CODATA Task Group on GIES Established

Editorial Office of Journal of Global Change Data & Discovery

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3974/geodp.2023.04.13

CSTR: https://cstr.escience.org.cn/CSTR:20146.99.2023.04.13

On the 27th to the 28th of October 2023, the Committee on Data (CODATA) of the International Science Council (ISC) convened its highest deliberative assembly in Salzburg, Austria, both in person and virtually. In accordance with the procedures of the assembly, Prof. LIU Chuang, the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, elucidated on the establishment of the task group. Following an anonymous vote, the assembly approved eight task groups, including the task group on Geographical Indications Environment & Sustainability (GIES).

Three worldwide scientists were elected to be the co-chairs of the CODATA task group on GIES, they are Prof. LIU Chuang,, recipient of the CODATA Award (2018), Director of the World Data Center for Global Change Research, and researcher at the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences; Prof. Kadambot H. M. Siddique, fellows of the Australian Academy of Science, the Third World Academy of Sciences, and Director of the Institute of Agriculture at the University of Western Australia; and Prof. Philippe De Maeyer, fellow of the Belgian Academy of Sciences, Secretary-General of the Royal Academy for Overseas Sciences of Belgium, Vice President of the International Cartographic Association, and Professor at the Department of Geography, Ghent University, Belgium.

The members of the CODATA task group on GIES include nearly 30 experts from India, Cambodia, Bhutan, Azerbaijan, Germany, France, Italy, South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania, Mexico, Brazil, Japan, and China The primary tasks of the task group are as follows.

Ÿ  Utilizing open scientific methodologies to integrate diverse data in geography, resources, environment, and society (culture) to support sustainable development.

Ÿ  Promoting case studies on habitat protection and sustainable development of high-quality geographic products through the widespread application of technologies such as big data and the Internet of Things, providing solutions for achieving sustainable development goals.

Ÿ  Providing assistance in data technology and capacity building for developing countries, small island states, and ecologically vulnerable regions to address global climate change and achieve sustainable development goals.

Ÿ  Demonstrating coordinated approaches among stakeholders in the process of achieving sustainable development goals, particularly providing empirical and transferable methods for coordination among scientists, policymakers, and private enterprises.

The GIES initiative was launched in China in 2021 by the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the Geographical Society of China. It aims to explore an operational solution in local places and it could be transferred to countries which had the similar challenges in implementing the actions of SDGs 2030. After three years experiences in 17 cases in China, scientific communities and policy makers from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), CODATA, and the World Data System (WDS) come to common understand to take action on GIES The establishment of the CODATA task group on GIES will facilitate the international cooperation between scientific community and United Nations and contribute to the achievement of SDGs, especially for Goal 1, Goal 2 and Goal 15.

The Committee on Data (CODATA) is an international organization under the International Science Council (ISC), established in 1966. It is an international academic organization dedicated to scientific and technological data. CODATA task groups are important organizational mechanism for the implementation of its development strategies and coordination of international cooperation actions in the field of data.

The eight task groups approved by the CODATA highest deliberative assembly in 2023 are as follows.

(1) Data Systems, Tools, and Services for Crisis Situations Task Group (DSTS_CS-TG)

(2) Advancing Data Science for Sustainability

(3) Geographical Indications Environment & Sustainability (GIES-TG)

(4) Data Ethics Task Group (DE-TG)

(5) Data-Driven Social Change towards Society Promoting Cognitively Healthy Aging

(6) Citizen Generated Data for the SDGs

(7) Digital Representation of Units of Measure (DRUM-TG)

(8) FAIR Data for Disaster Risk Research