About us

The Baltic Geospatial Information Technology Conference (BGITC) is a unique cooperation among Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania in order to organise a regional industry event that fosters cross-border collaboration in the field of geospatial information technology (GIT). Apart from exchanging experiences to expand knowledge and innovation, as well as exploring market growth opportunities, the goal is to build a common view and vision for the development of GIT industry in the Baltics region.

500+ participants from all around Europe will attend the BGITC. It is the largest GIT industry event in the region attracting spatial developers, users, policy makers, and industry organisations.

The conference is organized by the representatives from each Baltic state - the Estonian Geoinformatics Society, the Latvia's GIS Association, and the Lithuanian Cartographic Society - jointly with SotM Baltics 2020 in cooperation with our conference partners.

Why attend?

The BGITC event offers a free entrance to anyone who is interested in GIT - be it students or researchers from universities, representatives from corporations, government organisations, and municipalities, entrepreneurs, etc - and has registered for the conference.

Throughout the day, you will have an opportunity to:

● tune in to speakers - both local and international - at any of the several parallel sessions
● meet and exchange ideas with GIT advocates, professionals and enthusiasts

Although the conference is free of charge, number of participants is limited. Therefore, we advise to register as soon as possible, in order to secure your attendance.

REGISTRATION IS CLOSED

Conference 2020

We are already thinking about next year's conference, but if you want to look back at the 2020 see agenda's PDF or digital version below, watch video recordings and view presentations (PDF).

AGENDA (PDF)

VIDEOS (EXTERNAL SITE)

PRESENTATIONS (PDF)

Agenda 2020

08:30 - 09:00

Registration and coffee

09:00 - 09:20

Opening Speech

Stage: Alfa

09:20 - 09:50

I'm Tired of Getting Lost (EN)

Allan Mustard , OpenStreetMap Foundation

Stage: Alfa

09:50 - 10:20

The Arrival of 5G & Examples of Digital Transformation (EN)

Ingmars Pukis , Latvian Mobile Telephone

Stage: Alfa

10:20 - 10:30

Break

10:30 - 11:00

Beyond Spatial Data Infrastructures (EN)

Bruce McCormack , EUROGI

Stage: Alfa

HERE Studio and creation of custom Web Maps (EN)

Martin Svec , HERE Technologies

Stage: Beta

Mapping the history on old pictures – experience of Ajapaik.ee crowdsourcing platform (EN)

Vahur Puik , Ajapaik Developer

Stage: Gamma

Cartography using open source tools - topo.openmap.lt (EN)

Tomas Straupis , OSM Community

Stage: Delta (OSM)

11:00 - 11:30

Geo-enabled solutions for automatic monitoring process (EN)

Kreet Solnask , CGI

Stage: Alfa

Modern GIS systems for topographical data management needs in Latvia (LV)

Maris Krievs , Topodati

Stage: Beta

Direct tasking of 30cm satellite imagery (EN)

Arnaud Durand , European Space Imaging

Stage: Gamma

3D in OSM. Current State and future (EN)

Kirill Bondarenko , OSM Community

Stage: Delta (OSM)

11:30 - 12:00

The Backbone of Latvia's Electricity System in the LVM GEO Platform (EN)

Maris Kuzmins , Latvia's State Forests

Stage: Alfa

Pioneering vector tiles in Latvia (EN)

Matiss Zervens , Jāņa sēta Map Publishers

Davis Valters Immurs , Jāņa sēta Map Publishers

Stage: Beta

Tallinnovation (EN)

Ivari Rannamaa , Geomatics Service of Tallinn Urban Planning Department

Stage: Gamma

360° photos from a car + DR-GPS (EN)

Sviatoslav Mikhailov , OSM Community

Stage: Delta (OSM)

12:00 - 12:30

Enhancing your data experience with maps and geodata (EN)

Maris Svilans , Infotrust

Stage: Alfa

Bringing Space to Earth (EN - video presentation)

Stefan Gustafsson , European Space Agency

Stage: Beta

LVM GEO Mobile for Professional Use (EN)

Katrina Amerika , Latvia's State Forests

Stage: Gamma

Challenges of using OSRM for timbertruck routing (EN)

Rolands Rihters , Latvia's State Forests

Aleksandrs Saveljevs , Mappost

Martins Vimba , Mappost

Stage: Delta (OSM)

12:30 - 13:30

Lunch

13:30 - 14:00

Indoor mapping of waste management warehouse (LV)

Arturs Traubergs , Autentica

Stage: Alfa

Densely Populated Areas of Latvia (EN)

Davis Klavins , Central Statistical Bureau of Latvia

Stage: Beta

The Local Communities’ Competitiveness Improving Through Open Data Ecosystems Optimal Engineering (EN)

Alexander Skvorchevsky , The National Technical University "Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute"

Stage: Gamma

Offline address search on the OSM data (EN)

Evgen Bodunov , OSM Community

Stage: Delta (OSM)

14:00 - 14:30

Modern GIS systems for different business needs (EN)

Janis Heinsbergs , Metrum

Stage: Alfa

Geolatvija.lv today and its development strategy (LV)

Ugis Bisenieks , Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development

Stage: Beta

Getting more out of the soil map: Deriving advanced numerical parameters from the Soil Map of Estonia (EN)

Alexander Kmoch , Distributed Spatial Systems Researcher

Stage: Gamma

Using AI to Map the World with RapiD editor (EN)

Jeff Underwood , Facebook

Stage: Delta (OSM)

14:30 - 15:00

The role of geospatial data services in implementing and launching a new e-commerce platform in the Baltic states (EN)

Janis Jakaitis , RIMI Baltic

Valdis Karulis , Jāņa sēta Map Publishers

Stage: Alfa

Build INSPIRE Ready GIS Platform Using Open Source GIS (Use Case of Lithuania) (EN)

Dr. Andrius Balciunas , GIS-Centras

Rita Viliuvienė , GIS-Centras

Stage: Beta

Teaching Geoinformatics – challenges and opportunities (EN)

