UNSDI Hungarian Coordination Office established - Minutes of the Meeting

Newsblog visitors just 8 hours after that this announcement was made Image: HUNAGI Visuals Resource, 2006

UNSDI HUCO Kick-off Meeting authorized HUNAGI to act as Hungarian Coordination Office

Minutes of the United Nations Spatial Data Infrastructure Hungarian Coordination Office (UNSDI HUCO) Kick-off Meeting
Venue and Date of the Meeting
Based on personalized invitation signed by Dr. Szabolcs Mihály, Director General of the host institute, the Meeting was held on the premises of the Institute of Geodesy, Cartography and Remote Sensing on 28th September 2006.
Goal of the Meeting
Based on communication between FAO-UNGIWG Co-chair, Mr.Jeffrey B. Tschirley, FAO-UNGIWG consultant, Jelle U. Hielkema, and the desk officer at the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MoARD), representing also HUNAGI, Hungary was invited to join the pilot phase of the United Nations Spatial Data Infrastructure (UNSDI) development process.
The opportunity was highlighted in a proposal made by the Department of Land Administration and Geoinformation of MoARD together with FÖMI and HUNAGI and discussed by the Annual meeting of the Hungarian FAO National Committee co-chaired by Dr. LászlóVajda and Ms. Mariann Kovács, leaders of the International and EU Relations at MoARD.
The participants of the Hungarian FAO National Committee agreed unanimously with the proposal to join the UN Spatial Data Infrastructure initiative and authorized Dr. Szabolcs Mihály, Director General of FÖMI to invite the major stakeholders of the Hungarian spatial data providers, value adders and users. Goal of the meeting was to reach a concensus on the establishment of the UNSDI Hungarian Coordination Office and who should be authorized to serve as coordinating body. The date of the UNSDI HUCO Kick-off meeting was scheduled for 28th September.
Participants
Mr. Jelle U. Hielkema represented the United Nations Geographic Working Group (UNGIWG) on behalf of FAO and the World Food Programme (WFP) being the current UNGIWG co-chairs since 2005.
Invited participants
About 16 Hungarian stakeholders have been invited as follow:
Zsolt Barkóczi, Director VÁTI
Dr. Zoltán Bokor, Member of SDI Strategy Task Force, Ministry of Economics and Transport
Dr. Előd Both, Director HSO, MoEW
Dr. Pál Bozó, Director General, Ministry of Environment and Water
Dr. Károly Brezsnyánszky, Director, MÁFI
Col. László Buga Director Mapping Service, Ministry of Defense
Dr. Péter Csóka Director General, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development
Dr. Zoltán Dunkel, President, Hungarian Meteorological Service
Gábor Horváth, Director General, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development
Dr. Béla Márkus Dean, Faculty of Geoinformation, University West Hungary
Dr. Szabolcs Mihály Director General, FÖMI
Dr. Tamás Németh Director General Research Institute of Soil Science and Agrochemistry of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences
Dr.Remetey-Fülöpp Gábor Advisor of FÖMI, Secretary General of HUNAGI
Zsolt Sikolya President, HUNAGI
Col Gyula Szabó Chief of Service Mapping Service of the Hungarian Defense Forces
Dr. Ilona Szabó Ilona Director General, National Office of Technological Development
Dr.Attila Tatár President, National Directorate General for Disaster Management
Evelin Lantos, Hungarian FAO National Committee
Péter Gresiczki Hungarian UNESCO National Committee
Kálmán Zoltán Permanent Representative of Hungary to FAO in Rome
Jelle U. Hielkema, UNGIWG-UNSDI consultant and lecturer at the UNSDI HUCO Kick-off Meeting
Mariann Kovács Deputy General Director International and EU Relations MoARD
Dr. László Vajda Director General International and EU Relations MoARD
List of Participants
Please see the scanned List of Participants attached. (Available later at www.hunagi.hu )
Apologies:
Evelin Lantos Secretary General FAO HNC
Péter Gresiczki Secretary General UNESCO HNC
Mariann Kovács Deputy General Director International and EU Relations MoARD
Dr. László Vajda Director General International and EU Relations MoARD
Dr.Péter Csóka Director General, Natural Resources, MoARD represented by László Mezei
Attila Tatár Director General National Directorate General for Disaster Management, represented by László Szabó and Erika Cikoráné-Balázs
Dr. Károly Brezsnyánszky Director, Hungarian Geological Institute represented by László Orosz and Gábor Turczi
Pál Bozó Director of Informatics MoEW, represented by Gyula Kothencz and Tamás Lőrincz
Gábor Horváth Director General, Department of Land Administration and Geoinformation, MoARD represented by Dr. Szabolcs Mihály
Dr. Zoltán Dunkel President, Hungarian Meteorological Service represented by Sándor Szalai
Dr. Zoltán Bokor, Member of SDI Strategy Task Force, Ministry of Economics and Transport represented by Róbert Varga
Col Gyula Szabó Chief of Service Mapping Service of the Hungarian Defense Forces represented by István Kádár

