Ian
Dowman, President, ISPRS explains
the mission and activities of ISPRS.
He also discusses the current trends
in GPS technologies
Please tell us more about ISPRS?
The International
Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing
(ISPRS) is a non-governmental organisation devoted
to the development of international cooperation
for the advancement of photogrammetry, remote
sensing and the spatial information sciences and
their applications. The Society’s scientific
interests include photogrammetry, remote sensing,
spatial information systems and related disciplines,
as well as applications in cartography, geodesy,
surveying, the natural, Earth and engineering
sciences, and environmental monitoring and protection.
Further applications include industrial design
and manufacturing, architecture and monument preservation,
medicine and others. In short ISPRS is concerned
with acquiring and using Information from Imagery,
and this stretches from information from imagery
from space to imagery from electro microscopes,
and the applications range from global climate
to monitoring tooth decay.
What are the activities
of ISPRS?
ISPRS works
on a four-year cycle with the Congress being held
every four years and the Commission Symposia being
held in the year mid way between the Congresses.
Working Groups hold meetings in the other years.
The next Congress is in 2008, to be held in Beijing.
In addition, ISPRS has a number of publications
designed to provide high quality peer reviewed
papers, conference proceedings in quick time,
and a new bulletin. We publish the International
Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing
and Spatial Information Sciences and the ISPRS
Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing which
contain scientific and technical articles. ISPRS
Highlights is the official bulletin of the Society.
The ISPRS Book Series was started in 2003 and
contains collections of high quality scientific
papers, usually presented at ISPRS events, after
peer-review.
What is the mission
of ISPRS?
The objectives
for ISPRS during the next four years, were set
out during my speech as incoming President at
the Congress:
• Sustain and develop the scientific programme
based on international excellence in research
and in collaboration with other international
scientific unions;
• Expand the international role of ISPRS
by building on our existing links and developing
a presence in developing countries;
• Continue the role of ISPRS in education
and technology transfer in collaboration with
international partners;
• Develop the Foundation and attract $500
000 of funds by 2008.
An excellent team of Working Group chairs and
co-chairs has been appointed and over 30 workshops
have already been held or are planned for 2005.
The planning for the eight Technical Commission
Symposia in 2006 is well advanced.
What is the international
role of ISPRS?
We attend
meetings of international organisations such as
UN COPUOS, GEO, UN CODI and UN Cartographic Conference
for the Americas. The objective of involvement
in these meetings is to put the view of the photogrammetry
and remote sensing community forward to the policy
makers and purse holders in the international
arena, and also to seek opportunities for ISPRS
members and working groups to become involved
in international projects and initiatives.
What is the role of ISPRS in education and technology
transfer?
Technical Commission VI is responsible for Education
and Outreach and has working groups which deal
with various aspects of this. ISPRS Council also
has a strategic role in planning outreach activities,
especially in collaboration with other organisations
such as UN. Council has decided to concentrate
capacity building efforts on Africa as there is
a clear need in this region, and it also an area
where ISPRS members need support. We will maintain
contact with African members through an email
network, by attendance by a member of Council
at one meeting in Africa per year and the organisation
of a members meeting every 2 years. We will also
support capacity building though collaboration
with other organisations, such as ESA, CEOS or
UN OOSA, to run tutorials and training courses;
through sponsorship of people to workshops and
regional meetings, possibly jointly with our Ordinary
and Regional Members, and to collaborate with
the ICSU GeoUnions in GeoInformation for Africa.
What is the funding
source of ISPRS?
Of course
if we are to do all of this properly, we need
funds. ISPRS relies on subscriptions from members
and some income from symposia and the Congress
to fund its work. The ISPRS Foundation was launched
in Istanbul in order to attract donations from
other sources, and already we have attracted donations
of $US50,000. Council has also decided to transfer
$200,000 from our reserves to the Foundation as
a loan to allow support for worthy activities
to start as soon as possible.
Do you have any specific programme to encourage
positioning technologies like GPS?
ISPRS has an interest in positioning technologies
where they impinge of the collection of image
data. Obvious examples are establishing the position
and orientation of platforms with sensors in space
and on aircraft for LiDAR and IfSAR. Another important
example is mobile mapping systems. We have working
groups that cover these topics and which investigate
aspects of positioning.
What future you see
of GPS technology?
As I have
already indicated positioning is already important
for acquisition of imagery, and will become more
so as equipment becomes smaller and less expensive;
but the future will see the combined use of GPS
and other GNSS, and this will make such technology
more accurate and more reliable.
Do you think that ISPRS has played a significant
role in bringing technology to developing world?
Any significant impact?
I like to think that we have played a role through
our programme of workshops and symposia. The Commission
VII Symposium which was held in Hyderabad in 2002
attracted many people from India and neighbouring
countries and November 2005 39we also held a technology
transfer workshop in Dar es Salaam in 2001. It
is because we feel that we could do more, that
we have decided to focus on Africa during the
current four-year period and we hope to work with
regional organisations and with other international
societies to become more effective in the future.
Would you like to mention the three key achievements
of ISPRS?
I believe that the most important achievement
of ISPRS is to have created a network of over
100 national and regional organisations, which
can exchange ideas and develop the science and
technology of photogrammetry and remote sensing
through discussion between scientists, industry
and users. We have also made the voice of the
photogrammetry and remote sensing community heard
in international circles through our membership
of United Nations fora, the International Council
of Science, GEO and CEOS. A third major achievement
is to have created a Youth Forum which will enable
young people to appreciate the importance of our
science at an early stage in their careers, and
to start to make ISPRS stronger, and hence able
to reach more people, especially in the developing
world.
Ian
Dowman has worked as a photogrammetrist
for 40 years in the field of applying photogrammetric
techniques to a wide range of image sensors
for surface and feature extraction. He has
developed geometric models for accurate
3D modelling from SPOT data, and for a range
of subsequent sensors, including RADAR and
LIDAR systems.
He has been a principal investigator for
SPOT, ERS, JERS and RADASAT. In recent years
the main thrust has been in the generation
of digital elevation models and features
from high resolution sensors and in using
such techniques for the automation of registration
of images to other images and to maps. He
has been the project manager for the EU
4th Framework ARCHANGEL project for registration
and change detection and has also carried
out numerous research projects for Ordnance
Survey, DERA and UK industry in the areas
of feature extraction from imagery. He recently
won a Joint Research Equipment Infrastructure
grant from EPSRC worth £419K for equipment
for 3D image measuring, processing and presentation,
in collaboration with LH Systems and Laserscan.
Current research focuses on use of LiDAR
and IfSAR data, particularly with high resolution
image data, and on the use of DEMs for geotectonic
studies. Ian Dowman has been awarded the
President’s Medal of the Photogrammetric
Society in recognition of his contributions
to advancement of Photogrammetry. From 1996-2000
he was the President of ISPRS Technical
Commission II, 2000-2004 he was Secretary
General and is now President of ISPRS. From
1996 to 1998 he was Dean of Engineering
at UCL.
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