Evelyn Uuemaa , University of Tartu

Stage: Gamma

Lightning Talks (EN)

Stage: Delta (OSM)

15:00 - 15:30

Coffee break

15:30 - 16:00

Have no fear, open source is here! (EN)

Topi Tjukanov , Gispo

Stage: Alfa

"Destination Lithuanian America": efficient mapping of 600+ Lithuanian-American heritage sites (EN)

Augustinas Zemaitis , Destination Lithuanian America

Stage: Beta

Road traffic collision scene reconstruction: comparing traditional police methods with new ones (EN)

Andres Mumma , Estonian Academy of Security Sciences

Stage: Gamma

What Questions May Come With OpenStreetMap (EN - video presentation)

Natallia Hancharyk , Mapbox

Stage: Delta (OSM)

16:00 - 16:30

Remote sensing for improvement of public services (EN)

Tõnu Oja , University of Tartu

Stage: Alfa

Augmented Intelligence: 3rd Generation of BI (LV)

Maris Svilans , Infotrust

Stage: Beta

GIS and Machine Learning in logistics (EN)

Jaak Laineste , GIS Technical Lead

Stage: Gamma

ODbL in twelve examples (EN)

Ilya Zverev , Lyft

Stage: Delta (OSM)

16:30 - 17:00

Closing the Gap Between the Geospatial and Operational Worlds (EN)

Alexander Tasev , Hexagon Geospatial

Stage: Alfa

National sea-ice monitoring using Earth Observation imagery (EN)

Martin Jussi , CGI

Stage: Beta

Feel free to visit other sessions

Stage: Gamma

Winds of Change in OpenStreetMap (EN)

Allan Mustard , OpenStreetMap Foundation

Stage: Delta (OSM)

17:00 - 17:20

Closing

Stage: Alfa

09:00 - 09:20

Opening Speech

Stage: Alfa

09:20 - 09:50

I'm Tired of Getting Lost (EN)

Allan Mustard , OpenStreetMap Foundation

Stage: Alfa

09:50 - 10:20

The Arrival of 5G & Examples of Digital Transformation (EN)

Ingmars Pukis , Latvian Mobile Telephone

Stage: Alfa

10:30 - 11:00

Beyond Spatial Data Infrastructures (EN)

Bruce McCormack , EUROGI

Stage: Alfa

11:00 - 11:30

Geo-enabled solutions for automatic monitoring process (EN)

Kreet Solnask , CGI

Stage: Alfa

11:30 - 12:00

The Backbone of Latvia's Electricity System in the LVM GEO Platform (EN)

Maris Kuzmins , Latvia's State Forests

Stage: Alfa

12:00 - 12:30

Enhancing your data experience with maps and geodata (EN)

Maris Svilans , Infotrust

Stage: Alfa

13:30 - 14:00

Indoor mapping of waste management warehouse (LV)

Arturs Traubergs , Autentica

Stage: Alfa

14:00 - 14:30

Modern GIS systems for different business needs (EN)

Janis Heinsbergs , Metrum

Stage: Alfa

14:30 - 15:00

The role of geospatial data services in implementing and launching a new e-commerce platform in the Baltic states (EN)

Janis Jakaitis , RIMI Baltic

Valdis Karulis , Jāņa sēta Map Publishers

Stage: Alfa

15:30 - 16:00

Have no fear, open source is here! (EN)

Topi Tjukanov , Gispo

Stage: Alfa

16:00 - 16:30

Remote sensing for improvement of public services (EN)

Tõnu Oja , University of Tartu

Stage: Alfa

16:30 - 17:00

Closing the Gap Between the Geospatial and Operational Worlds (EN)

Alexander Tasev , Hexagon Geospatial

Stage: Alfa

17:00 - 17:20

Closing

Stage: Alfa

10:30 - 11:00

HERE Studio and creation of custom Web Maps (EN)

Martin Svec , HERE Technologies

Stage: Beta

11:00 - 11:30

Modern GIS systems for topographical data management needs in Latvia (LV)

Maris Krievs , Topodati

Stage: Beta

11:30 - 12:00

Pioneering vector tiles in Latvia (EN)

Matiss Zervens , Jāņa sēta Map Publishers

Davis Valters Immurs , Jāņa sēta Map Publishers

Stage: Beta

12:00 - 12:30

Bringing Space to Earth (EN - video presentation)

Stefan Gustafsson , European Space Agency

Stage: Beta

13:30 - 14:00

Densely Populated Areas of Latvia (EN)

Davis Klavins , Central Statistical Bureau of Latvia

Stage: Beta

14:00 - 14:30

Geolatvija.lv today and its development strategy (LV)

Ugis Bisenieks , Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development

Stage: Beta

14:30 - 15:00

Build INSPIRE Ready GIS Platform Using Open Source GIS (Use Case of Lithuania) (EN)

Dr. Andrius Balciunas , GIS-Centras

Rita Viliuvienė , GIS-Centras

Stage: Beta

15:30 - 16:00

"Destination Lithuanian America": efficient mapping of 600+ Lithuanian-American heritage sites (EN)

Augustinas Zemaitis , Destination Lithuanian America

Stage: Beta

16:00 - 16:30

Augmented Intelligence: 3rd Generation of BI (LV)

Maris Svilans , Infotrust

Stage: Beta

16:30 - 17:00

National sea-ice monitoring using Earth Observation imagery (EN)

Martin Jussi , CGI

Stage: Beta

10:30 - 11:00

Mapping the history on old pictures – experience of Ajapaik.ee crowdsourcing platform (EN)

Vahur Puik , Ajapaik Developer

Stage: Gamma

11:00 - 11:30

Direct tasking of 30cm satellite imagery (EN)

Arnaud Durand , European Space Imaging

Stage: Gamma

11:30 - 12:00

Tallinnovation (EN)

