15 April 2004
Global Terrestrial Observing System (GTOS)
Status Report 2003
G3OS
9th G3OS Sponsors Meeting
FAO HQ, Rome, Italy, 26 May 2004
Ninth Meeting of the Sponsors Group for the
Global Observing Systems
Doc-12-v1
Introduction
The GTOS mission is to provide policy-makers, resource managers and researchers with access to the
data and information they need to detect, quantify, locate, and warn of changes (especially reductions) in
the capacity of terrestrial ecosystems to support sustainable development.
The programme focuses on five issues of global concern:
i
changes in land quality;
ii
availability of freshwater resources;
iii loss of biodiversity;
iv climate change;
v
impacts of pollution and toxicity.
To achieve its goals, GTOS has developed a number of projects, initiatives and technical panels
(summarized in figure 1).
Fig 1 Overview of GTOS activities for 2002-2003
Key Issues
1. The new Programme Director of GTOS is Mr John Latham, Remote Sensing Officer of SDRN and
coordinator of the Africover project and the new Global Land Cover Network (GLCN) project.
2. Dr Bob Scholes has completed his two-year term as GTOS Chairman and Prof Berrien Moore has
been nominated as the next Chairman.
3. The current GTOS panel chairs are:
GOFC-GOLD Executive Director: Michael Brady (new), Canada Forest Service, Canada;
TCO Chairman: Shaun Quegan, Centre for Terrestrial Carbon Dynamics, Sheffield University, UK;
TOPC Chairman: Alan Belward, Global Vegetation Monitoring Unit, JRC, Ispra, Italy.
4. Collaboration and financial support have been obtained during the past year from the Czech Republic,
and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
5. A meeting of the GTOS Steering Committee is planned for October 2004.
6. Closer links are being created between GTOS, GLCN and GOFC-GOLD activities.
Please see the GTOS Biennial Report 2002-2003 for full details of recent developments.
2
Activities being undertaken
Technical Panels
GOFC-GOLD: Global Observations of Landcover Dynamics
Executive Director: Michael Brady
Global Observation of Forest and Land Cover Dynamics (GOFC-GOLD) is a GTOS panel aimed at
providing a coordinated international effort to supply space-based and in situ forest and land cover
observation, its aims is to obtain an accurate, reliable and quantitative understanding of global change
processes.
Progress
GOFC-GOLD activities have been carried out primarily through the teams for Land Cover and for Fire
Implementation. Activities include:
•
Development of a global synthesis of areas of rapid land cover change, in support of the
Millennium Ecosystem Assessment.
•
Collaboration with the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites Working Group on Calibration
and Validation (CEOS Cal/Val Working Group) and other entities producing global land cover
products, in developing definitions and methods for implementing uniform validation
procedures.
•
Partnership with FAO to develop assessment of forest cover and change, based on combined use
of remote sensing and in situ observations, to support the Forest Resource Assessment, using a
global sampling design and global Landsat archive.
•
Development of a joint North American and European assessment of the status of tropical
forests, using earth observation data.
•
Contribution to the completed SIBERIA 2 project and the new Boreal Forest project – The
Boreas-Machine – that focuses on the analysis of carbon fluxes and greenhouse gas accounting in
Eurasia.
•
Collaboration in the development of the UN Global Land Cover Network, initiated in 2002,
concentrating on support to UNEP and FAO in their needs for Land Cover data and information.
The Land Cover Classification System (LCCS) will be used to harmonize land cover products
developed in past, current and future GOFC-GOLD initiatives.
•
Organization of topical workshops, e.g. on fire emissions.
To strengthen the GOFC-GOLD framework, to coordinate, promote and fulfil the GOFC Land Cover
implementation plan, and to support the European Space Agency and related projects and services, a
new ESA GOFC-GOLD Land Cover Project Office (GOFC-GOLD LC PO) was established in February
2004. Prof. Christiane Schmullius, the Co-chair of the GOFC-GOLD Land Cover Implementation Team
(LC-IT) jointly with David Skole from the Michigan State University, leads the ESA LC-IT office. The
Project Office is located at the Geoinformatics Department of the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena,
Germany and is funded by ESA for the duration of three years.
www.fao.org/gtos/gofc-gold/index.html
3
TCO: Terrestrial Carbon Observations
Chairman: Shaun Quegan
The new TCO panel was formed in December 2003 and is comprised of the following individuals:
Shaun Quegan (TCO panel leader), Damian Barrett (modelling theme leader), Robert B. Cook (in situ
theme leader), Ruth Defries (satellite theme leader), James Randerson, Larry L. Tieszen and Anatoly
Shvidenko. The first step of the panel has been to review and update the TCO implementation plan.
Closer links are also being established with GOFC-GOLD, GLCN, and IGOS.
