The GIS in Central Asia
Conference – GISCA 2015 ”Geospatial
Management of Land, Water and Resources" was held in May 14-16, 2015
in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. The main objectives of this English language
conference were to bring together GIS academics, researchers and practitioners
from the Central Asian and other countries and to encourage international
cooperation and knowledge exchange in GIS education and science. GISCA
2015 was locally organized by the Tashkent Institute of Irrigation and Melioration (TIIM) within the EU Tempus GE-UZ project,
jointly with the Austria-Central Asia Centre for GIScience (ACA*GIScience) and the
Interfaculty Department of Geoinformatics (Z_GIS), University of Salzburg,
Austria. The conference is supported by Trimble, ESRI and media partners from
the Geoinformatics industry.
More than 150 participants
from Austria, China, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Romania, Spain, Sweden,
UAE, UK, USA and Central Asian countries have enjoyed scientific research
presentations and discussions, exchanged experiences and findings of international
initiatives on GIS education and research. The cultural program of the conference offered excursions to the
ancient cities Samarkand and Bukhara, to the Aral Sea region and other historical
and natural sites. Pre-conference workshops organized within the EU Tempus GE-UZ project were presented at GISCA 2015 by students of the Uzbekistan
universities and trainers from EU institutions.
The 10th anniversary of the GISCA conferencedseries was celebrated and the valuable contribution of “GIS
in Central Asia” conferences in educational and research cooperation in the
region has been mentioned by the conference participants. Dr. Michael Gould,
ESRI Global Education Manager has highlighted the importance of Geoinformatics
in the social-economic development of countries in his keynote “GIS education to create the next generation of
decision-makers”. Participants have expresses
thanks to the local conference organizing team of the Tashkent Institute of
Irrigation and Melioration for their hospitality and excellent facilities for
this really international event.
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