FIG Symposium
Stockholm, Sweden
21 March 2000
Advancing the Global Role of
Surveying for the New Millennium
by Robert W. Foster, President
The International Federation of Surveyors
Mr. President, fellow surveyors, ladies and gentlemen…
I bring greetings from FIG, the International Federation of Surveyors,
to the surveyors of Sweden. May your profession grow and prosper in this
new millennium as we all attempt to understand the world changes rapidly
overtaking us."
The theme chosen by the US Bureau members during the years we were
still a "shadow bureau", was The Global Role of Surveying in the
21st Century. Two concepts we are hearing more and more about these days
speak directly to the condition of our changing world in the 21st century.
Those concepts are globalization and sustainable development. The subject
I would like to speak on now is the role of surveying in relation to these
concepts.
Globalization
In his keynote address to the XX FIG Congress in Melbourne, Australia
in 1994, Dr. Peter Ellyard pointed out that the global trend most
relevant to the future of surveying is what he called creation of a
planetary society and culture, and what we commonly refer to as
globalization. The term "globalization" is used in the popular
press to refer to a growing web of trade and investment between and among
nations, bringing economies into close proximity - and dragging societies
and cultures along in the process. The emergence of a common market and
common currency here in Europe is an example. The North American Free
Trade Agreement, an event of considerable controversy in my country, is
another. The General Agreement on Trade in Services provides for a set of
multilateral rules for the conduct of services trade and creates a
framework for a process of liberalization.
One commentator recently stated, "If anything seems obvious today,
it is that globalization is a new and powerful force that is erasing
national borders and linking the world in an unprecedented web of trade
and investments."
Many surveyors do not see themselves affected by globalization. Many of
us work no more than a few kilometers from our home offices. We do not
sell our services beyond local boundaries and see little prospect for
doing so in the near future. We recognize that for the producers of
products and commodities globalization is a major economic factor
determining prosperity or failure. A few service industries, like banking,
communications and entertainment find immense opportunity in the
globalization phenomenon, but for many of us surveying is a local service
to be marketed locally. This is the myopic view of surveying. It is the
limited vision of the local practitioner (of which I am one) who provides
surveying services in his or her own community and perhaps the immediately
adjacent communities.
The broader view recognizes surveying in all its applications. Consider
the FIG definition of surveying which describes nine activities
"which may occur either on, above or below the surface of the land or
the sea and may be carried out in association with other
professionals." Those activities, briefly, are
- The determination of the size and shape of the earth
- The positioning of physical features, structures and engineering
works
- The determination of the position of boundaries of public or private
land
- The design, establishment and administration of geographic
information systems
- The study of the natural and social environment for the planning of
development in urban, rural and regional areas
- The planning, development and redevelopment of property
- The assessment of value and the management of property
- The planning, measurement and management of construction works
- The production of plans, maps, files, charts and reports.
In my country only one of those nine is the exclusive activity of the
licensed surveyor in most jurisdictions. Four more are activities commonly
performed by some US surveyors. The remaining four activities are not
considered to be within the scope of what we call "surveying" in
the United States. What is true in the US is also true in many other
countries: the FIG definition of surveying goes well beyond surveying as
it is practiced in much of the world. I maintain that if we are to be
active in the globalization of this new millennium, we must be consistent
in our definition of who we are and what we do. And, not incidentally, if
measuring and positioning are to become, as many in the profession
predict, purely mechanical activities due to the new technologies, it
behooves us to broaden the scope of our activities. Where planning,
valuation and the management of land are not considered
"surveying", associations in those countries should seek to
include them. It will not be easy. Legislation, educational systems and
institutional arrangements must be addressed. Political considerations may
play a role. There will be resistance both from within and from outside
the profession. None the less, if "surveying" is to be a player
on the world scene it must expand its activities and it must be clear in
its definition of itself.
But globalization will have its own impact on those of us who remain
surveyors on the local scene. In a negative sense, globalization may bring
foreign competitors into our own backyards, especially if standardization
for competency in geomatics becomes a reality, as has been proposed to the
International Standards Organization, ISO. In a positive sense the
international recognition of surveying in its broader definition may bring
greater status to all surveyors. In many parts of the world surveying is
not yet seen as a discipline vital to all economies - those emerging as
well as those well established.
Returning to Dr. Ellyard's 1994 address in Melbourne: he advised that
the surveying profession must develop "a clear vision of where it
wants to go and then organize itself to go there." FIG has accepted
that challenge. The current FIG Strategic Plan, developed during the UK
Bureau and carried forward by the current US Bureau, has as one of its
stated objectives, "Facilitating in the evolution and development of
the profession." The surveying profession must evolve and develop in
order to keep pace with the evolution and development of the world's
economies through globalization.
