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Geological Remote Sensing Group
GRSG SIG Annual Report 2005-2006
2005 has been an eventful year for the GRSG, with an increasingly international aspect to activities. A one-day meeting on the remote sensing of volcanoes and associated hazards, held at the Remote Sensing & Photogrammetry Society annual conference, attracted a large audience, with presentations involving authors from over 20 countries. A special “volcanic” edition of the International Journal of Remote Sensing, building on those presentations, is now being prepared. This year’s annual conference, on new developments in geological remote sensing, was also well attended, with about 50 delegates, including some from the Netherlands and Germany.
Early in 2005 concerns were raised at GRSG Committee meetings about falling membership numbers. This prompted a review of strategies for attracting new members and procedures for encouraging membership renewal (which seem to be the main problem area). A new GRSG officer, focused on membership issues, was appointed and has proceeded to improve things. By the 15 December 2005 AGM, membership was back to the previous year’s level and looked set to increase to about 200 by early 2006. The AGM also considered the GRSG Newsletter’s shift from paper and ‘slow-mail’ to an emailed digital format, which the membership feedback being very positive.
At the AGM there were requests for GRSG to take on a more international role. There appears to be no other organisation with a specific remit to promote, and encourage the development of, geological remote sensing. GRSG’s non-profit, low-cost approach to organising topical conferences, makes it popular with practitioners of geological remote sensing. A series of GRSG conferences over the next two years, alternating between venues in North America, Europe and possibly Australia, have been agreed with GRSG overseas representatives. Becoming more involved with international events will inevitably involve more costs, so new corporate sponsors are being sought, to subsidise conference fees and to help fund keynote speakers. This has had some initial success, with Shell Exploration recently becoming a GRSG Corporate Member.
During 2006 there will be jointly organised conferences with the European Association of Remote Sensing Labs (Warsaw, 2nd June: lowland geohazards) and the International Association for Mathematical Geology (Liege: 3-5 Sept: elevation models; spectral and spatial classification). The 2006 GRSG annual conference, at Burlington House on 3-4 Dec, will focus on remote sensing aspects of Earth resources, particularly their exploration, extraction and environmental impacts. Further details can be found at http://www.grsg.org
Richard Teeuw Chairman, GRSG
