ISPRS Joint Meeting: Council and Commission Presidents in Stuttgart, Germany, September 1998

MINUTES OF JOINT MEETING
COUNCIL AND TECHNICAL COMMISSION PRESIDENTS (TCPs)

STUTTGART, GERMANY
11-12 SEPTEMBER 1998


Council Attendees

President:             Lawrence Fritz (LF)
Secretary General:     John Trinder (JT)
First Vice President:  Shunji Murai (SM)
Congress Director:     Klaas Beek  (KB)
Treasurer:             Heinz Rüther (HR)

Commission President Attendees

Commission  II:  Ian Dowman (ID)
Commission III:  Toni Schenk (TS)
Commission  IV:  Dieter Fritsch (DT)
Commission   V:  Hirofumi Chikatsu (HC)
Commission  VI:  Lukman Aziz
Commission VII:  Gabor Remetey-Fülöpp (GR)

In attendance

Representing Commission I President
George Joseph (GJ)                   A.K.S Gopalan
Secretary Commission IV              Monica Sester
Secretary Commission V               Eihan Shimizu
Chair, Financial Commission:         Armin Gruen
ISPRS Highlights Editor:             Johan Boesjes
Chair, Congress Technical Program:   Martin Molenaar
Journal Editor:                      Emmanuel Baltsavias (EB)
Honorary Member:                     Gottfried Konecny
Honorary Member:                     Fritz Ackermann

AGENDA

1. Opening  Remarks (LF)

2.  Review of Action Items and Minutes of C & TCP Meeting in Brazil (JT)
2.1   TCP Actions items (as listed in the Minutes)

3.  Commission Reports  (TCPs)
3.1   Fulfilment of Vienna Resolutions
3.2   Commission Symposium
3.3   Status of each Working Group
3.4   Planned meetings, workshops and tutorials
3.5   Guidelines for future Symposia

4.  Congress planning responsibilities (KB)
4.1   Facilities and schedule
4.2   Tutorials and Workshops
4.3   Technical Sessions
4.4   Awards
4.5   Other

5.  ISPRS Publications
5.1   Annual Report (JT)
5.2   Journal (LF/EB)
5.3   ISPRS Highlights  (JT/LJ)
5.4   Web and Home Page status (LA/JT)
5.5   Archives

6.  Inter-Organisation Relationships(LF/JT)
6.1   UN Organisations (COPUOS, UATI/ICET, ICSU)
6.2   CIPA
6.3   Standards (ISO)  (DF)
6.4   OGC (LF)
6.5   EUROGI (DF and GR)
6.6   Other Societies

7.  Proposals for Technical Commissions at 2000 Congress

8.  Next Meeting of Council and Technical Commission Presidents (JT)
8.1   Amsterdam, 13-17 September 1999

9. Other Business

MINUTES


1. Opening Remarks

President Lawrence Fritz welcomed all attendees to the meeting, including Mr Gopalan, representing Dr George Joseph (Commission I) and the visitors, particularly Mr. Johan Boesjes, whose company GITC as of June 1 1998 is publisher of ISPRS Highlights, and Honorary Members Prof. Drs. Ackerman and Konecny. The arrangements for the meeting in Bad Wilbad by Dieter Fritsch and the German Society were greatly appreciated.

The purpose of the meeting was: to plan the technical program for the Congress; review the implementation of the Resolutions determined by the General Assembly in Vienna in 1996; review the activities of the Commissions and replace officers where necessary; review the ISPRS publications; discuss the ISPRS external activities, future plans, and the results of the recent Council Strategy Meeting.


2. Review of Action Items and Minutes of C & TCP Meeting in Brazil

2.1. Some guidelines in the Orange Book have been updated and the new versions placed on the Web. New Guidelines for the Archives have been developed, to include the publication of proceedings of ISPRS sponsored meetings on CDROM.

2.2 Action 97/66 for TCP's to send details on their Symposia was not completed, but has been overcome by events.

2.3 The change of rules for approval of ISPRS sponsored events is now more flexible, according to the decision contained of the Brazil Minutes.

2.4 Many contributions from the Commission for the 1997 Annual Report were late.

2.5 The Web Page Guidelines have been finalised and will be placed on the ISPRS Web Page.

2.6 Of the six proposed actions for Background Papers for Unispace III, three were completed.

2.7 HC is required to nominate his replacement for the position of the ex-officio member of the CIPA Committee.

2.8 IUSM - ISPRS has withdrawn as a member.

2.9 Manfred Schroeder has been nominated as the ISPRS representative for the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS).


