XXII'th General Assembly of the International Association of Geodesy,

(Birmingham July, 1999)

Summary of the meetings by the Council and Executive Comittee during the General Assembly

(O. Andersen, IAG information editor)

 

During the XXII'th General Assembly of the International Association of Geodesy, the

The Executive committee met on July 19, July 24, July 27
The Council met on July19, July 21, July 27

Present were: K.P. Schwarz, (President), F.Sanso (1. Vice President), J.O.Dickey (2. Vice President), C.C.Tscherning (Secretary General), F.Brunner (President Section 1), R.Forsberg (President Section 3), P. Holota (President Section 4), M.Feissel (President Section 5), C.Boucher (President Commission X), P.Willis (Secretary Section 2), G.Beutler (President Commission XII), M.Sideris (secretary Section 3), B.Heck (Secretary section 4), C.Wilson (Secretary section 5), T.Tanaka (President Commission VII), W.Torge (Past president), I.I.Mueller (Honorary President), H.Moritz (Honorary President), O. Andersen. (Assistant Sec General), The new Executive Committee members were invited to participate in the third meeting.

At the meetings (July19, July 21, July 27)of the Council, 40 member countries were represented.

Algeria (Kahlouche, Dr.)

Argentina (Galban, F. ,Col.)

Australia (Coleman, R. ,Prof.)

Austria (Erker, E ,Prof. Dr.)

Belgium (Ducarme, B. ,Dr.)

Brazil (Blitzkow, Denisar ,Prof.)

Canada (Sideris, Michael ,Prof.)

Chile (Pinto, Jose ,Dr.)

China (Hu, Jian Guo ,Prof.)

Croatia (Kresimir Colic, Prof)

Czech Republic (Holota, Petr ,Dr.)

Denmark (Madsen, Frede ,Mr.)

Germany (Heck, B. ,Prof. Dr.-Ing.)

Egypt (Tealeb, A.A. ,Prof.)

Finland (Kuittinen, R., Prof)

France (Boucher, C. ,Dr.)

Greece (Dermanis, A. ,Prof.)

Hungary (Adàm, Joszef ,Prof.)

Indonesia (Sutisnas ,Mr.)

Italy (Sanso, F. ,Prof.)

Japan (Takimoto, S. ,Prof.)

Malaysia (Samad, A. ,Dr.)

Netherlands ( Teunissen, Peter J.G. ,Prof.)

New Zealand (Grant, Donald ,Dr.)

Nigeria (Fajemirokun, F. ,Prof.)

Norway (Harsson, B.G. ,Mr.)

Poland (Baran, L. W. ,Prof.)

Portugal (Torres, Joa Agria ,Dr.)

Romania (Atanasiu, L. ,Dr.)

Russia (Prilepin, Mikhail T. ,Prof.)

South Africa (Wonnacott, Richard ,Dr.)

Sweden (Ekman, M.)

Switzerland (Schneider, D. ,Prof.)

Thailand (Paewpisakun, Paew ,Lt.Gen.)

Turkey (Meteris, H. ,Col.)

United Kingdom (Dodson, A.,Prof.)

United States of America (Herring, T. ,Prof.)

Venezuela (Henneberg, Heinz ,Prof.)

Zimbabwe (Podmore F. ,Prof.)

During these meetings, topics concerning the activities and administrative affairs of the International Association of Geodesy were treated. Decisions or conclusions were drawn as follows.

1. Finances.

The Financial Report of the IAG for the period 1st January 1995 to 31st of December 1998 was presented by the Secretary General during the IAG opening session. In terms of IAG by-law 54 an ad-hoc Audit Committee must be appointed by the Council to "examine all expenditures and ensure that they were in accordance with the proposals previously approved". The Audit Committee appointed by the Council on 19th July 1999 consisted of:

J. Adam, Hungary

B.G. Harsson, Norway

R.T. Wonnacott, South Africa

The Audit Committee met four times.

The Audit Committee performed the following:

1.1 Examined an arbitrary selection of receipts and bank statements of both the IAG Account and the IAG Fund for the period of 1st of January 1995 to 31st of December 1998. The final quadrennial report and the interim annual reports for both the Account and the Fund have been audited by the firm of authorised public accountants Hans Borge Nielsen.

