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Bulgaria Celebrates the 18th International GIS Day

GIS Day in Bulgaria was held with the special participation of Piotr Malinowski, Service Development Team Coordinator, Frontex.

Sofia, 17 November 2016 – At an official ceremony in Sofia was celebrated the World Day of Geographical Information Systems. For the 18th consecutive year, ESRI Bulgaria in partnership with more than 20 leading organizations brought together the GIS community in Bulgaria. Over 500 representatives of more than 140 organizations from central and local government, business, NGOs and the academic community took part in the largest GIS Forum in the country.

The prestigious event was opened by Krasimir Zhivkov, Deputy Minister, Ministry of Environment and Water, Bozidar Bojanov, Advisor for electronic control of the Deputy Prime Minister Rumiana Bachvarova, Piotr Malinowski, Service Development Team Coordinator of the European Agency for Border and Coast Guard (Frontex) and Ms. Evgenia Karadjova, CEO ESRI Bulgaria – the leading GIS company in Bulgaria and official organizer of the forum here.

 GIS Day Conference 2016 opening

“GIS is the most crucial platform. Through the powerful GIS tools the Ministry of Environment and Water sustainably maps, manages, analyzes and protects Bulgaria environment and its components,” said Krasimir Zhivkov during the official opening.

The participation of Piotr Malinowski provoked huge interest. For the first time in Bulgaria, he presented the Frontex way of tackling illegal migration and cross-border crime. He made a live demonstration of the European agency` GIS system.

Frontex GISDay in Bulgaria

Within the seminar panel of the conference were shown the first of its kind “System for real-time monitoring of the Black Sea”, the project for “Assessment of the threats and risks from flooding” developed for the needs of the Danube River Basin Directorate, the “Corporate GIS system” of Sofiyska voda and also the citizens’ initiatives “Share the neighborhood” and the interactive GIS map of the initiative committee “Sofia green capital”.

Traditionally, within the official ceremony were announced the annual awards for Special Achievements in the field of GIS. This year five organizations were awarded for outstanding GIS projects in Bulgaria.

“Bulgarian Ports Infrastructure Company” received the award for applying strategic vision in the implementation of innovative GIS system for real-time monitoring of the Black Sea. The award received Angel Zaburtov, General Director BG Ports Infrastructure Company by Lyuben Petrov, Deputy Minister of Economy and Ventsislava Yanchovska, program director “Innovation-Norway.” An award for innovative property management powered by modern GIS technology was given to the “Bulgarian Posts”. Dejan Daneshki, CEO of the company accepted the award from Prof. Dsc. Eng. Ivan Jacev, chairman of the Union of Electronics, Electric, Engineering and Communications.

GIS Day winners part 1

Colonel Rumen Dimitrov, head of the “Military Geographic Service” (Bulgarian Army) accepted the award for longtime contribution to the application of GIS technologies and building GIS capacity in Bulgaria by Piotr Malinowski and Konstantin Zografov, regional vice president of AFCEA Southeast Europe. “Sofiyska voda” was honored for strategic vision and corporate approach for sustainable development of modern corporate Geographic Information System. The award was received personally by Julien Shapon, director of “Network Management” ‘Sofiyska voda” from Eugenia Karadjova, ESRI Bulgaria CEO. For longtime contribution to the building of GIS capacity in Bulgaria this year was awarded the University of Forestry-Sofia. The award was given by Asen Alexandrov, Advisor to the Minister of Education and Science, Meglena Kuneva to Professor. Dr. Ivan Iliev, Rector of the University of Forestry in Sofia.

GIS Day winners 2

During the World GIS Day was held the traditional “Map Exhibition and Contest”. In the competition were awarded the “Ministry of Energy” in the category “Most interesting GIS analysis”, the “Military Geographic Service” for “Best cartographic representation” and Galina Bezinska from the Southwestern University “Neophyte Rilski” for “Best Academic Map”. The “Audience Award” this year went to “Sofiyska Voda”.

GIS Day 2016 in Bulgaria was realized with the partnership and support of over 20 organizations, including: Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Bulgarian Association of Software Companies, American Chamber of Commerce in Bulgaria, National Association of Municipalities in Bulgaria, Foundation for Local Government Reform, Bulgarian Council for sustainable development, Union of Architects in Bulgaria, Union of Planners in Bulgaria, Bulgarian Water Association, AFCEA Bulgaria, Association of Chiefs of Police, Bulgarian Cartographic Association, Green Balkans, National Geographic Bulgaria, City Media Group, Sofia University “Sv. Kl. Ohridski”, “University of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geodesy”, “University of Mining and Geology”, “University of Forestry”, Bulgarian Association for Geospatial Information Systems. GIS Day 2016 is held with the kind support of Geographica Ltd., GISsolutions Ltd. and Agora 66.

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