Nicholas Brown

UN-GGIM Expert Group on Land Administration and Management, Working Group on Marine Geospatial Information, Working Group on Policy and Legal Frameworks and Subcommittee on Geodesy. If you would like to help in the development of this practical guidance, please let me know.

There is no guidance available for Member States which explains how to integrate land and sea data to address these complex questions. This limits our ability to make informed decisions. By the middle of next year, the UN-GGCE will develop this guidance with support from

But when it comes to complex questions such as, what are the economic, social and environmental impacts of 10 - 15 cm/yr subsidence in Jakarta, this requires expertise beyond the frame of reference of a single domain. Questions like these require an expanded frame of reference.

Within our domains, we are able to make quality decisions based on our frames of reference. For example, a hydrographer can accurately compute the under keel clearance of a ship leaving port. A land surveyor can work out the maximum curvature of a road which is safe to drive on.

We brought together experts from marine, land, cadastral, standards, communications, government policy and geodesy domains to discuss and share ideas on how to integrate information from the land and sea.

What's your frame of reference? We all have one; limited to the knowledge we use to interpret the world, evaluate options and draw conclusions. This week the
UN Global Geodetic Centre of Excellence hosted a workshop on "Joining Land and Sea" with Badan Informasi Geospasial (BIG) Indonesia #geodesy

Let’s talk about the Global Geodesy Supply Chain.

“The what?”

Exactly...

But first things first: geodesists have such a hard time explaining what is it they do. It’s like a curse.

“That’s, uhm, like kind of geology or something? Rocks and stuff right?"

Not quite. The geo bit is right though!

Nick Brown, Head of the UN Global Geodetic Center of Excellence office, gave an interesting talk on UN GGCE and Global #geodesy supply chain at the Annual meeting of the German Geodetic Commission in Munich.