ALBERT

Description: Recalling IOC-Resolution XXX-3 and in accordance with 207 EX/Dec.5.II.A, this report provides a summary of a recently completed evaluation, namely: Internal Oversight Service (IOS) Evaluation of the Strategic positioning of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC-UNESCO).

Description: Item 9 of the provisional agenda of the Executive Board of UNESCO (212 EX/9). OPENASFA INPUT

Description: Published

Description: Non Refereed

Description: Among the approximately 10,000 beneficial species of marine phytoplankton in the world’s oceans today, some 200 taxa can harm human society through the production of toxins that threaten seafood security and human health. These toxins are also responsible for wild or aquaculture fish-kills, may interfere with recreation-al use of coastal or inland waters, or cause economic losses. Non-toxic microalgae attaining high biomass can also cause Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) by producing seawater discolorations, anoxia or mucilage that negatively affect the environment and human activities. The most frequently asked questions about harmful algal blooms are if they are increasing and expand-ing worldwide, and what are the mechanisms behind this perceived escalation. These questions have been addressed in several review papers concerning HAB trends at various scales, where evidences of expansion, intensification and increased impacts of harmful algal blooms have been gathered from a selection of examples that have gained high prominence in the scientific world and in society 1,2,3,4. Eutrophication, human-mediated introduction of alien harmful species, climatic variability, and aquaculture have all been mentioned as possible causes of HAB trends at various spatial and temporal scales 5,6. Over the last 40 years, the capacity and monitoring efforts to detect harmful species and harmful events have significantly increased, thus increasing the reporting of harmful events across the world’s seas. The resulting information is mostly scattered in the ever growing literature, with data from statutory monitoring programs often not published in peer review journals, while an extensive and detailed overview of the huge amount of information on harmful species, their spatial and temporal distribution and the trends of HABs they have caused has never been attempted so far. This lack of a synthesis of the relevant data has hampered a sound global assessment of the present status of phenomena related to harmful algae. Following the lead of the International Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) consensus reporting mechanism, and to complement the World Ocean Assessment, the need has been expressed for a Global HAB Status Report compiling an overview of Harmful Algal Bloom events and their societal impacts; providing a worldwide appraisal of the occurrence of toxin-producing microalgae; aimed towards the long term goal of assessing the status and probability of change in HAB frequencies, intensities, and range resulting from environmental changes at the local and global scale. This initiative was launched in April 2013 in Paris by the IOC Intergovernmental Panel on HABs (IOC/IPHAB), and has been pursued with the support of the Government of Flanders and hosted within the IOC International Oceanographic Date Exchange Programme (IODE) in partnership with ICES, PICES and IAEA. As a first step towards a global HAB status assessment, a Special Issue of the journal Harmful Algae (vol. 102, February 2021) has been published comprising 12 papers 7-18 each presenting an overview of toxic and non-toxic HABs in a specific area of the world’s seas. The regional overviews build on existing literature and exploit the information gathered in two relevant data-bases, both incorporated into the Ocean Biodiversity Information System (OBIS).

Description: Government of Flanders

Description: OPENASFA INPUT This Global HAB Status Report summary was prepared based on the special issue Global HAB Status reporting, vol. 102 (Feb. 2021) of the Harmful Algae (Elsevier Journal)

Description: Published

Description: Refereed

Description: A fundamental element towards attaining water security, water education has been at the heart of UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Hydrological Programme since its establishment in 1975. However, in much of Asia and the Pacific, water security remains elusive. Ensuring a water secure future for the region will require the unlocking of broader appreciation, acceptance and internalization of basic water science principles and concepts among experts and communities alike. For this, broader and more effective water education is required. For this potential to be fulfilled, reinforced human, financial and technical resources are required to deliver education, training and capacity development across large segments of society. Not only does this require the mobilization of a much larger contingent of trainers, instructors and conveners—it requires the development of new teaching and learning approaches, methodologies and curricula. This curriculum represents an invitation to tertiary-level educators as well as water managers and decision-makers to redouble efforts towards water security in Asia and the Pacific – and invitation grounded in a process that lies at the heart of UNESCO’s mission: the sharing of knowledge, experience and technologies – in this case among scientific, educational and water management communities across the region. Published with the support of the Government of Japan.

