International collaborations

International cooperation is an important part of Lantmäteriet's geodesy activities. This applies to collaboration with European and international bodies as well as participation in EU projects and in service exports.

It is often about cooperation within official organisations where Sweden as a country is a member or where Lantmäteriet as a national authority is a member. We also participate as project managers or partners in international projects.

Contact the Geodesy Department to learn more about any of our international geodesy collaborations.

UN-Related Collaborations

UN-GGIM Subcommittee on Geodesy

The UN-GGIM Subcommittee on Geodesy was established in 2017 to provide a more stable foundation within the UN for the implementation of the Global Geodetic Reference Framework for Sustainable Development. Membership is limited to a certain number of countries and Sweden is so-called associate member.

For the implementation of the resolution "A gloval Geodetic Reference Framework for Sustainable Dvelopment", the UN-GGIM Subcommittee on Geodesy has created a number of focus groups. Sweden leads the group Education, Training and Capacity Building.

More information about the UN-GGIM Subcommittee on Geodesy (new window)

UNOOSA-ICG

UNOOSA-ICG is a UN body to develop the global GNSS systems so that they harmonize with each other. It also aims at strengthing the development of GNSS through a forum where suppliers and users meet to discuss common development issues.

More information about UNOOSA-ICG (new window)

Nordic cooperation

NKG

NKG (new window) - formed in 1953 - is a collaboration on geodetic issues with participants from Dan mark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have also participated in the work and are since 2022 full members. The purposes are to give the members the opportunity of networking and knowledge exchange, but above all to solve geodetic issues where cooperation across national borders is required.

Every four years, NKG arranges a General Assembly, which was last held in 2022. In addition - also every four years - NKG arranges a summer school. NKG is led by a presidium, but the work takes place mainly in the four working groups.

International Association of Geodesy and related collaborations

IAG

The International Association of Geodesy, IAG, is one of seven scientific associations that form the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG).

IAG is a scientific organisation in geodesy, which works for research and development in the subject. Lantmäteriet is involved in several working groups and regularly attends meetings. In addition, IAG is responsible for a number of extremely important products in geodesy, such as international reference frames, where Lantmäteriet actively participates with deliveries of geodetic observations.

At the IAG website (new window) there is more information.

IGS

The International GNSS Service, IGS, is a voluntary international organisation under the International Geodesy Association, IAG, which has been working since 1994 to offer freely available GNSS satellite orbits, clocks and other high quality products.

The IGS products, which also used by Lantmäteriet , provides access to the global reference system ITRF for both scientific and commercial applications. Lantmäteriet contributes to IGS with GNSS data from a number of Swepos stations and also participates in the project MGEX, Multi-GNSS Experiment.

Read more at the IGS website (new window)

EUREF

EUREF, the IAG Reference Frame Sub-commission for Europe, organises an annual symposium in a European country for the purpose of exchanging information and experience in the field of geodesy and drawing up guidelines for the common European geodetic infrastructure.

This includes the three-dimensional reference system ETRS89 and the height system EVRS, which should be used for data exchange within Inspire. In support of the management of ETRS89 the GNSS station network EUREF Permanent Network (EPN) (new window) is available.

SWEREF 99 and RH 2000 are the Swedish realizations of ETRS89 and EVRS. Lantmäteriet contributes to EPN with both GNSS data and GNSS analyses.

Questions about the geodetic infrastructure and the organisation in general are prepared by the EUREF Governing Board, which holds three meetings per year, one of which is in connection with the symposium. Martin Lidberg is chairman of EUREF and a member of the Governing Board.

Lantmäteriet also leads the work in EUREF working group on Deformation models.

Other international projects and collaborations

CGSIC

The American satellite-based navigation and positioning system Global Positioning System (GPS) is basically a military system. For the exchange of information with civilian GPS users, CGSIC has been formed.

Every year in September, CGSIC holds a international meeting in the USA as an integral part of the large annual symposium ION GNSS +. Lantmäteriet represents Sweden in these contexts.

More information is available at the CGSIC website (new window).

