📅 10 November 2025 – TSPCS25 Conference Report - DOWNLOAD! DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17703386
Report
on the International Scientific Conference
"Towards a State Plane Coordinate System: Scientific
Approaches and Practical Challenges"
Skopje, October 31, 2025 (hybrid format)
Summary
The
international scientific conference "Towards a State Plane Coordinate
System: Scientific Approaches and Practical Challenges", held on October
31, 2025, at Mother Teresa University in Skopje, brought together participants
from leading regional cartographic associations and international experts to
address the critical establishment of a cutting-edge State Plane Coordinate
Reference System (SPCRS) for North Macedonia. Organized by the South-East
European Research Institute on Geo Sciences (Geo-SEE Institute), the conference
focused on crucial themes such as existing CRS practices, legal frameworks, and
implementation challenges. Key outcomes underscored the urgent need for a
legally compliant CRS that aligns with European standards (ETRS89/GRS80),
robust stakeholder engagement, and a clear transition from research to
actionable implementation. The conference not only facilitated vital knowledge
exchange but also laid a strong foundation for ongoing collaboration to enhance
national geospatial systems, with effective dissemination strategies set to
amplify its impactful findings through publications and digital platforms.
1.
INTRODUCTION
On October
31 2025, within the framework of the national project "State Plane
Coordinate Reference System of the Republic of North Macedonia (SCRS)",
the South-East European Research Institute on Geo Sciences (Geo-SEE Institute) in
collaboration with 8 esteemed international organizations and companies, held
an international scientific conference titled "Towards a State Plane
Coordinate System: Scientific Approaches and Practical Challenges".
The event took place at Mother Teresa University in Skopje, with both in-person
attendance and online participation available via the following link: https://www.scrsproject.mk/p/international-conference.html.
The
Geo-SEE Institute, as the main organizer and under the umbrella of the
International Federation of Surveyors (FIG), was strongly supported by the
Bulgarian Cartographic Association, the Croatian Cartographic Society, the
Kosovo Association of Surveyors, the European Group of Surveyors, and the
Macedonian Chamber of Trade Surveying Companies as co-organizers. The event was
sponsored by the Alb Matrix Group (Geo Sensors) from Albania and the company
FARO Europe.
The primary objective of the conference was to present the key
results of the national project, engage international experts, share
experiences, discuss methodologies and findings, and explore the future
implementation of the proposed coordinate reference system (CRS) for North
Macedonia (https://www.scrsproject.mk).
The theme of the conference was focused on the central
questions:
• What
lessons from existing state plane coordinate reference systems (CRSs) can
inform North Macedonia's CRS?
• What
legal and institutional frameworks are needed for a new national CRS?
• What
technical options ensure accuracy and compatibility with European standards?
• What practical
challenges exist in implementing the new CRS?
2.
PARTICIPANTS AND FORMAT
The
hybrid format enabled participation from local and international stakeholders,
including researchers, geospatial professionals, institutional representatives,
and policymakers. The project team provided a platform for exchanging knowledge
on coordinate reference systems (CRSs) and for dialogue about engineering,
legal-institutional, and implementation aspects.
Distinguished presenters from North Macedonia, Albania,
Bulgaria, Croatia, Germany, Greece, Kosovo, the Netherlands, and Türkiye shared
their scientific findings and practical experiences related to state plane
coordinate reference systems. The hybrid event attracted a diverse range of
participants, including experts, researchers, and institutions working towards
harmonizing national geospatial systems with European standards. In total,
67 participants attended the conference in person and 91 joined online,
demonstrating strong regional and international engagement in this important
field.
3.
CONFERENCE PROGRAM AND KEY THEMES
The
conference covered several themes related to the development of a national
state-plane CRS:
- Comparative review of
existing state-plane CRS in other countries to identify best practices and
their lessons for North Macedonia.
- Legal and institutional
issues in establishing a new national CRS to define necessary standards,
legislation, and responsibilities.
- Technical/methodological
options for the future CRS, including accuracy, compatibility with
European/international systems, and ease of use.
- Practical implementation
challenges: stakeholder consultations, migration from existing systems,
interoperability, EPSG coding, and GIS applications.
These themes align with the work packages of the project (https://www.scrsproject.mk), such as WP3
(Legal Issues) and WP4 (CRS in other countries).
4.
KEY OUTCOMES AND MESSAGES
Some
of the major outcomes of the conference were:
- A shared recognition of the
importance of a modern, accurate, legally-conforming CRS for North
Macedonia that aligns with European standards and supports GIS, surveying,
mapping, and National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI).
- Good practice examples from
other countries were discussed, which will help inform the design of the
new system. Insights from other countries highlight the importance of
strong institutional frameworks.
- Institutional stakeholders emphasized
the need for clear legal mandates, coordination among relevant bodies
(surveying, mapping, and geospatial agencies), and training for
practitioners. A successful rollout requires careful planning, thorough
stakeholder consultation, and effective capacity building.
