Report on the Second LOICZ Open Science Meeting


Dr.W.E.Carter
Geosciences Laboratory
National Ocean Service
1305 East-West Highway
Silver Spring, MD 20910
USA

The Land-Ocean Interactions in the Coastal Zone (LOICZ) is one of seven Core Projects which comprise the International Geophere-Biosphere Program (IBGP): A study of Global Change. The LOICZ Implementation Plan, IBGP Report No. 33, states that the overall goal of the project "focuses on the area of the earth's surface where land, ocean, and atmosphere meet and interact" and the overall goal of the project is to "determine at regional and global scales: the nature of that dynamic interaction; how changes in various compartments of the Earth system are affecting coastal zones and altering their role in global cycles; to assess how future changes in these areas will affect their use by people; and to provide sound scientific basis for future integrated management of coastal areas on a sustainable basis."

The LOICZ project began in 1993 with the establishment of the Core Office at the Netherland Institute for Sea Research, and like all IGBP projects is scheduled to run for 10 years. Over 400 scientists were involved in developing the LOICZ Science Plan in 1993. The "Second LOICZ Open Science Meeting: The Dynamics of Global Change and the Coastal Zone" was held 24-27 April, 1995, at the Marine Science Institute, University of the Philippines, Quezon City, Philippines. In preparation for that meeting Jean Dickey, JPL, and I (with input from several others) drafted an activities plan for a new Framework Activity 6 - Determination of the Rates, Causes and Impacts of Sea Level Change.

The Rationale for including sea level change in the LOICZ Project is "Variations in sea level have local, regional and global causes and impacts. There is an immediate need to ensure that the most reliable data on rates and causes of sea level change are readily available to support LOICZ research activities concerned with the effects of current and predicted variations of sea level on coastal environmfents and resources."

The LOICZ approach will be to "work with the International Association for Physical Sciences of the Ocean (IAPSO), the International Association of Geodesy (IAG) and other international and national organizations to encourage the collection of observations on sea level in order to identify causes of change and to validate the output of global and regional predictive models. Such observations include state-of-the-art determinations of sea level and ice volume changes taking into account the effects of visco-elastic processes in geodynamically un-stable shorelines, transfer of groundwater to the oceans, glacial rebound and tectonic processes. Optimal use will be made of classical measurements, as provided for example by the GLOSS tide gauge network of IOC and by absolute gravity determinations, and of new space techniques including altimetry, Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI), satellite laser ranging and the Global Positioning System (GPS). The potential applications of new types of measurements , such as temporal variation of the geopotential will be evaluated, and the development of a better understanding of interactions between the different processes contributing to sea level change will be given priority. LOICZ will encourage the sharing of instrumentation and software for collecting sea level observations (particularly within developing countries), and for archiving and disseminating the results in a standard format. The objective use of model results and predictions in planning and policy decisions wil be fostered and, through the requirements of LOICZ research initiatives, the development of large scale models that incorporate regional and local scale models for global predictions of sea level will be stimulated."

At the Queson City meeting I chaired an evening discussion group on sea level change, causes and impacts. A total of twelve people from 8 nations participated. There was particularly strong support for the new sea level framework activity among representatives of island nations.

A first step toward implementing cooperation between LOICZ and the IAG was taken at the July 1995 International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG) General Meeting held in Boulder Colorado. The IAG, Section V, Geodynamics, formed Special Commission (SC-8), Sea Level and Ice Sheet Variations. I was elected President of SC-8 and charged with preparing a work statement for the commission and appointing members, not later than October 15, 1995. Anyone interested in participating in the Special Commission should contact me before October 1, 1995. Special Commissions may include Special Study Groups (SSGs), and I invite proposals for the formation of SSGs on specific problems related to Sea Level and Ice Sheet Variations. Every effort will be made to coordinate the activities of IAG SC-8 with LOICZ, and to encourage geodesists to actively participate in the LOICZ project.

For more information, please mail Bill Carter at bcarter@geo.grdl.noaa.gov.