Ivari Rannamaa , Geomatics Service of Tallinn Urban Planning Department

Stage: Gamma

12:00 - 12:30

LVM GEO Mobile for Professional Use (EN)

Katrina Amerika , Latvia's State Forests

Stage: Gamma

13:30 - 14:00

The Local Communities’ Competitiveness Improving Through Open Data Ecosystems Optimal Engineering (EN)

Alexander Skvorchevsky , The National Technical University "Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute"

Stage: Gamma

14:00 - 14:30

Getting more out of the soil map: Deriving advanced numerical parameters from the Soil Map of Estonia (EN)

Alexander Kmoch , Distributed Spatial Systems Researcher

Stage: Gamma

14:30 - 15:00

Teaching Geoinformatics – challenges and opportunities (EN)

Evelyn Uuemaa , University of Tartu

Stage: Gamma

15:30 - 16:00

Road traffic collision scene reconstruction: comparing traditional police methods with new ones (EN)

Andres Mumma , Estonian Academy of Security Sciences

Stage: Gamma

16:00 - 16:30

GIS and Machine Learning in logistics (EN)

Jaak Laineste , GIS Technical Lead

Stage: Gamma

16:30 - 17:00

Feel free to visit other sessions

Stage: Gamma

10:30 - 11:00

Cartography using open source tools - topo.openmap.lt (EN)

Tomas Straupis , OSM Community

Stage: Delta (OSM)

11:00 - 11:30

3D in OSM. Current State and future (EN)

Kirill Bondarenko , OSM Community

Stage: Delta (OSM)

11:30 - 12:00

360° photos from a car + DR-GPS (EN)

Sviatoslav Mikhailov , OSM Community

Stage: Delta (OSM)

12:00 - 12:30

Challenges of using OSRM for timbertruck routing (EN)

Rolands Rihters , Latvia's State Forests

Aleksandrs Saveljevs , Mappost

Martins Vimba , Mappost

Stage: Delta (OSM)

13:30 - 14:00

Offline address search on the OSM data (EN)

Evgen Bodunov , OSM Community

Stage: Delta (OSM)

14:00 - 14:30

Using AI to Map the World with RapiD editor (EN)

Jeff Underwood , Facebook

Stage: Delta (OSM)

14:30 - 15:00

Lightning Talks (EN)

Stage: Delta (OSM)

15:30 - 16:00

What Questions May Come With OpenStreetMap (EN - video presentation)

Natallia Hancharyk , Mapbox

Stage: Delta (OSM)

16:00 - 16:30

ODbL in twelve examples (EN)

Ilya Zverev , Lyft

Stage: Delta (OSM)

16:30 - 17:00

Winds of Change in OpenStreetMap (EN)

Allan Mustard , OpenStreetMap Foundation

Stage: Delta (OSM)

Speakers

Allan Mustard

OpenStreetMap Foundation

I'm Tired of Getting Lost

Allan Mustard describes how OpenStreetMap changed lives for the better simply by creating a map of that country that anybody could use.

Allan Mustard is a retired U.S. Ambassador as well as a long time OpenStreetMap contributor. Since last December he is the chairperson of the OSM Foundation board of directors. He was sworn in as U.S. Ambassador to Turkmenistan on November 25, 2014 and retired from that position in June 2019 after almost 38 years of public service. Allan helped to greatly improve OSM in Turkmenistan during his years there. He previously served as Agricultural Minister-Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi, India. A widely recognized authority on agricultural and food aid policy, he has broad experience in guiding economic reform assistance throughout Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.

Ingmars Pukis

Latvian Mobile Telephone

The Arrival of 5G & Examples of Digital Transformation

LMT is one of the first companies to implement the 5G network, creating an ecosystem for the development of innovative and exportable products which will enable the competition even on a more global scale. 5G will be the foundation for the digital transformation in all industries. 5G is not only providing in mobile network the same internet experience as an optical internet connection, but it also offers the chance to develop a variety of solutions for IoT, drones and AI that will create new opportunities in everyone's daily lives.

Since 2009, Ingmars Pukis is the Marketing and Business Development Vice President and Member of the Management Board of Latvian Mobile Telephone (LMT). Overall, he has two decades of experience in telecommunications, marketing and business development. Before joining LMT, Ingmars was the owner and CEO of Exact Management LLC; before that – the Marketing Director at Exigen Services Latvia JSC. Between 2000 and 2004, he worked at the telecommunications company Lattelekom LLC, progressing from Marketing Manager to Director of Broadband Services Department. Ingmars is a member of the Latvian Internet Association and a member of the State Administration Policy Development Council. He is also a national guard with the NG Student Battalion.

Stefan Gustafsson

European Space Agency

Bringing Space to Earth

Space based services, based on earth observation, satellite navigation, and satellite communication, are already strongly integrated into our daily lives. Geospatial Information Technology would be unthinkable without access to our resources in space, which is also the case for many other industrial sectors. In his presentation, Stefan Gustafsson will explain: - How ESA, through its Business Application programme, provides support and funding for development of innovative space based services. - How the ESA Business Incubation Network across Europe every year supports between one and two hundred new entrepreneurs helping them building successful companies from a space related idea. - How the ESA Technology Transfer Broker Network helps finding the space technology that is able to solve your needs.

Stefan Gustafsson has more than twenty years of experience in technology and applications development. Since 2009 he is working for the European Space Agency, initially he was responsible for development of innovative services using earth observation, satellite navigation, and satellite communication. Currently he holds the position of Business Incubation Officer, being responsible for ESA’s business incubation and technology transfer activities in a number of ESA’s member states and coordinating the network of ESA Business Incubation Centers. Stefan believes in the benefits of integrating Space stronger in society, “the innovation potential is enormous”. Stefan holds a Master of Science from Linköping University (Sweden) in Applied Physics and Electrical Engineering, and a PhD from Aachen University of Technology (Germany) in Electrical Engineering and Information Technology.

