FIG Article of the Month

Article of the Month in 2013

FIG publishes each month the Article of the Month. This is a high-level paper focusing on interesting topic to all surveyors. This article can be picked up from an FIG conference or another event or it can be a paper written directly for this purpose.

December - 2013 - John Hannah, New Zealand: Climate Change and Responsible Governance: The Role of Surveyors in Assisting Small Island Developing States. This paper was presented in a plenary session at the Pacific Region Small Island Developing States Symposium, 18-20 September 2013 in Suva, Fiji. The paper discuss how surveyors can contribution to the issues of climate change and responsible governance, particularly as they affect Small Island Developing States (SIDS). The paper reflects some of the work the FIG Task Force on Climate Change has been undertaking since it was established in 2010. John Hannah is chair and at the FIG Congress 2014 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia the task force will deliver a final report.
November - 2013 - Giselle Byrnes, New Zealand: Boundary Makers: Land Surveying in nineteenth-century New Zealand. This paper is a historical outline of the early land surveyors importance to the history of New Zealand, as they were among the advance guard of European settlers to walk the land and assess its potential for future development. Surveyors around the world are struggling with many current challenges. However, this article gives you a possibility to reflect about the impact of surveyors through history in the development and mapping of societies. The paper is a historical outline of the early land surveyors importance to the history of New Zealand, as they were among the advance guard of European settlers to walk the land and assess its potential for future development. We are pleased to share this paper with you since FIG Institution for the History of Surveying and Measurement organises a very special trip, conference and event on Charting and Mapping the Pacific Paradise of the Pitcairners at Norfolk Island, (an island half way between Australia and New Zealand), 6-10 July 2014: Invitation and program.
October - 2013 - Pasi Häkli, Ulla Kallio Jyrki Puupponen, Finland: From Passive to Active Control Point Networks – Evaluation of Accuracy in Static GPS Surveying. This peer reviewed paper was presented at FIG Working Week in Abuja, Nigeria, 8 May 2013 and evaluates the accuracy of static GPS surveying through active stations with regard to the official passive control point networks in EUREF-FIN.
September - 2013 - Frank F. K. Byamugisha, World Bank: Improving Land Governance for Development: Opportunities and Challenges for the Survey Profession. This paper is an annotated version of a keynote addressed by Frank Byamugisha from the World Bank at the FIG Working Week, 6-10 May 2013 in Abuja, Nigeria. The central message of the paper is that surveyors and other land professionals have an important role to play in improving land governance in Africa, which is critical to unlocking the continent’s potential of abundant land to end extreme poverty and boost shared prosperity. For further information about land administration and reforms in Sub-Saharan Africa, Frank Byamigisha has just published the book Securing Africa's Land for Shared Prosperity. Download the book here.
August - 2013 - Gary Strong, Alexander Aronsohn and Ben Elder, United Kingdom: Innovative Approaches to Spatially Enabling Land Administration and Management. This paper was presented at the FIG Working Week, 6-10 May 2013 in Abuja, Nigeria. This paper explores how, with only a small amount of investment, the development and implementation of internationally agreed and recognised measurement standards will support an improved market efficiency and providing a wide range of beneficial tools to decision makers.
July - 2013 - Solomon Haile, Ombretta Tempra and Remy Sietchping, UN-habitat, Kenya: Towards a capacity development Framework for Land Plocy in Africa. The article discusses the Land Policy Initiative (LPI) and how relevant activities are planned and implemented to think through and develop strategies and road maps that will culminate into the development of a coherent, unified and cutting edge Capacity Development Framework (CDF). LPI Capacity Development was a sub theme at the Working Week 2013. The LPI was discussed at the GLTN/Director General forum which were spread over 4 sessions during the Working Week and furthermore there was a special session on Africa LPI Capacity Development where Solomon Haile presented the proposed Africa LPI Capacity Development initiative.
