The first two days will be devoted to the First GOOS Users' Forum meeting in which representatives of national and regional GOOS groups will participate. The last three days will be the panel meeting. Professor Manuel Murillo, of the University (and past Chairman of IOC), is heading the local organizing committee.

The international community is developing GOOS in response to calls from the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED, Rio, June 1992) and the World Climate Conference (Geneva, 1979) for systematic global observations to be made to: (i) improve weather forecasts, climate predictions and the mitigation of natural hazards; (ii) assess the state and health of marine ecosystems and the resources they support; and (iii) enable the development and implementation of scientifically sound environmental policies that take into account natural and anthropogenic changes in marine ecosystems and the effects of these changes on people.

The effort to design the system and make the transition from concept to reality is being led by the GOOS Steering Committee (GSC). Four panels of the GSC have been working to formulate recommendations for the design and implementation of GOOS in four modules: (i) climate change – Ocean Observing Panel for Climate (OOPC), (ii) chemical and biological contamination – Health of The Oceans (HOTO) Panel, (iii) sustainability of living marine resources – Living Marine Resources (LMR) Panel, and (iv) environmental change in coastal marine and estuarine ecosystems – Coastal (C-GOOS) Panel.

The initial strategic design plans for each module will be completed soon; thereupon the GSC has determined that the HOTO, LMR and C-GOOS efforts will be merged into the COOP to formulate integrated design and implementation plans. GOOS will then develop through two related and convergent components: (i) a basin-scale component concerned primarily with the role of the ocean in the Earth's climate system (OOPC) and (ii) a coastal component concerned primarily (but not exclusively) with environmental changes in coastal marine and estuarine ecosystems and their impacts on people (COOP).

Given the importance of input from user groups to the development of GOOS, the COOP meeting is being held in connection with the First GOOS User’s Forum. The purpose of the Forum is to:

· Insure that the design and implementation of the coastal component of GOOS reflects the priorities of national and regional GOOS programmes and the needs of user groups represented by these programmes (i.e., that it is a user-driven, integrated, end-to-end system that can and should be sustained);

· Strengthen national and regional GOOS programmes by facilitating the exchange of information on new technologies, approaches and knowledge among participating nations; and

· Promote the global scale implementation of all components of GOOS.

An important feature of the Forum will be discussion of the current design plan and priorities for implementation. The chairs of the LMR, HOTO, and C-GOOS Panels will present their strategic designs for critical review by all participants. In addition the representatives of GOOS national and regional committees will present the needs of users in their country/region for GOOS data and products, and the plans to meet these needs.

For more detailed information about GOOS, see the GOOS web-site (http://ioc.unesco.org/goos). Further details about the First GOOS User’s Forum and COOP meeting can be obtained from:

Dr Thorkild Aarup
GOOS Project Office
Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission
UNESCO
1, rue Miollis
75732 Paris Cedex 15
France
E-mail: t.aarup@unesco.org

Prof. Manuel M. Murillo
Director
Oficina de Asuntos Internacionales y Cooperación Externa
Universidad de Costa Rica
San José
Costa Rica
Fax: +506 225 5822
E-mail: mmurillo@cariari.ucr.ac.cr