Introduction
The tenth GEO Integrated Global Water Cycle Observations (IGWCO) Community of Practice (CoP) Meeting
Objectives of the meeting
This meeting is intended to:
- Develop and document ideas for the GEOSS Water Strategy implementation plan.
- Develop ideas and strategies to more strongly engage other SBAs.
- Develop ideas and commitments to strengthen IGWCO contributions to GEO in the areas of integrated data sets, information systems, capacity development and user engagement.
- Begin to develop concepts, target definitions and proposals for the 2016-2025 GEOSS Implementation Plan.
Who this meeting is for?
This meeting is an annual planning event for those who belong to the Integrated Global Water Cycle Observations (IGWCO) Community of Practice (CoP), for members of funding agencies who are responsible for water activities, for members of GEO who are involved in water-related activities and for research, development and applications organizations and programs that have an interest in water.
Why this meeting is important?
This is an important meeting for future of GEO Water and IGWCO activities. At the January 2014 GEO Summit, the principals of the GEO member countries and the Heads of Participating Organizations agreed that GEO should continue for another 10 years. A working group is now developing a new Implementation Plan to support this decision. The GEO Water activities should play a well-defined and progressive role within this new plan. In particular, we need to develop concepts, project plans, realistic targets, and commitments to strengthen the water community’s contributions to GEO in the areas of integrated data sets, information systems, capacity development and user engagement.
The GEOSS Water Strategy has recently been printed and is now being distributed. This report provides a number of recommendations on ways in which the GEO Water activities can become more effective. IGWCO CoP will have an opportunity to collectively review the needs and the proposed strategies of GEO partners and others for addressing these recommendations.
Capacity building has been a strong component in GEO Water and the IGWCO CoP and will continue to be a major contributor for the foreseeable future. However, in order to take advantage of the richness of new water-related platforms and programs these activities should be expanded to the water elements in other GEO SBAs. To this end we need to develop plans to strengthen cross SBA collaboration. In addition, we need to seek and secure more sustainable support for these activities. Time will be devoted to dealing with sustainable capacity building and collaboration in cross SBA and nexus activities.
2015 will be a year of transition. Come and help us prepare!
Logistical Information
The venue is the Koshiba Hall at the University of Tokyo Hongo Campus in Tokyo. More information on the venue and how to get there is provided at the Venue page.
The information on hotels and transportation is provided at the Accommodation page.
The meeting will be preceded by the 7th GEOSS Asia-Pacific Symposium which will be held in Tokyo, the Ryogoku area, which is out of the Univeristy of Tokyo Hongo Campus but in an easily commutable distance (15 minutes by subway). Those attending the IGWCO meeting are also welcome to attend this Symposium. For more information on this Symposium please visit the Symposium website. The information on transportation between the GEOSS AP Symposium venue/hotel and the IGWCO Meeting venue is provided at the Venue page.
The visa and other travel information is provided at the Trave Information page.
A very preliminary draft agenda for the two day meeting is available at this site, the Program page. It does not include the names of speakers – that will be developed after we have a registration list in early April. Questions about the program should be directed to Rick Lawford at Richard.Lawford@morgan.edu. Questions about logistics should be directed to Akiko Goda at goda@hydra.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp. Please register as soon as possible. Your cooperation is greatly appreciated.
The on-line registration will be available soon at the Registration page.