enerGIS Workshop in Dushanbe

Hosted by the Tajik Agrarian University named after Shirinsho Shotemur (TAU), the Technical University of Graz jointly with other partners from the Austrian Eurasia-Pacific Uninet is offering a faculty development workshop from Sept 20 to 24 within the framework of the Austria-Central Asia Centre for GIScience.

The enerGIS workshop offers participants an introduction to Geographic Information Systems (GIS) based on renewable-energy-relevant applications with a focus on Central Asia. University lecturers and administrators, NGO or technical experts are invited. Core topics of the workshop will be:

• Applying GIS technologies to energy issues and related projects.
• Applying the acquired skills  in Central Asia.
• Building up a collaborative network (coordinated by ACA*GIScience).
• Enabling GIS to support decision-making processes by assisting the management of renewable energy resources like biomass, hydro, solar or wind energy.

Further information is available via http://energis.tugraz.at/!

Central Asia Geoportal Available!

Researchers from ACA*GIScience, the Austrian Academy of Sciences - Institute for GIScience and the University of Salzburg Center for Geoinformatics have announced the public availability of a prototype Geoportal with a focus on Central Asia.
Access is available via http://geoportal.aca-giscience.org/ or (as backup address) http://dgeo02.geo.sbg.ac.at/geoportal/. All holders and owners of geospatial data sets with a focus on Central Asia are invited to register their data sets or services as metadata to facilitate cooperation across institutions and research groups.
The conference presentation on the new Geoportal is available here and enquiries are invited via register.geoportal[at]aca-giscience.org. The Central Asian GIS community and all individuals and institutions interested and active in this region are invited to fully participate!

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!