The IUGG Electronic Journal Volume 17 No. 6 (1 June 2017)
INTERNATIONAL UNION OFGEODESY AND GEOPHYSICS
UNION GEODESIQUE ET GEOPHYSIQUEINTERNATIONALE
The IUGG ElectronicJournal
Volume 17 No. 6 (1 June 2017)
Thisinformal newsletter is intended to keep IUGG Member National Committeesinformed about the activities of the IUGG Associations, and actions of the IUGGSecretariat. Past issues are posted on the IUGG website (http://www.iugg.org/publications/ejournals/).Please forward this message to those who will benefit from the information.Your comments are welcome.
Contents
1. Next IUGG business meetings
2. Sixth Session of the Partner Advisory Committee (PAC) forthe Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS)
3. News from the International Council for Sciences (ICSU)
4. Cambridge University Press offers discount on books forIUGG scientists
5. Awards and honors
6. Meeting calendar
1. Next IUGG business meetings
The IUGG President Michael Sideris announced the dates of the next IUGGbusiness meetings to take place in Montreal, Canada, in 2017: the Bureau willmeet on 19 September, the Executive Committee on 20-21 September, and theScientific Program Committee for the XXVII General Assembly of IUGG (IUGG2019)on 22 September. The IUGG Bureau and Executive Committee will review theactivity of the Union and its Associations since the last meeting in Paris,France, in 2016, and will discuss major issues of the Union’s activity for thenext two years before the 2019 General Assembly including a detailed plan forcelebration of the Union’s centennial, improving the visibility of the Unionand the linkage to other international programs and activities, and othertopics.
The Scientific Program Committee is comprised of the Chair and SecretariesGeneral of the Union and its eight Associations. The IUGG Executive Committeeappointed Spiros Pagiatakis (Professor at York University, Toronto, Canada) asChair of the Science Program Committee. Fiona-Ann Darbyshire (Professor atUniversité du Québec à Montréal, Canada) was appointed the Chair of the LocalOrganizing Committee of the IUGG2019.
2. Sixth Session of the Partner Advisory Committee (PAC) for the GlobalFramework for Climate Services (GFCS)
The meeting was held on 6 and 7 March in Rome, Italy, and hosted by the Foodand Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The meeting wasattended by some 16 individuals, three of whom participated for part of thetime by video links to the FAO office in Senegal, the EC in Brussels, and theStockholm Environment Institute. Two additional organizations have recentlyjoined the Committee: the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts(ECMWF) and UNESCO, bringing the total number of formal members to 18. Themeeting was opened by the FAO Assistant Director General. It was first chairedby Martin Frick, Director of the FAO Climate, Energy and Tenure Division, andthen by FAO Natural Resources Officer Selvaraju Ramasamy. As in the past, thewhole meeting was held in a very amicable and constructive atmosphere with themembers recognizing the importance of working together to achieve the aims ofthe GFCS – not just on paper but out in the field. At least half the time wasdevoted to the reviewing progress with projects being implemented in each ofthe PAC Focus Countries, namely: Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Dominica, Moldova, PapuaNew Guinea, and United Republic of Tanzania. Some have made good progress butone or two could report no progress at all on this occasion. It is alwaysnecessary to work with the local meteorological services, but many wereseriously understaffed and in one case the service had had seven directors insix years. By invoking the Chatham House Rule, participants were encouraged tobe very open and frank about the challenges they face, a rare situation whichgreatly facilitated the discussion of sensitive issues.
