GISCA'14 Proceedings published & available

Good news for all conference participants, authors and everyone else interested: Alishir Kurban representing the local organizers of this year's GIS-in-Central-Asia Conference and Akylbek Chymyrov from ACA*GIScience as head of this annual conference series have announced the availability of the 2014 proceedings, now ready for download.

Under the motto "Silk Road in Space and Time - the Urumqi Node" an impressive series of papers has been submitted, reviewed and compiled into this volume, documenting the state of Geoinformatics as well as GIS and Remote Sensing applications across Central Asia.

The call for papers and other contributions for GISCA'15 in Tashkent will be opening shortly, it therefore now already is time to look ahead!

Tempus GE-UZ Textbooks for Uzbek Msc students

Eight textbooks were developed in the frame of Tempus GE-UZ project to support students, participating in MSc course in Geoinformatics in Uzbekistan. Pilot course was launched; textbooks will be reviewed by students and will be refined according to their feedbacks at the end of the academic year.

The 8 modules are:

• Geoinformation Systems and Science
• Remote Sensing
• Spatial Data Structures and Models
• Data Acquisition and Data Integration
• (Geo)- Databases and Distributed Architectures
• Cartography and Geovisualization
• Spatial analysis
• Project Management and Organisation

Kyrgyzstan National Treasures: GIS Day Website

To celebrate GIS Day 2014, ACA*GIScience is offering a new website showcasing outstanding landscapes and features across Kyrgyzstan. You are welcome to visit http://bit.ly/1AOZfyM and explore the highlighted locations. You will experience a fully navigable storymap – the background satellite imagery can be zoomed and panned to discover other interesting places.

You are welcome to propose additional locations, as Kyrgyzstan offers many interesting and unique landscapes to visitors as well as its citizens. All background imagery is provided through ArcGIS Online (http://arcgis.com), a cloud-based geospatial content management system offering solid foundations for educational and research applications.

Wishing everyone a successful and stimulating GIS Day 2014!

EcoCAR Project Delegation visited ACA*GIScience

A delegation of Chinese and German researchers, led by EcoCAR Project Coordinator Prof. Dr. Umut Halik, has visited the ACA*GIScience office in Bishkek on October 25, 2014. This project has been started within the initiative "Between Europe and the Orient – A Focus on Research and Higher Education in Central Asia and the Caucasus" supported by the Volkswagen Foundation in 2014, and aims at the ecosystem assessment and capacity building for sustainable management of flood plains along the Central Asian rivers Tarim and Naryn.

ACA*GIScience is joining this project consortium as a partner to contribute through applications of Remote Sensing and GIS technologies in realization of the project tasks.

Tempus GE-UZ; 2nd review meeting at Obuda University

Currently, partners of the Tempus GE-UZ project are conducting the second review meeting at Obuda University in Budapest. Partners will discuss inter alia, the following aspects: Quality assurance of learning material and sustainability of project activities.

In March 2014, opening ceremonies of Geoinformatics labs took place at Uzbek partner universities. After the successful accreditation of the "GE-UZ" master’s program on Geoinformatics by the Uzbek Ministry of Higher and Secondary Specialized Education a new MSc program on Geoinformatics has been started at TIIM, from 2nd September 2014. In order to achieve high-level teaching, qualified Professors and doctors from Uzbek partner universities have been chosen to teach at this new MSc program in Geoinformatics at TIIM. More information for interested students: http://www.geoinformatics.uz/ 

KSUCTA: 'GEM' Geoinformatics MSc Students graduating

Six Geoinformatics MSc Students, admitted into the TEMPUS GEM MSc programme at KSUCTA in the fall of 2012, recently completed and successfully defended their Master Theses on September 8, 2014.

The Chairman of the State Attestation Committee, Dr. Ermek Sharsheev, highlighted the quality and innovative nature of research done by Master students in their theses. Representatives of the University of Salzburg, a TEMPUS partner university which has contributed to the joint development of the GEM MSc programme, also participated in the thesis defence.

gSmart 4th Call for Scholarships

gSmart Call 4 will open on September 15, 2014.
Interested applicants will be able to submit their application until 31.10.2014.

PLEASE read carefully the call announcement - it will provide further guidance and information on available scholarships, please seek assistance with your respective CA national contact!

The main focus of Call 4:
Master Students: Last Chance to apply for full studies in Europe!
PhD & PostDoc applications

We offer a Webinar Training for PhD and PostDoc Applicants: Call 4 Webinar: Oct. 6, 2014:

http://em-gsmart.zgis.net/how-to-apply/calls

gSmart: 2nd project meeting at KSUCTA in Bishkek

Successful start of the second gSmart project meeting in the Conference Hall at Kyrgyz State University of Construction, Transport and Architecture in Bishkek.

The meeting was very well prepared by the KSUCTA team under the supervision of Akylbek Chymyrov.
19 partner universities will share their experiences after a very productive and constructive cooperation of the project; the meeting has been dedicated to lessons learned in year one, and to ensure quality assurance of mobility.


