The GEO Water Strategy European Workshop and the Ninth Annual Integrated Global Water Cycle Observations (IGWCO) Community of Practice (COP) Science and Planning Meeting will be taking place at the UAB – Casa Convalescència in Barcelona, Spain immediately after the GEPW-7 meeting. The GEO Water Strategy European Workshop on April 17 and 18 (AM) and the GEO IGWCO COP meeting will be held on April 18 (PM) and 19, 2013.
These water meetings are being held in conjunction with the GEPW-7 to provide an opportunity for European EC Framework 7 investigators to provide input to the GEO Water Strategy and to facilitate linkages with members of the GEO Water task and with members of the IGWCO COP. The features and purposes of the two meetings are described in more detail below.
The GEO Water Strategy European Workshop is part of the regional consultative process to obtain the views of scientists and other experts on the contents of the GEO Water Strategy document that is being prepared for the upcoming GEO Plenary and Summit in January 2014. To date, consultative workshops/meetings have been held in North America (San Francisco) and Asia (Ahmadabad, India). Modifications and additional inputs are being added to the GEO Water Strategy report as a result of both of these meetings. This workshop will be a critical event for ensuring that the concerns, interests, perspectives and contributions of the European scientific community are properly reflected in the report. Our intent is to go through the report on a chapter by chapter basis to review the content and to explore ways in which it could be presented more effectively.
The Ninth Annual Integrated Global Water Cycle Observations (IGWCO) Community of Practice (COP) Science and Planning Meeting is a critical opportunity to consolidate water activities and goals for the current Water Task over the next three years and to plan new initiatives for the post-2015 phase of GEO. The meeting will feature progress reports on each of the GEO Water SBA components and activities. Since this meeting will follow the GEPW-7 meeting we anticipate that there will be a few presentations on on-going EC water projects.