WORLD GEOSPATIAL INFORMATION CONGRESS

Recently, it was announced that the second United Nations World Geospatial Information Congress (UNWGIC) will be held in Hyderabad, India, in 2022. The event would show a glimpse of India’s evolving geospatial ecosystem.

Important points:

• United Nation Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM)
• To enhance international collaboration among the Member States and relevant stakeholders in Geospatial information management and capacities.
• It is conducted every four years. The first UNWGIC was organized by China in October 2018.
• Theme of Second UNWGIC: Geo-enabling the Global Village.

UN-GGIM:

• The UN-GGIM aims at playing a leading role in setting the agenda for the development of global geospatial information and to promote its use to address key global challenges.
• It works towards implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and to keep the promise to leave no one behind.
• In 2009, the United Nations Statistics Division, convened in New York, an informal consultative meeting with geospatial information experts from different regions of the world.
• In 2010, the United Nations Secretariat was requested to initiate discussion and prepare a report for the approval of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) on global coordination of geospatial information management, including the consideration of the possible creation of a United Nations Forum on GGIM.
• In 2011, the ECOSOC forum concluded with the acceptance of the Seoul Declaration on Global Geospatial Information Management (GGIM).

Geospatial Technologies:

• Geospatial technologies is a term used to describe the range of modern tools contributing to the geographic mapping and analysis of the Earth and human societies.
• These technologies have been evolving in some form since the first maps were drawn in prehistoric times.
• The science and art of photographic interpretation and map making was accelerated during the Second World War (1939-45) and during the Cold War(1945-1989) it took on new dimensions with the advent of satellites and computers.

SOURCE: THE HINDU,THE ECONOMIC TIMES,MINT