The XXIst ISPRS Congress was held at the Olympic Stadium in Beijing China during the first two weeks of July 2008. Bas Kok was an invited guest.

During a parallel meeting of the Joint Board of Spatial Information Societies, GSDI president elect, Prof. Abbas Rajabifard, was appointed member of their Committee on Risk and Disaster Management. In this capacity, GSDI vows to sollicit political support to disaster and risk management actions. GSDI will also help to link and create knowledge transfer between international geo-science bodies working on disaster and risk management at different technological backgrounds.

Professor Kok was also given a special invitation to the first session of the ISPRS General Assembly as an observer. ISPRS established the Beijing Declaration. ISPRS President, Ian Dowman , called upon GSDI to help endorse it.

Download ISPRS Beijing Declaration here.

A Declaration approved by delegates at the ISPRS Congress calls on international communities to work together and commit adequate resources to promote the peaceful use of geospatial technology for the benefit of society and the environment.  The document reaffirms the ISPRS commitment to realise the full potential of information from imagery through research and development, scientific networking, international co-operation, inter-disciplinary integration and education and training. It also sets out a number ways in which the ISPRS and international communities can work to this end.   The Declaration was made by the General Assembly of ISPRS at its XXIst Congress held in Beijing, and was announced at a press conference on July 11^th attended by the former minister of Science and Technology of China, Xu Guanhua and some 30 members of the Chinese press.