23 January 2008

When administrators from China’s State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping assembled at the University of New South Wales last week for their annual surveying and mapping seminar, it was the first time in 50 years the important workshop had been held outside of its regular home in The Netherlands.

China’s State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping is the body responsible for surveying and mapping work across all of China and in a major coup, UNSW has signed a five year agreement with the Bureau to conduct annual training courses for SBSM administrators.

Associate Professor Linlin Ge, who coordinated the workshop, is also a project leader with Australia’s Cooperative Research Centre for Spatial Information, which last year entered a joint project with the Chinese government to develop China’s Earth Observation satellite network.

China plans to have 100 Earth observation satellites in orbit by 2020 and the CRCSI joint venture gives Australia, and UNSW, a key role in developing China’s satellite data processing capabilities.

Associate Professor Ge said the fact that such a high-level workshop as the SBSM seminar had been hosted by UNSW was indicative of the university’s strong international reputation in surveying and spatial information.

“This is a very, very important development for UNSW - we have world leaders in the field of spatial information here,” Associate Professor Ge said.

Head of the School of Surveying and Spatial Information Systems, Professor Chris Rizos, said the challenge now was to follow up on the SBSM workshop agreement to further links with China on research and education exchanges.

“These types of projects allow us to establish links for staff exchanges, educational exchanges and importantly it allows our staff and Chinese researchers to collaborate on China’s problems in the area of spatial information,” he said.

Front row: Dean of Engineering Professor Dianne Wiley, SBSM Deputy Director-General Mr Lan Luo and Head of School Professor Chris Rizos.