Agenda
According to the enclosed Agenda, the GeoNetwork and the UNGIWG-UNSDI initiative, the 'Henricksen UNSDI Implementation Strategy' and the UNSDI Architecture-related newest developments together with the ESA Heterogenous Missions Accessibility (HMA) project were highlighted by the UNGIWG/FAO representative Jelle U. Hielkema, while the Hungarian stakeholders introduced their institution's relevant activities and capabilities according to the following template:
General introduction of the organisation
Highlighting the importance of the SDI from the organisation' viewpoint
Mandated responsibilities related to the EU INSPIRE Annex I-III data
Participation in the Hungarian SDI development with flashback
Ongoing activities in the development/service/use of GI
Highlighting the European and World level professional relations
Highlighting any professional relations with UN organisations
Collaboration on international (including cross-border) projectsin the context
Conclusion: Expectations, expression of support and offered participation in the UNSDI Hungarian Coordination Board
Presentations: formulated expectations and offered contributions
In their presentation, most of the participants gave indication who will be the contact person to the Coordination Board and who will act as appointed contact person in daily operation.

Hungarian Association for Geo-information presented by Zsolt Sikolya
Contact: on UNSDI HUCO Board level:
Zsolt Sikolya
President
Zsolt.Sikolya@ihm.gov.hu,
Tel: +36-1/461-3366
Contact on operational level:
Gabor Remetey-Fülöpp
Secretary General
hunagi@hunagi.hu
Tel: +36-30/4158276
www.hunagi.hu
A golden opportunity to establish an interagency coordination board for SDI in Hungary in mapping and beyond
• National level contribution to the more effective work of the United Nations
• Committed for INSPIRE Principles
• synergy provided by HUNAGI active participation in regional (EUROGI) and global (GSDI) SDI-related existing interdisciplinary networking
If authorized, HUNAGI - via it Secretary General - is ready to run UNSDI Hungarian Coordination Office (HUCO) by
- sending a letter to Mr. Jeffrey B.Tschirley expressing the interest of the agreed participants of this kick-off meeting to participate in the Hungarian pilot for UNSDI
- to coordinate future Hungarian efforts in preparation of the Hungarian pilot for UNSDI
- to register the domain www.unsdi.hu and prepare webpages for the Hungarian pilot project.
If agreed, the work of HUCO is supervised and supported by the agencies represented at the kick-off meeting (forming the UNSDI HUCO Coordination Board). HUCO reports directly to the UNGIWG and keeps National FAO/UNESCO Committees informed.
Vote on support and willingness to participate UNSDI and to authorize HUNAGI to manage HUCO: yes

Hungarian Meteorological Service (OMSZ) presented by Sándor Szalai
Contact on UNSDI HUCO Board level:
Zoltán Dunkel, President,
dunkel.z@met.hu, +36-1-346-46-66
Contact on operational level:
Sándor Szalai, climatologist
Szalai@met.hu, +36-1-346-46-24
Expectations
-beneficial cooperation for each partner
-overcoming the existing hurdles
-faster development on the international, national and institutional level
Vote on support and willingness to participate UNSDI and to authorize HUNAGI to manage HUCO: will be communicated in written form

