GIS@development May - June 1999; GIS Forum South Asia'99

The first ever conference on GIS in South Asia "GIS Forum South Asia’99" was organised jointly by ICIMOD and CSDMS during April 15-16, 1999 at Kathmandu, Nepal. The overall objective of the conference was to develop the consensus on developing the National Spatial Data Infrastructures (NSDIs) in the countries of the region and to integrate them into a regional level information infrastructure.

His Royal Highness Dipendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev, the Crown Prince of Nepal, inaugurated the conference. This prestigious conference attracted over 500 professionals in the fields of Remote Sensing, GIS and GPS from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Senior experts from USA, Canada, Europe and Middle East also participated in the conference.

An exhibition on GIS, GPS and Remote Sensing technologies was also organised parallel to the conference. The exhibition, which was inaugurated by His Highness Dipendra Bir Bikram Shah attracted participation from top companies in the field from Nepal, India, Middle East, USA and Europe. The exhibitors include FINMAP, GeoSpatial, ICIMOD, Department of Mines from Nepal; National Informatics Centre and Central Pollution Control Board, Government of India; SPOT IMAGE France, and Intergraph, Dubai. The conference was supported and sponsered by Tata Infotech Ltd., India and United Nations Environmental Programme.

Dr. Egbert Pelinck, the Director General of ICIMOD, welcomed the participants and urged them to take the initiative to develop a consensus on the concept of Regional Geographic Information Infrastructure (RGII) in this part of the globe. Dr. M. P. Narayanan, President, Centre for Spatial Database Management and Solutions congratulated Nepal in liberalisisng its map policy, paving the way for rapid development of GIS applications for improving the quality of life of the masses.

Hon’ble Mr. Prithvi Raj Ligal, Vice Chairman, Planning Commission, Nepal, Hon’ble Mr. Ramesh Nath Pandey, Minister, Environment and Population, Nepal also graced the occasion by their presence. Mr. Promod Pradhan, Head, MENRIS-ICIMOD, presented the vote of thanks on the occasion.

During two days of the conference over 40 technical papers were presented by several experts. The papers presented were broadly on NSDI, GIS and Human Resource Development, Disaster Management, Technology Issues in GIS, Natural Resource Management, Mountain Environment, Infrastructure Planning, RGII for South Asia, etc. Two panel discussions were also organised, on GIS Technology Trends for the New Millennium and RGII for South Asia.

It was resolved to launch GIS Regional Discussion Forum on the Internet. These discussions will be email-based so as to maximize opportunities for participation by those with limited Internet access. Occasionally, specific topic/dialogues for a certain period would be chosen such as RGII, Human Development, Software issues, Data access etc., exclusively pertinent to GIS, upon which discussion would be held intensively thereby giving room for electronic conferences. The service was started on May 1, 1999. For subscribing to this discussion forum, one can write to majordomo@icimod.org.np.

The GIS Forum was preceded by a three-day awareness-cum training programme on GIS/GPS and RS technologies for project leaders, project managers and other senior executives. The programme provided the latest information on GIS and RS technologies and their application to various disciplines, including hands-on exercise on the use of GIS and RS technologies for planning and decision making.

Recommendations of GIS Forum South Asia’99

The GIS Forum South Asia ‘99 strongly recommends that the GIS Forum South Asia should be a continuous activity in the South Asia. The ‘Forum’ shall be headquartered at Kathmandu, Nepal. ICIMOD, Nepal and CSDMS, India shall take the responsibility to co-ordinate this activity.
The GIS Forum South Asia will be an annual event in one of the South Asian countries.
Formation of a GIS Forum South Asia has been felt in the Region to increase the interaction among various stakeholders, to cooperate in the development of Regional Geographic Information Infrastructure (RGII), to promote any other form of activity such as education, training, and technology transfer and to share experiences and consult on matters of common interest
The conference resolves that it will support the national/transnational initiatives, in particular of United Nations Regional Cartographic Conference (UNRCC), ESCAP Regional Space Applications Program for Sustainable Development, The GRID program, the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG), The International Federation of Surveyors (FIG) and the International Steering Committee for Global Mapping and International Geographical Union (IGU).
The conference also resolves to promote research, training and technology exchange of geographical information for the benefit of social, economic and environmental objectives of member nations of South Asian region. It will define the nature of a regional geographic information infrastructure which each country in the region can make available to meet regional mapping requirements. Efforts will be made to define a framework for the documentation of the status of fundamental data sets and key agencies in each member nation, and for the exchange of such information and also to design a strategy for the development of regional geodetic and topographic databases as the foundation of regional GIS activity.