A meeting on improved quantification of global carbon cycle fluxes was held in Sheffield, UK, 3-6 June,
2003. The workshop was intended to advance the availability of more accurate and mutually consistent
estimates of the distribution of carbon sources and sinks at a regional and global level. A set of
recommendations were developed and a journal article is in the final preparation stage before submission
(the report is available at: www.fao.org/gtos/tcoPUB.html).
A workshop on carbon reporting is being organized in collaboration with the Joint Research Centre
(JRC, 21-25 June 2004, Prague). EU and future EU national experts responsible for Land Use Change
and Forestry (LUCF) reporting will be invited to the meeting so that country annual reporting to the
LUCF can be assessed. The basic procedures and data sets used by countries for creating the annual
reports will be evaluated and recommendations on improving and harmonizing country annual reports of
greenhouse gas emissions and sinks to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
(UNFCCC) and EU Monitoring Mechanism Committee (EU-MM) will be made.
www.fao.org/gtos/TCO.html
TOPC: Terrestrial Observation Panel on Climate
Chairman: Alan Belward
Terrestrial Observation Panel for Climate (TOPC) is involved in long-term projects monitoring
terrestrial processes that affect or are being affected by climate change. Currently the main focus of
TOPC was on the second Report on the Adequacy of Global Climate Observing Systems, being prepared
for the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
(UNFCCC). The process included assessing current observing capacities relative to the needs of the
Convention; identifying gaps in the scientific requirements; and providing preliminary views on progress
since the first Adequacy Report.
Of the 80 or more variables currently considered necessary for TOPC, the second Adequacy Report
highlighted river discharge, water use, groundwater, lake levels, snow cover, glaciers and ice caps,
permafrost and seasonally frozen ground, albedo, land cover, fraction of absorbed photosynthetically
active radiation (FAPAR), leaf-area index (LAI), biomass and fire disturbance, for early implementation,
because of their significance for UNFCCC.
www.wmo.ch/web/gcos/gcoshome.html
Main programme activities
TEMS: Terrestrial Ecosystem Monitoring Sites database
Coordinator: Géraud Servin
The database is being continually updated and improved. It now contains 1 720 sites and 47
environmental networks, 115 environmental variables, 60 socio-economic sheets, maps, and modules on
Coastal and the FAO Forest Resources Assessment (FRA). The FRA module includes forest cover
change maps and data related to the 1980s, 1990s and 2000. The current version of TEMS is now also
4
available on mini CD-ROM. New modules have been created for biodiversity and hydrology and a
mountains module is under development. New sites, networks, and datasets are currently being
identified and registered. TEMS is also being linked to the GOSIC data portal.
C-GTOS: Coastal monitoring
Coordinator: Robert Christian
The primary goal of the GTOS coastal initiative (C-GTOS) is to detect, assess and predict global and
large-scale regional changes associated with land-based and freshwater ecosystems along coasts. As
coastal areas have intensive human activity and are rich and diverse in natural resources, an understanding of coastal areas is of particular importance in guiding national and international policy
decisions.
C-GTOS made considerable progress. An expert panel has identified the framework for organizing
observations and issues relevant to coastal ecosystems. An implementation plan is being developed and
should be completed in early 2004. Members of the panel have been active in linking to other
programmes (e.g. C-GOOS, LOICZ) through a proposed Coastal Theme within the Integrated Global
Observing Strategy (IGOS). Issues that go beyond individual systems and involve use of satellite and
remote imaging will be addressed through IGOS.
The C-GTOS Strategic Design and Phase 1 Implementation Plan will be published this summer. It
envisions the development of a mature observing system integrated with other coastal activities and
proposes a group of initial products that provide proof of concept and provide needed capabilities and
capacity for the mature system. The initial narrow range of discrete elements have been selected to
structure early activities of C-GTOS, namely:
 Develop an inventory of sites appropriate for observations and analyses of delivery of water, solids
and nutrients to coastal waters.
 Construct a functional typology of the coast and evaluate the distribution of functional units, using
informatics approaches. This recognizes that different environmental issues may have unique
zones of influence on observed responses.
 Integrate and extend the World Resources Institute Earth Trends coastal habitat maps for
observing system purposes and link them to land use and land cover and the distribution of
conservation and cultural sites in the coastal zone.
 Enhance the capabilities of the TEMS to better provide the necessary products of a mature CGTOS.
 Determine and analyse the distribution of coastal population, urbanization and land use, and their
effects in the coastal zone.
These short-term products are designed to provide clear evidence of the value of C-GTOS. Longer-term
products have been proposed but will be further developed once a community of observing sites is
established and users become more engaged.
