GEOCRI Work Programme 2017-2019 - GEO Cold Regions Initiative

GEO Work Programme 2017-2019

Executive Summary

The “Cold Regions”, that include the Arctic, Antarctic, high-latitude oceans, Himalaya-Third Pole and Mountain cold areas, are experiencing the fastest rate of climate, ecological and environmental change. With its abundant Earth water and relevant phase changing, the cold regions severely affect the dynamic earth’s systems, impact more than one hundred countries of billions of people living therein, and influence many aspects of society in all parts of the world. Recent scientific research is making it increasingly clear that “What happens in the poles doesn’t stay in the poles”.

Aiming to share the vision of the intergovernmental Group on Earth Observations (GEO) to address the global environmental change, and its resulting impacts and challenges on all aspects of society, an Information Service for Cold Regions was established to broaden and share Earth observations for societal benefits, and inform the decision makers, through strengthening coordination with diverse communities, engagement and collaboration of stakeholders including decision makers and etc..

Building on these accomplishments during the first phase of Information Service for Cold Regions at the first 10-year implementation of GEOSS, the GEO Cold Regions Initiative (GEOCRI) was proposed and accepted by GEO XII plenary in November, 2015, which is also a Year of Polar Prediction (YOPP) endorsed activity, and its vision is to provide coordinated Earth observations and information services across a range of stakeholders to facilitate well-informed decisions and support the sustainable development of the Cold Regions globally.

The GEOCRI mission is to develop a user-driven approach for Cold Regions information services to complement the mainly current science-driven effort, which will strengthen synergies between the environmental, climate, and cryosphere research efforts and foster the collaboration for improved earth observations and information on a global scale.

The GEOCRI community consists of a team of Task leads, contributors and observers. Contributors can join theme-specific Task Teams to work on specific activities according to their interests. The colead team works together on user engagement and general coordination and reporting of the GEOCRI activities. In addition, an institution, foundation or interested group can join GEOCRI as an Observer, which means that they will be updated about the progress and activities, without not directly taking part in the activities. The GEOCRI will be managed through the scientific committee.

Plan with time, approaches, milestones, and deliverables and task teams, the activities conducted in GEOCRI are grouped into six tasks: Infrastructures, Monitoring Network and Data, In-situ and Remote Sensing Integration, User Engagement and Communication, Capacity Building and Knowledge Transfer and Management and Monitoring. Each Task consists of activities with set milestones and deliverables during the Work Program 2017-2019. The range of deliverables varies from activity reports to stakeholder and user mapping to training and capacity building events and webinars. Majority of the milestones and deliverables of the 2017-2019 implementation plan are set to the two first years of the programme period in order to add new milestones and deliverables, geared towards the transition from implementation to operational stage starting in 2019 and during the next work programme period 2020 onwards.

The implementation of GEOCRI mainly rely on the in-kind contributions, and aims at leveraging the resources of participating initiatives and organizations to align with GEOCRI’s objectives.

Download - GEOCRI WP 2017-2019PDF • 795KB