About the conference

Perhaps there is no more mysterious place in the world than Crete: hundreds of legends, thousands of traditions, and the birth and outcome of civilizations. The history of Crete is a history of the genius of human thought. For the first time, multistory buildings appeared here, along with natural and artificial lighting, sanitation, ventilation, heating, and paved roads—prototypes of the current “smart” cities. It was hardly possible without understanding how geographical space was arranged.

This year we set ourselves to the task of stretching the bridge between the achievements of the past, the present, and the future. We wanted to connect the history imprinted on the maps of Ptolemy, the labyrinths of the Palace of Knossos, and the photo of Gaspard-Félix Tournachon with the modern systems of digital reality, based on the photogrammetric processing of remote sensing data.

Digital reality is measured spatial information that is used in almost all directions of society’s technological developments, be it land management, navigation, autonomous transport systems, smart cities, robotic technologies, and much more. Digital reality provides a cartographic basis for the Internet of Things, and it allows building space-time models for sustainable development of society.

This year the history of Racurs—the one and only organizer of the conference—will cross the twenty-five-year milestone. This is quite insignificant in comparison with the centuries-old history of Crete, but this quarter of the century fell into the most exciting period of development of remote sensing technologies.

We have something to be proud of. See you in Crete!

Sincerely yours,
the Organizing Committee of
the International Scientific and Technical Conference
“From imagery to digital reality: ERS & Photogrammetry”