Objectives

This pilot project aims to:

Back ground

InternationalOceanographic Data and Information Exchange (IODE) of International Oceanographic Commission (IOC) was established in 1961 to enhance marine research, exploitation and development by facilitating the exchange of oceanographic data and information between participating Member States and by meeting the needs of users for data and information products.

Since then, there have been significant advances in many branches of marine science and technology. The IODE Programme now gives attention to all ocean related data including physical, chemical and biological oceanography. However, the IODE data centres focused mainly on physical oceanographic data in the past and biological and ecological data have been largely absent from the IODE system.

In addition to this, the application of new ICT technologies for data management and dissemination has become fully main-stream in the field of international oceanographic data and information exchange. A network of data centres accessible and searchable over the Internet enables a wider range of user communities to access data, data products and information more easily.

Under these circumstances, IODE-XVII (Paris, March 2003) decided to implement a review of the IODE and the 22nd Session of the IOC Assembly in June 2003 endorsed this proposal. A Review Team composed of 6 experts was organized and prepared a report through discussions with Member States and users. The Review Team presented its report to IODE-XVIII (Ostend, Belgium, April 2005). The IODE-XVIII agreed with many of the recommendations proposed in the report.

Among these recommendations, there are two terms which will affect the regional activities. One is abolishing the Responsible National Oceanographic Data Centre (RNODC) and the other is abolishing Regional Coordinator. Accepting these recommendations, the IODE-XVIII instructed the Ocean Data and Information Network (ODIN) projects to incorporate the resources of existing regional RNODCs and also instructed the Chair to discuss with host centres of other RNODCs how their operations, if considered essential for the international (science) community, could be maintained and properly acknowledged. The IODE-XVIII further instructed the coordinators of ODIN projects to assume the responsibilities formerly assumed by the IODE Regional Coordinators, and taking into consideration the excellent performance of the IODE Regional Coordinator of the WESTPAC region, instructed the Officers to identify a mechanism to maintain the functionality of the IODE Regional Coordinator for the WESTPAC region.

Following the conclusions of IODE-XVIII, a proposal to establish ODIN in the WESTPAC region was presented in the sixth session of the IOC Regional Sub-Commission for the Western Pacific, IOC/WESTPAC-VI (Nha Trang, Viet Nam, May 2005). The IOC/WESTPAC-VI decided to establish an inter-sessional working group that would study the issue and adopted a Resolution in this regard.

According to the Resolution SC-WESTPAC-VI.2, inter-sessional working group (IWG) was organized in August 2005 which is consist of representatives from interested Member States and related organizations specified in the Resolution. And the IWG discussed the Terms of Reference (ToR), mode of operation, work plan and budget for 2006.

According to this discussion,the proposed ODINWESTPAC was anticipated to become an effective framework not only to succeed the former activities concerning the exchange of oceanographic data and information in the WESTPAC region but also to expand the cooperation between the countries in the region.