ISPRS Scientific Vision and Research Agenda Paper Published
With the increased availability of very high-resolution satellite imagery, terrain based imaging and participatory
sensing, inexpensive platforms, and advanced information and communication technologies, the application of
imagery is now ubiquitous, playing an important role in many aspects of life and work today. Frequent
questions that are frequently asked by academia, industry, users, and young students include: what are the major
scientific and technical challenges we are facing? What are the state-of-the art in our disciplines? What are the
key issues to be addressed in the future? In an attempt to address such questions, ISPRS has prepared a
collective scientific vision and research agenda for the Society in the run-up to the 2016 Prague Congress. It has
recently been published on-line in the International Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing as an
original article with the title ‘Information from imagery: ISPRS scientific vision and research agenda’ [1].
The paper examines the significant challenges currently facing ISPRS and its communities, such as providing
high-quality information, enabling advanced geospatial computing, and supporting collaborative problem
solving. The state-of-the-art in ISPRS related research and development is reviewed and the trends and topics
for future work are identified. By providing an overarching scientific vision and research agenda, we hope to
call on and mobilize all ISPRS scientists, practitioners and other stakeholders to continue improving our
understanding and capacity on information from imagery and to deliver advanced geospatial knowledge that
enables humankind to better deal with the challenges ahead, posed for example by global change, ubiquitous
sensing, and a demand for real-time information generation.
The paper will form part of a Special Issue entitled “State-of-the-art in photogrammetry, remote
sensing and spatial information sciences” in the International Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote
Sensing, which is scheduled for publication in 2016 to coincide with the XXIII ISPRS Congress in
Prague, but is accessible now as a free-to-access, in-press article at:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.isprsjprs.2015.09.008.
You are invited to read it and provide feedback.
[1] CHEN, J., DOWMAN, I., LI, Z., LI, S., MADDEN, M., MILLS, J., PAPARODITIS, N., ROTTENSTEINER, F., SESTER, M., TOTH,
C., TRINDER, J., HEIPKE, C., In press. Information from Imagery: ISPRS Scientific Vision and Research Agenda. ISPRS
Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, doi:10.1016/j.isprsjprs.2015.09.008.