Article of the Month in 2016

FIG publishes each month the Article of the Month. This is a high-level paper focusing on interesting topic to all surveyors. This article can be picked up from an FIG conference or another event or it can be a paper written directly for this purpose.

• December 2016 is written by Cromwell MANALOTO, Daniele BRANCATO, Alessandro DALMASSO, Luca DAL BUONO, Angelo CRESCENZI, Italy : Project BDI: the Socioeconomic Impact of Comparable Property Analysis through GIS.
  The paper was presented at the FIG Commission 3 Workshop and Annual Meeting in Iasi, Romania and was selected among the papers at the workshop to be FIG Article of the Month. The article focuses on the BDI – Real Estate Comparable Database Project, created to provide a strategic tool to all entities operating in the real estate sector.
  
• November 2016 is written by  Katerina Athanasiou, Efi Dimopoulou, Christos Kastrisios and Lysandros Tsoulos, Greece: Management of Marine Rights, Restrictions and Responsibilities according to International Standards
  The paper was presented and awarded "Best Paper" at the 5th International FIG Workshop on 3D Cadastres. The aim of this paper is to probe the ways the legislation can be included into a Marine Administration System (MAS) and to present how Rights, Restrictions and Responsibilities (RRRs) relating to marine space may be defined and organized.
  
  
• October 2016 is written by Hartmut Müller, Germany: Briding the Gap between Surveyors and the Geo-Spatial Society. The paper was presented in a joint FIG/ISPRS session at the ISPRS Congress July 2016 in Prague. The author discusses the role of surveyors today in a complex and technologic advanced world and the requirements of the surveyor of tomorrow.
  
  
• September 2016 is written by Suelynn Choy, Australia, Sunil Bisnath, Canada, Chris Rizos, Australia: Uncovering Common Misconceptions in GNSS Precise Point Positioning and its Future Prospect
  The paper covers the work of FIG Working Group 5.4 – GNSS;  GNSS Precise Point Positioning (PPP) and gives an overview of misconceptions, challenges and opportunities. The paper has been published in GPS Solutions - The Journal of Global Navigation Satellite Systems (ISSN: 1080-5370 (Print) 1521-1886 (Online)).
  
  
• August 2016 is written by Ralf Becker, Stefan Herle, Rainer Lehfeldt, Peter Fröhle, Jürgen Jensen, Till Quadglieg, Holger Schüttrumpfand Jörg Blankenbach, Germany: Distributed and Sensor Based Spatial Data Infrastructure for Dike Monitoring  This peer reviewed paper was presented at the FIG Working Week in Christchurch, New Zealand from 2-6 May 2016. The article introduces a holistic analysis for early warning,  which includes all relevant processes and cascading effects, allows just in time warnings and provides reliable and robust real-time data.
  
  
• July 2016 is written by Leslie Downie and Jenny Whittal, South Africa:   Social Tenure Based on Intimacy – Avoiding Family Disasters:  South African Marital Contracts as an Innovative Pro-Poor Land Tool   One innovative land tool within The Social Tenure Domain Mode that can function in a pro-poor way and that has not previously been explored is the use of marital and cohabitation agreements to secure tenure.
   
  
• June 2016 is written by Mau Duc NGO, Vietnam; David MITCHELL, Australia; Donald GRANT, Australia; and Nicholas CHRISMAN, USA:  Accessibility to Land Administration by Grassroots Stakeholders in Vietnam: Case study of Vinh Long Province. This peer reviewed paper was presented at the FIG Working Week 2016 in Christchurch, New Zealand. The article presents the evaluation of grassroots stakeholders’ accessibility to the land administration, and to the development of a modern land administration system in Vietnam. 
  
• May 2016 - Walter Timo De Vries (Germnay):  Post Disaster Consolidation of Land, Memory and Identity. This peer reviewed paper was presented at the FIG Working Week in Christchurch, New Zealand, 2-6 May 2016. This paper takes a closer look at the post-disaster re-development plan for urban areas, with a particular focus on reconsolidating historical social memory and preservation of identity. This is done using two well-documented cases of urban disasters: the firework disaster in Enschede/Netherlands in 2000 and the Merapi disaster in Yogyakarta / Indonesia 2010.
  
  
• April 2016 - Murat Meha (Kosovo) Joep Crompvoets (Belgium) Muzafer Çaka and Denis Pitarka (Kosovo):   Implementing a National Spatial Data Infrastructure for a Modern Kosovo. This paper was presented at the FIG Working Week in Sofia, Bulgaria, 17-21 May 2015. The paper describes how to work on the strategy and implementation for a National Spatial Data Infrastructure in a modern society. Kosovo is used as example. The strategy that is developed is based on INSPIRE, and a road map for the implementation is also included.
  
  
• March 2016 - Paul Denys and Chris Pearson (New Zealand): Positioning in Active Deformation Zones - Implications for NetworkRTK and GNSS Processing Engines. This peer reviewed paper will be presented at the FIG Workign Week in Christchurch, New Zealand. The paper considers examples in New Zealand of non-linear deformation that includes post-seismic relaxation and slow slip events.
  
  
• February 2016 - Him Lal Shrestha, Nawaraj Chapagain, Krishna Ram Dhital, Sujan Adhikari (Nepal): Geospatial analysis of forest resources availability for the reconstruction after Earthquake 2015. This paper was presented at the FIG – ISPRS workshop International Workshop on Role of Land Professionals and SDI in Disaster Risk Reduction: In the Context of Post 2015 Nepal Earthquake in Kathmandu, Nepal, 25-27 November, 2015. In April 2015 a earthquake stroke Nepal. The rebuild of the country has increased the demand of forest resources. Throough a geospatial approach this study links the devastation, demand generated on forest resources and the resource availability in Gorkha district.
   
• January 2016 - Reshma Shrestha, Arbind Tuladhar, Jaap Zevenbergen (the Netherlands): Exploring land governance in post-disaster: a case of informal settlement. This paper was presented at the FIG – ISPRS workshop International Workshop on Role of Land Professionals and SDI in Disaster Risk Reduction: In the Context of Post 2015 Nepal Earthquake in Kathmandu, Nepal, 25-27 November, 2015. The focus of this paper is on analyzing the land governance in informal settlements during reconstruction phase of post-disaster periods.