Hungarian Space Office, Ministry of Environment and Water presented by Dr. Előd Both
Contact: on UNSDI HUCO Board level:
Dr. Előd Both, Director
both@hso.hu
+36-1/461-3639
Contact on operational level:
Ferenc Horvai
horvai@hso.hu
+36-1/461-3639
HSO Director dr. Both Vice President of UN COPUOS welcomed the proposal.
Vote on support and willingness to participate UNSDI and to authorize HUNAGI to manage HUCO: yes

Institute of Geodesy, Cartography and Remote Sensing presented by Dr. Szabolcs Mihály
Contact on UNSDI HUCO Board level:
Dr. Szabolcs Mihály
Director General, FÖMImihaly.szabolcs@fomi.huPhone: +36-1-460-4001
Contact on operational level:
Pál Lévai
senior councillor
levai.pal@fomi.hu
Phone: +36-1-460-4253
FÖMI as the NMCA responsible for the following tasks:
Space referencing data (infrastructure) for all GI
Space referencing geodetic framework
Reference and Projection systems
Geodetic network, GNSS infrastructure
Space referencing base maps
Topographic maps
Cadastral maps
Georeferenced remotely sensed data
According to the judgement of FAO, the preconditions of setting up the national coordination office for UN SDI are given in Hungary too:
- FÖMI has been maintaining professional contacts with FAO for almost two decades, participating in various activities.
Vote on support and willingness to participate UNSDI and to authorize HUNAGI to manage HUCO: yes

Hungarian Geological Institute presented by László Orosz
Contact on UNSDI HUCO Board level:
Dr. Károly Brezsnyánszky
brezsnyanszky@mafi.hu
+36-1/251-4680
Contact on operational level:
László Orosz
orosz@mafi.hu
+36-1/251-0999/194
• Help to manage cross-border issues
• To develop accessibility and comparability of regional/national geoscientific data
• Standards
• Financial support
• Strong willingness in co operation
• Offering the wide professional experience is geosciences
Vote on support and willingness to participate UNSDI and to authorize HUNAGI to manage HUCO: yes

Mapping Service of the Hungarian Defence Forces presented by Lt.Col. István Kádár
Contact on UNSDI HUCO Board level:
Col Gyula SZABÓ, Chief of MS HDF
e-mail: szabo.gyula@mhtehi.gov.hu
Contact on operational level:
Lt Col István KÁDÁR, Deputy Chief of MS HDF
e-mail: kadar.istvan@mhtehi.gov.hu
Vote on support and willingness to participate UNSDI and to authorize HUNAGI to manage HUCO: yes

Department of Natural Resources, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development presented by László Mezei
Contact on UNSDI HUCO Board level:
will be appointed later
H-1054 Budapest, Kossuth tér 11. Hungary
Contact on operational level:
will be appointed later
H-1054 Budapest, Kossuth tér 11. Hungary
The Department has responsibility in planning, survey. State Forest Service and the Hngarian Forest Management maintain the 1:10 k digital forestry cadaster database. They are data provider but user by the way. The Department of Natural Resources MoARD is ready to cooperate.
Vote on support and willingness to participate UNSDI and to authorize HUNAGI to manage HUCO: will be communicated in written form

Department of Land Administration and Geoinformation, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development presented by Dr. Szabolcs Mihály
Contact on UNSDI HUCO Board level:
Gábor Horváth Director General
H-1054 Budapest, Kossuth tér 11. Hungary
Phone: +36 1 301-4151, Fax: +36 1 301-4719
›: H-1860 Budapest 55., P.O.B.: 1
horvathg@fvm.hu
Contact on operational level:
Sándor Tóth Deputy Director General
H-1054 Budapest, Kossuth tér 11. Hungary
Phone: +36 1 301-4151, Fax: +36 1 301-4719
›: H-1860 Budapest 55., P.O.B.: 1
toths@fvm.hu
Dr.Mihály informed the participants, DLAG MoARD is interested. It agrees with the proposal and support the activities and ready to cooperate with HUNAGI
Vote on support and willingness to participate UNSDI and to authorize HUNAGI to manage HUCO: yes

