The 21st International Geoinformatics Conference was successfully held at Henan University, Kaifeng, during June 20-22.
The conference was co-organized by the Key Laboratory of Geospatial Technology for Middle & Lower Yellow River Regions, Ministry of Education (Henan University), College of Environment and Planning, Henan University, CPGIS, Key Research Institute of Yellow River Civilization and Sustainable Development, Ministry of Education, Henan University, and Geographical Society of Henan Province, China.
President Lou, Henan University
Pinde Fu, President of CPGIS
Academician Guanhua Xu
Academician Michael Goodchild
Academician Milan Konecny
The conference theme was GIS in Economic Development，Regional Planning and Environmental Protection. Surrounding this theme, over 400 GIS professionals from North America, Europe, Australia, Africa, South America, South-east Asia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and mainland China, exchanged knowledge on Geographic Information Science frontiers, technologies, and applications.
President Yuangong Lou of Henan University, President Pinde Fu of CPGIS, Academician Guanhua Xu, Academician Deren Li, Academician Michael Goodchild from the USA, Academician Milan Konecny from Europe, Eurasia Academician Hui Lin of Hong Kong Chinese University, Chairman Yaochen Qin of the Conference Organizing Committee attended the opening ceremony. They welcomed the attendees, and thanked the great work Henan University has done in preparing for the conference.
The keynote speakers included Guanhua Xu, Michael Goodchild, Deren Li, Milan Konecny, Gangjun Liu, Daniel Sui, Yeqiao Wang, Yunfeng Kong. Their speeches covered Global Climate Change and the Sustainable Development, Planning in a Geospatially Enabled Society, Smart City: Concept, Supporting Techniques and Applications, Early Warning and Disaster Management Challenges for Europe and China: from GIS to VGE, Location-Enabled Approaches to Australia's Ageing in Place Strategy, Crowdsourcing Geographic Knowledge through Open GIS, Geospatial information for Monitoring, Reporting and Forecasting of the Changing Environments, Spatial Optimization for Compulsory School Location-Allocation and School Bus Routing. These presentations were inspiring to the audience.
In addition to the hundreds of presentations, the conference also set up three special panels, including Spatiotemporal Sciences and Innovations, GIS Education: Challenges, Directions and Globalization, GIS Research, Development and Industry.
Chancellor Aihe Guan and President Yuangong Lou of Henan University, Dean Yaochen Qin of the College of Environment and Planning welcomed the scholars, and hoped to build stronger collaboration with CPGIS.
The conference announced several awards. Professors Xun Shi, Shixiong Hu, and Xinyue Ye received the Excellence in Service Award. Academician Deren Li and Professor Hui Lin received the Excellence in Education Award. Jun Xie of East China Normal University, Wenlong Jing of Henan University, Yunqin Zhong of the Computation Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences won the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd places of the Student Paper Competition Award respectively.
CPGIS Conference Site Selection Committee Chair, Wei Luo, announced that the 22nd Geoinformatics conference will be held in June 2014 in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Dr. Changyu Lin representing Taiwan Geographic Information Society (TGIS) and Taiwan Geographic Information System Center (TGIC), cordially invited everyone to meet again at the next year’s conference in Taiwan.