A successful workshop on GIS technologies and digital maps was organized by the KIOS Center of Excellence, on the 22nd of November 2023, at the University of Cyprus campus, on the occasion of the International Day of Geographic Information Systems (GIS Day 2023). The workshop attracted more than 90 people from several organizations of the public and private sector in Cyprus.
The workshop featured two keynote presentations by Mr. Steve Coast, Head of Engineering, Geo Innovation at Grab and Founder of OpenStreetMap and by Mrs. Anna Labetski, Data Scientist at Ordnance Survey, in the UK. Steve Coast talked about the development of the OpenStreetMap, a free, open geographic database updated and maintained by a community of volunteers via open collaboration. The innovation of OpenStreetMap, as pointed out by Mr. Coast, is that volunteers contribute to its development by collecting various spatial data, which in turn are inserted into the OpenStreetMap database. According to Mr. Coast, this digital map can be used by everyone for free as long as there is an attribute to the Open Database License. Mrs. Anna Labetski, on the other hand, talked about the history of Great Britain’s national mapping agency, highlighting the evolution of paper maps to digital products.
The workshop also included presentations by representatives from the public sector in Cyprus as well as from the KIOS CoE. On behalf of the Public Works Department, Mr. Minas Tapakis, Executive Engineer, talked about mapping and assessment of pavement conditions using a sensor-equipped vehicle. On behalf of the Lands and Surveys Department, Mrs. Klito Demetriou, Land Officer A, referred to the implementation of the INSPIRE Directive in Cyprus, whose aim is to enhance the sharing of environmental spatial information among public sector organisations and better facilitate public access to environmental information across Europe.
Finally, on behalf of the KIOS CoE, Mr. Rodolfo Da Silva, Research Engineer II, talked about the Cyprus National Access Point for Mobility Data (www.traffic4cyprus.org.cy) as well as the EU-funded project NAPCORE, which aims to coordinate and harmonize more than 30 mobility data platforms across Europe. Moreover, Dr. Christiana Papamichael, the KIOS Research Infrastructure Manager, presented the services offered by the Cyprus Digital Innovation Hub (DiGiNN) to SMEs, targeting their digital transformation.
