department of Earth Observation Science, University of Twente, NL and IIT Kanpur, India. With over 35 years of academic experience he is an appreciated teacher and valued communicator.
Announcements of Scientific Meetings
(see also
ISPRS Calendar)
Save the Date – Next ISPRS Virtual Keynote: 30 September 2021 at 12 noon UTC
The next Virtual Keynote Speaker is Prof. Dr. Arzu Çöltekin, from the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland FHNW. The title of her Keynote is Human cognition and visuo-spatial information: Experiments in visualization and virtual reality.
Title: Human cognition and visuo-spatial information: Experiments in visualization and virtual reality
Abstract: In this talk, Prof. Çöltekin shares various research perspectives on human factors in visualization, virtual reality, photogrammetry and remote sensing. Example projects are highlighted on route learning in the context of navigation, specifically by older adults, and a visual illusion in depth perception in shaded relief maps and satellite images.
Bio: Prof. Dr. Arzu Çöltekin works at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland's Institute for Interactive Technologies as a Professor of Human-Computer Interaction and Extended Reality. She is also a research affiliate at the Seamless Astronomy group in the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics of the Harvard University in Cambridge, USA, which specializes in scientific data analysis and visualization. Dr. Çöltekin chairs the international Geovisualization, Augmented and Virtual Reality working group of the ISPRS; co-chair the Commission on Visual Analytics of the ICA, and a council member with the International Society of Digital Earth.
Further information will be available closer to the date.
The CODATA RDA - Research Data Science Summer School
6 September - 5 November 2021
An ICTP Virtual meeting
Trieste, Italy
Given the fully virtual format of the Data School this year, it is a significant opportunity for Early Career Researchers to get an introduction to core data skills.
This year's event is hosted virtually by the ICTP and supported by the FAIRsFAIR Project.
The deadline for applications is 27 July 2021: http://indico.ictp.it/event/9638/
Applications are open for this year’s Summer School, providing Early Career Researchers (at MSc-level to 3 years post PhD) and Data Professionals (registering via ITU Academy) with the necessary set of foundational Data Science skills to enable them to analyse their data in an efficient and effective manner for the 21st century.
The material covered is fundamental to all areas of Data Science and is therefore open to researchers from all disciplines dealing with significant amounts of data. The focus is to provide a practical introduction to the topics with extensive labs and seminars.
The School will be run on an online basis and participants will be given a week to complete each topic. Participants will need to allow at least 7 to 8 hours to work through the content of the topic. The content also provides practical exercises and at least one live question and answer session where facilitators will address any issues the participants may have. Content will be provided as video lectures as well as presentation slides.
Topics: Open Science and Responsible Conduct of Research; Introduction to Unix Shell; Programming for Analysis; Git; Research Data Management; Author Carpentry; Data Visualisation; Information Security; Machine Learning; Computational Infrastructures.
Participation for selected candidates is free. The Data School is open for all Early Career Researchers (ECRs). Thanks to support from FAIRsFAIR and our hosts at ICTP, applications from ECRs from European and from Low and Middle Income Countries are particularly encouraged.
Application and further information http://indico.ictp.it/event/9638/ – Deadline 27 July 2021.
Closing Soon! CODATA Call for Task Group Proposals: deadline 12 July
The CRSS-SCT was deeply saddened to learn that Dr. Douglas J. King passed away 12 May 2021. As Professor at Carleton University who had just retired in 2019, Doug was a pioneer in airborne remote sensing and applications, an outstanding teacher, supervisor and mentor, and a friend to many. Our deepest condolences to Doug’s family.
La CRSS-SCT est profondément attristée d'apprendre le décès du Dr Douglas J. King, le 12 mai 2021. Professeur à la retraite depuis 2019 de l'Université Carleton, Doug était un pionnier de la télédétection aéroportée et de ses applications, un enseignant, un superviseur et un mentor hors pair, et un ami pour beaucoup. Nos plus sincères condoléances à la famille de Doug.
08 Jun 2021
CYBERCARTOGRAPHY
A Beyond State-of-the-Art Role of Geovisualization in the Understanding of the World http://cybercarto.ntua.gr/events/agile2021/
Chania, Crete, Greece (virtual event)
07-08 Feb 2022
Measurement, Visualisation and Processing in BIM for Design and Construction Management II http://www.mvpbim2022.com
Prague, Czech Republic
Remote Sensing and Ecohydraulics Post-doc
River Dynamics Laboratory at Simon Fraser University, Burnaby BC, Canada
9-Jul-2021
Lecturer / Associate Professor in Marine Geospatial Science
Department of Civil, Environmental & Geomatic Engineering, UCL, London, UK
Deadline: 15-Aug-2021
9-Jul-2021
Position on Machine Learning with a focus on optical remote sensing (Pre or Post-Doc)
Institute of Geodesy und Photogrammetry (IGP), Technical University Braunschweig, Germany
Deadline: 31-Aug-2021
15-Jul-2021
PhD Candidate "Deep Learning for Mapping Glacier Areas, Surface Characteristics and Mass Balance"
ITC Faculty, University of Twente, The Netherlands
Deadline: 31-Aug-2021
15-Jul-2021
PDeng position in Smart Utility Registration
Faculty of Engineering Technology, University of Twente, The Netherlands
Deadline: 16-Aug-2021
