PREFACE
C. Bardinet and J.- J. Royer
This book focuses specifically on such urgent topics as: water in the ecosystem,
environment and toxicity, space and earth remote sensing and environmental
changes. Many of the chapters were inspired by work prepared for the 14th
CODATA Conference held in Chambery, France, and updated since then. A major
theme is the crucial need for reliable sources of information and observation on a
world wide scale together with better global methods of investigation. One of the
conclusions was that additional work and research is necessary in the area of
geoscience and water resources evaluation.
During the past twenty years, enormous efforts have been made to gather,
standardize, validate and analyze information data for science and technology.
Several attempts were made to coordinate these efforts at an international level.
CODAT A, among other organisms, was one of the pioneers in these fields
contributing to most current problems such as global warming, the effect of CFC
on the ozone hole, the world-wide water resources shortage, the role of anthropic
activity on natural cycles.
The place of data in environmental research is now recognized as essential, and
one can say that the main questions are related to the availability and quality of
data and data access. Concerning Earth's environment, CODATA is participating
in the survey on data availability on the following themes:
Risk data bases in eco-toxicology of industrial materials including solid,
liquid and gaseous phases;
Hazard data bases in geno-toxicology;
Thermodynamic, chemical and diffusive properties of hazardous
components with a special focus on cleaning techniques, reassessment
processes and substitute technology;