[appgema] Update on AppGeMa meeting in Birmingham
Paolo Paron
paoloparon at yahoo.it
Tue Jul 17 05:07:07 EDT 2007
Dear all,
on the 5th of July we had a very small (8 person) and quick (30 minutes)
Working Group meeting in Birmingham (due to logistic of the conference)
Members present: Andrew Marcus, Francesco Dramis, Lynda York, Mark Fonstad,
two other interested persons from the conference, Mike Smith, Paolo Paron.
Agenda: we almost followed the proposed agenda (see below) even if very
little or no time was allocated to discuss points 1, 3, 6, and 7 due to
limited time and people.
Here below a synthetic description of the discussion about points 2, 4, 5,
and 8:
Point 2 - Introduction and planning of the Group's outputs
Professional Handbook of Landform Mapping: the Editor in chief of the book
series Development in Earth Surface Processes from Elsevier has expressed
interests in publishing the Professional Handbook within this or possibly
another series under Elsevier. This news has been highly welcome and Jim
Griffiths, Mike Smith and Paolo Paron have started a strong dialogue with
the editor in chief. We are now in an advanced phase of agreement between
the Editor in chief and the WG. More details about further developments will
follow in a next update.
JoM Special Issues: the Editor in chief of Journal of Maps has reminded that
a Special Issue of this journal will focus on Applied Geomorphological Maps.
A good number of expression of interest have already been sent to the
Journal. Anyway still some slots are available. The deadlines are as follow:
Intention to Submit: 31 May 2007 (already expired)
Submission Deadline: 31 January 2008
Publication: Summer 2008
Please refer directly to Mike for this.
Pamphlet: a number of expression of interest toward this publication have
been collected during the Birmingham conference, covering the issues of:
river restoration and exploitation; coastal erosion and its defence; lahar
defence; hydrology; weathering. Still a number of topics are to be covered
(see ToC on AppGeMa website) even if already more contacts with possible
contributors have been established. By the end of this year/beginning of
next we should come out with a draft of the pamphlet.
Point 4 - Report from the Malaysia Meeting (AppGeMa informal meeting)
Colin Pain has attended the Malaysia workshop. There he was able to show a
little presentation about the WG and has made some more contacts with people
interested in geomorphological mapping.
Thanks Colin!
Point 5 - Brainstorming/discussion on outputs, time-scheduling, and
responsibilities
Few points have been raised here:
1) there is the need to distribute the responsibilities/coordination of
the many different outputs among the interested members. We have explored
some possibilities but if there is any volunteer keen to coordinate one of
the sections of the outputs he/she is very welcome. The coordination role
will imply efforts in coordinating the inputs by various members, some
reports to be submitted regularly to the board of the WG and shared with the
other members, and efforts to keep the scheduled agenda. Any suggestion and
initiative are highly welcome. We need coordinators for the following, so
far: a) Reference database; b) GIS Tools; c) Next Conferences (EGU, Wien,
Austria April 2008 (possibly); IAG Regional, Brasov, Romania Sept 2008; IAG
International, Melbourne, Australia 2009)
2) Legend discussion: there is the need for a scientific discussion
within the WG on Legend systems. This discussion could take place as a
electronic forum within the mailing list or as a series of scientific
meetings to be organized. See also the ISO discussion under the next point
8.
Point 8 - AOB
Educational material : Andrew Marcus and Mark Fonstad are preparing a set of
educational material on landform mapping in a digital format. They have
asked if it is possible to host a link to these educational on the WG web
site. No objections were expressed for this.
Need for a scientific workshop: following point 5-2 it has been arisen the
need for a scientific discussion in the form of either a e-forum or session
at conferences/meetings on applied geomorphological legend systems. It has
been recognized that this issue needs further development.
Excursion in Ethiopia: Francesco Dramis is organizing a scientific excursion
in Ethiopia, to be done in January or February next year, with a maximum
number of around 30 participants. Some of the topics of the excursions will
be landslides and their cartography in the north and eastern part of
Ethiopia and possibly also an visit to the Afar depression. Participants are
invited to write directly to the excursion leader (Francesco Dramis). We
need to explore if the excursion can be under the auspices of the WG.
EGU 2008: There is the possibility of holding a session on Applied
Geomorphological Mapping at the next EGU meeting (Wien, 13-18 April 2008).
To request a session you need already 10 to 15 abstracts and need to contact
Niels Hovius (Chair of the Geomorphology Committee nhovius at esc.cam.ac.uk ).
The deadline for express the interest of a new session is 15 September 2007.
