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IGWCO becomes a GEO Community of Practice
By Rick Lawford, Chair of the IGWCO Science Committee, and Wolfgang Grabs, Chair of the IGWCO Executive Committee
The fifth planning meeting for Integrated Global Water Cycle Observations (IGWCO) was held back-to-back with the Asia-Pacific Symposium on 2-3 February. Sponsored by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), the University of Tokyo and the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the meeting reviewed IGWCO developments over the past year, with a specific focus on those activities that support the GEO Water Tasks.
The meeting agreed that in the future the IGWCO activity should be treated under GEO as a Community of Practice (CoP). Details about how to link with the current Water Cycle CoP under the User Interface Committee (UIC) will be worked out in the coming months. This new entity is expected to strengthen IGWCO’s existing links with GEO and to provide new linkages to GEO committees, including the Science and Technology Committee. After considerable discussion, it was agreed that the new CoP should adopt the name Integrated Global Water Cycle Observations (IGWCO) Community of Practice. The IGWCO CoP will also serve as a bridge between GEO and relevant activities of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Technical Commission for Hydrology (CHy).
The meeting also featured briefings by the GEO Secretariat and representatives from members of GEO and of the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS). These made it clear that substantial progress is being made in areas such as soil moisture, water quality, runoff, integrated data systems, capacity building and pilot projects. New initiatives since the last meeting include the African Water Cycle Initiative (led by Japan) and work related to drought monitoring and drought impacts (led by the USA and Canada). These new activities are being incorporated into the 2009-2011 GEO work plan and will serve as a focus for a number of IGWCO efforts in the coming year.
A number of other recommendations and plans came out of the meeting, including plans to initiate several workshops, one with GEO BON and a second with UNESCO’s HELP (Hydrology for Environment, Life and Policy) community. As part of the continuing role of coordinating GEO Water Tasks, IGWCO also welcomed the opportunity to work with IEEE and its Water for the World pilot projects. Other proposals for pilot projects from the meeting will be discussed in the context of IGWCO and the IEEE framework when more details are available.
The IGWCO meeting benefited greatly from the increasing presence of representatives from developing countries, who are keen to expand their active engagement in the Community’s goals and activities. Many of the meeting presentations have been posted on the web here; the full report will be available soon and will be posted here. |