1.2 Checked the balances appearing in the annual and quadrennial report of the IAG.

1.3 Examined expenditures to ensure conformity with the budget for 1995-1999 as approved in Boulder in July 1995.

1.4 Made enquiries which were clarified by the Secretary General C. C. Tscherning.

The Audit Committee makes the following comments on the IAG Account:

2.1 The accounts are well presented and expenditure is supported by receipts and records.

2.2 Multi-currency transfers have been clearly documented.

2.3 During the review period the reserves held by the IAG rose by US$70.100,10 to US$ 93.693,23. This can be attributed to large savings on administrative items such as travel and communication. In addition, an unforeseen income from the AGU for a per capita attendance at the Boulder General Assembly and the Rio de Janerio Scientific Assembly increased the reserves.

2.4 In spite of the surplus of US$ 70.100,10 the Audit Committee found that total spending on Grants, Symposia, Assemblies and Publications was in accordance with the approved 1995-1999 budget.

The Audit Committee makes the following comments on the IAG Fund.

3.1 The accounts are well presented and expenditures supported by receipts and records.

3.2 At the end of the reporting period, the IAG Fund showed a debt of US$ 7.273,46 which has been covered by the IAG Account. The loss has been incurred largely through travel grants and support provided to young scientists for symposia and scientific meetings.

 

The Audit committee makes the following recommendations

4.1 It is recommended that the itemised allocation of expenditure and receipts be reviewed to give a truer reflection of these expenditures and receipts. Unspecified items such as "miscellaneous" and "others" should be kept to a minimum amount.

4.2 It is recommended that the IAG Fund be incorporated into the IAG Account primarily to facilitate the efficient handling of multi-currency transactions and the administration of the accounts.

4.3 The Audit Committee recommends that the IAG Council accepts the Financial report for the period 1995-1999 as presented to the Council at Birmingham in July 1999.

The Audit committee had the following acknowledgement

On behalf of the IAG Council, the Audit Committee would like to acknowledge the considerable time, effort and support provided by the Department of Geophysics of the University of Copenhagen. In particular the work of the secretariat staff of the Department must be acknowledged.

 

2. Elections

The elections were prepared by the Nominating committee chaired by W. Torge, which presented its list of candidates at the first meeting of the council on July, 19. The election took lace in the council on Wedensday, 21th. They resulted in the following structure of the IAG.

Bureau

President Fernando Sanso (Italy)

First Vice President Gerhard Beutler(Switzerland)

Secretary General C. C. Tscherning (Denmark)

Second Vice President Denizar Blitzkow (Brasil)

Section I: Positioning

President: Alan Dodson, U

Secretary: Chris Rizos, Australia

Claude Boucher (France)

Section II: Advanced Space Technology

President: C. K. Shum (USA)

Secretary: Pascal Willis (France)

Comm VIII: H. Drewes (Germany)

Section III: Determination of the Gravity Field

President: Michael G. Sideris (Canada)

Secretary: Gerd Boedecker (Germany)

Comm XIII: Martin Vermeer (Finland)

Section IV: General Theory and Methodology

President: Bernhard Heck (Germany)

Secretary: Christopher Jekeli (USA)

Yuanxi Yang (China)

Section V: Geodynamics

President: Clark Wilson (USA)

Secretary: Veronique Dehant (Belgium)

Comm V: President: Shuzo Takemoto(Japan)

Comm XIV President: S. Zerbini (Italy)

Editor in Chief of the Journal of Geodesy

P. J. G. Teunissen (The Netherlands)

Assistant Secretaries of the Association

Ole Baltazar Andersen (Denmark)

Kristian Keller (Denmark)

Honorary Presidents:

H. Moritz (Austria).

P. V. Angus-Leppan (Australia)

I.. I. Mueller (USA)

W. Torge (Germany)

K.-P. Schwarz (Canada)

Honorary Secretaries General

J.-J. Levallois (France)

M. Louis (France)

3. Commissions, Special commissions and special study groups.

3.1 Commissions:

Former Commission III (International gravity commission) and Comm XII (International geoid commission) were merged and a new commission XIII were formed under the name The International gravity and geoid commission. Commission VII (Recent crustal movements) were dissolved and a new commission XIV on crustal deformation were established. The following commissions were installed for the period 1999-2003

Comm X: Global and Regional Geodetic Networks

President: Claude Boucher (France)

Comm VIII: International Coordination Of Space Techniques For Geodesy And Geodynamics (CSTG)

President: H. Drewes (Germany)

Comm XIII: International Gravity and Geoid Commission

President: Martin Vermeer (Finland)

Comm V: Earth Tides

President: Shuzo Takemoto(Japan)

Comm XIV Crustal Deformation

President: S. Zerbini (Italy)

3.2 Special Commissions

According to the IAG by-laws special commissions may be formed to study scientific problems of a long term character with requires close corporation between specialists from different countries.