3. Commission Reports (TCPs)

3.1 Fulfilment of Vienna Resolutions

Council has attended to resolutions G.1, G2, and G3. Most other resolutions have been satisfied by the Commissions except for I.6, parts of II.1, II.5, III.4, VI.1, VI.3, VI.4, VII.1, VII.4. Responsible Commission Presidents were requested to follow up these outstanding issues.

Action 98/193: TCPs to follow up the Vienna Resolutions that have not been adequately addressed

 

3.2 and 3.3 Symposia and Status of Commissions

Commission I

A written report was presented. The Symposium was successfully held in Bangalore India in February 1998. It included sessions by leaders of the CEOS activities.

WGs I/1, I/2, I/3 and I/5 are active. WG I/4 needs attention. Gopalan/GJ are requested to ask Fellous for an appropriate replacement so that the WG can operate more effectively. A summary of the paper on small satellites presented at the Symposium should be placed in ISPRS Highlights. GJ has retired but will maintain a position in ISRO and the Commission Presidency.

Action 98/194: GJ to seek replacement of Chair for WG I/4.

Action 98/195: GJ to arrange for summary of the paper on small satellites

Commission II

The Symposium in Cambridge was very successful with over 200 delegates: 46 oral presentations, 16 posters, 3 panel discussions, an open and closing exhibition, and 2 tutorials were held.

Most WGs are active and a number of meetings have been planned.

WG II/2 - Gahegan may take over as Chair, while Ehlers will be Co-Chair.

Action 98/196 : ID to review Chair/Co-Chair of WG II/2.

WG II/5 - Gurney has resigned, and hence the WG has been abolished, since the Co-Chair will also not continue. The Commission will take care of the activities that were to be undertaken by this WG. International collaboration should be sought by the Commission, especially with IGOS. A joint session with IGOS could be set up at the Congress. Links with WG IV/6 should also be established.

Action 98/197 : ID to establish collaboration with IGOS.

WG II/7 is preparing a proposal for image transfer standard. Several meetings are planned and funding is being sought. The standard will be completed by Congress.

Commission III

The Commission Symposium was held in Columbus Ohio, on 6-10 July. 82 papers were presented each for 18 minutes. There were 160 participants. 6 papers have been selected for publication in PRS Journal as a theme issue, with editors from WGs III/3 and III/4.

WG III/1 - active, sensor orientation is receiving more emphasis, but it needs coordination with Commission I
WG III/2 - very active, needs to cover quality control issues for DEM
WG III/3 - very active
WG III/4 - active
WG III/5 - there will be a change of Chair to Beata Csatho and Co-Chair to DeLiang Wang.
WG III/6 - active. Will organise a joint Workshop on radar in 1999. Agreement has been received from WGs II/4 and VII/6 and Commission IV.

Commission IV

Symposium was very successful with 232 participants. There were 110 papers, 85 of which were presented papers, 25 were posters. The Tutorials did not attract sufficient applicants and hence were cancelled.

The President stated that it was a good decision to integrate GIS into the Commission. A new proposal will be made to continue this structure for the Commission and change its name to emphasise GIS activities in Commission IV.

All WGs are working well.

WG IV/III.1 - very active, workshops are being organised for 1999.
WG VI/III.2 - very active. Most of papers at the Symposium covered this WG and WG IV/2
WG IV/1 - Egenhofer not active. The appointment of a new Co-Chair, Stefan Winter TU Vienna was approved.
WG IV/2 - very active.
WG IV/3 - Chen Jun very active. He plans to hold regular meetings on GIS every 2 years.
WG IV/4 - very active, with a meeting organised in 1999. Don Light will be changed, but no name is available yet.
WG IV/5 - active, Kirk needs to be more active.
WG IV/6 - very active.

The general comment was made that Intercommission WGs do not operate effectively under the current structure.

Commission V

The Symposium was held in Hakodate from 1-4 June. It attracted 286 participants, 29 students, and 87 visitors from 25 countries. The Commission has established relations with other Societies. There was a total of 163 papers. 95 of these papers came from Japan, 31 from members of the Japan Society, 64 from non-members.

