Abbas Rajabifard

BSurv (Teh), Post Dipl. (ITC), MSc (ITC)

Research Topic: Asia-Pacific Regional Spatial Data Infrastructure (APSDI) Today, more than ever before, it is important to look beyond our own National Boundaries. The world as we know is changing. Economies worldwide are undergoing a process of profound and continuing structural change, and the global village is becoming a reality driven by IT and communication technologies. With this in mind, many countries throughout the world believe that they can benefit both economically and environmentally from better management of their spatial information by taking a perspective that starts at a local level and proceeds through state, national and regional levels to global level. This has resulted in the development of the Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) concept at these levels. The objectives of this research are to describe the nature of SDIs in general and Regional SDIs in particular based on Asia-Pacific region. The research will also focus on: - The current status of Asia-Pacific regional activities; - Developing a generic model of Regional SDI; - existence of national and regional spatial datasets; - Difficulties inherent in development and implementation of APSDI in general; and - Regional fundamental database in particular based on a pilot project on Regional Administrative boundaries. Research Interest: Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) in general and Regional SDI in Particular, Data Modelling and Data Structuring of Spatial Data for GIS Design.

Abbas Rajabifard was born in Tehran (Iran) 1966. He has completed his B.Sc in Surveying Engineering at K.N. Toosi Technical University in Tehran in 1989. He obtained a Postgraduate Diploma in Production Photogrammetry and a MSc in Integrated Map and Geoinformation Production from the Department of Geoinformatics at ITC (International Institute for Aerospace Survey and Earth Sciences) the Netherlands in 1992 and 1993 respectively.

From December 1990- October 1998 (while continuing his studies) he worked for National Cartographic Center (NCC), Iran where he was the head of the GIS Department with special duties in design, management and implementation of National Topographic Database (NTDB) and National GIS in Iran. He involved in the 1:25000 Base Map Series Project and was responsible for many GIS projects in Iran.

Since 1995 he is an Executive Board member of and a National representative to the Permanent Committee on GIS Infrastructure for Asia and the Pacific (PCGIAP). He is a member of International Steering Committee for Global Mapping (ISCGM) since 1997.

He has also lectured on a part time basis in the Surveying Engineering Department at the K.N.Toosi University, National University and the University of Isfahan from 1994 to 1998.

During his career he was also:

- The Secretariat of National Council of GIS Users (NCGISU)

- Member of Editorial Board of Iranian Surveying Journal

- Member of Scientific Committee of Annual GIS Conference in Iran

- Member of Standard Committee on Digital Spatial Data (SCDSD)

- Member of UN-ESCAP Experts Group for the guideline on GIS Standardisation

Email contact: abbas@sunrise.sli.unimelb.edu.au