Outlines
Nature conservation and
protected habitats present complex problems. These range from environmental management and
planning to social and economic issues and are addressed by numerous different
organisations, interest groups and individuals from diverse cultural or technical
backgrounds.
Nature-GIS is a Thematic Network aiming at bringing together different organisations
operating in protected areas or nature conservation interested in Geographic Information
and GIS.
The objectives of NATURE-GIS are to:
- increase European awareness about a more
integrated approach to the use of GI in protected areas at a European level;
- support European policy development in the
use of GI for nature conservation (in particular INSPIRE - Infrastructure for Spatial
Information in Europe);
- contribute to INSPIRE specifications,
through a user needs assessment as well as data modelling (producing Guidelines for GI in
protected areas);
- investigate and test the feasibility of
web access to distributed data in order to support the work of stakeholders of protected
areas and nature conservation;
- establish a pan-European "Nature-GIS
Group", to further benefit the network of stakeholders.
The Budapest event is the second Conference of the Nature-GIS project, with the
presentation and demonstration of the first project achievements.
The scope of the Conference is also to trigger the creation of the pan-European network
Nature-GIS from the core, the partners of the project, to the wider audience of the
Nature-GIS stakeholders, intended as actual or potential users and producers of GI
technology in protected areas, offering also a meeting point for the technical operators
in this field.
The overall purpose of the Nature-GIS conferences is to present the state of the art, both
in the GIS technical field and in the application-oriented use of GIS as tools for
information and environmental education, i.e. for final users.
The Conference will present the European and National Hungarian Policies for both Nature
Conservation and Geographical Information, with particular focus to the
"Thematic" aspects of the European Spatial Data Infrastructure.
During the Conference, technical experiences for on line access to distributed geodata for
Protected Areas will be also presented together with the NATURE-GIS Web Portal.
The Budapest NATURE-GIS event is a very valuable opportunity to address the nature
preservation stakeholders at a regional level, i.e. in many of the new adhesion countries
in Central and Eastern Europe.
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