International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing
Internationale Gesellschaft für Photogrammetrie und Fernerkundung
Société Internationale de Photogrammétrie et de Télédétection
Headquarters 2012-16
Christian HEIPKE, Secretary General
Leibniz Universität Hannover
Institute of Photogrammetry and GeoInformation
Phone:
+49-511-762-2482
Nienburger Str. 1
Fax:
+49-511-762-2483
30167 Hannover
Email:
Germany
isprs-sg@ipi.uni-hannover.de
http://www.isprs.org
October 03, 2014
A Proposal for Restructuring
Re
the ISPRS Commissions
Consolidated draft
Introduction
At the beginning of 2014, Council started
start exploring the potential for a revision of the ISPRS commission strucstru
ture with the aim of increasing the visibility and impact of our discipline and of our society. The resulting propr
posal1 includes a detailed analysis of the current situation and a rationale for change. In a period of consultation
consultati
lasting approximately four months it was shared with all Ordinary, Associate, Regional and Sustaining ISPRS
Members, with all Honorary Members and Fellows, and with all current and many recent ISPRS officers - each
time asking for feedback, and in particular
particular for thoughts on how to improve the document. The proposal was also
widely discussed in the ISPRS community, notably at Commission Board Meetings at the Midterm Symposia of
Commissions IV and VI (May 2014), V (June 2014) as
a well as III and VII (September
(Septem
2014). The opinions of
the International Science Advisory Committee (ISAC) and the International Policy Advisory Committee (IPAC)
were also solicited. Moreover,, the ideas for revision of the Commission structure were presented in the ISPRS
eBulletin, Issue 2/2014, with a view to obtaining
obtain
as many comments as possible via a specially installed blog2.
The feedback was overwhelmingly positive and included constructive comments from many sides. This docudoc
ment presents a proposal for a new commission structure,
structur based on the original suggestions and the many comments received during the months since the initial proposal.
proposal
1
2
www2.isprs.org/news/blog/detail/items/council-explores-revision-of-isprs-commission-structure.html
www2.isprs.org/news/blog/detail/items/council
structure.html
www2.isprs.org/news/blog.html
President:
Secretary General:
First Vice President:
CHEN JUN
CHRISTIAN HEIPKE
ORHAN ALTAN
National Geomatics Centre, CHINA
Leibniz Univ. Hannover, GERMANY
Istanbul Tech. Univ., TURKEY
Email: chenjun@nsdi.gov.cn
Email: isprs-sg@ipi.uni-hannover.de
Email: oaltan@itu.edu.tr
Second Vice President:
Treasurer:
Congress Director:
MARGUERITE MADDEN
JON MILLS
LENA HALOUNOVÁ
HALOUNOV
The Univ. of Georgia, USA
Newcastle University, UK
Czech Tech. Univ. in Prague,
Prague CZECH REPUBLIC
Email: mmadden@uga.edu
Email: jon.mills@ncl.ac.uk
Email: lena.halounova@fsv.cvut.cz
International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing
Internationale Gesellschaft für Photogrammetrie und Fernerkundung
Société Internationale de Photogrammétrie et de Télédétection
General guidelines
In this proposal Council was led by the following general guidelines:
1. Use the overall goal of better positioning
position
our society as a relevant, vibrant and forward-looking
forward
organisation for the 21st Century as the main guideline.
guideline This includes:
- providing a clear structure, internally and externally;
externally
- ensuring that the scientific quality of our work is kept and improved in times of increasing relevance
of our area, and thus also increasing competition from others;
others
- improving the impact of ISPRS events by increasing
increasin their size and visibility (flagship
(
meetings).
2. In the design of the new commissions, the ISPRS meeting schedule needs to be considered.
3. Reduce overlap and fragmentation between commission areas, while maintaining some well defined redundancy for the most important areas.
4. Pay special attention to the Commission dealing with education, capacity building and outreach.
5. Design each new commission such that it consists of both theory and application, as from past experiexper
ence it has become clear that purely theoretical or purely application-oriented
a
oriented commissions cannot fully
exploit the potential of a field.
6. Do not separate commission fields on the basis of the platform used for imaging (ground, air, space), as
recent developments in data processing and analysis have led to scientific methodologies, algorithmic
approaches and commercial solutions common to all platforms.
7. Increase the attractiveness of working for ISPRS to all officers, and in particular to TCPs.
T
8. Ensure
ure that global participation at the commission level is not hampered.
9. Ensure
sure existing communities within ISPRS are kept on board and intact.
10. Take into account the recommendations of the ISPRS Strategic Plan 2010.
11. Strive for a consensus driven process rather than top-down
top
decision making.