Yen 1,000,000 has been donated by the Commission for Amsterdam Congress for Young Authors Awards.

There are no inactive WGs in Commission V, although WG V/4 could be more active.

Commission VI

The Symposium has been postponed to 15-17 April 1999. However, a successful Workshop was held by NASDA in Bandung in August 1998. A report will be prepared. Workshops will also be planned for the Symposium.

WG VI/1 - very active. It is concentrating on Latin America. A meeting in Argentina attracted 100
people. There will also be a WG meeting in Sao Paulo in September 1998.
WG VI/2 - active. CATCON is planned for 2000. No details are available yet.
WG VI/3 - active. Cape Town meeting of WG VI/3 will be transferred to Bandung. In lieu of Cape Town, WG VI/3 Chairman Luigi Mussio agreed to give a paper on ISPRS activities at the AARSE Conference in Oct. 98 and to prepare two WG VI/3 sessions for Bandung. A workshop is planned in Slovenia in 2000.
WG VI/4 - deals with Internet details. A meeting will be held in Taiwan December 1998. The WG seems to have lost momentum, and hence needs to be encouraged to continue its work, particularly in compiling information about information rich Home Pages.

Commission VII

The Symposium attracted 150 people and a commercial exhibition. Overall there were 250 people at the Symposium, which is fewer than expected. Special sessions were held on Unispace, EARSeL, and the Congress. All except 3 of the WG Chairs attended. There were 180 incoming papers, 120 were given as oral presentations, and 45 were poster papers. Prizes were given for best papers and posters. A Press Conference was held. Significant help was provided by Hegyi in developing the Home Page.

WGs are very active
The change in WG VII/1 Chair was smooth. WG VII/5 needs encouragement to be more active. The Chair will be changed. A successful meeting with Commission III was held in February 1998. WG VII/3 may need to replace Tina Carey as Co-Chair. ID may be able to suggest a person from Ordnance Survey.

Action 98/198: GR to determine replacement Chairs for WG VII/5 and Co-Chair for WG VII/3.

Tutorials at Symposia.
Commission I - 2 successful workshops
Commission II - 2x 1/2 day tutorials were successful
Commissions V and VII- no tutorials

Other matters

(i) Questions were asked on the development of procedures to attract WG chairs of appropriate status.

(ii) KB commented on attendance at Symposia and attendance from regions around the world. ISPRS could arrange for tutorials at African meetings to better identify the activities of ISPRS.

(iii) Extended Symposium abstracts of 500 words or more were requested by Commissions II, III, IV, and VII. They led to problems in the review process and claimed to be not worth the extra work they created. However, they were useful for planning the technical sessions. Abstracts were only reviewed by WG chairs and not by a separate review committee.

(iv) Regarding communication to RICS and the delivery of 50 copies of the Archives, the following has occurred:
Commission I - copies sent, price $30.
Commission II - copies sent, price $25.
Commission III - not sent, price $80
Commission IV- not sent book and CD yet, no price set yet.
Commission V - sent, price not determined
Commission VII - sent, price $100

Commission III will send funds earned from sale of the proceedings to ISPRS for prizes. Other Commissions have been requested to consider the same action.

Action 98/199: Commisions IV & V to provide copies and details of price to RICS

 

3.4 Planned Meetings

A list of planned meetings has been compiled, as shown in Attachment A.

 

3.5 Guidelines for future Symposia

Submissions were sought from TCPs on details for compilation of the guidelines.

Action 98/200 : TCPs to submit details to JT for developing Guidelines for preparation of Symposia by 31 October 1998


4. Congress planning responsibilities (KB)

4.1 Facilities and schedule

KB presented the details of the facilities for the Congress, and the special and theme sessions.

 

4.2 Tutorials and Workshops

Tutorials must be self supporting and may be held outside Amsterdam. Topics were suggested by:

Commission I 3 tutorials, 2 Workshops,
Commission II 2 or 3 tutorials. No Workshops
Commission III 3 Tutorials, 3 Workshops
Commission IV 1 Tutorial, 1 or 2 Workshops
Commission V 3 Tutorials, 1or 2 Workshop
Commission VI 1 Tutorial
Commission VII Several tutorials and Workshops

TOTAL - 12 or 13 Tutorials, and 10-11 Workshops.

KB will review these submissions for overlap and common interest. Final proposals are required by 31 October.

Action 98/201 : TCPs to submit final plans for tutorials and workshops by 31 October 1998.