E-GVAP

The project started in 2005 to provide the members of EUMETNET (some 30 European National Meteorological Institutes) with estimates of atmospheric water vapor content, in near real time, as input data for weather forecasts.

GNSS signals are delayed by water vapor in the atmosphere, which is an error source in GNSS applications where the purpose is position determination. In weather and climate applications, the atmospheric water vapor content is instead important information. The E-GVAP network consists of about 3,500 stations, mainly in Europe, but the calculation of global GNSS data has recently started. Since 2016, Lantmäteriet makes calculations of data from approximately 760 stations; mainly Nordic ones.

Since water vapor is a significant greenhouse gas, observations of water vapor in the atmosphere in the long term - decades - can be used to detect climate change. However, it requires high-quality observations and spatial density, where GNSS technology has advantages over other methods, in terms of stability and spatial coverage.

EPOS

EPOS is a research infrastructure for the study of the European tectonic plate and its border zones. EPOS is in an initial operational phase and is organised as a so-called European Research Infrastructure Consortium (EPOS-ERIC). For Lantmäteriet , EPOS contributes with increased knowledge about how the earth's crust is deformed, which supports our maintenance of the geodetic reference frames.

Lantmäteriet contributes with data and certain analyzes and is i.a. represented in the Consortium Board for the GNSS part of EPOS. Sweden as a country became a member of the EPOS-ERIC in the autumn of 2022.

Read more at the EPOS website (new window).

FIG

FIG is a global organisation representing the entire area of activity within Lantmäteriet. It is a federation of national member associations but other forms of membership also exist.

From Sweden, the association Samhällsbyggarna is a member and has voting rights but also Lantmäteriet is a member of FIG.

FIG contributes to an international forum for discussion and development of the profession and contributes to raising our activities on the global agenda. Examples include the contribution to achieving the UN's sustainability goals or contributing to climate change adaptation.

FIG was founded in 1878 in Paris as the Fédération Internationale des Géomètres. FIG has English as its official language and is now called the International Federation of Surveyors. It is a UN-recognized non-governmental organisation (NGO), representing more than 120 countries worldwide. Read more on organisation's website (new window). Lantmäteriet has held many leading positions within the organisation through the years.

Struve Geodetic Arc Coordinating Committee

The measurements of the Struve Geodetic Arc was performed in 1816–1855 with the aim of exploring the shape of the earth and 34 of the 265 observation points have been included in the UNESCO World Heritage List since 2005.

The Struve Geodetic Arc consists of 265 observation points that are currently located in ten different states (Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine). The Struve Geodetic Arc Coordinating Committee was formed in 2005 by the ten states to deal with issues related to the entire World Heritage Site, but even before the World Heritage nomination, the countries had cooperated. The committee fills i.a. the need to exchange experiences and information between states on the national management of the world heritage in each country. An important task is the Periodic Reporting to UNESCO on World Heritage Maintenance.

Meetings of the Committee are held every other year with the Committee's official members and other stakeholders. The members represent:

Kartverket, Norway
Lantmäteriet, Sweden
Lantmäteriverket, Finland
Federal Service for State Registration, Cadastre and Cartography, Russia
Estonian Land Board, Estland
Latvian Geospatial Information Agency, Latvia
Ministry of Agriculture, Lithuania
State Land Property Committee, Belarus
Agency for Land Relations and Cadastre, Moldova
State Service of Geodesy, Cartography and Cadastre, Ukraine

More information on the committee's work (new window).

Working Group on Next Generation EGNSS

The Working Group on Next Generation EGNSS (WG-NEXT) is appointed by the Program Committee for the development of the European satellite positioning systems Galileo and EGNOS.

WG-NEXT shall monitor and provide feedback on the development of Galileo and EGNOS – planned development of infrastructure and associated services, costs, benefits, research, market and technology trends.

The main tasks for WG-NEXT going forward are to follow up the introduction of services and infrastructure for Galileo and to discuss the development of EGNOS, in the same way as it has been done for the next generation of Galileo satellites.

WG-NEXT is a successor to the former working group WG-EE, whose task during the period 2016–2021 was to provide advice and support to the Program Committee.