Description: OPENASFA INPUT

Description: Published

Description: Not Known

Description: Six years after the First International Conference on “Water, Megacities and Global Change”, held on the occasion of the 21st United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP 21), which drew attention to the significant challenges megacities are facing, and proposed the creation of the Megacities Alliance on Water and Climate (MAWAC), UNESCO’s Division of Water Sciences and ARCEAU-IdF1 decided to join forces once again to co-organize the Second International Conference on Water, Megacities and Global Change (EauMega) at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, France and online on a dedicated platform for the conference, on 11-14 January 2022. Organized in close collaboration with the Greater Paris Metropolis and the Greater Paris Sanitation Authority (SIAAP), and with the support of many other public and private partners, this conference builds on the results of the online Pre-Conference on Water, Megacities and Global Change, which took place in December 2020. The Pre-Conference event, which brought together more than 6,000 participants, helped the organizers identify the issues requiring further consideration during the Second International Conference on Water, Megacities and Global Change by selected scientists, water operators, decision-makers, representatives of basin authorities and civil society at large. Given their size, the challenges posed to Megacities by water management within the context of climate change are of particular importance. Indeed, they raise new and specific issues that require close collaboration between scientists who advance knowledge, operators and basin authorities (public and private) who innovate technically and socio-politically, and local decision-makers who can support new, just and more efficient models of water governance, while remaining in constant interaction with civil society. Following a Call for Papers launched in late 2019, this publication is a compilation of the best scientific articles selected and peer-reviewed by the 87 international experts responsible for designing the scientific programme of the conference. Reflecting the structure of the conference with its 12 thematic sessions, the Proceedings present all the peer-reviewed articles in the following thematic chapters: • Disaster Risk Reduction; • Sustainable Development Goals & Service continuity; • Knowledge of the technical and social conditions; • Governance modalities in megacities; • Holistic water management; • Land issues and challenges; • Planning tools. • Technical and technological solutions; • Innovative initiatives at governance, technical, institutional or social level; • New water culture; • Strengthening of sustainable solidarity; The publication not only provides a state of the art on the challenges that Megacities are facing in their management of water and of the new global changes they encounter, but also presents the latest innovative and multi-disciplinary solutions being used to overcome these challenges and ensure optimal and sustainable resource management. By compiling a collection of experiences and best practices at global level, integrating the following three aspects – megacities, water and global change including climate change – it is our hope that this publication will represent a source of inspiration for other Megacities and large urban centers to overcome similar challenges and strengthen their climate resilience. By promoting fruitful exchanges and synergies among megacities, research institutions, the private sector and civil society at large, as well as inspiring further joint research studies on climate change and water-security related issues, the conference represents without doubt a fundamental building block of the Megacities Alliance on Water and Climate (MAWAC). On behalf of the Conference organizers, we wish to thank the co-conveners and partners of this second major international Conference on Water, Megacities and Global Change, as well as all the authors for their valuable contribution and their recommendations.

Description: Published

Description: Refereed

Description: In 2017, the UN General Assembly declared the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030). It has entrusted IOC-UNESCO with the design and delivery of the Decade to ensure that ocean science is indeed underpinning sustainable ocean management and the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda more broadly. Fulfilling its mandate as trustee of the Ocean Decade, as well as delivering on a growing list of additional roles, in an oceanographic space that is both expanding and increasingly crowded, establishes an important opportunity but also an overarching challenge for IOC-UNESCO. In the context of the upcoming UN Decade of the Ocean, the IOC-UNESCO agreed with the Internal Oversight Service (IOS) on the merit of conducting an evaluation of its strategic positioning within the UN system and the broader landscape of ocean-related actors and programmes, taking into account relevant enabling policy frameworks to which the work of the Commission responds.

Description: OPENASFA INPUT Published by UNESCO's Internal Oversight Service.

Description: Published

Description: Not Known

Description: Environmental DNA expeditions in UNESCO World Heritage Marine Sites: engaging citizen-scientists for biodiversity conservation of UNESCO sites.

Description: Government of Flanders

Description: OPENASFA INPUT

Description: Published

Description: In every ocean, regional and national tsunami warning systems must maintain a high level of readiness so as to be able to efficiently and effectively act to provide for the public’s safety during fast-onset and rapidly-evolving natural disasters involving marine inundation of coastal areas. Because of the relative infrequency of tsunamis, but knowing that tsunamis can have widespread impact across oceans and seas, the UNESCO/IOC and its Member States have been advocating through their Intergovernmental Coordination Groups (ICGs) for the regular conduct of tsunami exercises. To maintain a high state of operational readiness, National Tsunami Warning Centres (NTWCs) and Civil Protection agencies (CPA) must regularly practice their emergency response procedures to ensure that vital communication links work seamlessly, and that agencies and response personnel know the roles that they will need to play during a real event.

Description: Published

Description: Refereed

Description: International coordination of a tsunami warning system originated in the Pacific in 1968 under the auspices of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO in cooperation with the International Tsunami Information Centre (ITIC) established on 12 November 1965 by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) and hosted by the National Weather Service of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (USA). As early as 1988, experts and Member States recognized the need to develop standardized tsunami terminology in the form of a glossary which had endorsement of the scientific community. The first edition of the Tsunami Glossary (IOC Technical series, 37, 1991) was published by IOC and ITIC and contained more than 2000 terms and definitions building on disciplines such as geophysics, oceanography, engineering and mathematics. Following the Indian Ocean tsunami of December 2004, the IOC was mandated by the United Nations to coordinate development of similar regional tsunami and other coastal hazards warning and mitigation systems in the Caribbean, the Northeastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea, the Indian Ocean in addition to the Pacific Ocean. Expert groups from different regional perspectives developed a common understanding of language to be used for the development of the four regional systems. Under the coordination of ITIC, this international effort resulted in 2008 in a new edition of the Tsunami Glossary (IOC Technical Series No 85). Over the years the Glossary has been translated and is available in English (original), Arabic, Chinese, French, Indonesian, Spanish, Urdu, Korean, Tagalog, Thai and several other languages. Since 2015 changes to the content of the Tsunami Glossary are subject to the validation of the IOC Working Group on Tsunamis and Other Hazards related to Sea-Level Warning and Mitigation Systems (TOWS-WG) and subsequent endorsement by the Governing Bodies of the IOC. By this mechanism it is expected that the publication will be recognized and adopted by Member States as a validated standard in this field. The 2019 edition of Tsunami Glossary includes the definition of technical terms, and information on the expert and governance groups for tsunami warning and mitigation.

Description: revision of an originally published in 2008

Description: Published

Description: Refereed