NATIONAL CO-ORDINATING COMMITTEES FOR GOOS

 

At the second session of the GOOS Steering Committee, Beijing, April 1999, members agreed that individual countries should be encouraged to develop national groups to promote the development of GOOS. This could be done, as suggested by GOOS-AFRICA, by establishing National GOOS Coordinating Committees (NGCCs) to develop and strengthen the effectiveness of the national institutional infrastructures in support of operational oceanography and marine meteorology. This would stimulate the development of GOOS on a national and regional basis. Some nations already have such committees, which in some instances are outgrowths of or subcommittees to National Oceanographic Committees. However, in principle NGCCs should differ from National Oceanographic Committees in bringing together all of the potential stakeholders, both suppliers and users, including academia, all relevant branches of government, commerce and industry.

Based on the GOOS-AFRICA recommendation, NGCCs will be expected to:

1. Determine user needs and specify the data and products required to satisfy those needs;
2. Identify and work to improve existing national capabilities, including human skills and available technology;
3. Identify gaps in those capabilities, including inadequacies in present observing and data management systems, and work to correct them, focussing (a) on training and practical assistance related to meeting users' needs in the coastal zone and elsewhere, and (b) on formulating plans to fill gaps;
4. Pay special attention to exploiting the opportunities offered by the increasing number and variety of observations of the coastal zone and open ocean from space satellites;
5. Promote communication between marine scientists and coastal managers and other potential users of GOOS data and information through the development of national, regional and global electronic networking;
6. Promote the design and implementation of regionally coordinated strategies for data acquisition, integration, synthesis and dissemination of products to improve coastal zone assessment, the assessment of other environments, and the forecasting and prediction of environmental change;
7. Develop regional pilot projects to demonstrate the usefulness of the GOOS system in the coastal zones and surrounding oceans, and encourage participation in ongoing GOOS pilot projects;
8. Evaluate costs and benefits as the basis for persuading governments, donor agencies and the private sector to support a data acquisition programme and associated capacity building.
9. Promote GOOS development and expansion through appropriate communication.