It’s a pleasure to represent ISO/TC 211 at various things, and last week I was at UN GGIM 14*, to which TC 211 is an observer. It was TC 211’s turn to present our joint report with Open Geospatial Consortium and International Hydrographic Office – hence the picture. An encouraging number of countries and partners responded to our report, bringing challenges and offers of help. You can watch this: it’s roughly the last 45 minutes of (2nd meeting) Fourteenth Session of the UN Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM) | UN Web TV. The formal meetings included extensive discussions on the global geodetic supply chain and use of geospatial information in relation to climate and disaster resilience.

This year the programme on Monday and Tuesday were planned by the secretariat and covered Geospatial Artificial Intelligence, Sustainable Development and the threat posed by the fragile state of the global geodetic supply chain.

In addition to the formal meetings, I had great chances to meet people from Natural Resources Canada, NASA, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the International Federation of Geodesists (FIG) who have been core contributors to TC 211 for some time; also Jamaica and Sweden to thank them for their input to TC 211. I had valuable chances to spend time with the Director of the UN Global Geodetic Centre of Excellence, senior people from Saudi Arabia and people involved in some of our specific projects.

Outside work I enjoyed a free music festival on Park Lane which had been closed to motor traffic on a very hot Saturday. Other than that, the first half of the week was hot and humid with thunderstorms! The UN Conference centre itself always has thought provoking exhibitions and displays.

*14th session of the United Nations Group of experts on Geographic Information Management; some 350 people from 75 countries and 80 further organisations.

Peter Parslow, August 9^th 2024
Chair, ISO/TC 211