Bruce McCormack

EUROGI

Beyond Spatial Data Infrastructures

EUROGI, the European Umbrella Organisation for Geographic Information, seeks to promote the widespread and effective use of geospatial information and technologies. It has a forward looking, futures orientation in much of its thinking and in this regard it is aware that over the past few decades the technological and market/institutional environment has changed considerably since the Spatial Data Infrastructure paradigm was first developed. The ‘Beyond SDIs’ presentation which Bruce will present will provide some thoughts which could possibly lead to the development of a new paradigm. In the presentation Bruce will mention some geospatial though leaders’ views on this Beyond SDIs theme.

Bruce is a professional town and regional planner who has worked for many years as a planner in both South Africa and Ireland. He represented Ireland in discussions regarding the development of the INSPIRE Directive and for a period chaired the Irish Spatial Data Infrastructure Work Group. He is Past President of EUROGI and is currently the President of IRLOGI, the Irish Organisation for Geographic Information. Bruce is currently on the Executive Committee of EUROGI.

Vahur Puik

Ajapaik Developer

Mapping the history on old pictures – experience of Ajapaik.ee crowdsourcing platform

Ajapaik is a crowdsourcing platform for enriching the metadata of historic images. Since the beginning in 2011 the platform focused on geotagging and rephotography (then and now picture pairs). The aim is to enable map based access to historic pictorial content (instead of the usual textual search). Ajapaik has 175000 images, 106000 have been geotagged by users who have also submitted more than 16000 rephotographs. The talk will share our experience and prospects of how to use this data further.

Vahur Puik studied cultural geography in the University of Tartu, has worked as a photographer and then on positions related to exhibitions and photographic collections in several Estonian museums. He has been carefully following the global trends in digitising (photographic) heritage, participatory museum approach and crowdsourcing. Since 2012, Vahur has been dedicated full time to developing crowdsourcing platform Ajapaik.ee.

Martin Svec

HERE Technologies

HERE Studio and creation of custom Web Maps

In today's connected and super-fast world, location data is the king. But until now, it has been complex to manage and visualize it on a map. HERE Studio makes it simple. And it is open for anyone. We have buckled up three intuitive tools for every skill level. HERE Studio enables anyone to accelerate map making, better understand location data and extract valuable insights – without the need for coding, set-up or complex infrastructure. Easy for beginner, comprehensive for a pro. Tell your data story with confidence, easily share it and work in real-time with our flexible cloud service for location data management.

Martin Švec is Business Development Manager at HERE Technologies. During his 10+ years of experience in the location based business, he led several projects focusing on alternative means of transportation including Discover Cities (public transport and pedestrian navigation) and Venue Maps (indoor navigation). Nowadays, Martin is responsible for setting up business relationships with companies from navigation, automotive and telco industries to public authorities in the Central European region. Together with different HERE partners, he also been looking for innovative solutions in IoT, Smart Cities and Autonomous Transportation developments.

Kirill Bondarenko

OSM Community

3D in OSM. Current State and future

Should a free map be flat? How 3D-OSM came into beeing? Are "Simple Building" so simple? How it can be used? Are there any alternatives? When 4D and 5D will arrive?

Joined OSM eleven years ago and dug right in: made a conversion for a popular navigation tool and many useful validators. After presenting at many local and international conferences, took a break — to return with an avid interest for 3D.

Matiss Zervens

Jāņa sēta Map Publishers

Pioneering vector tiles in Latvia

Vector tiles is an emerging method for delivering base maps, that can be used on a web or mobile platforms on such devices as PCs, tablets, smart phones. Unlike raster maps, less centralised server processing power is required, since rasterization is performed directly in the client. This has become possible because of the growth in performance of clients’ devices. Since 2017, Jana seta Map Publishers had actively been seeking the best solution to create detailed vector tile maps, suitable for web and mobile apps.

Matīss Zervēns is a software engineer for Jāņa sēta Map Publishers with five years’ experience in developing GIS solutions.

Davis Valters Immurs

Jāņa sēta Map Publishers

Pioneering vector tiles in Latvia

Dāvis Valters Immurs works as a GIS engineer for Jāņa sēta Map Publishers and is a PhD student in geography.

Katrina Amerika

Latvia's State Forests

LVM GEO Mobile for Professional Use

We recognize that more and more organizations are choosing mobile solutions for data management purposes. We have developed the LVM GEO Mobile application, that provides professional tools and functionality on top of the publicly available functionality. Professional data collection in the field, specific data layers, information for different recreational events or educational purposes are among the most popular use-cases. With this app you can solve very specific tasks. We will tell you about currently available options as well as our development plans.

Katrina is a geospatial project manager at the JSC Latvia's State Forests. Her focus is on implementing the latest GIT solutions in diverse business environments and organizations.

Dr. Andrius Balciunas

GIS-Centras

Build INSPIRE Ready GIS Platform Using Open Source GIS (Use Case of Lithuania)

The use case of Lithuania for the implementation of national SDI and publishing of INSPIRE compliant network services for the data themes referred to in the Directive will be reviewed in the presentation. Switching from proprietary to open source GIS technologies will be presented. SE “GIS-Centras” implements the project by its own and no contractors are involved in the project. Data processes automation, cost benefit analysis for system support will be announced.

PhD Andrius Balciunas – head of IT department at SE „GIS-Centras“, lecturer of Vilnius University and chairman of Lithuanian Cartographic Society.

Rita Viliuvienė

GIS-Centras

Build INSPIRE Ready GIS Platform Using Open Source GIS (Use Case of Lithuania)

Rita Viliuviene is services analyst at SE “GIS-Centras”, PhD student of Vilnius University and member of Lithuanian Cartographic Society.

Arturs Traubergs

Autentica

Indoor mapping of waste management warehouse

Recycling plants carry out work with large-scale objects that require extensive storage space. In order for warehouse workers to be able to quickly navigate their work environment, it is necessary to know a precise location of different objects, humans and machinery. Indoor mapping allows you to position objects and people in closed environments. The presentation will provide an insight into the solution used by the largest group of environmental management companies in the Baltic.