All special commission were continued except for SC 6 (Wegener Project) which was continued as a sub-commission in commission XIV. The following special commissions were installed for the period 1999-2003

SC4: Application of Geodesy to Engineering

President: Heribert Kahmen (Austria)

SC7: Satellite Gravity Field Missions

Chair: Karl-Heinz Ilk (Germany)

SC1: Mathematical and Physical Foundations of Geodesy

Chair: P. Holota (Czech Republic)

SC3: Fundamental Parameters

Chair: E. Groten

SC8: Sea Level and Ice Sheets

President: Michael Bevis (USA)

3.3 Special Study Groups

Special study groups are formed to study specific scientific problems of limited scope. Therefore most groups are terminated after four years. However, this time two special study groups were continues. These were SSG 1.162 and SSG 3.167. All other special study groups were terminated. The following special study groups were installed for the period 1999-2003

SSG 1.179: Wide Area Modelling for Precise Satellite Positioning

Chair: S Han (Australia)

SSG 1.180: GPS as an atmospheric remote sensing tool

Chair: H van der Marel (The Netherlands)

SSG 1.181: Regional Permanent Arrays

Chair: R. Weber (Austria)

SSG 1.182: Multipath Mitigation

Chair: M P Stewart (Australia)

SSG 2.162: Precise Orbits Using Multiple Space Techniques

Chair R. Scharroo (The Netherlands)

SSG 2.183: Spaceborne Interferometry Techniques

Chair: Ramon Hanssen (The Netherlands)

SSG 2.192: Spaceborne GNS Atmosphere Sounding

Chair: Rob Kursinski (USA)

SSG 2.193: Gravity field missions: calibration and validation

Chair: Pieter Visser (The Netherlands),

SSG 2.194: GPS Water Level Measurements

Chair: Gerry Mader (USA)

SSG 3.167: Regional Land and Marine Geoid Modelling

Chair: I.N. Tziavos (Greece)

SSG 3.177: Synthetic Modelling of the Earth’s Gravity Field

Chair: Will Featherstone (Australia)

SSG 3.184: Use of Remote Sensing Techniques for Validating Heights and Depths

Chair: Philippa Berry (UK)

SSG 3.185: Merging data from dedicated satellite missions with other gravimetric data

Chair: Nico Sneeuw (Germany)

SSG 3.186: Altimetry data processing for gravity, geoid and sea surface topography determination

Chair: C. Hwang (Taiwan)

SSG 4.187: Wavelets in Geodesy and Geodynamics

Chair: W. Keller (Germany)

SSG 4.188: Mass Density from Joint Inverse Gravity Modelling

Chair: G. Strykowski (Denmark)

SSG 4.189: Dynamic theories of deformation and gravity fields

Chair: D. Wolf (Germany)

SSG 4.190: Non-probabilistic assessment in geodetic data analysis

Chair: H. Kutterer (Germany)

SSG 4.191: Theory of Fundamental Height Systems

Chair: C.Jekeli (USA)

 
3.4 International Bureau, Services and Centres
The following bodies were established or asked to continue their work.

IGS International GPS Service

Chair: Christopher Reigber (Germany)

Director of the CB: Ruth Neilan (USA)

ILRS The International Laser Ranging Service

Chair of the Governing Board:

John Degnan (USA)

Director of the Central Bureau:

John Bosworth (USA)

IVS International VLBI Service

for Geodesy and Astrometry

Directing Board Chair: W. Schlüter (Germany)

BGI International Gravimetric Bureau

Director: J-P. Barriot (France)

IGeS International Geoid Service

Director: F. Sanṣ (Italy)

IERS International Earth Rotation Service

Chair: Christoph Reigber

Director, Central Bureau, Daniel Gambis

PSMSL Permanent Service For Mean Sea Level

Director: P. L. Woodworth (UK)

BIPM Bureau International des Poids et Mesures - Time Section

Director Time Section : E.F. Arias (BIPM)

 

3.5 Joint working Groups

The following Joint Working Group was installed for the period 1999-2003

IAG/IAPSO Joint Working Group

Geodetic Effects of Non-Tidal Oceanic Processes

Chair: R. S. Gross (USA)

 

3.6 Committees reporting to the IAG Bureau

The following committee was installed for the period 1999-2003

ABLOS Committees reporting to the Bureau:

Committee Geodetic and Marine Geo-Scientific Aspects of the Law of the Sea Chair: Bjorn Geirr Harsson

4. IAG representatives to external bodies.

BGI Directing Board: Dr. M.Vermeer (Finland), President of the Gravity /Geoid Commission.

