Minister of Environment, Mining and Spatial Planning Oliver Dulic said today that with the launch of the IGIS system in the Serbian Geodetic Authority, Serbia received the latest technology in the world of collecting, processing and distribution of geospatial information.
At the presentation of a project to form a single geospatial data system (Infoterra Geo Information System – IGIS), Dulic pointed out that Serbia is the first in the region to open such centre and will provide assistance to neighbouring countries so that they could develop a modern system for geo information.
Serbia has thus become a regional leader in this area, the Minister said and recalled that this project worth €16 million is implemented on the basis of bilateral agreement between France and Serbia, which was signed in December 2009.
The Minister said that €11 million was provided through a loan of the French government’s Investment Directorate, while the Geodetic Authority gave €5 million.
He pointed out that geographic information will be widely used in agriculture, urban planning, infrastructure, energy, mining and in managing high-risk situations.
On the basis of the IGIS system, the Geodetic Authority will have a satellite imagery of the territory of Serbia, digital terrain model (DTM), which determines the height of each point, and aerial photographs of the state territory.
French Ambassador to Serbia Francois-Xavier Deniau said that his country has decided to help Serbia in this particular area because of the great importance which data related to the geographical space have at the moment.
Deniau said that the state-of-the-art equipment has been secured by French consortium IGN France and Astrium-EADS, which will provide technical support to the Geodetic Authority for the period of three years.
Source Serbia Gov.