Arturs Traubergs is a leading specialist at Autentica with 15 years of experience in the development of geographic information systems.

Alexander Skvorchevsky

The National Technical University "Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute"

The Local Communities’ Competitiveness Improving Through Open Data Ecosystems Optimal Engineering

Current state of Ukrainian open data ecosystem is at a fairly high level and has a tendency to increase, as confirmed by international rankings, such as Open Data Barometer. These achievements have been provided by adoption of The Open Data Charter and other international principles in this field at the national level but same time local governments show different speeds of open data concept implementation. In the presentation made an attempt to propose principles of building local communities` open data ecosystems met the goals of sustainable development and are a catalyst of innovative processes in the region.

Associate professor of National technical university «Kharkiv polytechnic institute», Kharkiv, Ukraine.

Topi Tjukanov

Gispo

Have no fear, open source is here!

Tools such as QGIS, PostGIS and GeoServer are widely used for different applications. The FOSS4G software stack has multiple mature solutions for analysis, manipulation and visualization of geospatial data. In the talk different tools are presented through various use cases and examples. What are the common misconceptions regarding FOSS4G and what kind of business potential there lies?

Specialized in open source geospatial software Topi is working as a GIS consultant in Finland at Gispo Ltd, where he is also a business partner. Topi is also very active in the open source community in many different ways and just in November he launched #30DayMapChallenge on Twitter, which received attendees around the globe!

Alexander Kmoch

Distributed Spatial Systems Researcher

Getting more out of the soil map: Deriving advanced numerical parameters from the Soil Map of Estonia

The Soil Map of Estonia is a vector dataset that maps more than 750 000 soil units throughout Estonia at a scale of 1:10 000. It describes the soil type, quality, texture, and layer information with a series of complex text codes. However, these codes are not useful for quantitative large scale analyses. We present a standardised automated method to translate and standardise these text codes into numerical variables for depths, texture (clay, silt, sand components) and more.

Alex is a Distributed Spatial Systems Researcher with many years of experience in geospatial data management and web- and cloud-based geoprocessing with a particular focus on land use, soils, hydrology, and water quality data. His interests include OGC standards and web-services for environmental and geo-scientific data sharing, modelling workflows and interactive geo-scientific visualisation. Alex is currently a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellow (MSCA) at the University of Tartu where his aim is to improve standardised data preparation, parameterization and parallelisation for hydrological and water quality modelling across scales (H2020 GLOMODAT).

Davis Klavins

Central Statistical Bureau of Latvia

Densely Populated Areas of Latvia

Striking differences between the boundaries of villages defined by municipalities and actual distribution of population prompted Central Statistical Bureau to release statistics for densely populated areas of Latvia which is a new concept and an alternative to the existing administrative areas and territorial units, i.e., cities and villages. The presentation will provide an insight into the concept of densely populated area and describe population distribution in Latvia.

Dāvis Kļaviņš is a GIS expert at the Central Statistical Bureau of Latvia. He is responsible for geocoding statistical data and making them accessible to the public in a form of maps and geospatial data.

Janis Heinsbergs

Metrum

Modern GIS systems for different business needs

We believe that GIS is not a product for a narrow range of industries, as GIS functions can make a valuable part of business processes across a wider range of industries. We have developed a GIS with respect to expectations of new users: ease of use, mobility and adaptability. Let information be the value!

Jānis Heinsbergs has been Metrum Corporate Customer Relations Manager since 2016. Previously, he worked in: newspaper publishing, advertising production and water supply industries, thus learning the daily routine and needs of many other companies in the industry.

Sviatoslav Mikhailov

OSM Community

360° photos from a car + DR-GPS

Among the most active mappers in Estonia, Sviatoslav Mikhailov has coordinated the building import over the country, has made many validators, and connects the communities. Recently he's been interested in DR-GPS and Mapillary imagery.

Ugis Bisenieks

Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development

Geolatvija.lv today and its development strategy

Data is the basis for the digital transformation of every institution, enterprise and economy. By digitizing processes and services institutions and companies are creating valuable data not only for themselves but also for others. Sharing data is a prerequisite for the successful digital development of society. The challenge is - how to make data sharing effective? The Latvian geo-portal Geolatvija.lv is the state's answer to this challenge in the field of geospatial information. What is Geolatvija.lv today and what is its development strategy on the way to a national marketplace of geospatial information?

Under Uģis Bisenieks lead the Latvian Population Register information system and implementation projects of public e-government sharing platforms were developed. Currently he leads Latvia's digital transformation strategy and implementation of a unified public administration ICT architecture.

Tomas Straupis

OSM Community

Cartography using open source tools - topo.openmap.lt

Important aspects of cartography, like generalisation, are usually mostly overlooked in today's on-line maps. Some of these problems are being solved using open source tools while creating a vector tile based on-line map topo.openmap.lt. Cartography helps to improve not only the visual, but also the technical result of vector tiles and therefore the maps themselves. Although some solutions are already implemented, a lot of other issues are missing even ideas for high level algorithm to be used to solve them.

Head of Productivity engineering department at iTree Group with more than 20 years of experience in IT. Active member of OpenStreetMap since 2008. Member of Lithuanian Cartographic Society.

Augustinas Zemaitis

Destination Lithuanian America

"Destination Lithuanian America": efficient mapping of 600+ Lithuanian-American heritage sites

"Destination Lithuanian America" interactive online map ( http://map.truelithuania.com ) covers 600+ Lithuanian churches, monuments, famous burials, club buildings and other heritage in the Americas. Initially, this project may have seemed nearly impossible to pull off: it faced major budget and time constraints, while all the locations-to-be-mapped were far from Lithuania and most of them had no known coordinates or addresses. Nevertheless, the leader of the project Augustinas Žemaitis devised ways not only to complete the project on time and within budget, but also to nearly triple its scope. He explains how was it possible to efficiently collect such distant-yet-important data and map it.

