CALL FOR PAPERS
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The Call for Papers is announced both for peer-reviewed
papers and non-peer reviewed papers
(regular).
The overall theme of the congress is:
The Future We Want -
The SDGs and Beyond
FIG
Congress 2026 presents a pivotal moment for
geospatial professionals to accelerate action,
foster innovation, and shape the next era of
global sustainable development.
This
Congress will bring together thought-leaders,
policymakers, and experts to explore how land
governance, geospatial intelligence, and
technological advancements can drive
sustainability, resilience, and equitable
growth beyond 2030.
|
In
the face of accelerating climate change, the Congress will highlight how
geospatial solutions are essential for climate monitoring, disaster risk
reduction, and informed decision-making at all levels. FIG Congress
2026 will catalyse for bold ideas and strategic action, ensuring a
thriving and sustainable future for generations to come.
Specific topics of FIG Congress 2026
At the congress there will be a number of parallel streams and
breakaway sessions covering topics such as:
- Geospatial
Innovation for a Changing World
- Resilient Land, Water and
Natural Resource Administration and Management for a Sustainable Future
- Future-Proofing the Profession: Knowledge, Skills, Standards,
and Ethics to serve our changing society
- Sustainable
Settlements and the Green Economy
- Contributions to our world
beyond the SDGs: Integrating Policy, Technology, and People
Climate
change will be a cross-cutting theme throughout the programme,
highlighting how geospatial science and land management are instrumental
in climate adaptation, mitigation, and resilience planning.
The
following topics will be central to the programme and are reflected by
the current FIG task forces:
- Surveyors and the SDGs - Serving
society for the benefit of people and planet; tackling the global
challenges with a specific focus on The Future Beyond 2030
- Climate Compass to re-direct the surveying profession as a
whole to a more climate-sensitive outlook
- Evolutionary Diversity and Inclusion – how to foster a new
generation of surveyors as well as youth, gender and capacity
development, hereunder
- Narrating Change: Sharing Perspectives for an Inclusive
Surveying Future”
- Reduced Inequalities in the surveying profession (Sdg 10)
- Inclusive pathways:access and equity in surveying education
- Sustainability and climate action through surveying (SDG 13)
- Innovating with purpose:Inclusive Data,AI and the Role of
Diversity in the Geospatial Sector
Each task force works closely
together with the FIG Commissions and their topics and agenda are
embedded in Commission work plans and in the Congress sessions.
Commission Specific Topics
Professional Standards and Practice – FIG Commission 1
Geospatial Data infrastructure; Policy, Standards and Practices
- The Aging Profession/Renewal of the profession (and also the
profession itself) – make the profession younger.
- Diversity/inclusion within surveying, and also in the provision
of surveying services to the community
- Ethics of protecting our planet and the role of surveyors
regarding the collection of data, analysis and dissemination of
information to decision-makers and stakeholders
- Defining and assessing what the big global carbon, biodiversity
and land policy issues are that are relevant for surveyors
- Gaps and opportunities for the development of the future of the
surveying profession, including technical opportunities.
Professional Education – FIG Commission 2
Frontiers in Education and Training: Keeping pace with the radically
changing technological landscape through targeted professional
educational interventions.
- Innovations in surveying education
- Developing and strengthening academic networks, inclusive
education
- Blended learning: good practices and lessons learned.
- Alternative teaching methodologies, activate students in the
classroom
- Young surveyors in education, learning styles and methods
- Surveying Education and Environment in relation to the SDG’s
- Jointly with other Commissions:
- Land administration education (C2+C7)
- Trends in education for precision and measurements (C2+C5)
Spatial Information Management – FIG Commission 3
Spatial Information Management – Addressing global challenges and
leveraging modern technological advancements
- GeoAI and SIM for Sustainable Development and Climate Action
- Exploring the role of GeoAI and SIM in advancing the UN
SDGs, particularly focusing on sustainable cities (SDG 11) and
climate action (SDG 13).
- Case studies showcasing GeoAI applications in monitoring and
mitigating the impacts of climate change.
- Innovations in Spatial Data Infrastructure and Management for
Global Challenges
- Developing and implementing spatial data infrastructures
that support sustainable resource management and resilience
against climate change.