Sustainable development
Consider what we know - or believe - about the current condition of our
world and its occupants:
- The world's population has doubled in the last 40 years and passed
the 6 billion mark a few months ago. It is predicted to reach 8.5
billion by the year 2030, a population level thought by many
scientists to be the maximum number of people supportable by the
world's resources and capacity for food production.
- Less than half the world's population has secure access to land.
Women, who comprise roughly half the world's population, and 70% of
whom live in poverty, own less than 1% of the world's wealth.
- The world's tropical rain forests are crucial to the global climate
and give living space to half of all living species, but were being
destroyed at a rate of 20 million hectares a year by 1990 according to
the World Resources Institute.
- The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
predicts that global warming due to the suspected greenhouse effect of
industrial air pollution may cause a significant rise in sea levels by
the year 2090 with the resultant melting of the polar ice caps. Vast
coastal areas could be inundated, from the harbors of the world's
industrial nations to the desert areas of North Africa. Other sources
predict that 80% of the world's population will be living within 50 km
of the coastal zones by mid-century. The combination of massive
coastal flooding and the tendency of populations to settle in coastal
areas suggest enormous social hardship and dislocation in the near
future.
- It is an irony, on the other hand, that two thirds of the world's
population will live in water-stressed conditions by the year 2025,
according to current forecasts.
The sustainable development concept is a response to these reports of
social inequities, and reports of the physical condition of our earth.
Sustainable development may be defined as the utilization of the world's
resources in order to meet our needs without inhibiting future generations
from meeting their needs. Immediate past FIG President Peter Dale
participated together with 40 international experts representing several
UN agencies, professions and FIG commissions in the Bathurst Workshop on
Land Tenure and Cadastral Infrastructure for Sustainable Development, in
Australia last October. The workshop produced "The Bathurst
Declaration on Land Administration for Sustainable Development" that
was launched at an international UN/FIG Conference in Melbourne
immediately after the workshop. That document will be a major center of
discussion and reference in the months and years ahead. The Declaration
recommends a global commitment to:
· Providing effective legal security of tenure and access to property
for all men and women, including indigenous peoples, those living in
poverty and other disadvantaged groups;
- Providing the land administration reforms essential for sustainable
development and facilitating full and equal access for men and women
to land-related economic opportunities, such as credit and natural
resources;
- Investing in the necessary land administration infrastructure and in
the dissemination of land information required to achieve these
reforms;
- Halving the number of people around the world who do not have
effective access to secure property rights in land by the year 2010.
The recommendations are ambitious and will require a nearly unanimous
international commitment to their objectives. The question for us is, how
shall the surveying community participate in their worthy goals? I will
suggest three general ways in which we may participate:
- We are the data-gathering experts. Our members are the professionals
who will assemble and quantify data as to the world's land and
resources, their value and their current distribution.
- Our members are the professionals who will plan the cadastral and
land registration systems to enable markets to deal equitably in the
distribution of land and its resources; others of our members will
provide crucial urban and rural land use planning. Land management and
land administration are the specific interests of Commission 7 of FIG
but the Bathurst Declaration defines land administration as the
process of determining, recording and disseminating information about
the tenure, value and use of land when implementing land use policies.
By that definition all the commissions of FIG are involved in land
administration.
- The greatest difficulty in achieving sustainable development may
prove to be the political problem of convincing all nations to
concentrate on the development of resources and distribution of land
in order to meet people's needs while the richer nations continue to
spend resources meeting people's less vital wants and desires. Such
political problems can only be overcome by effective public education,
an effort in which all our members can participate.
The role for FIG
We know what our members can contribute in the effort to achieve
sustainable development; now the question is, what should be FIG's role at
the beginning of this new millennium?
The current FIG Bureau recognizes two main principles underlying the
FIG organization. First, the commissions of FIG are the very heart of the
Federation. They do the work in the technical fields for which the
Federation exists. We intend to support the commissions financially to the
limits permitted by budgetary constraints. We also intend to hold the
commissions accountable for their work plans. We will encourage their
efforts and we will look expectantly for results.
Secondly, we recognize that the member national associations are FIG.
