INTERGEO 2010: volcanic ash spotlights geo

22 April 2010, 1:24pm

Karlsruhe, 22 April 2010. For days now, everyone has been talking about the cloud of ash from Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull and its impact on air traffic. "Surveyors now need to add the scenario of a volcanic eruption in Europe to their risk and disaster management models," says Hagen Graeff, Chief Representative of DVW gGmbH, which is dealing with content-related issues for INTERGEO on 5 to 7 October 2010 in Cologne. Graeff expects the matter to be on the agenda at the world's largest conference trade fair for geodesy, geoinformation and land management - "alongside the safety of construction work for Cologne's underground system and the recent landslides in Brazil or the South Tyrol."

Over the past few days, people have become more aware of the INTERGEO motto - "Knowledge and action for planet Earth". And INTERGEO manages to make the link between theory and practice. On Monday, for example, when the DLR (German Aerospace Centre) took off on its successful measurement flight, the scientists on board had fitted LIDAR (light detection and ranging) technology. An instrument of this kind, which emits laser beams and receives light signals for remote measurement of atmospheric parameters, will be one of the items on display at INTERGEO. It offers significant benefits for environmental analyses and many other applications. Well-known suppliers such as Riegl, Vexcel and BSF Swissphoto provide the market with sophisticated scanning methods. During the conference, the remote sensing instrument will be the focus of attention in the key topic areas of measuring processes and EnviroInfo, and it will also be a major highlight during the INTERGEO forum for exhibitors.

Particularly impressive photos of the ash-spewing volcano in Iceland have been provided by the TerraSAR-X Earth observation satellite. Infoterra GmbH, which is the exclusive owner of the commercial usage rights to the German radar satellite, will also be exhibiting at INTERGEO in Cologne. For a number of years, Infoterra GmbH has been involved in the development and testing of European GMES (global monitoring of environment and security) services. It is also a leading expert in land observation, water quality analysis and regional planning applications.

The German Association of Surveying - German Society for Geodesy, Geoinformation and Land Management (DVW) is the organiser of INTERGEO, which is being held from 5 to 7 October 2010 in Cologne.

INTERGEO 2010

Geo: International