Pacific Reach

27/11/2025

The 2025 Pacific Islands GIS & Remote Sensing User Conference concluded yesterday. Day 4 shone a light on Women in GIS & Remote Sensing. 📡🛰️

Highlights included:
💡Panel Discussion: Women in GIS & Remote Sensing
💡 Mapping with QField: Vision in Practice
💡GIS-driven biosecurity surveillance in New Zealand’s forests
💡QGIS: Spatial without compromise
💡 Wildfire, disaster, and climate monitoring from the world’s largest thermal-satellite constellation
💡Automated spatial workflows for disaster response and risk management

27/11/2025

26/11/2025

Day 3 at the 2025 PGRSC GIS User conference was all about using maps and data to solve real-world problems.

Highlights💡- planning coastlines and oceans better, assessing unpaved roads through GIS , and making supply chains fairer. Participants talked about easy-to-use map tools and sharing data openly. The day ended with a focus on drones mapping island areas and measuring how well places are connected and growing.

26/11/2025

GEOGRAPHIC Information Systems (GIS) are not just tools but lifelines for islands in Fiji and the Pacific that are on the frontline of climate change, intense storms and shifting rainfall patterns that affect food security, livelihoods and essential services.

GEOGRAPHIC Information Systems (GIS) are not just tools but lifelines for islands in Fiji and the Pacific that are on the frontline of climate change, intense […]

25/11/2025

Day two of the four-day 2025 PGRSC GIS User Conference in Fiji is complete. The schedule has featured a number of useful presentations and discussions on global & regional geospatial projects. The event runs until Thursday.

#2025

24/11/2025

This year, International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS) president Prof Lena Halounova will travel from Prague, Czech Republic to meet Pacific Island GIS and RS users.

“Personal meetings are irreplaceable, allowing people to discuss in person issues in their regions, in their projects, institutions or universities. This is the most valuable, informal, knowledge exchange between people and is completely different from Zoom presentations,” Ms Halounova said in a statement.

More than 300 international and regional delegates will be attending the Pacific Islands GIS and Remote Sensing (PG&RS) User Conference 2025, scheduled to begin in Suva today at the University of the South Pacific's Japan Pacific ICT Hall.

24/11/2025

"As Minister of the Rural and Maritime Development and Disaster Management, I understand the Pacific faces extraordinary challenges that demand smart, data-driven solutions."

"Our islands are small in land area but immense in potential. Yet we are on the front line of climate change - more intense storms, higher seas, and shifting rainfall patterns that affect food security, livelihoods and essential services".

19/11/2025

19/11/2025

Congratulations to Pristine Seas videographer and photographer Manu San Félix for capturing one of National Geographic's 2025 Pictures of the Year!

The photo was taken in Tinakula, Solomon Islands, on a Pristine Seas expedition.

11/11/2025

As the Pacific braces for another cyclone season, experts are calling for faster adoption of sustainable, storm-resistant building materials, with bamboo emerging as a serious contender.

The appeal comes ahead of the Pacific Islands GIS and Remote Sensing User Conference, to be held from the 24th to 27th of this month at the USP Japan–Pacific ICT Centre.

The annual gathering, hosted by the Pacific GIS and Remote Sensing Council (PGRSC), will draw more than 300 delegates from across the region and beyond.

One of the most talked-about topics this year is the potential of bamboo as a low-carbon, cyclone-resilient building material. As the Pacific brace

07/11/2025

Akesa Vaka Kunabuli has been shaping her clay using techniques passed down for more than 100 generations, and now she’s one of the only people continuing this craft.

But the story of the pottery she makes stretches beyond just her village of Nayawa in the Sigatoka district of Fiji's coastal Nadroga, Navosa province.

More than 3000 years ago, the Lapita people set sail from what is now modern-day Taiwan, launching one of the greatest migrations in human history.

More recently, their routes have also been tied to Papua New Guinea and even North Queensland in Australia.

The designs carved into Lapita pottery are more than just decoration, they're markers of connection, migration and story.

And each piece tells a different one. Messages passed down through the generations.

This is what Akesa Vaka’s mother taught her at an early age.

“We still maintain our traditional way of making pottery by using a round stone and a piece of timber to tap the clay,” she tells ABC Radio Australia’s podcast Culture Compass.

“It's the same Lapita clay we use in our home for making our traditional pots and contemporary, the same clay. And we still maintain it today.

“Since when our ancestors arrived here, they noticed that it also has a Lapita clay situated about two kilometres away from Nayawa Village.”

Climate change, however, is having an impact.

“In the olden days, we normally had nice weather. But nowadays, the rain normally spoils everything because we have a lot of rain during the month of December.
“It should be good weather in Fiji, but from December 'til now, we have a lot of rain. So that is why we have to protect our art in such a way that it doesn't spoil by climate change.”

Despite this, Akesa Vaka continues with her craft, teaching her grandchildren as she works the clay.

“When I don't preserve this as my cultural heritage, it will run out from my culture, from my family, from my village and the whole of the Sigatoka district. I have to protect… this is what I'm known as. It's my identity.”

07/11/2025

🌏 Calling All Mapmakers and Spatial Storytellers!

Be part of the 2025 Map and Poster Competition at the Pacific GIS & RS User Conference!

Unleash your creativity and showcase your geospatial brilliance to the wider GIS and Remote Sensing community. Whether you’re a student, a seasoned professional, or a passionate enthusiast this is your moment to shine.

🎯 Submit your most compelling map or poster for a chance to win fantastic prizes and gain regional recognition.

🗓️ Deadline: 24 November 2025
📩 Submit here: https://forms.gle/qKZXYEtmFs2MxJdR7

Let your work speak volumes, enter today and inspire the region with your vision!