The GFCS was launched some five years ago to run, at least initially, for tenyears. It has therefore been decided to undertake a mid-term review. Forreasons that were not explained, this review will be undertaken by a team fromthe University of Arizona. It is very likely that they will contact IUGG aspart of this study. It was agreed to support a proposal to extend the terms ofreference of the PAC to include the promotion of co-ordination at internationaland national level. It was recognized that the PAC has no authority in thisregard but is in a good position to promote greater integration and identifyduplication. It was accepted that co-ordination at national level is ultimatelythe responsibility of the national governments concerned. While the documentssubmitted to PAC meetings include references to many projects and relatedactivities, the Secretariat has never assembled these into a unified “workplan”. The Norwegian Refugee Council offered to compile such a plan overthe next few months. There are plans to set up a “Help Desk” to facilitateaccess to the large amount of data and other information that can be exchangedworld-wide in relation to climate services. There was strong support for theproposal, but some participants preferred to use terms such as “marketplace” or“clearing house”. The meeting was pleased to learn of the widespread interestin climate change and climate services but was concerned that this was leadingto ever greater competition for scare funds. For example, even the UnitedNations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) now wants to start a climate programme. Diogo DeGusmão-Sørensen of the European Commission’s Directorate on Research andInnovation spoke by video link at some length about the possibility ofobtaining funding from the EC’s various research funds. The next meeting of thePAC is expected to be held on 13 May 2017 in Geneva, Switzerland, and the GFCSManagement Committee is next expected to meet on 17 and 18 October 2017.
Arthur Askew, WMO and PAC/GFCS Liaison Officer
3. News from the International Council for Science (ICSU)
New report on SDG Interactions
ICSU released a report “A Guide to SDG Interactions: from Science toImplementation”, which examines the interactions between the various goals andtargets, determining to what extent they reinforce or conflict with each other.It provides a blueprint to help countries implement and achieve the SustainableDevelopment Goals (SDGs). More information can be found at: https://www.icsu.org/publications/a-guide-to-sdg-interactions-from-science-to-implementation.
ICSU at the UN Ocean Conference
ICSU is convening two side events at the Ocean Conference in New York from 5 to9 June. The two events are on: (i) Interconnections among the SDGs as a forcemultiplier for implementation of SDG14; and (ii) Hacking science for Ocean Literacy:What’s needed to fully implement SDG14? More information on the events isavailable at: https://www.icsu.org/current/news/icsu-at-the-u-n-ocean-conference.
Annual Report 2016
ICSU released its Annual Report, highlighting key achievements in 2016: https://www.icsu.org/publications/annual-report-2016.
Source:ICSU website
4. Cambridge University Press offers discount on books for IUGG scientists
IUGG scientists can purchase selected books published by the CambridgeUniversity Press at a 20% discount. For this, please link to www.cambridge.org/iugg-scientist.
To order and buy, add the chosen book(s) to the basket, then enter the codeIUGG17 (due to end March 2018) at the checkout to get the discount.
5. Awards and honors
Harsh Gupta, IUGG President (2011-2015), was awarded HonoraryMembership of the Asia Oceania Geosciences Society (AOGS).
Gordon McBean, IUGG Fellow, was awarded the 62nd InternationalMeteorological Organization (IMO) Prize. The IMO Prize, the most importantaward in meteorology, is named after WMO’s predecessor organization theInternational Meteorological Organization and is awarded annually to scientiststhat have made outstanding contributions to meteorology, hydrology andgeophysical sciences.
6. Meeting calendar
A calendar of meetings of interest to IUGG disciplines (especially thoseorganized by IUGG Associations) is posted on the IUGG website (http://www.iugg.org/calendar.php).Individual Associations also list more meetings on their websites according totheir disciplines.
June
- 6-9, ISPRS, Hanover, Germany, ISPRS Hannover Workshop 2017.
Web: https://www.ipi.uni-hannover.de/hrigi17.html
- 11-17, IACS, SCAR, Fort Collins, CO, USA, 2017 GlacialSeismology Training School. Web: http://polenet.org/?page_id=2769
- 12-23, ICTP, IUGG, Trieste, Italy, Fourth Workshop on WaterResources in Developing Countries: Hydroclimate Modeling and Analysis Tools.
Web: http://indico.ictp.it/event/7969/
- 18-23, IAHS, UNESCO, Birmingham, UK, HydroEco 2017: The 6thInternational Multidisciplinary Conference on Hydrology and Ecology.
Web: http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/generic/hydroeco2017/index.aspx
- 25-30, IAMAS, Helsinki, Finland, ICNAA2017 - 20thInternational Conference on Nucleation and Atmospheric Aerosols. Web: http://www.icnaa2017.net/
- 25 June – 1 July, IAGA, Valtice, Czech Republic. The 2ndConference on Natural Dynamos. Web: http://valtice.ig.cas.cz/index.html
- 26-30, CTBTO, Vienna, Austria, The CTBT: Science andTechnology 2017 Conference (SnT2017). Web: https://ctnw.ctbto.org/DMZ/snt2017.html
July
- 2-7, ICA, Washington, DC, USA, ICC 2017 - 28thInternational Cartographic Conference.