Ministry of Defence Mapping Company presented by Col. László Buga
Contact on UNSDI HUCO Board level:
Col. László Buga, director MoD Mapping Co.
H-1024 Budapest, Szilágyi E. fasor 7-9. Hungary
Phone: +36 1 212-0807, Fax: +36 1 212-4223
›: H-1276 Budapest 22., P.O.B.: 85
buga.laszlo@topomap.hu
Contact on operational level:
Dr. László Alabér PhD, technical advisor MoD Mapping Co.
H-1024 Budapest, Szilágyi E. fasor 7-9. Hungary
Phone: +36 1 212-0807, Fax: +36 1 212-4223
›: H-1276 Budapest 22., P.O.B.: 85
alaber.laszlo@topomap.hu
Mr. László Buga expressed their willingness to cooperate
Vote on support and willingness to participate UNSDI and to authorize HUNAGI to manage HUCO: yes

Ministry of Economy and Transport presented by Róbert Varga
Contact on UNSDI HUCO Board level:
Will be appointed later
Contact on operational level:
Will be appointed later
Expectations:
- the ministry will co-ordinate the SDI activities in the field of transport, production/industry, energy and ICT - the ministry will inform the UNSDI HCB about these activities
- however, the effective implementation of SDI activities is the task of different authorities, public and private companies (eg. regarding transport: Infrastructure Business Unit of Hungarian State Railways, Directorate of Road Management, Hungarocontrol…)
Vote on support and willingness to participate UNSDI and to authorize HUNAGI to manage HUCO: will be communicated in written form, several divisions might be interested therefore further correspondance is required to raise awareness of the relevant State Secretaries.

National Directorate General for Disaster Management presented by László Szabó
Contact on UNSDI HUCO Board level:
Mr. László Szabó
chief counsellor
E-mail: l.szabo@katved.hu
Phone: (+36-1/469-4310)
Contact on operational level:
Mrs. Czikora, Erika Balázs
E-mail: cziber@katved.hu
Phone: (+36-1/469-4224)
Expertize in
- decision assistance
- planning and organization
- modelling
- emergency visualization
- emergency exercises (national, international)
- risk analysis and assessment
Vote on support and willingness to participate UNSDI and to authorize HUNAGI to manage HUCO: will be communicated in written form

Research Institute for Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry presented by Academician Dr.Tamás Németh
Contact on UNSDI HUCO Board level:
Prof. Dr. Tamás NÉMETH director
nemeth@rissac.hu
+36-1/356-4682
Contact on operational level:
József SZABÓ
head of GIS lab
james@rissac.hu
+36-1/356-3694
Expectation: Auxiliary spatial data for spatial soil information systems, everything on soil
Vote on support and willingness to participate UNSDI and to authorize HUNAGI to manage HUCO: yes

University West Hungary Faculty of Geoinformatics presented by Dean Prof.Dr. Béla Márkus
Contact on UNSDI HUCO Board level:
Prof Béla Márkus, dean,
e-mail (geo@geo.info.hu)
Tel (+36-22-516-523)
URL: www.geo.info.hu
Contact on operational level:
Dr Tamás Jancsó, ass. prof.
e-mail (jt@geo.info.hu)
Tel (+36-22-516-545
The University has 13,000 students. Expectation: involvement in capacity building related actions
Vote on support and willingness to participate UNSDI and to authorize HUNAGI to manage HUCO: yes

VÁTI Hungarian Public Nonprofit Company for Regional Development and Town Planning presented by Zsolt Barkóczi
Contact on UNSDI HUCO Board level:
Zsolt Barkóczi, CIO, zsbarkoczi@vati.hu
Contact on operational level:
Géza Juhász IT manager, gjuhasz@vati.hu
Features
• We represent the aspects of data users
• We have connected to the EU INSPIRE programs 2006
• We support all initiatives related to the better utilization and commercialization of spatial data
We offers our experiences in GIS:
• Operation of a complex data warehouse (TeIR)
• The Hungarian (spatial related) data market
• Spatial related data prices, accessibility, precisely
• The licence „problems” related to the GIS data
• Commercial (ArcGIS, AutoCAD…) and Open Source (GRASS) GIS
• Commercial (ArcIMS) and Open Source (UMN Mapserver) web mapping systems
Vote on support and willingness to participate UNSDI and to authorize HUNAGI to manage HUCO: yes

