North East Asian Regional-GOOS (NEAR-GOOS)
North East Asian Regional (NEAR-GOOS) is a regional pilot project of GOOS in the North East Asian Region, implemented by China, Japan, the Republic of Korea and the Russian Federation as one activity of IOC Sub-Commission for the Western Pacific (WESTPAC). NEAR-GOOS was conceived in 1995 and initiated in 1996 upon the formal adoption of the NEAR-GOOS Implementation Plan and Operational Manual by the 29th Executive Council of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission following a recommendation from the WESTPAC Regional Sub commission of IOC earlier in the year. It became one of the first regional pilot projects of GOOS.
Through the cooperation among partner countries, NEARGOOS links observations to modeling and predictions to provide data and information needed to improve the regional ability to achieve seven societal goals:
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Improve ocean services in the region;
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Provide data and information useful in the mitigation of the effects of natural disasters (waves, storm surges, and sea-ice, etc.);
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Increase the safety and efficiency of fishery activity and maritime operations;
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Allow effective pollution monitoring;
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Monitor environmental factors useful to mariculture, Harm Algae Bloom in particular;
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Provide information on the health of the coastal zone for recreation purposes;
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Provide data sets required for data assimilation, modeling and forecasting.
The area of NEAR-GOOS is the North-East Asian region, which is a part of the WESTPAC region, bounded by China, Republic of Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the Russian Federation along its western boundary, and by the Russian Federation and Japan along the eastern boundary.
- Participating countries recognize the importance of regional cooperation, for ocean observing and research activities in North-East Asian region, within the framework of the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS);
- Each participating country shall designate responsible organizations to participate in NEAR-GOOS;
- Each participating country shall implement NEAR GOOS in cooperation with IOC and the other organizations that cosponsoring GOOS;
- The participating countries shall promote human resource training activities within the WESTPAC region, with specific objectives that covering area of the project. The number of the participating countries should be expanded as well as the observational network improved;
- The data obtained within the context of NEAR-GOOS shall be made available to the Data Bases, and shall be accessible to other countries within the framework of GOOS. To promote the exchange of data between the regions within the framework of GOOS, the participating countries shall cooperate with other regional activities related to GOOS. The operation of NEAR-GOOS, shall be evaluated and reported regularly to the governing bodies of IOC through I-GOOS and WESTPAC Sub-Commission;
- ALL IOC-and particularly WESTPAC-Member States are encouraged to participate in NEAR-GOOS through the submission of data and use of the NEAR-GOOS data bases.
Committee shall consist of representatives of all member countries. Each country shall designate two members, preferably with one person coming from the operational meteorological/oceanographic community. The Committee shall elect a Chairperson among the members. The Chairperson of the Coordinating Committee will act as NEAR-GOOS Coordinator. The Committee shall meet to the extent possible in regular annual sessions at the expense of the participating countries. Other countries and appropriately affiliated organizations can attend the sessions as observers. In case a Member is unable to attend, his or her government will try to send a suitable replacement, so that there is continuity of representation.
The Committee currently consists of:
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Dr. Shaohua Lin (NMDIS, China)
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Dr. Zhi Chen (NMEFC, China)
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Mr. Satoshi Sato (JODC, Japan)
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Mr. Yoshiaki Kanno (JMA, Japan)
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Dr. Hee-Dong Jeong (KODC, Rep. of Korea),
- Chairperson of the Committee
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Mr. Ok-Soo Kim (NORI, Rep. of Korea)
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Dr. Vyacheslav Lobanov (POI, Russia)
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Dr. Eugeny Karasev (FERHRI, Russia)
The general Terms of Reference for the Committee is to:
- Coordinate the development of applications in operational oceanography that demonstrate the usefulness of regional collaboration;
- Encourage the increase the volume of quality-controlled data available to the NEAR-GOOS Community through the respective national and regional databases, where possible with the smallest time delay possible;
- Inventory and analyse existing activities relevant to NEAR-GOOS including operational systems and programmes, organizations, scientific programmes, services and products, commercial interests, and training and capacity building;
- Coordinate to produce integrated comprehensive data sets and data products that conform to the principle of end-to-end data management;
- Prepare a NEAR-GOOS Strategic Plan that highlights the direction of NEAR-GOOS over the next five years that incorporates the economic, social and environmental protection needs of the region with a clear approach to enhancing the coordinating mechanism of NEAR-GOOS;
- Publicise and disseminate NEAR-GOOS plans and information to regional governments and the general public;
- Recommend scientific and technical activities to support NEAR-GOOS implementation by coordinating new pilot projects and providing linkages to existing projects and programmes;
- Produce guiding documents for the near real time data collection and exchange in the NEARGOOS region;
- Advise and consider sources of funding for pilot project development with various funding agencies and in consultation with pilot project leaders;
- Liaison with national NEAR-GOOS committees, J-COMM, GOOS Project Office and other GOOS-related bodies as appropriate;
- Develop linkages with existing relevant organizations, programmes and projects in the region.
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