12. Design the process to be evolutionary rather than revolutionary.
Proposal
In line with the ISPRS Strategic Plan 2010,, which calls for a concentration of Society efforts on the most imporimpo
tant issues of our field, the
he proposal calls for five new commissions (instead of the current eight).
e
Also, the term
"Technical" shall be dropped, as the Commission on Education and capacity building is a non-technical
non
one;
instead only the term "Commission" should be used in the future. Whilst the initial proposal
pro
had suggested only
four commissions, the consultation process resulted in an additional commission.. The new suggestion consticonst
tutes a better compromise between a clear subdivision of our field on the one side and redundancy in strategic
areas as well as more potential for global participation on the other hand.
The five proposed commissions are entitled:
Commission I
Observation systems and sensors
Commission II
Photogrammetry and 3D information
Commission III
Remote sensing and thematic information
Commission IV
Spatial information science and services
Commission V
Education and capacity building
The new commissions are proposed to comprise the following subject areas:
Commission I - Observation systems and sensors
Unmanned aircraft systems (UAS, UAV)
Mobile mapping systems
Innovative designs for industrial metrology (including PMD cameras, systems based on structured light)
Design and realisation
ation of digital aerial and spaceborne missions for Earth observation
International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing
Internationale Gesellschaft für Photogrammetrie und Fernerkundung
Société Internationale de Photogrammétrie et de Télédétection
Design, construction, characterization, and installation of imaging and non-imaging
imaging sensors (incl. optical,
hyperspectral, IR, SAR, IFSAR, LIDAR, etc.)
Potential of (ad hoc) sensor networks (from ground-based
ground
geosensor
eosensor networks to satellite constellations
and swarms)
Real-time
time imaging and ranging systems and algorithms
Potential of small satellites for photogrammetry and remote sensing
Standardization of definitions and measurements of sensor parameters
Calibration of sensors and systems (geometric, radiometric, time synchronisation)
Contact with national and international space agencies, incl. ICORSE
Analysis of industry needs and design of systems for acquisition of geospatial data
Commission II - Photogrammetry and 3D information
Methodological topics
Sensor and image orientation, multi-image
multi
geometry, multi-sensor
sensor bundle adjustment
High accuracy 3D coordinate determination and tracking
Dense matching, 3D depth reconstruction, Shape from
rom X, structured light approaches
Structure from motion
SLAM - simultaneous localisation and mapping
Geometric computer vision
Processing and modelling of 3D point clouds from stereo and lidar
Object detection from images and 3D point clouds
Image sequence analysis, object detection and tracking, deformable objects
Image-based
based and point cloud rendering
Pattern recognition and machine learning in photogrammetry and remote sensing
Image and scene understanding
Statistical approaches in computer vision
Application topics
Topographic mapping, image-based
based generation and update of topographic databases
Planetary mapping
Cultural
ultural heritage, architecture and archaeology
Photogrammetric vision metrology
Medical imaging
Photogrammetric processing for surveillance, safety and security applications
Robot and machine vision, image based navigation, obstacle avoidance
Analysis of industry needs and design of systems for processing
processing image and lidar data
Commission III - Remote sensing and thematic information
Methodological topics
Image classification, change detection and information fusion
Physical modelling and spectral signatures
Electromagnetic radiation - propagation, BRDF, surface interaction
International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing
Internationale Gesellschaft für Photogrammetrie und Fernerkundung
Société Internationale de Photogrammétrie et de Télédétection
Atmospheric modelling for radiometric corrections
Topics based on specific sensors and/or fields of application
applicati
Hyperspectral image processing
Radar remote sensing - SAR, InSAR, PSI, PolSAR, TomSAR, ...
Land use, land cover, human impact and ecosystem analysis
Vegetation and biodiversity - remote sensing in forestry and agriculture
Indicators of change for global
lobal modeling, monitoring and sustainable development
Disaster monitoring, mitigation and damage assessment
Renewable and non-renewable
renewable resources
Remote sensing for water and ice
Analysis of industry needs for systems for remote sensing and image analysis
Commission IV - Spatial information science and services
Methodological topics
Spatio-temporal data models, data structures and analysis
Geospatial databases:: design, update and maintenance, fast query
Big data
Data quality
Crowd sourcing and volunteered geographic information (VGI)
Geosensor networks: distributed processing and decision making
Data mining and geostatistics
Semantic and geometric integration of heterogeneous
he
spatial information
Visualisation, augmented and virtual reality
reali - visual analytics
Aggregation, generalization, abstraction and rendering
ren
of image and vector data
The Internet of Geospatial
eospatial Things (Geospatial Semantic Web)
Analysis of moving objects
Geo-social analysis of location-based
based social media data
Cyberinfrastuctures
nfrastuctures and national mapping agencies
Application oriented topics
Web services and service oriented architectures,
architectures sensor web
Spatial decision support systems
Geospatial Data Infrastructure
Location based services
Data libraries, data clearinghouses, data warehouses, distributed archives and access to remote data sources,
including interoperability, metadata and digital data standards (OGC, ISO)
Global environmental databases and services
GIS, CAD and BIM
GIS and application domains (health
health, mobility, traffic, logistics, ...)
