How is the VGGT travelling over time in the survey community

During the FIG Working Week in Christchurch, in May 2016, FAO and FIG joined forces to make a further step in the implementation of the VGGT in surveying education and research. The FIG Academic Members Forum decided to form a working group with the aim of exploring the VGGT from a surveying perspective. The working group proposed to conduct research to assess practical examples of VGGT implementation in different countries and the impact on the surveying profession. As a first step a ‘methodology of assessing (type of) impact of the voluntary guidelines on surveyors and survey profession’ is developed. Crucial aspects include thereby how to define impact (from a policy or a guideline) and clarify what needs to be considered when referring the survey profession. As part of developing this methodology, it became clear that an exploratory survey needed to be conducted relating various aspects of the introduction and acquaintance with VGGT among survey professionals. In this survey, titled ‘How is the VGGT travelling over time in the Survey community?’ the working group aims to address the following research questions: 1) What is the awareness and knowledge on the VGGT among surveyors, 2) What is the professional relevance and recognition, and 3) How is the VGGT addressed in surveying education? An online questionnaire has been developed and sent to universities (FIG Academic Members), governments (FIG Affiliates), professional associations (FIG National Associations), and private sector (FIG Corporate Members). This paper presents both the underlying methodology and first findings from the survey. The aim is to clarify the degree to which survey professionals are either acquainted with the goals of VGGT and or are actively adopting part of the VGGT in their daily work, and to describe the variation in time, scale and geographic or institutional context related to this uptake. This variation could explain under which circumstances and in which institutional and professional context the uptake seems to be most or least successful.