GISCA 2010: “Water: Life, Risk, Energy and Landuse”

Geospatial experts meeting at GIS Central Asia Conference in Bishkek

by Ainura Nazarkulova,
Austria-Central Asia Centre for GIScience

The 4th annual Central Asia GIS Conference at the Austria-Central Asia Centre for GIScience (http://www.aca-giscience.org/)  was opened on May 27 by Rector Abdykalykov from the Kyrgyz State University of Construction, Transportation and Architecture in Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic. He was assisted by the Austrian ambassador to Central Asia, HE Ursula Fahringer and the representative of the Eurasia-Pacific Uninet, Prof. Alfred Pitterle.

The two-day conference program brought together speakers from Central Asian and surrounding countries addressing the main theme of the conference: Water for life, Water posing a risk, Water for renewable energy, and Water as the key resource controlling regional landuse. Particularly due to climate change and increasing societal pressure on resources, quality and quantity of water supplies are critical factors in developing and maintaining livelihoods. Geographic Information Science offers an indispensable set of instruments for managing the water cycle.

The opening keynote on ‘Perspectives of Cartographic Design‘ by Prof. Karel Kriz from the University of Vienna recognized and illustrated the importance of using effective cartographic communication as a key success factor for geospatial methods and technologies. The main conference was preceded by four workshops, with the Kyrgyz National Agrarian University focusing on the topic of GIS for Environment Management, and one-day events dedicated to Data Modeling with FME, Open Source software options and the development of an SDI for Central Asia.

The latter topic turned out to be the most attractive innovation presented at GISCA’10: a regional geoportal will serve as a platform for collaboration and significantly lower the entry hurdle into GIS-based analyses and applications. This service is available from geoportal.aca-giscience.org and is supported by the newly created Kyrgyz GIS Association, which can now be contacted at KgGISA@aca-giscience.org

Even though the recent political turmoil in Kyrgyzstan caused difficulties due to institutional and corporate travel restrictions, over 100 registered participants had the opportunity to continue building a Central Asia – focused network of GI experts and professionals. Capacity building within and beyond this network now is led by the UNIGIS study centre for Central Asia (www.unigis.net/bishkek) reaching out to GIS professionals with its postgraduate programs of study.

Conference participants received a copy of the conference proceedings at registration (jointly published by KSUCTA and Salzburg University’s Centre for Geoinformatics), this volume and further information are available from the conference website at gisca10.aca-giscience.org. Plans for a 2011 conference with an even stronger educational focus are currently being finalized for May/June 2011 – emphasizing GIS as an indispensable component in the development of the Central Asian societies and economies.

GISCA 2010 was made possible through generous support from
the Austria-based Eurasia-Pacific Uninet (www.eurasiapacific.net)

Next UNIGIS course - starting Oct 2010

The UNIGIS Study Centre at ACA*GIScience in Bishkek will be offering the next starting date for Geoinformatics / GIScience distance learning students from Central Asia on October 1st! MSc in GIScience as well as GIS diploma/certificate candidates will have the opportunity to begin their studies towards this postgraduate qualification within the worldwide UNIGIS network of universities.
The Bishkek study centre is offering Russian language tutoring and instruction, thereby facilitating access to this international English language continuing education programme addressing in-service professionals. Applications for admission are accepted until July 2010! Further information is available through www.unigis.net/bishkek.

New Land Use / Hydrology Project

Within the PALM-ICARDA framework aiming at sustainable land management in the Pamir-Alai mountains we at the Kyrgyz GIS Association were awarded an ‘adaptive research grant’ by the United Nations University (UNU, Bonn) to develop “Regional Water and Small Hydropower Potentials in the Pamir-Alai Mountains”.

Starting from land cover and terrain analysis, the project will model the terrestrial phase of the water cycle for catchments in southern Kyrgyzstan. Results will be insights into local (small catchment area) potentials for hydropower and irrigation, with a particular focus on the evaluation of climate change scenarios to assess the potential impact on the seasonal availability of water for consumption and the production of food and energy.

