Index
09 December 2011
RMIT Professor appointed to UN Committee
Professor William Cartwright has been appointed to the United Nations Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management.
Professor Cartwright at the first high-level forum on global geospatial information management in Seoul.
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He recently spoke at the inaugural UN conference on the subject, held in Seoul, South Korea, where he was officially appointed to the committee.
Professor Cartwright, who is an expert on cartography and geographical visualisation in RMIT University's School of Mathematical and Geospatial Sciences, said the conference was organised to address global coordination of geographic information management.
"This included giving consideration to creating a UN global forum for the exchange of information between countries and other interested parties," Professor Cartwright said.
The committee's focus would be to "develop a global strategy on the vision for global geographic information management," he said.
The conference followed on from a UN Economic and Social Council resolution which formally recognised the need for international cooperation in the field.
The initiative would allow experts to share best practices in legal and policy instruments, institutional management models, technical solutions and standards, as well as interoperability of systems and data.
It would also allow for the sharing of mechanisms that would guarantee easy and timely accessibility to geographic information and services.
Professor Cartwright undertook his role on the committee as Chair of the Joint Board of Geospatial Information Societies.
The joint board is a coalition of leading international geospatial societies.
It speaks on behalf of the geospatial profession at the international level - especially to the UN and other global stakeholders - and coordinates activities within the international geospatial field.
