In recent years, there has been a rapid increase in the occurrence of natural disasters; for example, earthquake in Haiti and Hurricane Katrina. Taking 2005 Hurricane Katrina of New Orleans in the United States for example, approximately 150,000 human lives were endangered, despite efforts to evacuate residents to safe shelters.

Considering its commitment to highlight the user rights issues, Integrated SpatialAnalytics Consultants (ISAC) has teamed up with Portuguese and Dutch academicians to focus in the current paper on the Indian Forest Rights Act from 2006 as the Use Case of indigenous property rights. United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples reaffirmed the importance of the protection of indigenous property rights in Articles 25- 29.

The main goal of the new phenomenon is the participation of the citizens. Everyone can be involved by collecting and uploading data or by editing entries and monitoring the results. Different terms are interlinked to it; User Generated Content, Crowdsourcing and Neogeography are only a few of them share the main philosophy.

Seven (7) of the nine (9) points which constitute the National GNSS Calibration Network were occupied using an active VRS receiver. This network of points will form the basis of legal traceability for Cadastral Surveys in Jamaica. The tables 4 and 5 below set out the results.

Under the watchful eye of ESA’s Vecmap initiative, the Asian bush mosquito is about to get bitten in Belgium. First observed in Belgium in 2002, the Asian bush mosquito can spread viruses such as Chikungunya, Dengue, and West Nile. Vecmap tests the accurate mapping of mosquitoes in Europe and in particular, mosquitoes carrying diseases.

Esri has joined the ocean business alliance World Ocean Council (WOC) and will support its international initiatives for sustainable development and conservation of the ocean. Esrichief scientist Dawn Wright will share her geospatial expertise with WOC’s Coastal and Marine Spatial Planning (CMSP) and Ocean Science working groups. WOC members are oil and gas, seafl oor mining, shipping, fisheries, aquaculture, tourism, and offshore renewables companies.

8th FIG REGIONAL CONFERENCE will be held in Montevideo, Uruguay, from 26th to 29th November 2012 at the Radisson Hotel. The Conference is hosted by the International Federation of Surveyors, FIG and the Uruguayan Surveyors Association (Asociación  de Agrimensores del Uruguay (AAU) as the local host.

The overall theme of the Conference is “Surveying towards Sustainable …

Spectracom has announced its new L1+L2 dual frequency 32-channel multi-GNSS simulator, the GSG-62. It offers multiple frequency band operation, multiple GNSS constellation simulation, and expansion capability for more frequency bands and channels.

Do Not Track!: George Cho;

Geodetic activities in Latin America and The Caribbean: always IN: C Bruninit, L Sánchez;

WAAS Today: Deborah Lawrence;

The GIS Research Centre at Feng Chia University in Taiwan developed Taiwan’s first municipal works cloud-based map platform. It will allow city government officials and policy makers to have a clear picture of the city’s major construction projects. The platform, which was commissioned by the Taichung City Government, will integrate the city’s digital map libraries including urban planning and cadastral map libraries, and will allow users to browse records concerning the city’s major construction projects and tenders.