Contact with national mapping agencies
Analysis of industry needs for systems for production
producti and update of geoinformation and geospatial DB
International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing
Internationale Gesellschaft für Photogrammetrie und Fernerkundung
Société Internationale de Photogrammétrie et de Télédétection
Commission V - Education and capacity building
Promotion of education and training at fundamental, advanced and professional levels
Curriculum development and adaptation in ISPRS fields of expertise
Innovative techniques for information
formation dissemination on the internet
i
Promotion of technology transfer, considering account regional needs and resources
Promotion of capacity building in the areas of interest to ISPRS
Promotion of ISPRS Student Consortium
Promotion of outreach activitiess
Promotion
romotion of ISPRS activities in the regions,
regions incl. support of regional meetings
Liasise with other international geospatial societies for education, capacity
capac ty building and outreach
In general, the proposed commissions
ommissions are larger in scope than the current commissions, and consequently could
expect to have more working groups than currently exist in each commission alone. This enlargement is seen to
be necessary for at least two reasons: (a) the field of the commissions is widened with respect to the current
situation and it is therefore reasonable to increase the number of WGs;
WGs; and (b) as there is a significant interest in
people from our community participating as WG officers, we should accommodate this interest.
Meeting schedule
As suggested by ISAC, the general ISPRS meeting schedule will be kept intact.. It consists of the Congress every
four years (always an even year) and Commission Symposia
ymposia in the remaining even years. In the odd years, an
ISPRS Geospatial Week will be convened.
convened The proposed schedule therefore looks as follows:
- Year 1: ISPRS Congress
- Year 2: ISPRS Geospatial Week
- Year 3: ISPRS Commission Symposia
- Year 4: ISPRS Geospatial Week
- Year 5: ISPRS Congress
The concept of the Congress and of the Commission Symposia will be maintained,
maintained with the exception of the
new Commission V (see
ee below). Besides these larger meetings, working groups are encouraged to hold smaller
workshops whenever appropriate. Both the organisers of symposia (the TCPs) and of the ISPRS Geospatial
Week will be eligible to apply to Council for a loan in order to facilitate preparation of the meeting. This loan is
to be paid back four months after the meeting,
meeting at the latest.
Each commission should develop a tag line for their symposia, under which the meeting will be known as an
ISPRS flagship event. Since 2002, the
the current Com. III already has such a tag line, and the symposium is known
as "PCV - Photogrammetric Computer Vision". As a side effect,
effect such a tag line will render the commission
number less important.
The ISPRS Geospatial Week was first introduced in Antalya
Antalya in 2013 and will be held in Montpellier in autumn
2015. It is a combination of independent workshops organised by different working groups at the same time and
in a common location. The working groups will organise the scientific programme incl. paper review and will
thus be responsible for the scientific quality. If suitable,
suitable a common keynote presentation will provide a larger
picture of the overall meeting. The local organiser will provide the framework of the event, incl. logistics for
registration, accommodation and the social programme. Financial arrangements will be decided between the
local organiser and the working group officers under the auspices of ISPRS. Details will be determined in a
contract between the local organiser and ISPRS Council, similar to the contract for the symposia.
At this point in time, it is not yet clear how a local organiser will be selected. Council is in favour of a bidding
process, and the decision could be taken at the General Assembly (similar to deciding for the next
nex Congress).
International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing
Internationale Gesellschaft für Photogrammetrie und Fernerkundung
Société Internationale de Photogrammétrie et de Télédétection
For the time being, the decision could be delegated from the General Assembly to Council. In this way the
ISPRS Geospatial Week will develop into another scientific flagship meeting of the society.
As mentioned, the ISPRS Geospatial Week should
shoul be seen as an addition to the regular meeting schedule, not as
a substitute for previous working group events. In contrary, a working group can also generate a flagship meeting series, as has been done for example by the working group organising PIA - Photogrammetric
otogrammetric Image AnalyAnal
sis.
Regional Meetings
With the reduced number of symposia
ymposia, it is likely that there will be parts of the globe were no larger ISPRS
event will be held during any one quadrennial period between congresses. In order to still offer attractive possiposs
bilities for active participation in ISPRS work and to strengthen the global aspects of the society, regional meetmee
ings will be held when and where appropriate. They will be organised with support of the new Commission V
(see also below).
