INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR ON GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS, CITY SUSTAINABILITY, ENVIRONMENT TO BE HELD IN CAIRO 10-14 DECEMBER
Press Release
ENV/DEV/343
INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR ON GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS, CITY SUSTAINABILITY, ENVIRONMENT TO BE HELD IN CAIRO 10-14 DECEMBER
19951206 NEW YORK, 1 December (DDSMS) -- The Department for Development Support and Management Services and the Organization of Islamic Capitals and Cities, an international non-governmental organization with consultative status with the Economic and Social Council, will co-sponsor a United Nations Seminar on Geographic Information Systems, City Sustainability and Environment to be held in Cairo from 10-14 December under the auspices of the Egyptian Government, represented by the Ministry of Local Administration and the Governorate of Cairo. Some 200 participants from Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa will attend.The geographic information systems (GIS) have a wide variety of practical applications to natural resources, renewable sources of energy and environmental protection, with particular emphasis on applications in infrastructure and transportation, geology and mineral prospecting, agriculture, forestry and trade. It is a system of hardware, software, data, people, organizations, and institutional arrangement for collecting, storing and analyzing, and disseminating information about geographically related processes on earth.
The need to promote those systems has been made clear in previous United Nations conferences and seminars, the latest of which was the International Meeting on the Establishment of a Regional Committee on GIS Infrastructure for Asia and the Pacific, in cooperation with the Malaysian Government, held in Kuala Lumpur in July 1995, and the Thirteenth United Nations Regional Cartographic Conference for Asia and the Pacific, held in Beijing in May 1994.
The long-range objective of the Cairo seminar is to assist in the transfer of knowledge and technology in Urban Geographic Information Systems for their expanded application in developing countries to facilitate better protection of the urban environment, human settlements and management of municipal operations and maintenance. Immediate objectives include exchanging experiences and ideas about basic requirements for success in the field of GIS, exhibiting the latest technologies of hardware and software, as well as related methodologies, evaluating those technologies and methods, and
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stimulating the interest of participants towards the adoption and application of GIS as a means of promoting sustainable development and preservation and optimization of available resources.
All countries need access to, and the capacity to use, technology which preserves resources and protects the environment, as set forth in Chapter 7 of Agenda 21 of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED). On that basis, the Seminar is expected to disseminate the knowledge of available urban GIS and their potential application in sustaining municipal development, including water resources and waste management, air quality improvement, transportation and city planning and management, and human resources management. In particular, it will address the use of such systems in environmental management and the achievement of sustainable development through more efficient utilization of available resources, coupled with the adaptation of an environmentally sound GIS technology. In addition, the seminar is expected to lead to better understanding of the real problems related to the implementation of such systems in cities of the developing world and the appropriate and successful mitigation methodologies to be sustainably applied.
The United Nations is please to organize such events jointly with such non-governmental organizations, which Agenda 21 recognizes as important partners in the process of sustainable development.
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