Ávarp umhverfis- og auðlindaráðherra á ársþingi Samtaka evrópskra landmælingamanna
Adress by Sigurður Ingi Jóhannsson Minister for The Environment and Natural Resources in Iceland
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is with great pleasure that I, on behalf of The Ministry for the Environment and Natural Resources in Iceland and the National Land Survey of Iceland, welcome you to the General Assembly of European Council of Geodetic Surveyors (CLGE), which is now held for the first time here in Iceland.
It has never been more important than now, to discuss the planning and arrangement of issues regarding geographic information and more and more people are becoming aware of the importance of this field. The use of geographic information is beginning to change the way in which global challenges such as climate change and disaster recovery situations are predicted, monitored and managed. One example is where public geographic data is used by emergency teams in rapidly changing environments, such as floods, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, enabling them to gain better and faster spatial awareness of disaster areas.
In those situations it is clear that access to geographic data and information still needs to be improved in many ways. The INSPIRE directive, that I believe you all know, is defining general rules aimed at building an infrastructure for spatial information in Europe and in Iceland we are currently working hard on the implementation of this directive. INSPIRE has already influenced the work of many national institutes that are engaged in geographic information and that also includes geodetic work.
As you probably know, surveying in Iceland can be a complicated task. During the current seismic and volcanic activities in the Bárðarbunga area, that have now been going on for more than a month, the GPS-measured horizontal movements are now up to 60 cm in west-east direction close to the rifting zone and the vertical subsidence of the ice surface inside the subglacial caldera already amounts to more than 25 meters. In the area of monitoring nature, Icelanders must make special effort in the geodetic field and to do such monitoring with high accuracy good geodetic reference systems are key issues.
Thus far the main focus of surveying in Iceland has been on building up and maintaining our geodetic networks but much less on land registration and cadastre which are the main tasks for many of you elsewhere in Europe. I have however learned from my colleagues at the National Land Survey, that with your support we will start to work towards better regulations and stronger land surveyor profession. For that we are very thankful.
Finally, I hope that you'll enjoy your stay in Iceland, get to see some of our ever changing nature and that your work in this General Assembly will be both interesting and effective. Thank you
It is with great pleasure that I, on behalf of The Ministry for the Environment and Natural Resources in Iceland and the National Land Survey of Iceland, welcome you to the General Assembly of European Council of Geodetic Surveyors (CLGE), which is now held for the first time here in Iceland.
It has never been more important than now, to discuss the planning and arrangement of issues regarding geographic information and more and more people are becoming aware of the importance of this field. The use of geographic information is beginning to change the way in which global challenges such as climate change and disaster recovery situations are predicted, monitored and managed. One example is where public geographic data is used by emergency teams in rapidly changing environments, such as floods, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, enabling them to gain better and faster spatial awareness of disaster areas.
In those situations it is clear that access to geographic data and information still needs to be improved in many ways. The INSPIRE directive, that I believe you all know, is defining general rules aimed at building an infrastructure for spatial information in Europe and in Iceland we are currently working hard on the implementation of this directive. INSPIRE has already influenced the work of many national institutes that are engaged in geographic information and that also includes geodetic work.
As you probably know, surveying in Iceland can be a complicated task. During the current seismic and volcanic activities in the Bárðarbunga area, that have now been going on for more than a month, the GPS-measured horizontal movements are now up to 60 cm in west-east direction close to the rifting zone and the vertical subsidence of the ice surface inside the subglacial caldera already amounts to more than 25 meters. In the area of monitoring nature, Icelanders must make special effort in the geodetic field and to do such monitoring with high accuracy good geodetic reference systems are key issues.
Thus far the main focus of surveying in Iceland has been on building up and maintaining our geodetic networks but much less on land registration and cadastre which are the main tasks for many of you elsewhere in Europe. I have however learned from my colleagues at the National Land Survey, that with your support we will start to work towards better regulations and stronger land surveyor profession. For that we are very thankful.
Finally, I hope that you'll enjoy your stay in Iceland, get to see some of our ever changing nature and that your work in this General Assembly will be both interesting and effective. Thank you