Towards a Mediterranean GEWEX
355
values which have not much in common with the physically measured "spot"
values.
Each of these "visions" provides non-identical images of the world at different
scales in space and time. Neither of them provides a complete picture of nature but
all of them taken together may result in a better approximation and understanding
of the reality than any single one. Scientific communities still tend to separate into
these four domains, the proxy data world, the world based upon in situ
measurements, the remotely sensed world, and the model world, to do their specific
investigations and to draw the conclusions of their work without much worrying
about other disciplines. This particularly is questionable in the case of the
Mediterranean system because of its complexity and sensitivity. A task of high
priority within the framework of an European Research Area should be to make
these four views at the Mediterranean subsystem congruent.
Scientific reasons why an effort should be made to integrate these four views in
the Mediterranean area are discussed below. In addition there are other strategic
objectives:
The research infrastructure will be strengthened in a boundary area of the EU.
• The joint multi-disciplinary research into the identified scientific priorities will
lead to networks of excellence.
Jointly with the activities ongoing in the Baltic area it will unify Global Change,
climate, and biodiversity research over most of Europe and such build an
enormous potential of knowledge in all components of environmental research.
The research will include partners from newly associated States and reach out
into the eastern European region by including the area around the Black Sea.
• The project will finally include countries around the Mediterranean Sea and thus
be a touchstone for the confirmation of the international role of Community
research.
Due to the intense use of observations made from space there will be a great
challenge to push the methodology to interpret these data beyond the present still
existing limitations thus making a strong European contribution to the global
observation system (GMES).
The integration of Mediterranean research is not a straight forward task because
the problems cannot be solved by just adding the expertise and results of the four
"views" or research tools. Actual research topics need new integrative tools. The
problem which is addressed in this paper is how existing co-operations and
discipline oriented work can be guided into such an integrative "Global Change"
approach.
3 Motivation for Research Into the Mediterranean Biophysical-chemical System
At the level of the research fields inter alia the following "Global Change"
themes appear:
355
values which have not much in common with the physically measured "spot"
values.
Each of these "visions" provides non-identical images of the world at different
scales in space and time. Neither of them provides a complete picture of nature but
all of them taken together may result in a better approximation and understanding
of the reality than any single one. Scientific communities still tend to separate into
these four domains, the proxy data world, the world based upon in situ
measurements, the remotely sensed world, and the model world, to do their specific
investigations and to draw the conclusions of their work without much worrying
about other disciplines. This particularly is questionable in the case of the
Mediterranean system because of its complexity and sensitivity. A task of high
priority within the framework of an European Research Area should be to make
these four views at the Mediterranean subsystem congruent.
Scientific reasons why an effort should be made to integrate these four views in
the Mediterranean area are discussed below. In addition there are other strategic
objectives:
The research infrastructure will be strengthened in a boundary area of the EU.
• The joint multi-disciplinary research into the identified scientific priorities will
lead to networks of excellence.
Jointly with the activities ongoing in the Baltic area it will unify Global Change,
climate, and biodiversity research over most of Europe and such build an
enormous potential of knowledge in all components of environmental research.
The research will include partners from newly associated States and reach out
into the eastern European region by including the area around the Black Sea.
• The project will finally include countries around the Mediterranean Sea and thus
be a touchstone for the confirmation of the international role of Community
research.
Due to the intense use of observations made from space there will be a great
challenge to push the methodology to interpret these data beyond the present still
existing limitations thus making a strong European contribution to the global
observation system (GMES).
The integration of Mediterranean research is not a straight forward task because
the problems cannot be solved by just adding the expertise and results of the four
"views" or research tools. Actual research topics need new integrative tools. The
problem which is addressed in this paper is how existing co-operations and
discipline oriented work can be guided into such an integrative "Global Change"
approach.
3 Motivation for Research Into the Mediterranean Biophysical-chemical System
At the level of the research fields inter alia the following "Global Change"
themes appear: