Search

Competency Standards are increasingly being used by professions and governments to define the qualifications required for professionals to practise in a discipline. They define a range of levels of competency and the capabilities that must be achieved at these levels. These standards are defined independently of the education standards, the assumption being that a combination of education and experience will enable professional to progress through the various levels of competency. Competency standards provide recognition that a person has demonstrated professional excellence and maintain the high standards of competency of his/her profession. They assist employers to satisfy themselves that a candidate for employment is suitably qualified. As well as gaining the qualification, professionals are usually required to continue to maintain or improve their level of competency by undertaking approved continuing profession development. Competency is the ability to apply knowledge and skills to produce a required outcome. It is the ability to perform activities within an occupation; to function as expected for employment; and the ability to do a job under a variety of conditions, including the ability to cope with contingencies. Competency cannot be directly observed and hence it has to be inferred from indirect evidence and is performance based. The benefits of competency standards are that they can test the effectiveness of training, improve recruitment, identify training gaps, lead to improved efficiency, productivity, worker safely and employee retention. The paper will discuss, with reference to experiences in several countries for the fields of surveying/geomatics and spatial information systems experts, the rationale for developing competency standards, the procedures for their development, and their applications in practice, routes to competency and procedures for stepping to higher levels.

Competency Standards are increasingly being used by professions and governments to define the qualifications required for professionals to practise in a discipline. They define a range of levels of competency and the capabilities that must be achieved at these levels. These standards are defined independently of the education standards, the assumption being that a combination of education and experience will enable professional to progress through the various levels of competency. Competency standards provide recognition that a person has demonstrated professional excellence and maintain the high standards of competency of his/her profession. They assist employers to satisfy themselves that a candidate for employment is suitably qualified. As well as gaining the qualification, professionals are usually required to continue to maintain or improve their level of competency by undertaking approved continuing profession development. Competency is the ability to apply knowledge and skills to produce a required outcome. It is the ability to perform activities within an occupation; to function as expected for employment; and the ability to do a job under a variety of conditions, including the ability to cope with contingencies. Competency cannot be directly observed and hence it has to be inferred from indirect evidence and is performance based. The benefits of competency standards are that they can test the effectiveness of training, improve recruitment, identify training gaps, lead to improved efficiency, productivity, worker safely and employee retention. The paper will discuss, with reference to experiences in several countries for the fields of surveying/geomatics and spatial information systems experts, the rationale for developing competency standards, the procedures for their development, and their applications in practice, routes to competency and procedures for stepping to higher levels.

New developments in digital imaging have enabled high resolution imaging from aerial sensors. This is claimed to have resulted in a paradigm shift in procedures for aerial imaging which will result in a significant change in methods, applications and economy of aerial imaging. As well, close range photogrammetry now incorporates digital cameras with capabilities that will result in moderate to very high accuracies of measurement of objects. These developments will be covered in the paper. New satellite systems, particularly those based on small satellite technologies are being developed by many countries to satisfy their priorities to enter the space industry. In parallel with these developments are those of GEO and GEOSS which aim to coordinate developments in satellite technologies to reduce overlaps and provide more comprehensive Earth observation datasets to all regions of the world. The paper will consider these developments and how they will satisfy the future needs of society.

Sustainable development is that which meets the needs of the present without foreclosing the needs or options of the future. Impacts of developments on the environment may be difficult to evaluate over a limited period. Early warning indicators should account for ecological, economic and environmental dimensions of development, and should aid the assessment of the effectiveness of policies designed to protect the environment. Environmental indicators derived from remote sensing technologies should enable the mapping, monitoring and determination of the status and condition of natural and managed ecosystems in order to provide timely information to identify environments at risk. They require an inter-disciplinary approach, to indicate landscapes and ecosystems at risk. It is hoped that the implementation of the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) will lead to a more comprehensive set of data that will better enable the assessment of the Earth's environment.