The IGCP 565 Project

The IGCP 565 Project brings together and links research projects carried out in different parts of the world that support the goal of the Project, that is, to provide improved Earth observations and products for regional water management, particularly in developing countries. The main focus of the IGCP 565 Project is on the Global Geodetic Observing System (GGOS), which provides observations inherently related to mass transport in the global water cycle. The full potential of these observations remains to be utilized and the project aims to facilitate this utilization.

Most of the research relevant to the IGCP 565 Project are carried out in on-going or proposed projects funded by national funding agencies and lead by individual or sub-groups of the project leaders and contributors (see here for a list of the project leaders and contributors). The list of currently on-going research projects contributing to the IGCP 565 Project includes projects in the U.S., Germany, and Australia, and covers projects focusing mainly on joint inversions of geodetic observations for hydrological signals (the full list of currently contributing projects is available here).

The main activities of the IGCP 565 Project will consist in a series of five annual workshops to be held in the period 2008 to 2012. These workshops will provide a forum for the contributing projects to discuss progress, exchange results, and coordinate activities. Moreover, the workshops will provide the forum to meet with users engaged in regional water management and to disseminate the results of the contributing projects to these users. A more detailed description of these workshops can be found here.

The IGCP 565 Project is a contribution to the work of the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) and particularly to the GEO Work Plan Tasks in the Societal Benefit Area Water. The International Geoscience Programme (IGCP) - formerly International Geological Correlation Programme - is a joint endeavor of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) and supports interaction of disciplines such as geological, hydrological, ecological, oceanographic, atmospheric and biological sciences.

A full list of supporting and/or related organizations is available here.