FIG Standards Network

Report of the Results of the FIG Questionnaire on Standards

Winfried Hawerk (Germany)
Hans Knoop (Germany)

Introduction

The FIG Task Force on Standards has decided to send out a questionnaire to all member associations of FIG. The aim of this questionnaire is to collect as much information as possible world-wide about standards and activities in different countries in this field. A side effect if this questionnaire shall be to collect addresses of interested people inside the FIG family. So there should be a chance to establish an information network in FIG. This should be helpful to exchange information about current activities.

The questionnaire was developed by Iain Greenway (Chairperson, UK), Winfried Hawerk and Hans Knoop (Germany) and sent out to all the 85 member associations by the FIG Office in Denmark. It was requested to send back the questionnaires before 31 March 99.

In addition to that Winfried Hawerk sent out the questionnaire to all delegates to FIG Commission 7.

Until 13 May 1999 we received 40 replies from the 23 countries shown in picture 1. The addresses of all persons who answered this questionnaire can be found in appendix 1.

More than one answer was sent back by Argentina (4), Australia (7), Finland (2), Japan (2), The Netherlands (2), New Zealand (2), Norway (2), South Africa (2), Sweden (2) and Switzerland (2). In total nearly 30 % of the member associations sent least one answer. This rate is excellent. The Task Force is very grateful for these contributions.

In this report we were able to pick out only some major aspects and trends. The quantity of information sent back to the Task force is so big that it will not be useful to comment details.

Official Standardisation Activities

The majority of the countries replying the questionnaire are members of ISO. Besides being member of ISO most countries are member of a regional standardisation body. Regional standardisation bodies which are listed in the questionnaire are CEN in Europe with 19 participant-members and 14 affiliates and the Pacific Area Standards Congress in Asia, Australia and New Zealand. Australia and New Zealand cooperate very closely to harmonise their national standards. Except one country answering this questionnaire all countries have a national standardisation body. The list of the national standardisation bodies involved in this evaluation are listed in table 1.

Country

National standardisation body

Argentina

Instituto Argentino de Racionalizacion de Materiales (IRAM)

Australia

Standards Australia (SAA)

Austria

Austrian Standards Institute (ON)

Canada

Canadian Hydrographic Service (SCC)

Denmark

Dansk Standard (DS)

Finland

Suomen Standardisoimisliittory (SFS)

Germany

Deutsches Institut für Normung e. V. (DIN)

Hungary

Hungarian Body for Standardisation (MSZT)

Japan

Japanese Industrial Standards Committee (JISC)

Korea

Korea National Institute of Technology and Quality

Malaysia

Department of Standards (DSM)

Netherlands

Nederlands Normalisatie-Instituut (NNI)

New Zealand

Standards New Zealand (SNZ)

Norway

Norges Standardiseringsforbund (NSF)

Poland

Polish Committee for Standardizations (PKN)

Portugal

Portuguese Institute for Quality (IPQ)

Singapore

Singapore Productivity and Standards Board (PSB)

Slovenia

Standards and Metrology Institute (SMIS)

South Africa

South African Board of Standards (SABS)

Sweden

Standardiseringen i Sverige (SIS)

Switzerland

Schweizerische Normen-Vereinigung (SNV)

Zambia

Zambia Bureau of Standards

Table 1

National standardisation bodies

Activities in ISO

The replies show that the major activities in ISO may be found in TC 211. TC 59, 172 and 204 play as well an important role in the work in which surveyors are involved but the main tasks on Geographic Information and standardisation issues are discussed and developed in TC 211.

These results are shown in picture 3. Main topics are the description of metadata, GI co-ordination conceptional scheme languages as well as spatial referencing by co-ordinates. Most answers came from experts representing their country in ISO TCs and working groups. Not as many answers as expected mentioned activities in the fields of geodetic instruments.

Most ISO standards which are recently in practical use are ISO 9000 for quality management as it is shown in picture 4. These ISO standards are momentous in most countries. Some countries use the ISO standards for names of countries and codes, dates and time. Most countries find a great importance of standards for the exchange and the description of Geographical data and modelling languages (like EXPRESS). Standards in the field of Environment management are in use only in a few countries. Probably a lot more ISO standards are in use by surveyors all over the world may be in the fields of land management, geodetic instruments and information technology and more but were not reported in the answers.

Regional Standardisation Bodies

Regional standardisation bodies as it is understood by the Task Force are authorised organisations in which standards are defined between several countries. The answers show only two regional standard bodies in the world Comité Européen de Normalisation (CEN) in Europe and the Pacific Area Standards Committee. Most European countries are member in CEN and the answers show that the main topics which are interesting for surveyors are the same as in ISO. These topics are Geographic information (CEN/TC 287) and road construction (CEN/TC 278). CEN has finished most standardisation work in this field and the members concentrate their work more on ISO activities.

The standards respectively the pre-standards from CEN in the field of GI are used by surveyors in a number of European countries. . The activities of the Pacific Area Standards Committee are more in the field of GI co-ordination but are not described very clearly in the answers to this questionnaire.

The usefulness of regional standards is not as big as expected because the further development of ISO standards in these fields progress very quickly.

National standardisation activities

The description of national standardisation activities vary from almost nothing to a long list of activities like in Germany especially in the field GI, geodesy, mapping, instruments, quality management etc. Some national standards are based on ISO standards or regional standards but it seems that sometimes these developments are not as consequently co-ordinated as it could be. The results of the evaluation is shown in picture 5.

 

De facto standards

De facto standards in form of national laws, codes and regulations are found in almost all countries to organise the work of surveying and registration of cadastral data. F. e. In Germany the basic cadastral and topographical data bases ATKIS, ALK, ALB etc. are good examples of de facto-standards. Industry data exchange formats became de facto standards because they are widely used like DXF, TIFF and some others. The Microsoft products can be defined as a de facto standard because they are used from a big number of users. This can be said as well from the data transfer protocols like TCP/IP which is used all over the world in the Internet.

Further standardisation activities

Further activities are not very clearly defined. Most answers ticked yes but did not give a clear comment which activities in their country are in planning or discussion. Some keywords here are geodetic standards, implementation of ISO TC 211 results and OGC. ISO/TC 211 and OGC now have an agreement for co-operation

Results required from FIG Task Force on Standards

The results of the evaluation to these three questions are shown in picture 3. The majority of answers to this questionnaire asks for an information network which should be able to collect more information about what is going on in ISO. Another problem for most people is to get understandable publications about standardisation work in ISO. Standards should be more driven by end-users than from a more theoretical point of view far away from practical work.

A significant number of answers require a more important role to be played by FIG in standardisation work. They hope that FIG will get more influence in ISO/TC 211.

Surveyors shall be more aware of standards, in order to use the world wide efficiency of official standards, to avoid double work to save time and money.

Most of the people answering this questionnaire want to get information about the results of the Task Force’s work and want to be on the mailing list for any news about future activities.

Appendix 1: List of persons who sent answers to the questionnaire

Senor Angel Zingoni
Departamento Cadastro Provincial
Director
Paimun y Ruta 22
8300 Neuquén
Argentina
Tel. +54-299-4423613
email dpcatas@neuquen.gov.ar

Senora Mabel Alvarez de Lopez
Cadastre and Land Information Director
Alejandro Maiz 169
9103 Rawson Chubut
Argentina
Tel. +54-2965-481141-481450 
Fax +54-2965-481141-481450
email mablop@satlink.com

Mr. Leonardo Ivars
Departamento Cadastro Municipal
Mitre 524
Esquel Chubut
Argentina
Tel. +54-2945-41921-451064 
Fax +54-2945-51923
email lbivars@teletel.com.ar

Mr. Eduardo o Connor
Ramón y Cajal 201
9100 Trelew Chubut
Argentina
Tel. +54-2965-432528 
Fax +54-2965-432528
email mablop@satlink.com

Mr. Bob Teerink
Surveyors Board of Queensland
Secretary
PO Box 810
4004 Spring Hill Queensland
Australia
Tel. +61-7-3839-7744 
Fax +61-7-3839-8341
email survbrdq@ozemail.com.au

Mr. DJ Hawker
Department of National Resources
Survey Infrastructure Services
Locked Bag 40
Q 4151 Coorparoo Mail Centre Queensland
Australia
Tel. +61-7-3896-3036 
Fax +61-7-3891-5168
email jim.hawker@dnr.qld.gov.au

Mr. John Martin
Land Victoria
Manager Policy Development + Standards
6/436 Lonsdale St.
Melbourne Victoria
Australia
Tel. +61-3-9603-9167 
Fax +61-3-9603-9049
email john.martin@nre.vic.gov.au

Mr. Paul Harcombe
Land Information Centre
Department of Information Technology and Management
Panorama Avenue P.O. Box 143
2795 Bathurst New South Wales
Australia
Tel. +61-2-63335-209
Fax +61-2-63335-217
email harcombp@lic.gov.au

Mr. David Sinclair
Queensland Surveying Society Ltd. (QSS)
Secretary
PO Box 810
4004 Spring Hill Queensland
Australia
Tel. +61-7-3839-7744 
Fax +61-7-3839-8341
email admin@qss.org.au

Mr. Graham Brassil
Department of Defence
Directorate of Strategic Military Geographic Information (DSMGI)
M-SB-36 Russel Offices
2600 Canberra ACT
Australia
Tel. +61-2-6265-0508 
Fax +61-2-6265-0517
email mgisao@ozemail.com.au

Mr. Craig Macauley
Department for Environment, Heritage and Aboriginal Affairs
Resource Information
GPO Box 550
5033 Marleston South Australia
Australia
Tel. +61-8-8226-4849 
Fax +61-8-8293-4898
email cmacauley@dehaa.sa.gov.au

Dipl.-Ing. Ernst Höflinger
Maria-Theresien-Straße 21-23
6021 Innsbruck
Austria
Tel. +43-512-581316 
Fax +43-512-577994
email geo.hoef@aon.at

Senatsrat Dipl.-Ing. Erwin Hynst
MA 41-Stadtvermessung
Muthgasse 62-64
1190 Wien
Austria
Tel. +43-1-4000-89111 
Fax +43-1-4000-7941
email hyn@m41.magwien.gv.at

Mr. Rob Hare
Canadian Hydrographic Service
Institute of Ocean Sciences
P.O. Box 6000
V8L 4B2 Sidney B.C.
Canada
Tel. +1-250-363-6595 
Fax +1-250-363-6323
email harer@pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca

Mr. Jes Ryttersgaard
National Survey and Cadastre KMS
Informatics Department
Rentemestervej 8
2400 Kobenhavn NV
Denmark
Tel. +45-35-87-5050
email jr@kms.dk

Mr. M. Kaing
Fr. R. Kreutzwaldi 5
EE2Y00 Tartu
Estonia
Tel. +372-2-422539 
Fax +372-2-421053

Dr. Aulis Tenkanen
Helsinki University of Technology
Docent of Land Management
Saunalahdentie 11A 8
00330 Helsinki
Finland
Tel. +358-9-486452 
Fax +358-9-75940401
email aulis.tenkanen@hut.fi

DR.eng. John van den Berg
Tainionkoskentie 85
55120 Imatra 12
Finland
Tel. +358-543-21020 
Fax +358-543-19888

Mr. Reino Ruotsalainen
National Land Survey of Finland
Development Centre
P.O. Box 84
00521 Helsinki
Finland
Tel. +358-20-541-5440 
Fax +358-20-541-5454
email reino.ruotsalainen@nls.fi

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Hans Knoop
Head of German Standardsation Body (DIN) concerns Surveying, Mapping and GIS
Innenministerium Niedersachsen
Lavesallee 6
30169 Hannover
Germany
Tel. +49-511-120-4862 
Fax +49-511-120-4855
email hans.knoop@mi.niedersachsen.de

Dr. Zoltan Forgacs
Institute of Geodesy Cartography and Remote Sensing
Quality Manager
Bosnyak Ter 5
1149 Budapest
Hungary
Tel. +36-1-252-7518 
Fax +36-1-252-7918
email zforgacs@hotmail.com

Mr. Takao Seto
Sokkia Co. Ltd.
260-63 Yanagicho, Hase
243-0036 Atsugi, Kanagawa
Japan
Tel. +81-462-48-0034 
Fax +81-462-47-1931
email seto@sokkia.co.jp

Mr. Yoshimichi Harada
Japan Federation of Surveyors
President of JFS
1-3-4 koishikawa bunkyo-ku
112-0002 Tokyo
Japan
Tel. 03-3815-5751 
Fax 03-5805-7507

Professor Jungho Kim
Korea Cadastral Survey Corporation
Cadastral Technology Education & Research Institute
624 Unchak-Dong Yongin City
Kyonggi-Do
Korea
Tel. +82-335-335-0851 
Fax +82-335-335-0853
email juhkim@kcsc.co.kr

M. Felix Peckels
OLG Ordre Luxembourgeois des Géomètres
14 rue Robert Stümper
2557 Luxembourg
Luxemburg
Tel. +352-484408 
Fax +352-400266
email fpeckels@pt.lu

Mr. Auke Hoekstra
Kadaster
Concernstaf
Postbus 9046
7300 GH Apeldoorn
Netherlands
Tel. +31-55-5285217 
Fax +31-55-3556850
email a.v.hoekstra@ap.kadaster.nl.net

Professor John Hannah
University of Otago
Department of Surveying
P.O. Box 56
Dunedin
New Zealand
Tel. +64-3-479-9010
Fax +64-3-479-7586
email johnh@albers.otago.ac.nz

Mr. Sverre Steen
Statens kartverk
Serviceboks 15
3504 Hönefoss
Norway
Tel. +47-321-18100 
Fax +47-321-18101
email sverre.steen@statkart.no

Mr. Morten Borrebaek
Norwegian Mapping Authority
Box 2057 Postterminalen
3103 Toensberg
Norway
Tel. +47-333-71208 
Fax +47-333-71275
email morten.borrebaek@statkart.no

Prof. Dr. Wojciech Pachelski
Instytut Geodezji i Kartografii
ul. Jasna 2/4
00-950 Warsaw
Poland
Tel. +48-22-827-0328
Fax +48-22-827-0328
email wp@cbk.waw.pl

Mr. Joao Agria Torres
Instituto Portugues de Cartografia e Cadastro (NMA)
Vice President
R. Artilharia VM, 107
1070 Lisboa
Portugal
Tel. +351-1-381-9600 
Fax +351-1-381-9699
email jatorres@ipcc.pt

Mr. Pong Chai Goh
Singapore Institute of Surveyors & Valuers
20 Maxwell Road #10-09B Maxwell House
1016 Singapore
Singapore
Tel. +65-2223030
Fax +65-2252453
email cpcgoh@ntu.edu.sg

Mr. Tone Kupic
Ministry of the Environment and Physical Planning
Surveying and Mapping Authority
Zemljemerska ulica 12
1000 Ljubljana
Slovenia
Tel. +386-61-1784850 
Fax +386-61-1794909
email tone.kupic@gov.si

Professor Gaye le Roux
Association of South African Quantity Surveyors
P.O. Box 112518
6006 Centrahil
South Africa
Tel. +27-41-583-2144 
Fax +27-41-583-2276
email quaglr@upe.ac.za

Mr. D. G. Clarke
Chief Directorate Surveys & Mapping
Chief Director
Private Bag X10
7705 Mowbray
South Africa
Tel. +27-21-689-9362 
Fax +27-21-689-1351
email dclarke@wcape.gov.za

Mrs. Kristina Essen
Swedish General Standards Institute
Project leader
11289 Stockholm
Sweden
Tel. +46-8-136250 
Fax +46-8-6186128
email kristina.essen@stg.se

Mr. H. R. Gnägi
IGP ETHZ
ETH Hönggerberg HIL D54.4
8093 Zürich
Switzerland
Tel. +41-1-633-3060 
Fax +41-1-633-1101
email gnaegi@geod.ethz.ch

Mr. Emmanuel Tembo
Department of Surveying
School of Engineering
P.O. Box 32379
Lusaka
Zambia
Tel. +260-1-291777 
email etembo@eng.unza.zm


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