 

4.3 Technical Sessions

TCPs presented their requests sessions and their topics for the Congress. On this basis, KB and his committee planned the topics of the themes sessions. The Commissions associated with each of these sessions were determined. The theme sessions were distributed to the TCPs for preparation of the following:

  • Titles of theme sessions
  • Summary for each session in 40-50 words
  • 5-10 keywords
  • Titles of the session based on the Congress theme allocated to each Commission
  • Titles of other sessions allocated to the Commissions

The completed details will be used by the Congress Committee to plan the Congress sessions and will be included in the Second Announcement. They will be reviewed by the Scientific Committee and referred to the relevant Commissions. The process must be finalised by 31 October.

Action 98/202: TCPs to provide final plans for the Technical Session at the Congress by 31 October 1998.

Procedures for Submission and Review of Papers

Abstracts must be submitted to Congress Headquarters (not ITC) by September 1999. They will be reviewed in The Netherlands, then sent to the appropriate Commission President, who will be the official contact of the Commission. If the abstract is rejected by that Commission, it should be returned to The Netherlands, not directed to another Commission. Acceptance of papers must be made by the TCP, but the Congress HQ will notify authors of acceptance of their papers. There will be a limit of one paper presented by each registered Congress participant. Invited papers will not count in this limit. Details of Workshop abstracts will also be sent to The Netherlands. Coordination of theme sessions will be directed by the Organisation Committee. Workshop proceedings can be made separately. KB will need to set a limit on size of the electronic files for papers on the CDROM.

 

4.4 Awards

There was a brief description of all awards and honorary awards with a plea for TCP's to submit nominees.

 

4.5 Other

The new guidelines for preparation of Resolutions were presented.


5. ISPRS Publications

5.1 Annual Report

The importance of submitting the Commission reports for the Annual Report by the due date of 15 December was stressed. A notification on the need for the Annual Report, including the required lengths of the submissions by the WGs and Commissions, will be sent to all ISPRS officers shortly by JT.

 

5.2 Journal

Details of Special Issues were presented.

  • Commission I has proposed several topics for a special issue. With the Commission's agreement, it is proposed that it should be on high resolution satellites and digital cameras.
  • The Commission II special issue will be on radar, but it will be published after the Workshop on radar to be organised by Laurent Polidori. The details should be submitted to EB by 31 October.
  • The Commission IV special issue will be on conceptual aspects of GIS.
  • The Commission VII special issue will be on resource and environment monitoring. Guest editors have now been determined.

Suggestions for best papers given at the Commissions I and V Symposia are required by 31 October. Suggestions from Commissions II, III IV and VII will also be required. With the agreement of TCPs, EB will write to WG chairs requesting suggestions for best papers.

Action 98/203: TCPs to provide details of special issues and best papers to EB

 

5.3 ISPRS Highlights

Johan Boesjes, the new publisher of ISPRS Highlights, reviewed the procedures for its publication. News matters will be prepared by staff of GITC at present. He hopes to increase the number of individual subscribers to ISPRS Highlights, through his contact with a list of 80,000 addresses. GITC will provide details in ISPRS Highlights that can be placed on the Web. There was discussion on the publication of ISPRS Highlights on the Web, but it was agreed that this can be suitably managed by not publishing the full details on the Web.

It was agreed that each Commission will provide one cover photo for ISPRS Highlights issues, which will provide sufficient cover photos through to the June 2000 Congress Issue. Commission VI was asked to provide the December 98 cover to help publicize the Bandung Symposium. It was requested that heads-up photos of all Commission officers, including WG Chairs, Co-Chairs, Secretaries be sent to GITC.

Action 98/210: LA to provide cover photo to publicise the Bandung Symposium by 31 October 98

Action 98/205: TCPs to provide cover photos for ISPRS Highlights when requested

 

5.4 Web and Home Page status

The guidelines for the ISPRS Web Pages have been finalised and will be placed on the ISPRS Web Page.

 

5.5 Archives

The Guidelines for the Archives have been modified to include CDROM version of proceedings.


6. Inter-Organisation Relationships(LF/JT)

6.1 UN Organisations (COPUOS, UATI/ICET, ICSU)

UNISPACE: The proposed ISPRS sponsored workshops to be given in Unispace III were described. Council will be seeking speakers for these Unispace III sessions.
UATI: Advice is being sought from UATI on several legal matters that could affect ISPRS.
World Science Conference: ISPRS intends to make presentation.
ICSU: ISPRS is seeking full Membership of ICSU.

