INQUA Commission on Glaciation

Work Group on Geospatial Analysis of Glaciated Environments (GAGE)
Conference and Workshop in Warsaw, Poland, 25-27 Sept. 1998

Report on Conference, 10/98
See conference publication.

GAGE held a work-group meeting and demonstrations in Warsaw, Poland, September 25-27, 1998. Presentations were given on many aspects of remote sensing and GIS applied to investigations of modern glaciers and ancient glaciation. Oral and poster sessions were held along with computer demonstrations at the Polish Geological Institute (PGI).

The Polish Geological Institute (PGI), Warsaw, sponsored the GAGE meeting and made all local arrangements. The organizing committee included Andrzej Ber (PGI), Leszek Marks (PGI), Waldemar Gogolek (PGI), Maria Jastrzebska (PGI), and J.S. Aber (Emporia State University, USA).

More than 20 people participated in the conference. These scientists and science students came from Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Slovakia, Sweden, the Ukraine, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Participants of GAGE conference pose in the Geological Museum main exhibit area, Polish Geological Institute, Warsaw.
GAGE meeting participants on tour in the Stare Miasto (old city) portion of Warsaw.

Titles of Presentations

Special Sessions

A theme session was held on the central European glaciotectonic map and GIS database project. Preliminary national maps were presented for Belarus, Estonia, Germany (northeastern sector), Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia (Kaliningrad sector), and the Ukraine. During the coming year, these maps will be revised and compiled into a regional GIS database. Compilation and map production will be carried out at the Polish Geological Institute, with a goal of presenting a near-final product at the INQUA Congress in 1999.

A computer demonstration was conducted on searching the World Wide Web for GIS and remote sensing databases. Participants practiced searching for various kinds of data for Estonia--digital elevation models, aerial and space photography, Landsat imagery, and compiled map datasets. The demonstration remains online for others to utilize.

computer demonstration.

GAGE Business

The following main points were discussed and agreed during a brief business meeting of the work group.

  1. Articles from the GAGE conference will be published in Geological Quarterly (Poland), Leszek Marks editor. The GAGE issue tentatively is schedule to come out early in 2000--see instructions for authors. For more information, contact J.S. Aber aberjame@emporia.edu (updated 3/99).

  2. Project leaders for the central European glaciotectonic map will meet in December '98 to finalize the map legend, scale, and other technical issues. All contributors will have an opportunity to correct and revise preliminary maps. Aber will pursue additional funding from INQUA to support expenses of final publication during next inter-congress period.

  3. Representative map products of current work-group projects will be presented at the INQUA Congress in 1999. These products will be displayed in the map room during the congress meeting. Volli Kalm (Estonia), Jan Piotrowski (Germany), and possibly Andrzej Ber (Poland) will represent GAGE at the congress.

  4. Juraj Janocko has recruited new contributors from Poland and Hungary for the project on glaciation of the Carpathian Mountains. Aber will pursue additional funding from INQUA to support this project during next inter-congress period.

The next GAGE work group conference will take place in Slovakia during the autumn of 2000. Juraj Janocko and colleagues at the Geological Survey of Slovak Republic will organize the meeting. Field excursions will focus on glaciation of the Tatra Mountains.

For more information about the Polish GAGE meeting, please contact Andrzej Ber or J.S. Aber.
Kite aerial photography taken in connection with the GAGE meeting in Poland--Polish KAP.

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Updated 8 March 1999.