The member associations provide the funds and the delegates for FIG. And
yet we have found that historically, the leadership of the member
associations is removed from direct contact with the leadership and the
workings of FIG. A member association characteristically pays its
subscription and appoints its delegates, but has little more to do with
the operation of the Federation. Rarely do the member associations comment
on either the objectives of FIG or its policies and actions. Immediate
Past-President Dale began a tradition of inviting the leaders of the
member associations to the FIG working weeks for discussion of matters of
interest to them. We intend to continue this practice. We will also urge
all the delegates to carry information back to their associations. We do
not believe that the delegates should participate in commission work and
the deliberations of the General Assembly without the involvement of, and
some direction from, their home associations.
More specifically, the US Bureau's Work Plan for the years 2000 through
2003 states its primary objective as "the improving of FIG's
responsiveness to the needs of the member organization's members. The
Bureau intends to achieve this goal by
- Increasing the effectiveness and responsiveness of the commission
work plans through Bureau oversight;
- Developing, through the commissions, products, training and services
which have practical application to the member organizations and their
individual members, and
- Communicating the commissions' accomplishments to the member
organizations and others.
- Developing of contacts with UN agencies and other international
organizations in the context of the commission work plans.
We believe that another way to bring the member associations into a
closer working relationship with FIG is to allow for a more democratic
selection of the administrative body of FIG, the body we now call the
Bureau. Following the recommendation of the Task Force on Governance,
instituted during the UK Bureau, we will bring a proposal to the General
Assembly in Prague, in May this year, which will provide for the election
of the President and an Administrative Council of FIG. Instead of choosing
the administrative body on the basis of the location of the next FIG
Congress, there will be a popular election of these leaders by the General
Assembly.
"Developing of contacts with UN agencies and other international
organizations in the context of the commission work plans" is an FIG
Bureau effort that has been underway since the Bureau resided in Finland
more than eight years ago. More recently we have appointed Professor Ian
Williamson of the University of Melbourne, Australia as Director of
FIG/UN Liaison in order to secure and formalize relations between our
organizations.
FIG and the United Nations
An FIG/UN Roundtable meeting was held in Melbourne in October,
following the Bathurst meeting. The Roundtable's purpose was to develop a
cooperative agreement between FIG and the United Nations agencies during
the term of office of the US Bureau. The participants were:
- United Nations Centre for Human Settlements UNCHS (Habitat)
- Food and Agriculture Organization of United Nations FAO
- United Nations Division for Sustainable Development
- United Nations Department for Development and Social Affairs UNDESA
- The World Bank
- United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, Meeting of Officials
on Land Administration UN-ECE MOLA
- Permanent Committee on GIS Infrastructure for Asia and the Pacific
- UN Economic Commission for Africa
- Permanent Committee on GIS Infrastructure for the Americas
- The German Agency for Technical Cooperation and
- FIG represented by President Peter Dale, Ian Williamson and
myself.
From the Roundtable discussions came FIG Publication No. 22,
"Co-operation Between FIG and the UN Agencies 2000 - 2003",
which summarizes the comments of the Roundtable participants and sets
forth guidelines for future FIG/UN cooperation. Key-issues among the
guidelines are the two following statements
- To recognize that FIG is a non-profit organization whose great
strength is its access to a large pool of experienced professionals,
who in general contribute their services voluntarily to FIG
activities, and
- To recognize that FIG is in a unique position to bring together
various UN agencies interested in land administration and spatial
information management as a group to discuss issues of common concern.
In this regard FIG can act as a facilitator in encouraging networking
between UN institutions and bilateral institutions.
The role of FIG in its relationship with the United Nations may be
summarized in those guideline statements. It is access to experienced
professionals in our various disciplines that makes FIG valuable to the
UN; and it is as facilitator creating networking links between UN agencies
and others that FIG has proven itself of value to the UN. Value of the
relationship to FIG is summarized in other guidelines that encourage
progress in advancing our work plans and recognize that seed funding from
UN agencies is required in order to support joint UN/FIG activities.
If the new world order of the 21st century is globalization, the
greatest challenge to civilization may be to achieve sustainable
development. Our profession must deal successfully with the globalization
phenomenon in order to fulfill its responsibilities in the sustainable
development challenge. This is the beginning of a century in which life
for all earth's occupants my improve uniformly - or may degenerate to
levels of universal hardship unfamiliar to most of us in the so-called
developed countries. Mine is the optimistic view, and I believe that these
next few decades are to be an exciting and rewarding time for the members
of our profession as we involve ourselves in the struggle to preserve and
improve living conditions through the "best practices" of land
administration.
Robert W. Foster
President of FIG
E-mail: rwfoster@juno.com
International Federation of Surveyors FIG
Lindevangs Alle 4
DK-2000 Frederiksberg
DENMARK
Tel. + 45 3886 1081
Fax + 45 3886 0252
E-mail: FIG@fig.net
Web site: www.fig.net
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