9th Arab Conference of Arab Experts on Geographical Names

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Geospatial integration between name and Location "importance and impact"

The National Survey Authority (NSA) in the Sultanate of Oman will host the 9TH Conference of Arab Experts on Geographical Names in Muscat under the title "Geospatial Integration Between Name and Location, The Importance and Impact” aiming to attract experts and those who are interested in the field of geographical names and geographical information from inside and outside the Sultanate of Oman.

The Conference details

The conference should have been held in Muscat, from 5-7 December 2022, in coordination with the Presidency of the Arab Division of Experts on Geographical Names and The Royal Jordanian Geographical Centre. But it has been postponed and will be held in Muscat, from 5 - 7 December 2023. 

The Conference Objectives

This conference aims to promote joint Arab work in the following areas:

• Documenting the geographical names.
• Standardising the Arabic geographical names.
• Implementing the Unified Arab System for Romanization 2017.
• Promoting the work of the national committees and authorities for geographical names.
• Linking between geospatial information and geographical names.
• Enabling the Geographical Names.

The Conference topics

The 9th Conference of the Arab Division of Experts on Geographical Names will discuss the following topics:

• The reality and updates of geographical names in the Arab world.
• The use of geospatial information applications in monitoring and documenting geographical names.
• TThe system of standardising the non-Arabic geographical names.
• Geographical names and other sciences.
• The role of geographical names in enabling geospatial information.
• The role of geographical names in the integration of geospatial information.

Conference papers

In the light of the conference topics that have been mentioned above, the conference will discuss many papers specialized in geographical names in the Arab world. The participants from inside and outside the Sultanate can register to participate in accordance with the conditions described on the Arab Division website, by registering and submitting the papers to the specialized technical committee through the participation link above.

Geographical names

Experts define a geographical name as a name applied to a feature on Earth, either (a specific word, combination of words, or expression) in order to refer to a particular place, feature or area having a recognizable identity on the surface of the earth in preparation for its inclusion on the official map. Theses named features include:

• Populated places such as (cities, towns, villages)
• Civil divisions such as (provinces, States)
• Natural features such as (mountains, lakes, seas)
• Constructed features such as (dams, airports, highways)

The National Survey Authority represents the Sultanate of Oman in regional and international committees and conferences concerned with geographical names. The National Survey Authority is also concerned about all the geospatial activities in the sultanate of Oman, including the responsibility of the geographical names, in terms of ensuring the correctness of them in each map and the literal transfer of the names of places and geographical features from Arabic to English using the unified Arab system for the transliteration of Arabic letters to the Roman (Latin) letters, which is called Romanization. In order to achieve that, the team specialized in geographical names at the National Survey Authority conducts field visits to collect geographical names as well as coordinating with the Ministry of Interior, governorates and governors’ offices to approve geographical names in preparation for their inclusion in its database and use in the map.