All general C-GTOS activities are run with the financial support of the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), United States of America. Support for the functional typology
efforts has come from NOAA as well.
www.fao.org/gtos/tems/mod_coa.jsp
5
NPP project
Coordinator: Paul Reichert
In GTOS, there is an ongoing effort to compare gross primary production (GPP) estimated using the
MODIS sensor with data from ground observations at various European FLUXNET/CARBOEUROPE
eddy covariance tower sites. The sites selected for comparison range from 38° to 67° N and comprise
boreal and temperate conifer forests (spruce, pine), temperate and Mediterranean deciduous forests
(beech, oak), Mediterranean evergreen broadleaf forests, and a savannah-type Mediterranean ecosystem.
Given the independent nature (not fitted against flux data) and the simplicity of the MODIS-GPP model,
its overall performance in predicting GPP is remarkable under normal conditions (r2 between 0.7 and
0.95). The assimilated meteorology does not capture all day-to-day variation, but matches the local
tower data well on an eight-day scale. However, at certain sites the meteorological bias influences
estimates of GPP significantly.
Furthermore, there is potential for considerable improvements of the GPP algorithm by better accounting
for soil drought effects, by reducing the radiation-use efficiency under high-radiation conditions, and by
introducing more geo-biological variability. It has been shown that these parts of the MODIS-GPP
algorithm can be re-parameterized using CARBOEUROPE eddy covariance data, so the synergistic use
of MODIS and CARBOEUROPE data will improve the ability of a global terrestrial observation system.
www.fao.org/gtos/tems/mod_coa.jsp
External activities endorsed by GTOS
1. Global Observation Research Initiative in Alpine Environments project (GLORIA);
2. Global Change and Mountain Regions - The Mountain Research Initiative (MRI);
3. Siberia II.
GTOS Organization
Steering Committee
Chair: Robert SCHOLES (South Africa)
Members: Up to 7 representatives among internationally recognized scientists
Sponsor
representatives: Jeff TSCHIRLEY (FAO)
Norberto FERNANDEZ (UNEP)
Kenneth DAVIDSON (WMO)
Thomas ROSSWALL (ICSU)
Salvatore ARICO (UNESCO)
Programme Director: John LATHAM
Secretariat: 2 professional officers, 2 programme officers, 2 support staff, 2 Consultants, 1 volunteer
Finances: During 2003 support was received from FAO, the Czech Republic, European Community,
Finland, ICSU, NOAA, UNEP, UNESCO, and WMO.
6
Scientific meetings
2004
23-26 February
2-4 March
23–25 March
April
27 May
20-24 June
Regional GOFC-GOLD Workshop
GOFC-GOLD Land Cover Implementation Team Meeting
Global Geostationary Fire Monitoring Applications
GTOS Coastal Implementation Plan Workshop
IGOS 11th Partners meeting
Standardization of carbon measurement methods and
reporting
Standardization of land cover mapping methods
GLCN Training Workshop - Latin America
GTOS steering committee meeting
GOFC-GOLD Executive Committee meeting
GLCN Training Workshop – Middle East
St.Petersburg, Russia
Jena, Germany
Darmstadt, Germany
Rome, Italy
Rome, Italy
Prague,
Czech
Republic
Rome, Italy
Chile, Santiago
Rome, Italy
Edmonton, Canada
TBA
Washington DC, USA
Paris, France
Ispra, Italy
Ispra, Italy
Mazatlan, Mexico
Sheffield, UK
17- 23 Aug.
IGOS Coastal Theme Development Workshop
ICSU Assessment meeting
Meeting of the GTOS Coastal panel
GOFC-GOLD Executive Committee Meeting
COOP V
TCO/GCP Improved quantification of global carbon cycle
fluxes, TCO/GCP
4th Meeting of Southern Africa Fire Network (SAFNET)
9-13 Sep.
7 Oct.
7-9 Oct.
19-22 Oct.
10-14 Nov.
1-6 Dec.
2-4 Dec.
13 Dec.
16-18 Dec.
GOFC-GOLD Forest Fire Management workshop
GOFC-GOLD Fire Implementation Team Meeting
GOSIC review
GTOS Coastal Implementation Plan Workshop
Africa Sahel GLCN training workshop
Asia Cover/GLCN training workshop
GTOS Biodiversity workshop
TCO Panel meeting
TOPC panel meeting
July
Summer
7-8 October
October
September
2003
15-16 Jan.
21-22 Feb.
3-6 March
16-18 March
24-27 March
3-6 June
For more details please refer to www.fao.org/gtos/Resmeeting.html and
www.fao.org/gtos/gofc-gold/2004_e.html.
7
Kruger Nat. Park,
South Africa
Khabarovsk, Russia
Sydney, Australia
Lewes, USA
La Selva, Costa Rica
Dakar, Senegal
Bangkok, Thailand
Berlin, Germany
San Francisco, USA
Rome, Italy