Baltic Surveying’25: Shaping the Future of Geodesy and Land Management in Eastern Europe
From May 7 to 9, 2025, the 23rd International Scientific Conference Baltic Surveying’25 was held at the University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, Poland. The event brought together scientists from land management and geodesy institutions across nine countries: Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine, Slovakia, Kazakhstan, Albania, Turkey, Uzbekistan, and the host country, Poland. The conference is jointly organized each year by Vytautas Magnus University (Lithuania), the University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn (Poland), and the Latvian University of Life Sciences and Technologies (Latvia).
The conference program (https://uwm.edu.pl/igpig/sites/default/files/u298/baltic_surveying_25_conference_program_0.pdf) encompassed a wide array of topics, including education in geodesy, cartography, and land management; modernization of topographic-geodetic and cartographic work; geodetic support in land management; innovative approaches to cadastre and spatial planning; challenges of reclaimed land; and planning and land use for renewable energy development, among others.
The conference was officially opened by Dariusz Popielarczyk, Dean of the Faculty of Geoengineering at the University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn; Radosław Król, Voivode of Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship; Iwona Żendarska, Director of the Olsztyn Branch of the National Support Center for Agriculture and Professor Krystyna Kurowska of the Department of of Land Management, Faculty of Geoengineering, University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn.
The conference featured four panel sessions: Geodesy; Land Management; GIS Applications in Spatial Planning; and Cadastre and Real Estate Valuation.
On the first day, Professor Armands Čelms of the Institute of Land Management and Geodesy at the Latvian University of Life Sciences and Technologies delivered a presentation on transparency and fair competition in Latvia’s geodetic sector. He noted that in 2023, tax revenues from the sector increased by nearly 11%, from €8.7 million to €9.4 million, reflecting positive trends in the services market. Similar to Ukraine, Latvia mandates periodic re-certification for geodetic engineers, recognizing the importance of continuous professional development.
Professor Jolanta Valčiukienė, Head of the Department of Land Management and Geomatics, addressed the challenges associated with reclaimed lands in Lithuania, which cover 164,000 hectares. She emphasized that the current assessment procedures for these lands are outdated and fail to utilize modern data collection technologies. A notable scientific report on the application of SLAM technologies for protecting cultural and historical heritage sites was presented by Professor Taras Ievsiukov, Dean of the Faculty of Land Management at the National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine, who is a regular member of the conference’s scientific committee.
The panel session on Cadastre and Real Estate Valuation, chaired by Professor Andrii Martyn, Head of the Department of Land Management Design at NUBiP, addressed the challenges of recording land-use restrictions around military facilities during martial law. He highlighted the dilemma between maintaining cadastral transparency and ensuring national security, noting that the absence of properly registered restrictions hinders effective spatial planning, while open access to sensitive geospatial data may pose risks.
NUBiP of Ukraine was also represented by: Professor Ivan Kovalchuk, Head of the Department of Geodesy and Cartography; Associate Professors Liudmyla Hunko and Liudmyla Koliosa from the Department of Land Use Planning; PhD student Oleksii Kutsenko; and first-year Master’s student Dmytro Matviychuk.
Over the three-day conference, participants delivered 25 plenary reports and presented 16 posters. The poster presentations are available here: https://uwm.edu.pl/igpig/kgp/konferencje, and the Book of Abstracts is accessible here: https://uwm.edu.pl/igpig/sites/default/files/u298/baltic_surveying_25_book_of_abstracts_0.pdf.
A traditional external session was also held as part of the conference. This year, participants visited the newly constructed canal through the Polish part of the Vistula Spit, connecting the Vistula Lagoon and Gdańsk Bay. The canal, 1,305 meters long, allows vessels with a draft of up to 4 meters, a length of up to 100 meters, and a width of up to 20 meters to bypass the Russian-controlled Baltic Strait and access the port of Elbląg. Additionally, attendees toured the Nicolaus Copernicus Museum in Frombork, home to the workplace of Europe’s most famous astronomer.
The next conference, Baltic Surveying’26, will take place at Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas, Lithuania. Participation in such international forums fosters partnerships, academic exchange, scientific cooperation, and the advancement of international initiatives.
Oleksandr SHEVCHENKO,
Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Land Management
