IGOS Geohazards - PO

The Integrated Global Observing Strategy (IGOS) was a strategic planning process initiated by a partnership of international organizations to respond to an insufficient access to adequate observations for global environmental issues. Its principal objectives were to address how well user requirements were being satisfied by the existing observations systems, and how they could have been met more effectively through a better integration and optimisation of satellite, airborne and in-situ observation systems.

The IGOS Partners recognised that it was not practical to attempt to define a comprehensive global observing system that would satisfy all needs for environmental information in a single step. Rather, they adopted a process that allowed for the coherent definition and development of an overall global strategy for the observation of selected environmental issues. Examples of such themes included the Oceans, Coastal Zone, Global Atmospheric Chemistry, and the Water and Carbon Cycles.

The Geohazards Theme was initiated and scoped in 2001 by UNESCO, CEOS and ICSU, three of the IGOS partners. With the support of a community of more than 200 experts worldwide and following an international peer review over the summer 2003, the IGOS Geohazards Theme Report was issued and endorsed by the IGOS Partners in November 2003.

The IGOS Geohazards Project Office was created in 2004 to coordinate and monitor the implementation of the Geohazards IGOS. This required:

• the coordination of the geohazard community through the organisation of events that bring together key players.
   
• the development of a series of inventories that aim to supplement the effort in structuring the geohazard community by making available information on observations, tools, institutions and laboratories.