>> Call 4 will open on September 15, 2014, you will be able to submit your application until 31.10.2014!
PLEASE read carefully the call announcement - it will provide further guidance and information on available scholarships, please seek assistance with your respective CA national contact!

Z_GIS - experts for the spatial view: Z_GIS receiving Special Achievement Award

Z_GIS - experts for the spatial view: Z_GIS receiving Special Achievement Award: At this year's international ESRI user conference in San Diego, the Department of Geoinformatics - ZGIS was recognized with the 'Special Achievement in GIS' (SAG) Award. This honour is bestowed upon institutions for special merits in the fields of GIS, Geoinformatics and related applications.

Z_GIS has been selected as a 2014 award recipient for outstanding contributions to GIS education worldwide. With thousands of alumni and hundreds of current students, Z_GIS has a unique impact on capacity building around the globe. The highly recognized UNIGIS MSc and certificate qualifications distinguish graduates as top professionals in Geoinformatics.

Our congratulations and best wishes to Prof.Dr. Josef Strobl and to Z_GIS family!

gSmart "get-together" at GI_Forum 2014

The University of Salzburg hosts again the international GI community from July 1 - 4, 2014. Several gSmart scholars and partner representatives visited this conference to share insights into trends and visions in GIScience. gSmart scholars took the chance to attend as many workshops as possible, to listen to presentations and to visit the Exhibition. >> GI_Forum 2014: Geospatial Innovation for Society.
The publication of the conference papers is included in Thomson Reuters Conference Proceedings Citation Index which can be accessed via Web of Science™ and Web of Knowledge™ and is freely available online! >> http://epub.oeaw.ac.at/gi_forum

GISCA 2014 Conference successfully completed in Urumqi, China

The Annual ‘GIS in Central Asia’ Conference - GISCA 2014 - unter the motto "Silk Road in space and time: the Urumqi node" has been held in May 29-31, 2014 at the Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China. More than 80 participants came from Central Asian countries, Asia, Africa, Europe and USA.  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.

GISCA 2014 was dealing with a range of themes:
•  GIS for Environmental Management
•  GIS for Disaster and Emergency Management
•  GIS for Regional Sustainable Development
•  GIS for Natural and Cultural Heritage management
•  GIS for Business and Logistics
•  GIS for Public Health
•  New Trends and Technologies in Surveying, Cadastre and Land Management. 
•  GIS and Ecosystem Modeling
•  Education programme in Geoinformatics
•  International networking in teaching and use of GIS technologies
•  Development of Spatial Data Infrastructures.

The GISCA conference series is organized by ACA*GIScience, in 2014 jointly with the Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, CAS and supported by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, University of Salzburg, Trimble, EPU and other partners. 

The next Central Asia GIS conference 'GISCA 2015' is planned to be organized May 14-16 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

Conference website: http://gisca14.aca-giscience.org.
Photo Gallery of GISCA 2014

EM gSmart: Third Call for Applications

Join the Webinar on Tuesday, April 22, 2014 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM CEST, to get more information on the Third Call for Applications.

The Erasmus Mundus Action 2 'gSmart' initiative currently launches its third call for scholarship applications. This webinar will offer orientation and advice to potential applicants considering to study at universities in Europe; their supervisors and contact persons at partner institutions across Central Asia. All webinar participants should explore http://em-gsmart.zgis.net in detail before this online event. Questions not answered on this website can be emailed before the webinar to aizhan.assylbekova@mail.ru.

GISCA'14 submission deadline extended!

The GIS-in-Central-Asia conference committee decided to extend the deadline for submitting abstracts and full papers for review until February 20, to allow for additional entries after the holiday season in the region.

Papers are welcome from all application domains of geospatial methods and techniques, in particular from fields which are highly relevant for the themes of land management, environmental studies, resource management, conservation and planning.

The conference is jointly managed by the Institute of Ecology and Geographie, Chinese Academy of Sciences, in Urumqi and the Austria-Central Asia Centre for GIScience in Bishkek/Almaty with support from European institutions.

All relevant information can be found on the conference website at http://gisca14.aca-giscience.org!

Erasmus Mundus webinar series continues ...

Supporting the current call for scholarship applications within the Erasmus Mundus 'gSmart' initiative, the joint project coordinators in Almaty and Salzburg proceed with the webinar series introducing European host institutions offering to receive students and researchers from Central Asian partner universities and countries.

After webinars in December featuring the University of Salzburg and the VU Amsterdam, these online info events are continued on Friday, January 10th with the Carinthia University of Applied Sciences (CUAS) in Villach, Austria. Vice Dean Prof Dr Gernot Paulus will discuss the study programmes offered at CUAS and will be available for questions.

To come well prepared to this online event, interested candidates and academic advisors at partner institutions are encouraged to explore the project info pages at http://em-gsmart.zgis.net in detail, carefully read the project brochure, and then register via https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/187804926.