The project is conducted in close cooperation with the Centre for Geoinformatics at the University of Salzburg and is coordinated through the Kyrgyz GIS Association (KGGISA) with support from the Kyrgyz GIS Centre by supplying hardware infrastructure and data. First results will be reported at the upcoming GISCA conference.

GIS in Central Asia Conference - Call for Contributions

From Jan 1, 2010 the GISCA Call for Papers and conference registration will be open - further details are available from http://gisca10.aca-giscience.org/!
This annual conference is focused on GIS applications across all domains with a link to or relevance for the Central Asian region. Conference secretary Dr. Akylbek Chymyrov points out that "the 2010 conference theme 'Water: Life, Risk, Energy and Landuse' essentially summarizes many of the problems Central Asia today is facing, and GISCA 2010 is striving to make significant contributions to resolving or at least mitigating these problems".
GIS experts, public officials, industry representatives and academics will again converge at Bishkek (Kyrgyz Republic) at this now well established regional platform for communication, learning and collaboration!

GISCA 2010 announced for May 27/28

The fourth GIS in Central Asia Conference has been scheduled for May 27/28 and will again be complemented with workshops, seminars and training courses offered before and after the conference. See gisca10.aca-giscience.org for detailed information and updates!

Emerging GIS Landscapes in Central Asia - Geospatial Experts Converging at GISCA Conference in Bishkek

by Ainura Nazarkulova, Austria-Central Asia Centre for GIScience

The 3rd successful Central Asia GIS Conference was concluded by conference chairs Akylbek Chymyrov and Josef Strobl from the Austria-Central Asia Centre for GIScience (www.aca-giscience.org) on August 28 at the University of Construction, Transportation and Architecture in Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic. The two-day conference program brought together speakers from Central Asian countries with their counterparts from Central Europe, with representatives from Russia, India, Iran, USA and several other countries making this a truly international event.

Within and beyond the conference theme of “GIScience for Environmental and Emergency Management” 28 paper presentations were highlighting current trends –like the building of spatial data infrastructures- and innovative applications ranging from environmental monitoring, risk assessment and planning for sustainability to logistics and navigation. Over 100 registered participants had the opportunity to continue building a Central Asia – focused network of GI experts and professionals at the social events supported by conference sponsors Trimble Navigation and SAFE Software.

A keynote on ‘Thinking Spatially’ by ESRI’s Michael Phoenix recognized the importance of capacity building and human resources development as the single most important success factor for geospatial methods and technologies in this region. This was further supported by educational workshops facilitated by SAFE Software and various other learning opportunities for participants, like access to exhibits of publications and technologies by GIS companies.

Pre-conference workshops were attracting particular attention. The UN-SPIDER (www.unspider.org) program for the first time in this region invited to an expert meeting on “Managing Disasters using Space-Based Technologies”. The three day openSolar-Workshop attracted 25 participants to assess and evaluate ‘Solar Energy Potentials in Central Asia’, but actually reaching far beyond this topic and aiming at a sustainable energy concept for this region.

The openSolar event as well as GISCA’09 were made possible through generous support from the Austria-based Eurasia-Pacific Uninet (www.eurasiapacific.net). Its president, Prof. Brigitte Winklehner spoke at the GISCA opening ceremony together with KSUCTA Rektor Akymbek Abdykalykov and Austrian ambassador HE Ursula Fahringer, emphasizing the value of international cooperation to manage environments, resources and societies at the ancient crossroads of Central Asia with modern geospatial technologies.

Participants received a copy of the conference proceedings at registration (jointly published by KSUCTA and Salzburg University’s Centre for Geoinformatics), this volume and further information is available from the conference website at www.aca-giscience.org/gisca. Plans for the 2010 conference are currently being finalized for late May 2010 – striving to recognize GIS as an indispensable technical resource for the development of the emerging Central Asian economies.

GISCA'09 Call for Papers

The Third GIS-in-Central-Asia conference "GIScience for Environmental and Emergency Management" has been announced for August 27-28 and the conference will again be held at KSUCTA in Bishkek. A call for papers is addressing a broad range of topics, with all details available from www.aca-giscience.org/gisca09.