Romanian Chapter Report 2012

Introduction

The Romanian OSGeo Local Chapter is represented by geo-spatial.org, founded in 2007, by a small group of passionate people. Now, our community brings together approximately 700 people, from which app. 25 are constantly involved in projects, FOSS4G conferences and workshops (1 OSGeo charter member).

Chapter Accomplishments

In 2012, geo-spatial.org has continued the series of workshops held every year in 3 different Romanian cities, has continued one of its flagship project, eHarta, started in 2010 and has increased its involvement in the Open Data movement, through active implication in disscusions regarding the Action Plan of Romania for the Open Gouvernament Partnership, organising and taking part at formal and informal meetings with Open Data focus and more.

Visibility at conferences and workshops

• FOSS4G-CEE and Geoinformatics, 21 - 23 May, Prague, Czech Republic - a general presentation of geo-spatial.org, the study case of building and developing a successful reference point in the FOSS4G community.

Romanian articles and tutorials published on geo-spatial.org:

• http://earth.unibuc.ro/articole/rectificarea-seriilor-de-harti-romanesti-scara-175000-realizate-inaintea-primul-razboi-mondial (an article that describes the labelling system, the projection and the datum parameters of the sheets of the 1:75 000 scale Romanian topographic map series completed prior to WorldWar I in order to integrate them into GIS databases)
• http://earth.unibuc.ro/articole/descarcarea-imaginilor-landsat-l1t-din-baza-de-date-earth-explorer-usgs (tutorial on downloading Landsat L1T imagery from Earth Explorer -USGS)
• http://earth.unibuc.ro/articole/descarcarea-imaginilor-landsat-din-baze-de-date-accesibile-on-line-baza-de-date-global-land-cover-facility (tutorial on downloading Landsat imagery from Global land Cover Facility platform/database)
• http://earth.unibuc.ro/tutoriale/manipulare-straturilor-google-yahoo-bing-i-osm-in-qgis (tutorial on handling Google, Yahoo, Bing and OSM layers in QGIS)
• http://earth.unibuc.ro/tutoriale/prelucrarea-datelor-modis-folosind-limbajul-r-produsele-lst-temperatura-suprafe-ei-terestre-active-i-sc-extindere-stratului-de-zapada (tutorial on processing MODIS data using R - LST <Land Surface Temperature> and SC <Snow Cover>)
• http://earth.unibuc.ro/recenzii/past-time-past-place-gis-for-history (a review for the “Past time, Past place: GIS for history”)
• http://earth.unibuc.ro/recenzii/eurovegmap-2-harta-vegetatiei-naturale-din-europa-scara-1-2500000 (a review on the application EuroVegMap 2: Map of the Natural Vegetation of Europe, scale 1:2,500,000)
• http://earth.unibuc.ro/download/runoff-modeling-using-gis-application-in-torrential-basins-in-the-apuseni-mountains (Ph.D thesis regarding Runoff modeling using GIS. Application in torrential basins in the Apuseni Mountains.)

Work on open geodata:

• The soviet topo maps, scale 1:50 000, georeferenced in Stereo70 (http://earth.unibuc.ro/download/hartile-sovietice-50k)
• 6 touristic maps of mountain trails of the Turing-Club of Romania Association, an interwar Romanian organisation which had the purpose of raising awareness regarding Romanian touristic sites. Maps’ scales vary with regard to the depicted area. Three have a 1:30000 scale and three 1:50000. The maps are georeferenced in Stereo70. (http://earth.unibuc.ro/download/hartile-turistice-ale-tcr)
• The administrative boundaries of Romanian interwar counties (1930). (http://earth.unibuc.ro/download/romania-limitele-administrative-ale-jude-elor-interbelice-1930)

Open letter

• An open letter, signed by 184 members of the community, was sent to the Romanian National Mapping Agency (http://ancpi.ro) asking for free access through the geo-spatial.org platform, as a downloadable file or through OGC webmapping standards, of a a vector format file of the boundaries of the Romanian municipalities. The answer was not satisfactory, therefore we will press ahead with our request, with regard to the Open Government Partnership signed by Romania.

Translations

• With regard to our Open Data movement active support, we have organised and promoted, together with other organizations with similar interests, the translation of the Open Data Handbook published by Open Knowledge Foundation (http://opendatahandbook.org). Four of the geo-spatial.org members were actively involved in the translation, which can be found at http://opendatahandbook.org/ro.