Integrated Global Observing Strategy
Partnership
Eleventh IGOS Partners Meeting
Rome, Italy
27 May 2004
IGOS-P 11
Doc??
Item 7.4
Proposal for convening a working group on
Socio-economic data relevant to IGOS Themes
SUMMARY AND PURPOSE
Action 10-10 called for “Co-Chairs and ICSU to establish a socio-economic working
group to look at generic socio-economic issues common to each of the Themes before
the IGOS-P 11.” This paper proposes draft terms of reference to respond to this action.
ACTION PROPOSED
I.
To approve the Terms of Reference for a working group to examine
socio-economic issues relevant IGOS and to call for ICSU and the IGOS co-chairs to
convene this meeting.
Proposal for convening a working group on
Socio-economic data relevant to IGOS Themes
Introduction
Accurate information on the current state of the Earth System is essential to improve our
ability to reduce uncertainties, assess impacts, and predict change. Our ability to
quantify the physical environment of the Earth has improved dramatically with improved
remote and in situ measurements. Changes in demographics and economic
development have led to increased awareness of the importance of the human
dimension and monitoring the impact of human activities on the Earth’s environment. To
respond to the needs of decision makers, as well as the scientific community, there
needs to be a more explicit integration of natural and social systems and close
collaboration between natural and social scientists.
The recognition of the importance of this integration has occurred at the highest political
level (e.g., Millennium Development Goals and the Johannesburg Plan of
Implementation). Recently the Framework document was adopted by at the Earth
Observation Summit II on 25 April 2004. This document enumerates some of the societal
benefits of comprehensive, coordinated and sustained Earth observations:
• Reducing loss of life and property from natural and human-induced disasters;
• Understanding environmental factors affecting human health and well being;
• Improving management of energy resources;
• Understanding, assessing, predicting, mitigating, and adapting to climate variability and
change;
• Improving water resource management through better understanding of the water
cycle;
• Improving weather information, forecasting, and warning;
• Improving the management and protection of terrestrial, coastal, and marine
ecosystems;
• Supporting sustainable agriculture and combating desertification;
• Understanding, monitoring, and conserving biodiversity.
An IGOS working group on socio-economic data relevant to IGOS would build on a
session that was jointly organized by IGOS and ISSC (International Social Science
Council), the Role of Global Observing system for Sustainable Development, at the
Forum on Science, Technology, and Innovation for Sustainable Development, held in
parallel to the World Summit on Sustainable Development. The discussion at this
session dealt with how to integrate environmental data with socio-economic information
for better decision making. The participants noted the gap between existing
environmental observing systems and the socio-economic observing systems, which are
still in their early stages of development, but concluded that there is a need for
socio-economic observing systems that provide data for integrated, coupled
human/natural models at local, regional and global levels.
At the IGOS-P-10 meeting, ICSU and the IGOS co-chairs were asked to “establish a
socio-economic working group to look at generic socio-economic issues common to
each of the Themes before the IGOS-P 11 [Action 10-10].” However with the emergence
of GEO and the lack of resources, convening such a meeting was not feasible. As Action
10-10 is probably too broad to accomplish with one meeting and since practical and
financial considerations will probably limit participation to about 10 experts, it is proposed
to change the charge to this working group to look at generic socio-economic issues
relevant to IGOS without explicitly tasking the group to address each of the IGOS
Themes.
The majority of the socio-economic working group participants should have extensive
experience in the relevant social sciences, and ICSU has been in consultation with ISSC
and IHDP (International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental
Change) for nominations. At a minimum it is suggested that there be IGOS
representation from an established and emerging Theme. Having a participant from the
remote sensing community and GEO would also be extremely valuable. ICSU has
submitted a proposal to US-NSF to support such a meeting and notification is expected
before July 2004. If there is a favourable response, ICSU would work with the IGOS
co-chairs to convene this working group based upon the following Terms of Reference.
Draft Terms of Reference
Mandate:
To produce a short report based upon discussion that addresses:
What is meant by socio-economic data (what variables are measured regularly
on a global scale)?
How these data are collected?
Why is it important to for IGOS to use socio-economic data?
What are the initial socio-economic data and methodological issues which
should be of high priority for IGOS?
What are the difficulties linking socio-economic databases with remote sensing
databases?
What are the generic steps that IGOS would need to take to take to achieve
these goals?