Augustinas Žemaitis is a researcher and mapper of Lithuanian heritage abroad. He is the founder and author of 17 websites, among them http://global.truelithuania.com (encyclopedia of Lithuanian heritage abroad) and http://map.truelithuania.com (map of Lithuanian heritage in the Americas).

Ivari Rannamaa

Geomatics Service of Tallinn Urban Planning Department

Tallinnovation

Tallinnovation is a presentation from municipal point of view to the GIS technology. We will share our experience and thought by introducing our lessons learned, new challenges and vision for the future. Keywords are city model, dashboard, planning and problem solving.

Ivari Rannama has BSc degree in geoinformatics from University of Tartu. He joined the Tallinn Urban Planning Department on March 2006. First as leading geoinformation specialist and now he has lead the Geomatics Service as a Director over 7 years. Resent years Ivari Rannama has participated in developing process of digital services of Tallinn Planning Register, Tallinn Spatial Data Register, Geodetical Surveys register, Geoportal, mobile app “AvaLinn” (Open the City) and 3d city model.

Andres Mumma

Estonian Academy of Security Sciences

Road traffic collision scene reconstruction: comparing traditional police methods with new ones

Road traffic collisions happen every day in densely built urban areas. One of the main tasks for traffic police is to gather all the needed evidence from collision scene and ensure that thorough investigation is being conducted afterward. The quality of the investigation is directly dependent of how realistically the collision scene is being reconstructed and how much time is being spent on data and evidence gathering on the scene. This presentation is focusing to compare traditional police data and evidence gathering practices with the new ones like drone RGB and IR camera as well as terrestrial scanner during road traffic collisions.

Andres Mumma is a former tactical level incident commander in fire/rescue services working there for the past 24 years and he left fire/rescue industry in autumn 2018 because he belives that GIS “revolution” inside public safety industry can be achived mainly through research and education. Starting from September 2018 he is the head of center of excellence at Estonian Academy of Security Sciences and focusing in the research, education, training and application of drones and remote sensing inside the public safety industry.

Allan Mustard

OpenStreetMap Foundation

Winds of Change in OpenStreetMap

Allan Mustard offers his personal assessment of challenges facing OSM and how he thinks the OSM Foundation Board should deal with them.

Natallia Hancharyk

Mapbox

What Questions May Come With OpenStreetMap

First you ask yourself "is this a good edit?" Then "how to systematically catch vandalism on the map?". And after that - "maybe OSM isn't just a map?"

Geographer. Data RAVE Specialist.

Kreet Solnask

CGI

Geo-enabled solutions for automatic monitoring process

Today many organizations are searching for effective solutions that will help to minimise the cost for on the spot monitoring - some are using drones, others satellite images and the third ones are using a mix of different solutions. But is entirely automated monitoring even possible? CGI Estonia has been working in cooperation with Estonian Agricultural and Registers Board to find solutions for this problem. During the presentation an overview will be given about the concept of automatic monitoring, the applications/tools that are already in use or potentially coming into use and different challenges we have encountered.

Kreet is an GIS enthusiast, who believes that geospatial data and GIS solutions can help to enhance process efficiency. Her backround is related to geoinformatics (Masters Degree in Geoinformatics) and information system analysis (Masters Degree in Information Systems Analysis). She has been working as GIS specialist in different companies and during Census 2011 was a GIS team lead in Statistics Estonia. From 2017 she has been working as project manager/analyst in different GIS related software development projects and currently she is leading geospatial team in CGI Estonia.

Maris Krievs

Topodati

Modern GIS systems for topographical data management needs in Latvia

We believe that production and maintenance of topographic data is convenient, fast and with less human error. Currently, a lot of time and human resources are spent checking the logic of topographic plans and their compliance with the specification. Therefore, we have created a Topographic Information Verification and Management Platform that provides the user for ease of use, adaptability, and increased productivity in topographic information verification and maintenance. The Topoweb.lv platform provides the verification of topographic and related data, the maintenance of data in the database and its release to users. We will present the current solutions and future development plans.

Maris Krievs has been a Member of the Board for TopoDati since 2014. Under Maris’s guidance, the development of a topographic data maintenance system was started. It did not take long when a service for automated verification of topographic data specification was offered in 2016. In 2017, automated release of data on territories of interest was introduced. In 2019, a topographic data logic verification system was introduced. In addition, a system has been developed for checking / comparing the survey data on public utilities against historical data in the database.

Martin Jussi

CGI

National sea-ice monitoring using Earth Observation imagery

The Estonian Environment Agency in partnership with CGI and TalTech Marine Systems Institute are developing a set of integrated tools for weather forecasters to rapidly produce national-level ice maps of Estonia. These tools are based on pre-processed Copernicus Earth Observation imagery obtained through the Estonian Collaborative Ground Segment (ESTHub) and in-situ data provided by volunteers and partnering organizations. The presenter will give an overview of the system in development, its capabilities and value added to the users.

Martin is leading space and Earth observation activities in CGI Estonia, an international software development company active in various domains. He is a space enthusiast with a multi-disciplinary background, experienced in Earth observation, Space and Geographical Information Systems.

Tõnu Oja

University of Tartu

Remote sensing for improvement of public services

The preliminary results of the RITA programme Remote sensing project for improvement of public services will be presented. The projects is dealing with four areas, two of them will be presented: a) Prevention and suppression of wildfires, overseen by the Rescue Board and the Ministry of the Interior; b) Monitoring the use of agricultural land, overseen by the Agricultural Registers and Information Board and the Ministry of Rural Affairs.

Tõnu Oja is professor of geoinformatics and cartography, University of Tartu. Diploma in mathematics 1978, PhD in biology/ecology 1985. His major research interests are landscape metrics, uncertainties and relations to landscape consumption; spatial relations of real world phenomena; nutrient cycling in the system plant-soil-atmosphere, environmental impacts to spatio-temporal structure of nutrient cycling, dynamics and structure of forest ecosystems; sustainable development, including indicators and regionalisation. Member of the board of ESTGIS since 2010.