- Integration of emerging technologies, such as blockchain and
IoT, in spatial data management to enhance transparency and
efficiency.
- Community Empowerment through Participatory Mapping and
Crowdsourcing
- Strategies for leveraging participatory mapping and
crowdsourced geospatial data to empower communities and support
equitable urban development.
- Assessing the impact of community engagement in geospatial
projects on local governance and policy-making.
- Big Data Analytics for Disaster Prediction and Prevention
- Utilizing big data, machine learning and generative AI to
predict and prevent natural disasters, with a focus on improving
response and recovery efforts.
- Best practices for integrating big data analytics into
existing geospatial frameworks to enhance disaster resilience.
- The role of the blue surveyor as an originator in marine
related disaster resilience.
- Spatial Information Management for Sustainable Land Use and
Planning
- Innovations in spatial information management to support
sustainable land use planning and address urban challenges in
developing regions.
- Examining the role of spatial data in balancing urban growth
with environmental conservation.
- Integrating Earth Systems Science with Geospatial Technologies
- Linking earth systems science approaches to global and
national mapping efforts to strengthen climate action and
environmental sustainability.
- Applications of geospatial technologies in understanding and
managing complex earth systems interactions.
- Ethics and Standards in Geospatial Data Use
- Addressing ethical considerations and developing standards
for the use and dissemination of spatial data in the context of
global challenges.
- Ensuring data privacy and security in the collection and
analysis of geospatial information.
- Digital Transformation and Innovation in Geospatial Practices
- The impact of digital transformation on geospatial practices
and the role of innovation in driving sustainable development.
- Exploring new methodologies and tools for geospatial
analysis in the digital age.
Hydrography – FIG Commission 4
Safeguarding the Blue Economy in the face of changing climate and
environmental degradation
- Strengthening water governance, administration, management and
data to ensure sustainability
- The surveying and Fit for Purpose land administration of
wetlands, rivers, lakes, peatlands
- The surveying and Fit for Purpose land administration of coastal
erosion and sea level rise
- Conquering new frontiers of Hydrography
- Hydrographic applications in blooming the blue economy
- Hydrographic datums and reference framework
- Hydrographic education and continual professional development
- Marine environment protection and marine space administration
- Understanding and planning prevention and mitigation strategies
for the impact of hurricanes and cyclones
- Assessment of the plastic pollution in the water bodies
- Hydrospatial domain and marine administration
- Hydrographic standards and guidelines
- Sustainable oceans and hydrography
Positioning and Measurement – FIG Commission 5
Building Capacity and Competence Together in the Science and
Application of Where
- Multi-Purpose Positioning Infrastructure for Sustainable
Development - Greater than the Sum of their Parts
- Reference Frames and Dynamic Datums to Support a Changing Planet
- Innovative Applications of Cost-Effective Positioning in
Mitigating the Impact of Disasters & Climate
- Resilient PNT for Sustainable Infrastructure and Societal
Resilience: What, Why, How, Who and When?
- An Analogue Earth in Digital Models: Capturing the World Around
Us
- Education, Training and Capacity Building: empowering
Communities Globally for the SDGs
Engineering Surveys – FIG Commission 6
Structural Digital Twinning frameworks, applications and
technologies in Engineering Surveying
- New sensing technologies in surveying: Image assisted and
scanning total stations, IoT Sensors, Laser scanners; Radar/SAR;
Unmanned aerial or underwater vehicles (UAV & UUV) etc.
- Applications of augmented (AR), virtual reality (VR), and
extended reality (XR) in Engineering Geodesy
- Deformation monitoring and analysis of engineering structures
and environment; Mines and other geo-resources (including energy);
Landslides and other geohazards and other disasters also for
disaster management
- Dynamic monitoring of civil engineering structures: bridges,
high-rise buildings, towers, wind turbines etc.
