HENRY LANSFORD

Introduction

The Global Emissions Inventories Activity (GEIA) is a component of the International Global Atmospheric Chemistry (IGAC) Project, a core project of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program. IGAC is a volunteer network of several hundred scientists in more than 30 countries who are working together to coordinate and stimulate efforts to measure, understand and predict changes in global atmospheric chemistry over the next century, with particular emphasis on changes affecting the oxidizing capacity of the atmosphere, impacts on climate and atmospheric chemical interactions with biota. This scope encompasses a number of urgent policy-related environmental issues such as acid precipitation, stratospheric ozone depletion, greenhouse warming and biological damage from increased oxidant levels.

GEIA is one of a number of activities defined by the IGAC Steering Committee. Computer model assessments of past, present and future atmospheric chemistry rely to a large extent on inventories of emissions constructed on appropriate spatial and temporal scales with appropriate chemical species. Accurate emissions inventories also are very useful to field measurement scientists and the regulatory and policy communities. GEIA was established for the primary purpose of producing and distributing global emissions inventories. Participation in GEIA is open to everyone who is interested.

The GEIA effort, which was launched in September 1990, includes:

• establishing a framework for developing and evaluating global emissions inventories
• conducting a critical survey of existing emissions inventories of compounds of major importance in global atmospheric chemistry
• generating, distributing, and publishing inventories for use by scientists, the regulatory and policy communities and others worldwide.

The ultimate goal of GEIA is to produce emissions inventories for all trace species from both anthropogenic and natural sources that are involved in global atmospheric chemistry. These products, periodically updated, are expected to become standard inventories for the international community. GEIA is coordinated by a steering committee chaired by Thomas E. Graedel (USA) that includes Lex Bouwman (Netherlands), Derek Cunnold (USA), Paulette Middleton (USA), and Jozef Pacyna (Norway).

Data Management and Information Exchange

In 1992, the GEIA Steering Committee established the GEIA Data Management and Information Exchange Center in Boulder, Colorado. (The term "data management" is used here to refer to a system for organizing the GEIA emissions inventories and making them available to users. The terms "information exchange" and "communication" refer to dissemination of information about GEIA.)

Supported primarily by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), the Center is directed by Paulette Middleton of Science & Policy Associates, Inc. Middleton works with a project committee whose members are William Benjey, Environmental Protection Agency (USA); Carmen Benkovitz, Brookhaven National Laboratory (USA); Masa-yasu Hayashi, National Research Institute for Pollution and Resources (Japan); Jos Olivier, National Institute of Public Health and Environmental Protection (Netherlands); and Trevor Scholtz, ORTECH International (Canada). The Center staff includes a computing specialist, Debra Hopkins; a communication manager, Henry Lansford; and an administrator, Sharon Blackmon.

The activities of the Center include:

• organizing and coordinating data management and information exchange activities for 19 inventory project committees
• coordinating development and implementation of inventory distribution and documentation strategies
• organizing and maintaining a formal communication network among the GEIA projects and with the broader international scientific community
• administering workshop planning and arrangements
• setting up and overseeing distribution of GEIA data and documentation through major data centers
• facilitating participation in GEIA by inventory development experts by providing travel funds and selected supplemental funding for inventory scoping activities.

Communication Strategy

As GEIA moves toward the end of its fifth year and the Data Management and Information Exchange Center prepares to enter a new three-year cycle of NSF support, there are two compelling reasons for the Center to implement an integrated GEIA com-munication strategy as soon as possible. The first reason is that we are moving into a phase of GEIA in which we have an important product to market--an expanding set of inventories certified and released for use by the scientific, regulatory, and policy communities. The second is that, as we look to the private sector for additional support for GEIA, we need to focus on communicating more effectively with broader audiences, especially in view of our new affiliation with the Walter Orr Roberts Institute, which is strongly committed to dialogues and partnerships with private-sector organizations.

GEIA's communication needs and potential responses may be organized using an analytical matrix based on four fundamental questions:

• Who does GEIA want to communicate with?
• Why does GEIA want to communicate with them?
• What does GEIA want to communicate to them?
• How can it be communicated most effectively?

Table 1 summarizes the answers to these questions. The audiences listed under "Who?" are arranged in order of priority. These priorities are intended to emphasize the urgency of addressing the highest ranked audiences as promptly and effectively as possible, but they do not imply that the lower ranked ones can be ignored.

