News in 2018

Report on the Technical Seminar on Reference Frames in Practice held in conjection with the FIG Congress

4-5 May 2018, Istanbul, Turkey

Introduction

The Technical Seminar on Reference Frames in Practice was held in Istanbul on 4-5 May 2018. The main focus was on reference frames in general, kinematics and dynamic datums which reflects geodetic priorities for all regions suffering from natural disasters such as earthquakes. Participants mostly come from countries where there is a strong need to model deformation to maintain their accurate spatial reference frames. So, this Seminar has been a good platform to share knowledge and resources for their mutual benefits. We believe that this Seminar series have been a geodesy’s classics and should be continued also in future under the umbrella of FIG.

The Seminar was organised by FIG Commission 5, in conjunction with the International Association of Geodesy (IAG), the United Nations International Committee on GNSS (UN ICG) and the Turkish Chamber of Survey and Cadastre Engineers (HKMO). 

The seminar was held in Hilton Bosphorus Hotel in conjunction with the FIG2018 Congress&GA at the Istanbul Congress Center. Primary organisers were Muzaffer KAHVECİ (HKMO-LOC), Volker Schwieger (FIG Comm. 5), and Li Zhang (FIG Comm. 5).'

Participants

There were 37 participants, including presenters, from around the world. Countries represented were Austria, Australia, Congo, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Mongolia, Nepal, New Zealand, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, Uganda, USA and Turkey. Attendees represented a mix of academic, government and commercial institutions. List of participants is given as appendix-1 to this report.

Organisational representatives in Istanbul were as follows:

Volker Schwieger (FIG)
Daniel Roman (IAG)
Sharafat Gadimova (ICG)
Muzaffer Kahveci (HKMO)

Group photo of the attendees:

Technical Content

The seminar focussed on the theory and practice of 3D reference frames. Topics covered were:

  • Introduction to 3D Reference Frames
  • Introduction to Vertical Reference Frames
  • Kinematic Frames and Deformation Modelling
  • Dynamic Datum and Modelling of Crustal Deformation
  • GNSS and Geodetic Software
    • RTKLIB
    • SNAP
  • Case Studies
    • Iceland
    • Europe (ETRS89 and ERVS)
    • USA
    • Russia
    • New Zealand
    • Turkey
  • International Geodesy Initiatives
    • ICG at UN
    • UN-GGIM

The presentations are available on the FIG website at http://www.fig.net/fig2018/rfip.htm
A full copy of the RFIP final technical programme is given as appendix-2 to this report.

Besides, a technical tour was organized to Kocaeli Municipality where the big earthquake (Mw=7.4) had happened on 17 August 1999 causing the deaths of thousands of people (North Anatolian Fault Zone) on 5 May 2018 in the afternoon. There, people from the municipality has made presentations regarding the current status of the city and realized technical&social projects after the earthquake until now. Below are some pictures about Kocaeli technical visit.

Networking and Social Events

There were excellent opportunities to network and socialise during the lunch and tea breaks, which the participants took advantage of. One of the highlights of the seminar was the dinner held on the first evening.  Dinner was held in Midpoint Restaurant at Nisantasi and provided an opportunity to sample a number of local dishes and continue the networking.  

Sponsorship

The seminar was well supported by Leica and Trimble, in terms of both financial support and attendance. The ICG provided financial support to several participants from developing nations. The organisers FIG, IAG, UN ICG and HKMO would like to thank and acknowledge the sponsors for their generous support of this event.

The organisers FIG, IAG, UN ICG and HKMO would like to thank and acknowledge the following sponsors for their generous support of this event.

    

 

Muzaffer Kahveci
May 2018