 

6.2 CIPA

HC should recommend a person to replace him as ex-officio member of the CIPA Committee.

Action 98/206: JT to request a list of CIPA events for publication by ISPRS.

 

6.3 Standards (ISO)

ISO/TC211 - LF will ask Norm Anderson, ISO/TC211 liaison to ISPRS, for a report on recent meetings of ISO/TC211

Action 98/207: LF to obtain information from Norm Anderson on ISO/TC211

Gopalan to advise Council on participation of Commission I members on ISO/TC40 and ISO/TC172.

Action 98/208: GJ to advise Council on ISO activities

 

6.4 OGC

Commission I are referred to the image data standard being considered by OGC , which is on the OGC Web Page.

Action 98/209 : GJ and ID to view image data standard being developed by OGC

Rational functions are being recommended to represent camera model for commercial satellite systems. DF will bring leading photogrammetrists to address the issue, so that the geometry of the images is not compromised.

 

6. 5 EUROGI

GR will attend the next meeting of EUROGI. It is a political body.

 

6.6 Other Societies

CEOS. Reference was made to the E-mail message sent by LF regarding the names of contact persons from ISPRS on WGISS. Wyn Cudlip, Commission II should be included instead of Osterland. The other representatives were agreed to.

ID attended the CEOS Cal/Val meeting in Japan recently and received positive feedback about the involvement of ISPRS in CEOS. Meetings of CEOS activities should be arranged at the Congress.

WG II/3 and WG IV/1 are encouraged to collaborate with the 3rd IEEE Meta-data Conference which will be held 6-7 April 99.


7. Proposals for Technical Commissions at 2000 Congress

Potential Commission candidates were discussed with intent to encourage formal nominations, especially for a proper balance of nations and Commission continuity.


8. Next Meeting of Council and Technical Commission Presidents (JT)

Amsterdam, 10-14 September 1999.

The arrangements will be as follows:
10 September: Arrive in Enschede
11-13 September: JM meeting in Enschede
14 September: Travel to Amsterdam to visit Congress Centre


9. Other Business

  • President Fritz reported on the results of the Council Strategy Meeting in May. Views on the future directions of scientific activities of ISPRS were presented at the meeting by TCPs and Council.
  • There is a patent pending on photogrammetric equations, details can be sent to TCPs if requested. Council is preparing a response.
  • El Salvador has recently been admitted as the 100th member of ISPRS. The admission of another 2 new Ordinary members, Bangladesh and Benin, will go to ballot shortly.
  • There have been a number of new Sustaining Members.
  • Actions are being taken on the finances of ISPRS, with the transfer of accounts to a new bank and changes in investment policy.

J. C. Trinder
Secretary General
October 1998


ATTACHMENT B
AMSTERDAM CONGRESS TECHNICAL SESSIONS

THEMES                                 NO OF SESSIONS    n-TCPs
SAR                                                 2      3
Hyperspectral                                       1      3
High resolution satellite                           1      3
Sensor orientation                                  1      2
Sensor calibration                                  1      2
Data fusion and integration                         2      3
Data quality                                        1      2
DTM generation and Orthophotoimages                 2      3
Urban modelling                                     1      3
Feature extraction                                  2      2
Integration of image analysis in GIS                2      2
Dynamic spatial modelling                           1      2
Global database & change monitoring                 3      2
Generation & maintenance of large scale databases   1      1
Standards                                           1      2
Interoperability                                    1      2
Integral spatial information production chains      2      3
Global human activity monitoring                    1      1
Sustainable resource management  and monitoring     3      2
Disaster mitigation                                 1      1
Computer aided and distance learning                1      1
Commission V                                        4      1
Real-time systems                                   1      3
Object recognition and image understanding          2      3
Automation                                          1      2
International cooperation                           1      1
Modelling and interpretation                        1      3
Data revision and mapping                           1      1

Number of Theme Sessions                           38?

Commission Session on Congress Theme                7

Technical Sessions per Commission
Commission I     2
Commission II    3
Commission III   4
Commission IV    5
Commission V     5
Commission VI    1
Commission VII   6
Total           26
Total number of Technical Sessions   71

 

 
 
 
 
 
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