Evelyn Uuemaa

University of Tartu

Teaching Geoinformatics – challenges and opportunities

Rapid changes in the environment and society, and fast developments in geospatial technology have increased the need for geospatial skills in many fields, e.g. environmental management, urban planning. This in turn will increase the demand for geospatial education. We will present some of the lessons learned from our Estonian and international MSc programme for Geoinformatics.

Evelyn Uuemaa is senior researcher in geoinformatics and head of the Department of Geography at University of Tartu. She is developing Landscape Geoinformatics working group as a necessity to improve and strengthen environmental geoinformatics capabilities at the University of Tartu and for Estonia in general. Her research interests evolve around the interactions of land use/land cover and water quality. She is a geospatial and open data enthusiast, foodie and coffee junkie.

Jaak Laineste

GIS Technical Lead

GIS and Machine Learning in logistics

It is estimated that heavy-duty vehicles (trucks) represent 30% of all road transportation, and 5% of all EU CO2 emissions. Therefore visibility, analysing, optimisations and reductions in commercial transportation footprint are not only useful to improve travel times and costs for businesses, but it also contributes to significant reduction of global greenhouse gases. This sector sees this as important target for the green future. My talk is technology-oriented view to the challenges of the first steps towards it: how small company started in Estonia now does collection and consolidation of billions of real-time locations of trucks, combines it with real-time traffic and GIS datasets and builds machine learning models to reveal hidden patterns and reduction opportunities.

Jaak has been active in geoinformatics field for over 20 years, as technical lead in companies like Regio, Reach-U, Nutiteq, CARTO and now in Sixfold. He has been also active in Estonian geoinformatics society (EstGIS) and OpenStreetMap Foundation.

Ilya Zverev

Lyft

ODbL in twelve examples

Using OpenStreetMap sometimes feels like a dangerous affair because of its virus-like open license. Often there is little reason to worry: despite being complex, the license also allows quite a lot. Let's see what you can do without triggering a share-alike clause.

Ilya has been deeply interested in OpenStreetMap since 2010. He tried everything: mapped a lot, proposed tagging schemas, edited a blog and a telegram channel, made two podcasts, organized mapping parties and conferences, wrote JOSM plugins, API tools, editors, geocoders, and various maps.

Maris Svilans

Infotrust

Enhancing your data experience with maps and geodata

Mapping and geospatial functions help you make better decisions when blending them with traditional business data. This allows you to visualize, analyze, and get a more complete view of your data to solve complex location-based problems.

Since 2001 Maris Svilans has managed Infotrust and delivered over 90 data analytics projects across Baltics and Denmark enabling customers to become data driven organizations.

Maris Svilans

Infotrust

Augmented Intelligence: 3rd Generation of BI

Qlik Associative in-memory Analytics merged with geospatial information (i.e., LVM GEO) provide new insights for business. Learn how any combination of data is accessible to users, how machine learning finds and highlights new insights and how it can be embedded anywhere.

Since 2001 Maris Svilans has managed Infotrust and delivered over 90 data analytics projects across Baltics and Denmark enabling customers to become data driven organizations.

Janis Jakaitis

RIMI Baltic

The role of geospatial data services in implementing and launching a new e-commerce platform in the Baltic states

For E-commerce in a retail industry always one of the most challenging aspects for technological process successful implementation is to maximally rationally match customers' locations with the existing size of the fleet and delivery capacity. It is very important to correctly and effectively split customer flow into ones within delivery service reach and identify where we can provide the best e-commerce experience through RIMI innovative click & collect service for our customers. Geospatial data services are indispensable and therefore spatial data quality and service reliability are of top importance.

Janis Jakaitis is the lead of IT e-commerce stream at RIMI Baltic group. Jānis has a successful long-term experience in large IT project management. His team covered integration of more than 25 services into the new e-commerce platform.

Valdis Karulis

Jāņa sēta Map Publishers

The role of geospatial data services in implementing and launching a new e-commerce platform in the Baltic states

Valdis Karulis works in Jāņa sēta Map Publishers and is responsible for Geospatial solutions business direction's development, sells and project management issues. Valdis specializes in the geotechnologies related business partners' consultations and customer support, as well as take part in the management of the implementation process for various scale and complexity GIS projects.

Arnaud Durand

European Space Imaging

Direct tasking of 30cm satellite imagery

European Space Imaging is the only European satellite data provider operating its own ground station for direct satellite tasking and local data uplink and downlink to Maxar’s fleet of satellites. This includes: last minute tasking and rapid delivery, optimized collection strategy & flexibility with notification services, improved image quality and cloud-free area collections due to real-time weather assessment and archive catalog offering. The presentation introduces the collection process through Direct Tasking, and the potential of Very High Resolution acquired at 30 cm resolution with 8 spectral bands illustrated by use cases.

Arnaud Durand has extensive experience managing Earth Observation projects, amongst others within the Copernicus environment. Previously he has conducted several successful consulting missions for the European Commission and the United Nations. Presently in his role as Sales Manager at European Space Imaging, he manages the partnerships and sales strategies for numerous countries within Europe and North Africa.

Rolands Rihters

Latvia's State Forests

Challenges of using OSRM for timbertruck routing

Mappost and Latvia`s State Forests have been working together on an innovative logistics solver engine project where OSRM technology is used for routing purposes. Timbertruck movement on roads is a much more complex issue than it is for other vehicles due to very practical challenges and specific business needs.

Rolands Rihters is a geospatial solutions development lead at the JSC Latvia`s State Forests with significant experience in developing complex GIS. Together with the team he is developing various geospatial solutions in many organizations in Latvia.