- Technical options were analyzed:
balancing high accuracy and compatibility with usability for national
applications.
- Implementation steps were
outlined, including stakeholder consultation, migration planning from
current systems, pilot tests, capacity building, and dissemination of the
project results.
·
The project team reaffirmed that the next phase
will transition from research to action, focusing on preparing for the adoption
of the new CRS, supporting institutions, and ensuring the sustainable use of
the system.
5.
PUBLICATIONS AND DISSEMINATION
The
conference serves as a milestone for disseminating the project's findings and
engaging the geospatial community. The project website announced the event and
related content. The conference announcement was posted on the GeoSEE website
on September 15, 2025, and information about the successfully held conference
was published on November 1, 2025.
Following the conference, the GeoSEE Institute will implement
a plan to publish a book of abstracts with a DOI index and inclusion in the
DOAJ. Additionally,
presentations will be published on the conference website, ensuring that the
conference outputs achieve visibility in international databases.
6.
RELEVANCE OF THE CONFERENCE TOPIC
For
those working in surveying, large-scale mapping, cadaster, geodesy, engineering
geodesy, urban planning, GIS, environmental monitoring, etc., the establishment
of a new national state-plane CRS based on ETRS89 datum with GRS80 Earth
ellipsoid, and ground to grid map projection, is highly relevant:
- It will provide improved
spatial accuracy and consistency across survey, cartography, civil
engineering, GIS, and monitoring datasets.
- Aligning national spatial
data with a modern reference system and the well-established OGC and ISO
geospatial standards enhances interoperability with EU datasets, making
cross-border environmental studies more robust.
- Discussions on the
institutional and legal framework help contextualize the challenges that
may arise in data harmonization, metadata standards, and regulatory
compliance.
·
Technical insights from the conference can help
define the methodology for integrating spatial data from multiple sources
(geodetic survey, remote sensing, GIS) and establishing baseline reference
systems.
7. RECOMMENDATIONS AND NEXT STEPS
Based
on the conference abstracts, presentations, and panel discussions, the
following recommendations emerge:
- Engage with the project
outcomes: Review the technical options and legal frameworks presented
and assess how they align with spatial datasets and GIS workflows.
- Prepare for migration:
If the monitoring database currently uses older coordinate systems or
local datums, plan for transformation to the future state‐plane
CRS to ensure consistency.
- Capacity building:
To ensure that the team has the appropriate competencies and is familiar
with geodetic transformations, datum shifts, projection changes, and
metadata documentation - topics that were highlighted at the conference.
- Collaboration and
feedback: To actively participate in stakeholder consultation phases,
sharing the specific needs of organizations, institutions, or private
companies, so that the design of the national system meets these use cases.
- Leverage
interdisciplinary integration: The conference demonstrated the value
of bringing together surveying/geodesy, cartography/mapping, GIS,
legal/institutional, and practical
application domains. For the SCRS project, maintaining awareness
and seeking feedback on all these dimensions (legal, institutional,
technical) is crucial when designing new CRSs.
8.
CLOSING REMARKS
The international scientific conference on the state-plane
coordinate system marked a key step in advancing the theory of state-plane
coordinate systems and map projections for large-scale mapping. By bringing
together science, practice, and policy, the event strengthened the foundation
for a modern national CRS that will benefit geospatial applications,
environmental monitoring, surveying, topographic mapping, cadastre, civil
engineering, GIS, and all national-level activities related to geospatial data
and information. For practitioners and researchers, this development offers a
timely opportunity to align projects and data infrastructures with evolving
national standards, enhance data interoperability, and strengthen the
scientific quality of analyses.
Prepared by
Bashkim Idrizi, Chair, North Macedonia, and
Lyubka Pashova, Co-chair, Bulgaria
Scientific
committee
Bashkim Idrizi (Chair, North Macedonia), Lyubka Pashova (Co-chair,
Bulgaria), Georg Gartner (Austria), Temenoujka Bandrova (Bulgaria), Miljenko
Lapaine (Croatia), Chryssy Potsiou (Greece), Bekim Fetaji (North Macedonia),
Pal Nikolli (Albania), Fitore Bajrami Lubishtani (Kosovo), Ibrahim Öztuğ
Bildirici (Türkiye), Danko Markovinovic (Croatia), Vlado Cetl (Croatia), Ismail
Kabashi (Austria), Veton Hamza (Slovenia), Michael Gastner (Singapore), Sagi
Dalyot (Israel), Hartmut Mueller (Germany), Slobodanka Kljucanin (Bosnia and
Hercegovina), Fisnik Loshi (Kosovo), Subija Izeiroski (North
Macedonia).
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#GeoSEE #FIG #EGoS #GeoSensors #коморанапред #BCA #CSC #KAS
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#ETRS89
Acknowledgements
The
GeoSEE is grateful to the co-organizers, presenters and participants of the
conference, as well as to the sponsors for their financial support, valuable
input, and feedback.
