Original Story can be found here: http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=425452


Written by: Avneel Chand
Monday, November 27, 2017

Conference Opening

Participants of the Innovative Geospatial Solution to Pacific Islands Challenge Conference at USP in Suva today.

Picture: JONA KONATACI


FIJI's Minister for Lands and Mineral Resources, Faiyaz Koya today opened the Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and Remote Sensing (RS) annual conference at the University of the South Pacific's Japan ICT Center.

Mr Koya said the conference was a platform to connect GIS and RS users.

He said while there were many conferences of such, this one was focused on the Pacific region.

"I am confident that you, as regional and international specialists, practitioners and scientists both from the public and private sectors, will achieve what you have set out to achieve this week," Mr Koya said.

With our 2017 conference quickly approaching we kindly urge all conference presenters who need to change or add a presentation title to please contact Dr. Wolf Forstreuter directly on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The conference agenda can be found here.

With just less than two weeks to go for the 2017 Pacific GIS&RS User Conference, we encourage all registered participants to present themselves early at the conference to avoid any delays with registration.

Additionally, limited edition official conference shirts will be on sale and the first few people to register early will walk away with a free DigitalGlobe bag.

This morning the SPC GSD team attended the official launch of the Police GIS Crimes Database at the Fiji Police Force HQ complex.Fiji Police

The Police Department's GIS Project Leader, Actg ASP Eseta Lewabeci the OC Stats, will be presenting at the Pacific GIS/RS Conference next Wednesday at 11:00am at the USP Japan-Pacific ICT Centre.

The Police GIS Crimes Database would be a first for a law enforcement agency in the Pacific to branch out into this domain, and their perspectives may provide valuable learnings for the Pacific region.

At the GIS Crimes database launch this morning, the Police Commissioner's representative, ACP Biu Matavou, on behalf of the Commissioner said that it was a major milestone for the Fiji Police Force and that they were grateful to the SPC Geoscience Division of the Pacific Community for the generous and overwhelming support shown to officers throughout the year which enabled them to get the Geographic Information System up and running.

He also stated that the project was long overdue because as an institution that relied heavily on information and intelligence driven strategies to prevent crime, the advent of modern day technology was something they should have taken advantage of sooner. Especially if the system helped in instant crime analysis, deployment techniques, active enforcement of trivial crimes, monitoring of emerging patterns, and accountability programs for law enforcement managers.

FijiTimesArticle

Vuibau,T. (2016, November 19). Exchange of Information. The FijiTimes, p. 45. Retrieved from http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?ref=archive&id=378995

November 19, 2016 

The development and fine-tuning of application of Geographic Information Systems for Pacific Island countries will be an important component of the Pacific Islands GIS/RS Conference 2016. A geographic information system (GIS) is a computer system for capturing, storing, checking, and displaying data related to positions on Earth's surface.GIS can show many different kinds of data on one map.This enables people to more easily see, analyse, and understand patterns and relationships.

18 November 2016

Suva, Fiji – Experts from around the world will gather in Suva, Fiji, later this month to exchange innovation in the use of satellite data, unmanned aerial vehicles (drones), open source software and other tools that assist decision-making in land use and disaster management.

Recent developments in technology and practices to improve maps and data that support sustainable development and economic growth will also be at the forefront of discussions at the upcoming 17th Pacific GIS/RS (Geographic Information Systems and Remote Sensing) User Conference, co-hosted by the Pacific Community (SPC), The University of the South Pacific (USP) and Fiji’s Ministry of Lands.

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