Aleksandrs Saveljevs

Mappost

Challenges of using OSRM for timbertruck routing

Aleksandrs Saveļjevs is an experienced software developer with a particular interest in algorithms and operations research, formerly a world TOP30 participant in numerous programming competitions. Since 2017 he is mainly working on designing algorithms and developing solutions for solving TSP, VRP problems and their variations, including using open source technologies.

Martins Vimba

Mappost

Challenges of using OSRM for timbertruck routing

Mārtiņš Vimba is a geographer, CEO of “Mappost” Ltd. with more than 10 years of experience in implementing route planning and optimization solutions to support various business processes and reduce costs.

Jeff Underwood

Facebook

Using AI to Map the World with RapiD editor

We'll discuss the deep neural network applications for mapping and introduce RapiD, an AI-assisted extension of iD OpenStreetMap editor publicly available at www.mapwith.ai.

Jeff Underwood is a GIS and Maps Quality Analyst at Facebook with over 9 years’ experience working in mapping organizations. Currently, he supports Facebook’s AI assisted road mapping efforts.

Alexander Tasev

Hexagon Geospatial

Closing the Gap Between the Geospatial and Operational Worlds

Organizations today are faced with what we call “the Geo-Ops Challenge,” or the gap between the geospatial world — the acquisition, processing, management, and distribution of mapping data — and the operational world — taking this data and analyzing it to take action. And it’s not just traditional geospatial data anymore, but also real-time feeds from dozens of sensors that provide video, pollution, traffic, people flow, and even crowd-sourcing data. In this complex and connected world, conventional GIS no longer suffices. Hexagon Geospatial solutions link data acquisition with action by interconnecting the geospatial and operational worlds. Customers of all sizes – from sites to cities to nations – use 5D location intelligence to solve real-world, real-time, mission-critical challenges.

Alexander Tasev is the Partner Manager Eastern Europe & CIS. He has been promoting and implementing Geospatial / BIM technologies for over twenty years. Today, Alexander is working with Hexagon Geospatial partners to help customers from state and local governments, commercial and non-profit organizations to leverage the power of real-time location intelligence for reaching their objectives.

Evgen Bodunov

OSM Community

Offline address search on the OSM data

During our work on Guru Maps we have developed many interesting solutions. One of them is address search using OSM data. On a mobile device this is especially difficult because of limited resources.

Founder and developer of Guru Maps mobile application for iOS and Android, and an active member of the Belarussian OSM community

Maris Kuzmins

Latvia's State Forests

The Backbone of Latvia's Electricity System in the LVM GEO Platform

For the past decade JSC Latvia’s State Forests has developed geospatial information technology platform LVM GEO, used not only for managing more than half of Latvia’s forests, but also for mapping waterbodies, managing agriculture lands, maintaining roads and analyzing spread of diseases. One the most challenging projects for the LVM GEO development team has been implementation of the LVM GEO platform for AS Augstsprieguma tikls (AST) – the independent electricity transmission system operator in Latvia. In his presentation Maris will be sharing our experience, challenges and successes in implementing a fully functional platform in production for AST in less than 6 months.

Maris is the geospatial information technology business founder and manager at the JSC Latvia's State Forests with many years and projects experience in the industry. He is a board member of Latvia’s GIS Association and is actively involved in geospatial information policy development, drives the open geospatial data movement and stimulates industry stakeholders to collaborate and develop sustainable solutions and projects.

Moderators

Gunita Kulikovska

Conference room Beta moderator

Founder of Vividly. Gunita’s background lays in architecture, urbanism and strategic design. She is actively involved in discussions about tech for better cities, urban planning and citizen participation in projects around the world. Gunita is expert at Good Technology Collective, a member of Forbes 30 under 30 and TEDx speaker.

Mareks Matisons

Conference room Gamma moderator

Mareks is journalist exploring tech and digital culture and eSports, digital communication practitioner who in 2018 started a new venture – to build value oriented disabled sports organization. As a member of international digital communication organization “Digital Communication Network” since 2016 he has a goal to nurture healthy and open community. The organization is now having more than 4750 members - practitioners and highly valued professionals - around the globe. Mareks is social impact driven entrepreneur and volunteer.

Oskars Priede

Conference room Alfa moderator

Oskars is an event moderator and a presentation skills coach. His unique approach of moderating events facilitates an audience engagement and a hospitable reception for speakers. He is convinced that regardless of the subject, events can be moderated wisely and with a good dose of appropriate humor that is appreciated by those, who are present. An event moderated by Oskars turns into THE event.

Rihards Olups

OSM Community

Rihards made his first OpenStreetMap edit in 2008. Since then he has been addicted to the most wonderful cartography project in the world.

Organizer core team

Elina Jakubaneca

Elina is a co-founder and a board member of SIA Autentica. She has also been one of the conference organizers since 2017. Elina believes that knowledge sharing among professionals is very important and has been involved in organizing numerous events, such as, Agile Day Riga and Rails Girls Riga. In this conference Elina is mainly responsible for cooperation with moderators, script of the conference and financial matters as well as constructive support for collegues and taking idea notes 24/7.

Katrina Amerika

Katrina is a geospatial project manager at the JSC Latvia's State Forests, geographer and GIS enthuziast. She was one of the idea authors of the conference, but this year Katrina is mainly responsible for our attendees, speakers, registration as well as turmoil and small management tasks.

Dana Spulle

Dana is a board member of “Jana seta Map Publishers”, geographer and one of the core organizing team since 2017. In this conference Dana is mainly responsible for accommodation, afterparty and practical support as well as healthy dose of realism.

Maris Kuzmins

Maris geospatial information technology business branch founder and manager at the JSC Latvia's State Forests. He was one of idea authors and initiators of the conference, but this year Maris is mainly responsible for our partners, organizer cooperation, venue and administrative issues as well as reassuring other organizers.

Rihards Olups

Rihards made his first OpenStreetMap edit in 2008. Since then he has been addicted to the most wonderful cartography project in the world. In this conference Rihards is responsible for OSM track.