HUNAGI/GSDI
The Action Plan Version 2 of GEO for the years 2007-2009 was highlighted by Gabor Remetey-Fülöpp. The presentation was prepared by Osamu Achiai of GEO Secretariat, and introduced first at the CEOS WGISS-22 Meeting hosted by NASA two weeks ago.

FÖMI/HUNAGI Proposal for setting up UNSDI HUCO
The Proposal for the establishment of UNSDI HUCO was presented by Dr. Mihály, Director General of FÖMI followed by a discussion and vote.
Results of the voting are noted by the represented stakeholders above. The scanned List of Participants also contains the votes registered by the Chairperson.

Wrap-up and conclusions
The participants agreed unanimously with the establishment of the UNSDI HUCO and the selection of HUNAGI and its Secretary General as coordination office and coordinator.
Following the Dutch (UNSDI-NCO) and Czech (UNSDI-CCO) practice, the Chair of the Kick-off Meeting will ask in circular letter all of the stakeholders present to authorize HUNAGI and its Secretary General to act and serve as coordinator. The confirmation should be send back to HUNAGI by October 6, 2006.
It was made clear, that in this preparatory pilot phase there is no need for any commitments related to financial contribution or budget issue.
The Coordination Office will report to the UNGIWG Secretariat whereas the Hungarian National FAO and UNESCO Committees will also be informed on the development. The Coordination Board composed by the delegated contact persons of stakeholders will serve as steering committee. All the presented papers will be available on the HUNAGI website. After official registration all related documents will be available at the UNSDI HUCO’s own site. HUNAGI will circulate an UNSDI HUCO information package among its member organisations by giving opportunity to express non-agreement if any till October 6 as latest.
Finally Mr. Hielkema expressed his impressions for the valuable and diverse content and uniformity of the presentations of the wide range of disciplines, using the UNSDI HUCO logo and template.

Follow-on actions
Jelle U. Hielkema of UNGIWG was received by the Secretary General of the Hungarian National FAO Committee, Ms. Evelin Lantos, and the Deputy Director General responsible for relations with UN agencies in agriculture, Ms.Mariann Kovacs on September 29. The meeting offered excellent opportunity to summarize the results of the Kick-off meeting hosted by FÖMI and sharing personal impressions and expectations.
The Secretary General of the Hungarian UNESCO Committee received the representative of the UNGIWG on 29th September 2006. The talks confirmed the importance of the Hungarian efforts to bring advanced technologies more closely to the implementation of UNESCO tasks via train the trainers in the context of its 'Information for All' Project.
Left: Ms.Evelin Lantos, Secretary General, Hungarian FAO Committee, Mr. Jelle U. Hielkema of UNGIWG and Mrs. Mariann Kovács, Deputy Director General, International Affairs, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development Right: Mr. Peter Gresiczki, Secretary General of the Hungarian National UNESCO Committee and Jelle U. Hielkema, representative of UNGIWG Images: HUNAGI Visuals Resource, 2006

Some useful references
UNGIWG website with related documents (GeoNetwork, SDI Strategy)
United Nations GI Working Group documents are available at http://www.ungiwg.org
UNSDI related documents
UNSDI documents are available at http://www.ungiwg.org/unsdi.htm
Related national level coordination offices: http://www.unsdi.nl , http://www.unsdi.cz
GEO related documents
GEO documents are available at http://earthobservations.org
Related task documents are available at ftp://ftp.wmo.int/Projects/GEO/
HUNAGI related documents
HUNAGI documents are available at http://www.hunagi.hu
and http://hunagi.blogspot.com , http://hunagi8.blogspot.com

Budapest, 2nd October, 2006
Compiled by
Gabor Remetey-Fülöpp
Secretary General, HUNAGI