UN-SPIDER Expert Meeting: Feb 7-9. Salzburg

United Nations International UN-SPIDER Expert Meeting:
"Building Upon the Network of Regional Support Offices"
Organized by: The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs and Z_GIS
Salzburg, 7 - 9 February 2008

---

The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), through its new UN-SPIDER (“United Nations Platform for Space-based Information for Disaster Management and Emergency Response”) programme, and the Salzburg University Center for Geoinformatics with support from the Austrian government are organising the United Nations International UN-SPIDER Expert Meeting in Salzburg at Schloss Leopoldskron to establish an Operational Plan that will ensure that the Network of the Regional Support Offices (RSOs) contributes to the 2008-2009 activities. The Expert Meeting will bring together around 40 decision-makers and senior experts from around the world who will not only discuss how to efficiently coordinate and interact with the Network of Regional Support Offices, but also focus on Capacity Building, Knowledge Management and National Disaster Management Planning.

Vulnerability Assessment - Mozambique

Stefan Kienberger (Z_GIS) has successfully conducted a field trip to Mozambique within his PhD research to assess vulnerability to natural hazards (floods & droughts). Major objectives have been the identification of risk zones and additional geographic features with VHR-satellite images, identification of vulnerability factors (both through a participatory approach) and expert interviews. The results will be applied to model vulnerability on the district and community levels in Búzi, Mozambique through the integration of different datasets (census, Remote Sensing; weighting of indicators, ...).
The research is funded through Munich Re Foundation.

Further information is available following this link.

New Professor in Location Based Services

Dr. Euro Beinat has been selected for the new endowed chair in 'Geoinformatics - Location Based Services' at Salzburg University. Starting from Jan 1, Prof. Beinat will be assigned to the Centre for Geoinformatics as well as to the Department of Geography and Geology and will offer classes and thesis supervision in LBS. The June 2008 summer school in LBS will be one of next year's highlights. Prof. Beinat's research is focussed on realtime location awareness, development of location based systems for highly dynamic and critical environments, and a social science perspective on dynamic cities. Current research initiatives are jointly implemented together with the SENSEable City Lab at MIT Boston and the SPINlab at VU Amsterdam.

CfP: Learning with Geoinformation @ AGIT'08

We are proud to invite your contributions to our annual conference “Learning with Geoinformation” (2.-4.7.2008, Salzburg) within the framework of AGIT ’08. We are now cooperating with both the Herodot Network as well as the GI-Forum to establish a full international track aimed at advances in education using geoinformation. Please find a first call for papers (German/English) at www.agit.at/schule or http://www.gi-forum.org/.

See 'comments' for further details, and feel free to contact us for additional information!

GIS Day '07 in Salzburg

Approximately 450 pupils from several schools in and all around the city attended a stimulating program of interactive workshops and geo-games. On GIS Day = Nov 14 the Centre for Geoinformatics (Z_GIS) organised this event with several partners at Science City Salzburg.
Highlights were navigation and caching games with mobile applications on cell phones, experiments with geological modeling, a satellite image quiz and a peek into the International Polar Year research program. Fascinated students left with a new image of Geography, GIS and location-aware technologies.
Details: www.gisday.at