Back ||NOAA Home Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission UNESCO 37th Executive Council Meeting Paris, France 23-29 June 2004 Monday, 28 June 2004 15-minute speech/5 min Q&A [as prepared for delivery] Introduction Thank you, David [Pugh, Chairperson, IOC Executive Council] for your kind introduction and good afternoon to all of you. It’s a great pleasure for me to return to the IOC to talk about the great progress that has been made in the development of the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) in just one year. Before I begin, allow me to recognize the invaluable efforts of Patricio Bernal [Executive Secretary of the IOC], in advancing the international efforts of GEOSS. Patricio is serving as one of the co-chairs of the International Cooperation Subgroup of the Group on Earth Observations and is doing an outstanding job. I also recognize and offer my congratulations to Keith Alverson on his appointment as the new Head of the Operational Observing Systems Section, where he will serve as the Head of the GOOS Project Office. It is important to note that I am here in my capacity as Co-Chair of the Group on Earth Observations and that I am speaking on behalf of the 47 nations and 29 international organizations in GEO, as well as my fellow co-chairs from Japan, South Africa and the European Commission. Many of the nations represented in this room are partners in GEO and have invested valuable time and energy into working with GEO, as well as supporting their individual national contributions to the Global Earth Observation System of Systems. The active involvement and support of intergovernmental organizations such as, and in particular, the IOC is vital to the success of GEO. The contributions of IOC, and of its individual members, to the GEO process are valued and I urge you to continue to bring ideas to GEO as the implementation plan is developed. Since Patricio has already given you a brief update on the progress of GEO earlier in this meeting, I’d like to concentrate on the reasons I believe the GEOSS will be successful – the user-focus of the system of systems and the political support generated by the potential for near-term and long-term benefits to all nations. Background Just one year ago, I spoke to you about the need for an Earth Science Renaissance. The G8 had just met in Evian, and had identified global observations as one of three key areas of international cooperation. A little over a month later, the US hosted the first ever Earth Observation Summit, which resulted in a declaration calling for the establishment of a comprehensive Earth observing system. Participants in that Summit, including representatives and members of the IOC, recognized the value of affirming at the political level what the scientific and technical communities had been talking about for decades. Certainly, all here today understand that establishing a comprehensive sustained ocean observing system alone would provide enormous new knowledge on a wide variety of societal issues. Reaching beyond ocean observations and embracing the parallel, but now independent, atmospheric and terrestrial observing systems, and then working to integrate those systems, would provide much more. This is the goal of GEOSS -- An Earth information system with an interdisciplinary focus, providing the foundation for sound decision making regarding sustainable development and the wise use of our natural resources. Social, economic and scientific benefits drive the need for building an integrated Earth information and data management system. Put simply, improved observational capabilities will provide information to enable decision-makers to make better decisions regarding sustainable development and the wise use of our limited natural resources. The Global Ocean Observing System provides a strong foundation and will be a key component of a successful Global Earth Observation System of Systems. Societal Benefits Focus Those of us who work closely with these systems understand their application and their value. However, for the rest of the world, for those that make decisions about investment in science, investments in observations, and the use of the information derived from observations, it is important to look at it from the perspective of the users of such a system of systems. This is why, in Baveno at GEO 2, the group agreed to a set of nine benefits areas as a focus for the plan’s development: Reducing loss of life and property from natural and human-induced disasters; Understanding environmental factors affecting human health and well being; Improving management of energy resources; Understanding, assessing, predicting, mitigating, and adapting to climate variability and change; Improving water resource management through better understanding of the water cycle; Improving weather information, forecasting, and warning; Improving the management and protection of terrestrial, coastal, and marine ecosystems; Supporting sustainable agriculture and combating desertification; Understanding, monitoring, and conserving biodiversity. Over the next few minutes, I will provide some examples of the connections we can and should make between observations and socio-economic benefits. Improving the Management and Protection of Terrestrial, Coastal, and Marine Ecosystems. Improving our ability to detect and predict changes in terrestrial, coastal, and marine ecosystems is an international priority. If we are going to manage the “health” of these ecosystems then we need to observe and forecast habitat modification and loss, changes in biodiversity, eutrophication, harmful algal events, invasions of non-native species, and diseases and mass mortalities of marine organisms. We have only begun to understand the effects of human activities and climate variability on the structure and function of coastal and marine ecosystems and their capacity to support ecosystem goods and services. Resolving and predicting anthropogenic and climate effects requires long-term time series observation of key properties and processes, more efficient and effective data management that enables timely access to diverse data from disparate sources, and a more comprehensive understanding of the structure, function, and variability of ecosystems (e.g., how changes occurring in coastal drainage basins, the ocean basins and airsheds impact coastal ecosystems). Improving the Management and Protection of Terrestrial, Coastal, and Marine Ecosystems