Henk Scholten, the Lifetime Achievement Award winner at this year’s ESRI User Conference, informed me about an intriguing project in the Netherlands called the GeoFort. The fortress island of Nieuwe Steeg, which is close to the town of Leerdam is being transformed into an educational attraction that will promote maps and navigation, and emphasize the link between nature and the technologies to conserve and restore ecosystems. This effort has government support and is being organized and promoted by the HERODOT Network, a partnership of more than 150 organizations in the Netherlands that are interested in improving geography education.
The mission of GeoFort Foundation includes:
• To make the Fortress ’Nieuwe Steeg a figure-head for the power of geo-information systems
• To become the prime vehicle by means of which firms and institutions active in the field of geo-information present themselves.
• To highlight in an entertaining and captivating manner the geo-scientific aspects and subjects like climate change, sustainable ecosystems and energy conscious transportation systems.