June - 2013 - Paul Munro-Faure and Andrew Hilton, FAO, Italy: Building on the consensus: FAO’s first twelve months after endorsement of the Voluntary Guidelines on Responsible Governance of Tenure. In May 2012 the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security, which represent an unprecedented international agreement on the governance of tenure, and place secure access to land, fisheries and forests firmly in the context of food security, was officially endorsed. This paper describes the first twelve months of the FAO work, with its partners, in developing and implementing a programme for making improved governance of tenure a reality. FIG is co-organising a Pacific Small Island Developing States Symposium at Fiji, 18-20 September 2013 addressing the specific challenges for the Pacific area as a follow up on the SIDS (Small Island Developing States and the Millennium Development Goals) Agenda for Action, started at the FIG Congress 2010 in Sydney.
May 2013 - Ismail Ojetunde, Nigeria: Revisiting the Interaction between the Nigerian Residential Property Market and the Macroeconomy. This paper is a Nigerian Peer Review paper, which was presented at FIG Working Week 2013, 6-10 May, in Abuja, Nigeria. Like last month article, this paper also highlight one of the challenges Nigerian surveyors are dealing with, namely the Nigerian property market. At the conference many papers highlighted the current challenges Nigerians surveyors are faced with, but also international challenges. You can find the papers here.
April 2013 - Iyenemi Ibimina Kakulu, Simeon Igbara, Isaac Akuru and Nekabari Paul Visigah, Nigeria: Land Access and Community Entry Challenges in Environmental Surveys Selected cases from Nigeria. This paper is a Nigerian Peer Review paper, which will be presented at FIG Working Week 2013 -6-10 May, in Abuja, Nigeria. We are pleased to share this Peer Review paper with you already now prior the conference to highlight one of the challenges that Nigerian surveyors are dealing with, namely land access restrictions. Together with UNEP, the authors have undertaken a comprehensive environmental survey of several communities in the Niger Delta region, and their findings and methods are interesting not only in Nigeria but can be used in countries all over the world. At the conference you will be presented to many further papers both from Nigeria, Africa, and Internationally, that highlight the current challenges for surveyors.
March 2013 - Peter Van Oosterom, Christiaan Lemmen and Harry Ultermark, The Netherlands: Land Administration Standardization with focus on Evidence from the Field and Processing of Field Observations. The 'Land Administration Domain Model (LADM)' was approved as an official International ISO Standard a on 1 November 2012, a milestone for FIG. The proposal for this standard was submitted by FIG to ISO almost five years ago. LADM defines terminology for land administration, based on various national and international systems that is as simple as possible in order to be useful in practice. LADM covers the compete domain, surveying included.It is highly relevant that documented field surveys can be included, in combination with reconstructable adjustments to the spatial database.
February 2013 - Michael Barry, Richard Molero and Abdel-Rahman Muhsen, Canada: Evolutionary Land Tenure Information System Development: The Talking Titler Methodology. This article was presented at the 8th FIG Regional Conference, 26-29 November 2012 in Montevideo Uruguay. The authors argue that conventional land registration systems often do not produce the desired results in uncertain land tenure situations such as peri-urban areas in developing world cities, post-conflict situations, land restitution cases and aboriginal lands. They introduce a methodology “The Talking Titler” system. The methodology was conceived in South Africa, and has recently been tested in Canada and Nigeria.
January 2013 - Msc. Ing. Raquel SOSA, Msc. Ing. Agrim. Rosario CASANOVA, Facultad de Ingeniería and Ing. Agrim. Jorge FRANCO, Dirección Nacional de Topografía, Uruguay: gvSIG Batoví an Educational GIS.The paper summarises a keynote presentation given at the 8th FIG Regional Conference, Montevideo, Uruguay, 27 November 2012 and describes a comprehensive and impressive Uruguayan project called "Plan Ceibal". All school children have received a free lap top, and a software to manage geographic information has been developed, implemented and used at all Uruguayan schools. At the same time the project shows a remarkable cooperation between different Uruguayan organisations.