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Geoinformatics_06-2009
interview the initiative taken by the order of licensed surveyors to establish the first industry-specific implementation of agenda 21, which will help surveyors achieve the un s sustainable development objectives both in terms of business management and in its various fields, is a testament to the order s desire to secure a key position for the industry in the sector of living environment planning. q: how and in which professional or organizational fields do you cooperate with the international surveyors organizations, like fig (international federation of surveyors), clge (council of european geodetic surveyors) and ge (geometer europas)? since 2003, the order has been driven by its desire to become more involved and visible in european governing bodies in order to hold more weight with its partners, in influencing and harmonizing the regulations affecting the industry and to take an active role in developing community directives. these desires became a reality in the 39th national congress of the order of licensed surveyors, in conjunction with the first conference of european surveyors held in strasbourg in september 2008. indeed, the primary objective of this congress was to increase the notoriety and visibility of the profession in france and throughout europe, with various european institutions and consumers in the eu, and to make the citizens of europe aware of what the industry has to offer. despite these initial harmonization efforts, we should not forget how widely surveyors professional duties, statuses, levels of training, requirements for entry to the profession and the conditions under which they practice vary from country to country. as an expression of this ambition, the order came together with the presidents of the clge (council of european geodetic surveyors) and geometer europas, an association of surveyors with proven qualifications that practice a regulated profession, to sign a solemn declaration aiming to harmonize and unify regulations throughout europe and to support the principles of service quality, professional ethics and qualification standards, with an emphasis on guarantees for both consumers and government authorities. with its european partners, the order also hopes to highlight the need to maintain public service delegations for proper land administration throughout europe. in this regard, the order is taking action to extend the enforcement of the common european minimum education requirement of five years of university education to all member states of the european union. this was established based on a multilateral agreement signed by a dozen countries to date, a good number of which are in eastern europe. moreover, the plan to merge and combine the activities of the clge and geometer europas should allow the joint entity to weigh more heavily in european negotiations. on the international scene, since 24th november 2005, the order has also been serving as president of the fgf (federation des geometres francophones federation of french-speaking surveyors), which includes over twenty signatory countries to the rabat declaration, all motivated by a desire to create a venue for exchange among frenchspeaking professionals, particularly after french was replaced as the working language of the international federation of surveyors (fig), as well as to promote the indispensable role of surveyors in sustainable development and land use. additionally, on 25th october 2007, the order created a new international land association known as fief (france international expertise fonciere), for high-level experts from all over the world interested in land management and exports. the mission of this association is to conduct discussions and pursue initiatives in the field of land development, the use of space and land policy, to increase international awareness of french expertise and to promote france s influence in these same fields. q: currently at what stage of practical implementation is the french national gnss network teria? which national institutions are your partners in this project? is it a free service to your users or is a schema of usage rates applied? which steps have you taken so far to provide interoperability of your national gnss network with the networks of neighboring countries? a: as of april 20th of this year, the teria network now provides even coverage for the entirety of metropolitan france, via a web of 96 stations spaced at equidistant intervals of 80 to 100 km, depending on topography, without favoring areas with high economic potential over rural areas. this network will be deployed and operational throughout france in the coming months, once the four stations planned for corsica have been installed, as negotiations with the french weather service, meteo france, are in advanced stages. this great adventure, which began four years ago, is now getting off the ground with a growing number of professionals logging on each day to a network that now has over 700 subscribers and to which over 100 profession- als are simultaneously connected every day. moreover, nearly 800 prospective subscribers have been identified and promotional campaigns have begun in the fields of public works and machine guidance, agriculture, emergency preparedness and assistance for the disabled. the project continues to progress and stays up-to-date by including the most recent technological developments. beginning this year, several regions of france including les alpes (up to the mediterranean coast, covering the rhone valley), le jura, les pyrenees and l ilede-france will receive more thorough coverage via dual satellite constellation receivers (the american gps and russian glonass systems) before becoming gnss (global navigation satellite system) receivers once the chinese (compass) and european (galileo) satellite constellations are operational, and three out of the planned 35 stations are already in service. in addition, the company exagone, which is responsible for the commercial operation of the network, is pursuing the inclusion of neighboring european networks (belgium, germany, switzerland, italy and spain) in order to ensure network interoperability in border regions. studies are currently under way to offer a sub metric positioning service and to ensure access to the network in "white zones" that are not covered by gsm and gprs connections, despite the commitment made by the government and the three telecommunications operators bouygues telecom, sfr and orange, to resolve this problem by 31st december 2007. finally, the order s decision to require its members to use the legal reference system rgf 93 for georeferencing on all land register projects will also help to make the teria network practically indispensable for all surveyors, in addition to making professional practices more consistent and homogenous throughout the industry. anne fantuzzi, oge-ordre des geometres-experts. joc triglav jtriglav@geoinformatics.com, editor of geoinformatics. special thanks to magellan professional for their support in making this interview possible. magellan professional is a world-wide gnss instruments manufacturer for precise positioning applications such as land surveying, construction, gis/mapping, and more ... the company is headquartered in france and is the provider of the reference stations that have been selected by exagon to build teria, the french real-time gps positioning network. magellan professional is also a regular sponsor of the esgt, (ecole superieure des geometres et topographes), and supports the land survey students to promote their knowledge and complete professional projects. 48 september 2009
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