GEO UNION INITIATIVE
1. The GU-Management Team (GU-MT), comprising the Presidents and Secretaries
General of IGU, IUGG, IUGS and IUSS, decided, at a meeting held in Paris on
February 7 2004, to launch a joint scientific program. Robin Brett, past President
of IUGS and current member of the ICSU Executive Board, participated in the
meeting. The GU meeting and the decision to create a joint science program were
reported at the ICSU Unions Meeting that took place on February 9-10. The initiative
was met with appreciation and encouragement, and is expected to become an example
for other ICSU Unions to emulate. ISPRS (Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing)
expressed interest in joining the GU program.
1. Five topics were selected for the GU joint science program:
2.1. Desertification
2.1. Groundwater
2.1. Hazards (natural and man-made)
2.1. Health
2.1. Mega-Cities (and cities in general).
3. Each topic is to be led by one of the Unions; a Team is set up with a Leader
from this Union, and the other Unions assign their representatives to the Team.
A separate document shows the present membership of the teams.
4. The joint science program should be innovative and challenging, and relevant
to society.
5. The Teams should base their programs, to the extent relevant and feasible,
on existing activities within the GUs and on links with other ongoing or potential
science programs. There are also potential synergies between the various topics
of the program, which should be explored and promoted.
6. In addition, coordination should be sought wherever relevant with the Science
Program of the International Year of Planet Earth IYPE), an initiative of IUGS,
which has been joined by the three other Unions as Full Members.
IYPE has selected nine themes: Hazards, Health, Climate, Resources, Megacities,
Deep Earth, Ocean, Soils, Groundwater.
Wherever possible the IYPE and GU science programs should be coordinated/matched.
The topic Health is medical geology!