Web: http://icc2017.org/
- 3-5, UCPS, Berlin, Germany, 1st IUGG Symposium on PlanetaryScience (IUGG-PS 2017) - Interdisciplinary observation and understanding of theSolar System.
Web: http://www.dlr.de/iugg-ps2017
- 3-7, IAG, Paris, France. 2017 IGS Workshop.
Web: http://kb.igs.org/hc/en-us/articles/216574478-IGS-Workshop-2017
- 3-15, NC BRAZIL, IAMAS, Sao Paulo, Brazil. São Paulo Schoolof Advanced Science on Climate Change: Scientific Basis, Adaptation,Vulnerability and Mitigation.
Web: http://www.incline.iag.usp.br/data/spsascc
- 6-7, UNESCO-IGCP, Yaoundé, Cameroon, Training Course of theInternational Geosciences Programme (Project 646). Contact: igcp646sec@yahoo.fr
- 7-9, IUGG, IAMAS, Toulouse, France. Training Workshop onProcessing of Cloud Particle Measurements.
Web: http://www.halo.dlr.de/plans/documents/TrainingWorkshopPreliminaryAgenda.pdf
- 10-12, IAG, Paris, France, Unified Analysis Workshop.
Web: http://ggosdays.com/en/conferences/unified-analysis-workshop
- 10-14, IAHS, Port Elizabeth, South Africa. IAHS ScientificAssembly 2017.
Web: http://cwrr.ukzn.ac.za/iahs/call-for-papers/iahs-2017-in-south-africa---invitation
- 10-14, WCRP, UNESCO-IOC, New York City, NY, USA.International WCRP/IOC Conference on Regional Sea Level Changes and CostalImpacts.
Web: http://www.sealevel2017.org
- 16-29, CODATA, Beijing, China, CODATA InternationalTraining Workshop in Open data for Better Science, for Researchers from Lowerand Middle Income Countries. Web: http://www.codata.org/news/159/62/Apply-for-CODATA-International-Training-Workshop-in-Open-Data-for-Better-Science-Deadline-25-April-2017
- 25-27, GRC, IAG, Sendai, Japan, 2017 GNSS Tsunami EarlyWarning System Workshop. Web: https://geodynamics.org/cig/events/calendar/gnss-workshop/
- July 30 - August 4, IAG, IASPEI, Kobe, Japan. IAG-IASPEIJoint Scientific Assembly 2017. Web: http://www.iag-iaspei-2017.jp/
August
- 1-2, IACS, Lanzhou, China, International Workshop onCryosphere Change and Sustainable Development. Web: http://www.nieer.cas.cn/tzgg/ywtz/201612/P020161226414382929083.pdf
- 6-11, AOGS, Singapore, Asia Oceania Geosciences SocietyAnnual Meeting. Web: http://www.asiaoceania.org/aogs2017/public.asp?page=home.htm
- 14-18, IAVCEI, Portland, USA, IAVCEI Scientific Assembly2017. Web: http://iavcei2017.org/
- 19-26, URSI, Montreal, Canada, 32nd URSI General Assembly& Scientific Symposium. Web: http://www.ursi2017.org/
- 27-30, YES, Tehran, Iran, 4th YES Congress. Web: http://conf.yesnetwork.ir/index.php
- August 27 - September 1, IAPSO, IAMAS, IAGA, Cape Town,South Africa, Joint Scientific Assembly 2017. Web: http://www.iapso-iamas-iaga2017.com/
- August 30 - September 1, CODATA, Berlin, Germany, DCH 2017- Interdisciplinary Conference on Digital Cultural Heritage. Web: http://dch2017.net/
IUGG Electronic Journal Volume 17 Number 6 (1 June 2017)
Editors: Tom Beer, Alik Ismail-Zadeh (Editor-in-Chief), Franz Kuglitsch(Associate Editor), and Kathryn Whaler.
If you no longer wish to receive the IUGG Electronic Journal, please send anemail to the IUGG Secretariat (secretariat@iugg.org).