- The use of geospatial technologies, tools, and innovations such
as UAV photogrammetry, LiDAR, and InSAR as well as GIS to provide
real-time information to stakeholders and investors to assess the
benefits and risks of sustainable natural resource management
- Calibration and testing and of geodetic sensors
Cadastre and Land Management – FIG Commission 7
Sustainable land administration for inclusive development
- Framework for Effective Land Administration (FELA), linkages to
the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG1, 2, 5, 10, 15, 16), and
assessing connection to carbon emission, biodiversity and land
policy issues
- Fit-for-Purpose Land Administration (FFPLA), specifically for
increasing security of tenure for land restoration (SDG 1, 5),
carbon offsets (e.g. preventing deforestation), and protecting
biodiversity (SDG 14)
- 3D/4D Land administration – including technical aspects on data
capture, boundary issues, services, and functionality
- Land Administration Domain Model (LADM), BIM and Standards –
including marine cadastres
- AI and remote sensing applications in land administration
- Women and vulnerable groups access to land (SDG 5), and
participation in land administration systems (linked to other FIG
initiatives)
- Integrated land management including interoperability issues
between land tenure and land use planning, and integration into
NSDIs (SDG 2, 15)
- Digital transformation of cadastre and land registries,
including issues of data quality, cybersecurity, and openness
- Capacity building, training, and awareness raising for cadastres
and land management
- Legal, policy, financing, and institutional issues in land
administration, with a specific focus on country-level comparisons
Spatial Planning and Development – FIG Commission 8
Leveraging land and marine spatial planning for greater resilience
- The surveying of wetlands, rivers, lakes, peatlands
- Addressing coastal erosion, land degradation and restoration
through spatial planning (linked to other commissions)
- Geo-spatial intelligence and spatial governance in climate
crisis prevention
- Linking cadastral, planning, and valuation systems towards
climate goals.
- Participation and bottom-up implementation of spatial and land
use planning objectives
- Digital transformation and spatial intelligence – including
digital twins, smart solutions, digitising change intervention
processes of spatial decisions
- Land management tools for spatial governance - evaluation of
land management tools such as expropriation/compulsory purchase,
land banking, land consolidation, land readjustment, pre-emption
rights and others
- Land value change and spatial interventions including for
climate actions
Valuation and the Management of Real Estate – FIG Commission 9
Financing Local Government services through mass appraisal and
land-based taxation
- Measurement and definition of transparency in the real estate
market (SDGs 1,7,8,9)
- Building trust in smart and inclusive property taxation: from
predictive models to participatory valuation systems (SDGs 10, 13)
- Artificial Intelligence and Automated Valuation Modelling – how
to describe the model’s performance and the accuracy of the outcomes
(SDGs 10, 11, 16)?
- How to make real estate market data becoming Geodata (SDGs
10,11,13,16)?
- What do experts know about real estate price effects of climate
actions (SDG 7, 10, 13)?
- Use cases for real estate price registers; standards, categories
of property and concepts of databases (SDGs 1,7,10,13)
- For better public transparency and science: access to real
estate market data for experts, governments and the public (SDGs
1,7,10,16)
- How can data-driven and people-centred land systems empower
local decision-making through transparent governance, digital
infrastructures, and equitable transformation of land-related
services (SDGs 1,5,9,13)?
Construction Economics and Management – FIG Commission 10
Digitalization as the Future Vision of the Construction Industry
- Integrating sustainability into cost management practices to
promote environmentally responsible and economically viable projects
- Constructing Sustainable Cities
- Digital Integration in Construction
- Intelligent Solutions in the Built Environment
- Using Real-Time Data for Digital Transformation Strategies in
the Construction Industry
- Digital Construction Management
- Smart Technologies in Construction
- Green Construction Technologies
- Adopting innovative approaches to cost estimation, control, and
management using digital solution
- Integrating Environmental and Sustainable Infrastructure
FIG Permanent Institutions
The Permanent Institution of History for Surveying and
Measurement IIHS&M invites contributions on the history of
surveying and measurement, and the techniques and instrumentation
involved. During the conference days there will be 2-3 designated
history sessions, and you are encouraged to submit an abstract in the
field of history of surveying.
FIG Networks
FIG Young Surveyors Network would like to see
contributions from young surveyors in all 10 Commissions.
Papers are also invited on the areas of the FIG Networks:
- FIG Standards Network
- Regional Capacity Development Network
- Africa
- Asia/Pacific - would like to receive status
papers on geospatial and survey infrastructures concerning
capacity and capability development. These may include the
challenges, how they were collaboratively resolved and their
impact on meeting country / regional objectives, as well as the
SDGs.
- Americas
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