is one of the 9 societal benefits areas agreed to in the Framework Document approved at Earth Observation Summit II in Tokyo earlier this year, and illustrates one of our long-term goals. But what are some near-term actions that we can take to address a few of our most pressing global needs? Sea Level Rise At last year’s IOC meeting, I also talked about the importance of improving what we know about how fast sea level rise is occurring and what observations we need to reduce uncertainties in our understanding of this phenomena. Global sea level rise is a high priority issue that requires strengthened international cooperation in the sustained collection of high-quality observations as the basis for sound decision-making. Present estimates of globally averaged sea level rise – based on historical tide gauge records and a decade of observations by the U.S./ France TOPEX/Poseidon and Jason-1 altimeter satellites – are anywhere from 1 to 3 mm/year, more likely 1.5 to 2.0 mm/year. The major causes of uncertainty in these estimates result from inadequate observations of: Sea level by tide gauges, due to poor data reporting (both quality and timeliness), as well as vertical movement of the land Sea level by satellite altimetry, due to the relatively short record Changes in the volume of the ocean, due to changes in the temperature and salinity structure of the ocean Changes in the mass of the oceans, due to changes in the volume of glaciers and ice caps, as well as storage by lakes and reservoirs. You may be interested to know that just before the Earth Observation Summit II in Tokyo in April, President Bush’s Science Advisor, Jack Marburger, hosted a G8 Science Ministers meeting to discuss progress on the Science and Technology Action Plan from the Evian meeting. The participants in that meeting strongly endorsed GEO developing a comprehensive long-term plan, but they also discussed specific near-term actions that can be undertaken quickly, and at relatively low cost to fill existing gaps in our observations. Using sea level rise as an example, The US submitted a discussion paper at that meeting that identified several such near-term actions, including addressing the need for: About 170 tidal gauges, reporting hourly data in real time, and with co-located GPS receivers to measure the vertical movement of land At least three decades of coverage by satellite altimetry Continuing observations of the upper-ocean temperature and salinity structure by a global array of 3,000 Argo profiling floats Improved understanding of the re-distribution of water mass on the surface of the Earth The 3rd Assessment Report (2001) by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change projects globally averaged sea level to rise anywhere from 9 to 88 centimeters over the coming century. With 100 million people living within 1 meter of sea level, this is of great concern for the protection of life and property around the world. With a gradual rise in sea level, the storm surge generated by hurricanes, typhoons, and cyclones will become an ever-increasing threat for barrier islands (southeastern U.S.), coastal cities (Venice), river deltas (especially Bangladesh, but also including New Orleans), and low-lying islands (like the Maldives with a maximum elevation of 2.4 m). With statistics like these, we must improve our understanding of sea level rise, so we can reduce the wide range of uncertainty in the projected rate of seas level rise. G8 Science & Technology for Sustainability Action Plan/Progress Report At this year’s meeting of the G8, held earlier this month on Sea Island in Georgia (United States), the G8 released its 2004 Science and Technology for Sustainability Action Plan and Progress Report. That report noted the two Earth Observation Summits held since the Evian Summit, the work of GEO, the adoption of the Framework, and the ongoing progress at developing a 10-year plan. My understanding is that the Science Ministers will continue their discussions on these projects at another meeting later this year. This will be a valuable opportunity for us to identify our priority requirements for near and long-term observations in a comprehensive system of systems, and to bring these specifics to the attention of Ministers. Capacity Building Of course all of our planning and implementation of ocean observing systems will, in the end, fail if we don’t have the human resources necessary to operate, maintain, and deliver the benefits from the system. Capacity building in ocean science and technology is a vital need and must be an integral part of our efforts. I applaud the IOC for recognizing this critical activity in its current program planning. I am pleased that the IOC Capacity Building Strategy gives priority to operational oceanography in general, and GOOS implementation in particular. We will look forward to working with Dr. Erlich Desa on moving the strategy forward. Conclusion I hope I have provided you with some insight as to where we are headed with the GEO process toward a user-focused global system that is: Comprehensive, by including observations and products gathered from all components required to serve the needs of participating members; Coordinated, in terms of leveraging resources of individual contributing members to accomplish this system, whose total capacity is greater than the sum of its parts; and Sustained, by the collective and individual will and capacity of participating members. The Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission has provided the scientific leadership that, coupled with other organizations within the UN system, provides the foundation for the system of systems. In a joint statement read by Michel Jarraud, Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization at the Tokyo Summit, IOC (as part of UNESCO) joined FAO, UNEP and WMO in stating that: [You] support the GEO process for the potential it offers to reduce hunger, alleviate poverty, improve health and a variety of other benefits that many of [your] member countries find lacking. By building on the work that the IOC has already done, particularly with the Global Ocean Observing System, we have a firm basis for reaching those goals. I urge IOC member nations not already involved with GEO to consider joining this intergovernmental effort to plan and build the GEOSS, and support a robust and sustained Global Ocean Observing component. Thank you, and I look forward to answering any questions you may have.