Needs

Priority 1: Potential users of emissions inventories. The basic rationale for developing the GEIA inventories is to make them available for application by the scientific, assessment, regulatory, and policy communities. Thus the primary goal of the GEIA communication strategy is to disseminate information about the availability, characteristics, and quality of the GEIA inventories throughout the international community of potential users.

Priority 2: Potential inventory developers (scientific groups, especially in developing nations). GEIA inventory development projects have not yet been established for a number of key chemical species and categories of emissions. An important goal of the communication strategy is to inform scientific groups with the capability of developing inventories of the pressing need for such projects to be initiated.

Priority 3: Potential sponsors for inventory development, data management and information exchange. Many scientific groups have committed their own resources to developing GEIA inventories in their specific fields of interest. Other groups are qualified and ready to develop inventories if funding can be obtained to support their work. In addition, the work of the Data Management and Information Exchange Center can be augmented in several important ways if additional support can be developed. An important goal of the GEIA communication strategy is to reach potential sponsors, particularly in the private sector, with information about GEIA and the need for support in specific areas.

Priority 4: The international scientific community. Accurate and up-to-date information about GEIA that is communicated to the broader scientific community around the world will be disseminated by word of mouth, creating a general awareness of the significance and accomplishments of GEIA among key people who may be in a position to support GEIA when opportunities present themselves.

Responses

Priority 1: Continue publishing articles in the refereed scientific literature and presenting papers at scientific and professional meetings The basic communication tool for disseminating information about the GEIA inventories will continue to be publication in the refereed scientific literature by scientists who are directing or participating in GEIA inventory development projects. Such publication validates the scientific credibility of the inventories as well as providing broad exposure in the scientific community. For example, Graedel's recent article in EOS stimulated many requests to the Data Management and Information Exchange Center about accessing the completed inventories and receiving future GEIA publications and other information. Presentations at meetings also are an effective way for GEIA scientists to get current information about GEIA out to the scientific, assessment, regulatory, and policy communities.

Priority 2: Continue to publish the Global Emissions newsletter. The Spring/ Summer 1995 issue should be produced and distributed as soon as possible. It should include a progress report on inventory development, specific information on inventories that have been certified and released and how they may be obtained; a review of the Fifth GEIA Workshop; information on the Sixth GEIA Workshop; the status of inventories under development; and the names and addresses of project directors. The Fall/Winter 1995-96 issue should be published after the Sixth Workshop. It should include a brief history of GEIA and review of accomplishments to date for those who are new to the GEIA mailing list.

We should have the capability for publishing the newsletter electronically by early 1996. However, it will be important to continue hard-copy publication for those who do not have Internet access, especially potential inventory developers in developing nations.

Priority 3: Publish a summary report for the Sixth GEIA Workshop similar to the Fourth Workshop report. This report, which was more formal and comprehensive than earlier workshop reports, was targeted at a broader audience in addition to the GEIA community. It has been very useful in obtaining funding and disseminating information about GEIA to modelers and other important audiences in the scientific, assessment, regulatory, and policy communities. It is important to develop a professionally edited and produced summary report for the Sixth GEIA Workshop that includes selected GEIA information in a form that is understandable and meaningful to non-specialists such as government and private-sector decision-makers and potential sponsors of GEIA projects and other activities. The professional services of the Data Management and Information Exchange Center staff, who edited and produced the Fourth Workshop report, can be useful in accomplishing this goal.

Priority 4: Establish an e-mail GEIA network. The nucleus of this network will be participants in previous GEIA workshops and others who have sent e-mail requests for GEIA information; for example, in response to Graedel's recent EOS article. The network also will be announced through the Global Emissions newsletter. The network will be used primarily to send short bulletins or reminders on subjects such as the availability of new inventories and the dates and locations of upcoming workshops. In addition to being faster than conventional mail, the e-mail network will allow us to disseminate GEIA information without the expense of postage or telephone charges for fax transmissions.

Priority 5: Explore the feasibility and cost of electronic publication and data distribution on the World Wide Web. The Data Management and Information Exchange Center will be associated with the Walter Orr Roberts Institute of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research after July 1, 1995. This may provide an opportunity to establish a GEIA home page as part of the UCAR Mosaic system. This can provide valuable exposure for GEIA throughout the international atmospheric science community and beyond.

return to Consulting

---

This site is hosted by the National Association of Science Writers