Chapter 6 Australian Participation in GCOS/GOOS/GTOS

International Status of GCOS, GOOS and GTOS > GTOS

The Global Terrestrial Observing System (GTOS) was established in January 1996 by five co-sponsoring agencies (UNEP, FAO, UNESCO, WMO, ICSU) with the GTOS secretariat provided by FAO. The central mission of GTOS is to provide data for detecting, quantifying, locating and giving early warning of changes in the capacity of terrestrial ecosystems to sustain development and improvements in human welfare.

The GTOS Steering Committee (GTSC) assists in the implementation of GTOS and advises the co-sponsors and the secretariat on the technical content and direction of the program (see Figure 6.6). The GTSC establishes and updates program requirements, reviews existing program activities to assess their ability to meet requirements and recommends enhancements or new initiatives.

Figure 6.6. The organisational structure of GTOS, showing the range of activities, including the Global Terrestrial Network (GT-Net), the Terrestrial Ecosystem Monitoring Sites (TEMS), Terrestrial Carbon Observation (TCO) and the Terrestrial Observation Panel for Climate (TOPC), through which GTOS seeks to fulfill its mission to provide access to the data necessary to manage the change in the capacity of terrestrial ecosystems to support sustainable development. TOPC is a joint GCOSGTOS body.

Australia was involved in the initial planning for GTOS through the membership of Professor Henry Nix (Australian National University) on the Ad Hoc Scientific and Technical Planning Committee.

GTOS aims to help find answers to five key questions:

• What are the impacts of land use change and degradation on sustainable development? Can the land produce enough food for the world's future population (projected at 12,000 million by 2050)?
• Where, when and by how much will demand for freshwater exceed supply?
• Where and when will toxic pollutants cause major threats to human and environmental health and the capacity of ecosystems to detoxify them?
• Where and what type of biological resources are being lost, and will these losses irreversibly damage ecosystems or human progress?
• What are the impacts of climate change on terrestrial ecosystems?

GTOS is fostering an integrated, equitable partnership of a wide variety of data providers and users that meets both the short-term development needs of national governments and the longer-term needs of the global change research community. GTOS fulfills its mission through a number of complementary activities, which include networking, development of regional programs and thematic demonstration projects.

GTOS has developed a "system of networks", known as GT-Net, to improve information exchange among terrestrial research networks (Figure 6.7). GT-Net aims to link existing monitoring sites and networks and present and planned satellite remote sensing systems. It serves as a tool for network managers to exchange data, information and experience, explore areas of common interest and harmonise data handling. Two expert panels, the Terrestrial Observation Panel for Climate (TOPC) and the Global Observation of Forest Cover (GOFC) panel, have been established to promote globally consistent data synthesis and interpretation according to their thematic focus.

Figure 6.7. GT-Net is a system of observation networks, each representing an organised effort, either for a particular theme or region. Thematic networks have been established for ecology, glaciers and permafrost, and an hydrology network is being developed.

When fully implemented, GTOS will eventually become a comprehensive metadata system, providing pointers to where the data are to be found. Geo-referenced data generated by the system will be distributed electronically, using common protocols, through a worldwide network of national and regional centres, stored in a series of relational databases at regional and global levels, and made freely available to users either through communication networks, such as the Internet, or on CDROMs, discs and tapes. In situ and satellite data will be complemented by routinely collected national statistics and information shared with GTOS by non-site based centres.