IAPSO Commission on Mean Sea Level and Tides: M.Bevis to be contacted.

IAU Working Group on Astronomical Standards (WGAS): E. Groten (Germany), continuing.

IAU ICRS Working Group: T. Herring (USA), continuing.

ICET Directing Board: Dr. S.Takemoto, (Japan), President Earth Tide Commission.

ICL: S.Zerbini, (Italy)..

IERS Directing Board: C. Reigber (Germany), continuing, or his nominee.

IGS Governing Board: G. Beutler (CH), (ex-officio), T. Herring (USA), IAG Representative. ISO TC 211: J.Ihde (Germany), continuing.

IUGG Inter-Association Committee for Mathematical Geophysics: M. Vermeer (Finland), continuing.

IUSM Executive Board: I.I. Mueller (USA) K.-P. Schwarz (Canada), continuing to next meeting. New representatives will be nominated if there is a need after the next meeting.

PAIGH (PanAmerican Institute for Geography and History): W. Torge (Germany), continuing.

SIRGAS: H. Drewes (Germany), continuing.

WMO/IUGG Working Group on data exchange for forecast of natural disasters. S.Zerbini.

SCAR WG-GGI.: R.Dietrich (Germany).

GALOS: B.-G. Harsson (Norway)

H. Kahmen (alternatively F. Brunner) was suggested as IAG representative to the IUGG commission on Mega Cities.

 

5. Awards

The Bomford prize

The Bomford prize 1999 was awarded to Veronique Dehant, Royal Observatory of Belgium for her outstanding contribution to geodesy and particularly for her contribution in the nutation field. The Bomform prize and the certificate was presented to V. Dehant by President K.-P. Schwarz during the opening ceremony of the General Assembly.

The Levallois Medal

The Levallois Medal was awarded to T. Krarup, National Survey and Cadastre (KMS) Denmark in recognition of distinguished service to the association and to the science of geodesy n general. The Levallois medal and the certificate were presented to T. Krarup by Professor H. Moritz during the opening ceremony of the General Assembly.

1998 IAG Young Authors Award

During the opening ceremony of the General Assembly in Birmingham the winner of the IAG Young Author Award for 1998 was presented. The award consists of a certificate and a check of 1000US$ The award was given Dr. Cheinway Hwang from the Department of Civil Engineering, National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan. It was given the paper: Inverse Vening-Meinesz formula and deflection-geoid formula: applications to the predictions of gravity and geoid over the South China Sea, Journal of Geodesy, vol 72, 5, pp. 304-312

6. Resolutions.

IUGG.

Seven resolutions related to Geodesy were presented and accepted by the council of IUGG. The text of the resolutions can be found as a separate chapter of this issue of the Geodesists handbook.

IAG

Seven resolutions were presented and accepted by the council of IAG. The text of the resolutions can be found as a separate chapter of this issue of the Geodesists handbook 2000

 

7. IAG new fellows

The IAG executive committee approinted the following fellows of the International Association of Geodesy

O. Balt. Andersen, (Denmark), D.Arabelos (Greece), L.Ballani (Germany), B.Benciolini (Italy), M.Bevis (USA), G.Blewitt (UK), J.Bosworth (USA), A.Cazenave (France), T.Clark (USA), J.Degnan (USA), V.Dehant (Belgium), H.Drewes (Germany), B.Ducarme (Belgium), W.Featherstone (Australia), W.Freeden (Germany), T.Herring (USA),K.-H. Ilk (Germany), P. de Jonge (The Netherlands), J.Johanssen (Sweden), P.Knudsen (Denmark), Z-X Li (PRC), J.Manning (Australia), N.Pavlis (USA), C.Rizos (Australia), C.Rocken (USA), I.Tziavos (Greece), M.Vermeer (Finland), M.Wei (Canada), D.Wolf (Germany), S.Zerbini (Italy).

 

8. IAG scientific Assembly 2001.

The IAG scientific Assembly will be held in Budapest in Hungary in the beginning of September, 2001.

9. IUGG General Assembly 2003.

The IUGG General Assembly will be held in Sapporo in Japan in 2003.