TALLINN, Aug 26 (LETA--BNS) - Geodetic survey teams from the Estonian Land Board and the Latvian Geospatial Information Agency met on Wednesday to jointly carry out field measurements in the border corridor in the twin towns of Valga and Valka. 

The measurements were taken on Sepa Street in Valga, next to the Valka border crossing. The directors general of the agencies, Tambet Tiits and Col. Martins Liberts, were also present. Both praised the smooth bilateral cooperation between the neighbors, which could serve as a model for other EU member states.

Harmonization of the coordinate and height systems of two countries is a relatively rare task, carried out at best once a century, whereas its results will be available for generations, spokespeople said on Thursday.

Karin Kollo, head of the geodesy department at the Estonian Land Board and project manager  for Estonia, said that the data set in question is primarily needed by designers and builders for the construction of cross-border structures such as roads, viaducts and railways.

"At the moment, the Estonian and Latvian geodetic systems are not compatible, making it difficult to carry out cross-border projects," Kollo said. "The measurements carried out along the 340-kilometer Estonia-Latvia border corridor are a major piece of work, the results of which will be usable for decades," she said.

The national geodetic systems used in Estonia and Latvia are based on European reference systems, while each country uses somewhat different baseline data and measurement results to anchor geodetic systems in its territory. Therefore, there are discrepancies in both altitude and coordinate values in the Estonian-Latvian border region. The coordinate and altitude systems of the two countries will be harmonized as part of the European regional cooperation project Interreg "Harmonization of geodetic systems in the Estonian-Latvian border region (GeoRefAct)".

The Estonian-Latvian coordinate and altitude systems harmonization project, which started in the spring, reached the city of Valga-Valka after two and a half months of work, as part of which a team of four from the Estonian Land Board made measurements at more than 100 geodetic points along the 340-kilometer strip.

As a result of the project, a web application for altitude and coordinate conversion models will be completed, which will be made available as open data on the website of the Land Board and the Latvian Geospatial Information Agency.