If some of the AppGeMa members wish to lead the session they are invited to
coordinate directly with Niels Hovius and keep the chair and vice-chair
informed. Please visit http://meetings.copernicus.org/egu2008/
ISO (International Standard Organization): from a global mapping and
quantitative analysis perspective there is a growing need for
standardization of geographic information and classification. To this
regards FAO has already submitted a proposal to the ISO committee on
Geographic Information (Technical Committee 211) a proposal for Land Cover
mapping standards, based on the worldwide recognized LCCS (Land Cover
Classification System - see www.africover.org <http://www.africover.org/> )
system. During some informal talks with a responsible of the Natural
Environment at FAO it has been discussed about the need for a Landform
Classification System that could meet global mapping standard. FAO is keen
to support the proposal to ISO Committee but the proposal must meet very
high level quality standards and an international approval and testing. To
this regards it could be interesting a more in depth scientific debate among
the WG with the aim to come out in a reasonable time with a proposal of a
landform legend system. One approach could be to start with some basic
theoretical guidelines and start with either a user oriented approach (like
for instance engineering geomorphology legends, or soil mapping landform
legends, or land system landform legends, etc) or process approach (glacial
processes and landforms, fluvial processes and forms, etc). I believe this
could be a very exciting field of application for the WG and it could be
worth creating a small committee within the WG to deal with this topics.
What do you think?
European Landscape Character Assessment Initiative - ELCAI: FYI to the ones
who don't know it already, there is a very interesting initiative by the EC,
even though more landscape ecology oriented, about landform mapping called
"European Landscape Character Classification and Map". For more information
see: www.alterra-research.nl <http://www.alterra-research.nl/> and
http://www.landscape-europe.net <http://www.landscape-europe.net/> and
look for the following book on the internet Wascher, D.M. (ed). 2005.
European Landscape Character Areas - Typologies, Cartography and Indicators
for the Assessment of Sustainable Landscapes. Final Project Report as
deliverable from the EU's Accompanying Measure project European Landscape
Character Assessment Initiative (ELCAI), funded under the 5th Framework
Programme on Energy, Environment and Sustainable Development (4.2.2), x +
150 pp. (not attached here for size matters).
Newsletter: realizing that the mailing list is not so populated by messages
and that the exchange of information could be more effective I was thinking
of starting a short Newsletter of the WG, starting with 3 issues per year,
intended as a sort of electronic notice board. Its draft content could be as
follow: Updates on the WG; News and Reviews on Publications; Meeting,
Conferences and Courses; GIS, Remote Sensing and Digital Cartography News &
Tools; Letters; AOB (Any Other Business). Of course such an initiative
cannot even start without the contribution of many of you. If you are
interested in following one or more of the proposed sections or if you wish
to add some section and follow it up you are most welcome ad I invite you to
contact me by email. We could start only with the (little) effort of many.
Last but not least I would like to thank very much Damian Lawler, on behalf
of the organizing committee of the BSG AM, for the kind availability of
hosting our WG meeting in Birmingham. Even if we did not use the meeting
room that he had booked for us (due to our limited number of people) we had
a great time in Birmingham and very good food and wine! Thank you Damian.
I apologize for the delay in reporting from the WG meeting in Birmingham and
hope to receive a great feedback from all of you.
For any questions please do not hesitate to contact me
Best wishes,
Paolo
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
Agenda
1. Warming up: presentation of participants and of the group (5
minutes)
2. Introduction and planning of the Group's outputs (10/15 minutes):
* Professional Handbook of Landform Mapping;
* Digital Atlas of Applied Geomorphological Mapping;
* Pamphlet, "The importance of Geomorphology in land planning and
natural hazards prevention";
* Reference database;
* Special Issue of the Journal of Maps;
* Glossary;
* Technical outputs (GIS and other digital issues);
* Library;
* web site and mailing list.
3. Needs for sponsorships for the achievement of the outputs (5
minutes)
4. Report from the Malaysia Meeting (AppGeMa informal meeting) (3/5
minutes)
5. Brainstorming/discussion on outputs, time-scheduling, and
responsibilities (15 minutes)
6. Scheduling of the activities (5/7 minutes)
7. Planning of the next meeting to be held in Romania, September 2008
(5/7 minutes)
8. AOB
:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:
Paolo PARON
email: <mailto:paoloparon at yahoo.it> paoloparon at yahoo.it
mobile: +254 (0)728 133 454
landline: +254 (0)20 300 49 39
POBox 8 - Sarit Centre
00606 Nairobi - Kenya
P Before printing this email make sure it is completely necessary. THE
ENVIRONMENT IS EVERYONE'S BUSINESS.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.eogeo.org/pipermail/appgema/attachments/20070717/b8e473b9/attachment-0001.html
More information about the AppGeMa
mailing list