Two-week immersion in Munich, Germany for VSU LAMP Education Team reels off
The lady mayor of Geldersheim (standing) welcoming the LAMP Team on immersion visit to the Bavarian State.
The seven-member team from VSU of the Land Administration and Management Project who are involved in the new graduate degree program started on Monday, November 16, their two-week immersion in the Olympic City of Munich in Germany.
University-Professor Dr- Engineer Holger Magel, Director of the Institute of Geodesy, GIS and Land Management of the Technische Universitat Munchen (TUM), welcomed the group on behalf of TUM.
The first day at TUM was spent for the Opening Program, orientation/briefing on what to do for two weeks, and the presentation by Asso. Prof. Efren B. Saz of the VSU’s Diploma, Master of Arts, and Master of Science in Land Administration and Management programs and the group’s learning from the Enschede experience. Dipl.-Engineer MSc Jorge Espinoza, Program Manager of the Institute of Geodesy, GIS and Land Mangement, facilitated the day’s activities.
Others present in the Opening Program were Prof. Dr. Ing. Jaad Zevenbergen, representing ITC; Prof. Dr. Engineer Michael Klaus (TUM); Dr. Fahria Masum, Chairperson of the Land Management Division of TUM; the 10-member DENR-LAMP education team composed of: Mr. Bienvenido Cruz of DENR; faculty from UP-School of Urban and Regional Planning (SURP)– David L. Yap and Jose Edgardo T. Gomez; the VSU team –Engr. Manolo Loreto, Asso. Prof. Efren B. Saz, Dr. Antonio P. Abamo, Dr. Salome B. Bulayog, Atty. Jose Rommel Peñarada, Dr. Pastor P. Garcia and Dr. Wolfreda T. Alesna; and a Filipina scholar at TUM, Ms. Rhea Lyn M. Dealca (DENR-Policy Studies Division).
The first day ended with a sumptuous dinner hosted by Director Magel at the Hofbrauhaus (HB) Munchen.
It should be recalled that the group had their two-week immersion visit at the International Institute of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC) in Enschede, the Netherlands before coming to Munich.
At Enschede, the group were exposed not only to lectures and interactions with experts but also to situations in offices they have visited that are currently implementing land administration and management projects, such as: the Cadastre Office, Office of the Land Agent, Taxation Office, Office of the Notary (equivalent to the Registry of Deeds in the Philippines), the Land Registry and Mapping Agency (which has a complete database and maps of all parcel and real estate properties) and the Rabobank (that grants mortgages to property owners. Heads or representatives of these offices presented best practices that are worth emulating).
From Enschede, the group had three stops– in Arnheim, Kublenz, and Wurzburg– before proceeding to Munich (Munchen) in Germany. At Arnheim, the group were shown the geodata and the maps of all properties of the state from which the information about the parcel, parcel owners, house and lot and other real estate properties are just a click or two away and the Arnhem cadastre analog archives and museum.
At Kublenz, they had an excursion to the Rural Development and Rural Readjustment Project in Rhineland-Palatine which had been declared by UNESCO as a world heritage site. The project is spearheaded by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Transportation, Agriculture and Viniculture.
Project Rengsdorf is a land consolidation for large-scale projects of public interest based on the Farmland Consolidation Act. Railways and highways are constructed to generate and increase economic activities and tourism with the end-goal of increasing the productivity of farmers in the area.
At Wurzburg, the group were exposed to the best practices on land mapping, land consolidation and participatory development of a Bavarian town of Geldersheim and the Mayor of Ubbach welcomed the group and were shown to their restoration, consolidation and development projects.
The mayor of Obbach briefing the group of the municipality's land consolidation project, cultural renewal projects and rural development efforts to minimize if not stop youth out-migration and provide better opportunities to the remaining elderly population.
Like the rich experiences at Enschede, the visit to Arnheim, Kublenz and Wurzburg provide the group with new insights in land administration and management, especially on the angle of community participation in the development process and the use of computer-based geodata that speed up access to geo-information, list of real property and owners.
The group proceeded to Munich on November 14 and had a short trip to Austria on November 15, where they visited the cathedral of the first archbishop of Austria, the birthplace of the famous composer Mozart and the place where the movie Sound of Music was shot. The group had captured in lenses the historical castles and cathedrals in Salzburg, Austria (By Wolfreda T. Alesna; VSU Obelisk Vol. 8, No. 43; October 25 to November 29, 2009).
…Visitor recommendations…
[...]you made running a blog glance[...]…