Commission President and Commission Vice-President
While ISPRS does not have the financial resources to present monetary incentives to Commission Presidents
(CPs) or Ordinary Members to host a commission,
commission a large and successful symposium creating significant visibilvisibi
ity for all parties (Ordinary Member, CP, ISPRS) is certainly a benefit of hosting a commission.
commission Experience has
shown that the overwhelming majority of ISPRS symposia
ymposia in the last few decades have generated
generat a surplus.
Larger symposia will also be more attractive to industry to take part in the exhibitions, which further increases
the chances of a financially positive result. The fact that the CP typically also acts as an editor of a high profile
scientific set of proceedings is an additional benefit for CPs coming from a scientific background. Thus, the
position of the Commission President (CP)
(CP) carries more prestige and becomes more attractive to possible candicand
dates in the new structure.
At the same time thee workload of the CP will likely increase. To balance this development, a Commission VicePresident (CVP)
VP) for each Commission will be incorporated. Although not mandatory,
mandatory the CVP could come from
an Ordinary Member
ember different to that of the CP in order to provide an additional possibility for global participaparticip
tion in managing commissions. In this case, the CVP would ideally have the support of his/her home Ordinary
Member. The names of both, CP and CVP, need to be submitted as part of the bid for hosting a commission,
c
and
the General Assembly will only take one vote for the commission, (instead of separate
separate votes for CP and CVP),
thus ensuringg a smooth cooperation between CP and CVP.
The CP is ultimately responsible for the commission. The role of the CVP is to support
pport the CP’s workload - and
to represent him/her in case of absence. Important decisions for the commission
commission need to be taken by the CP after
consultation with the CVP.
While a strict regime for sharing the workload cannot be formulated by Council (individual
(individual cases might just be
too different), the CVP could look after some of the WGs of the commission, while the CP will look after the
other WGs. The CVP should also have a role in running the symposium, e.g.,
e.g. acting
ing as Programme Director
(note that alsoo the Congress has a Programme Director different from the Congress Director), or the CVP could
be responsible for web pages and PR of the symposium - of course, a variety of other possibilities to share the
work exists.
The new Commission V - Education,
Education capacity building and outreach
The Commission on education,, capacity building and outreach is somewhat special, as it is not a scientific
commission. A major task is the cooperation with the ISPRS Student Consortium to ensure that young profesprofe
sionals can learn
arn and be smoothly integrated into ISPRS.
International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing
Internationale Gesellschaft für Photogrammetrie und Fernerkundung
Société Internationale de Photogrammétrie et de Télédétection
In the past, holding a midterm symposium has sometimes proven to be rather difficult for the Commission on
education.. In order to accommodate this situation, the new Commission will concentrate on organising summer
summ
schools, educational workshops and similar events. These events should be held in conjunction with the Symposia of Commissions I to IV or similar meetings, not as a separate midterm symposium. In this way, more people
will have the possibility to actively participate in the commission activities and a larger impact can be achieved.
If requested, the commission should also strive to support
support the regional meetings (see above), particularly
particular if such
meetings are aimed at capacity building and geospatial education.
In order to carry out these tasks, limited funds from ISPRS and TIF (The ISPRS Foundation) will be available,
as was the case forr the summer schools in the past.
Time schedule
As mentioned in the original suggestion for change, the time schedule for restructuring the commissions is
i as
follows (the current paper is the "consolidated draft"):
• Distribution of the consolidated draft to ISPRS members and officers in early October 2014, with a deadline for comments by end of November 2014;
2014
• In parallel, further discussion during the ISPRS symposia in October (Canada) and November (USA);
• Concluding discussion and finalisation of the proposal during the ISPRS symposium and Joint Meeting in
December (India) and decision how to proceed;
proceed
• (in case, the decision is in favour of putting the restructuring to vote): postal
postal ballot in the first half of
2015, announcement
nouncement of the results by June 2015 at the latest (note that the number and the names of
Commissions are defined in the Bylaws, which can be changed by postal ballot.
ballot Only the term "Technical
Commissions" as such is mentioned in the Statutes IV and XIII);
XIII ; this situation can be changed during the
Congress in Prague if desired..
This schedule provides Ordinary Members interested in hosting one of the (new) commissions for the period
2016-2020
2020 sufficient time to formulate their ideas and develop their bids ahead of the XXIII ISPRS Congress
and General Assembly in Prague,, July 2016.
Version 0: Aug. 22, 2014 initial draft
Version 1, Sept. 23, 2014 based on comments from Council and discussions at Zürich Midterm Symposium
Version 2, Oct. 03, 2014
based on further discussion within Council and at the Istanbul Midterm Symposium