Planning for the 2003 Open Meeting of the Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change Research Community

Columbia University, New York NY

Investigators

Abstract

Open meetings of the International Human Dimensions of Global Change (HDGC) research community are held every other year. These meetings are a setting where social scientists and scientists from many related fields and from many different nations gather to present and hear the latest research results, to exchange information, and to develop plans for future collaborative activities. The fifth Open Meeting is tentatively scheduled to be held in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, in October 2003. This award will support a planning meeting of the International Science Planning Committee (ISPC) to be held at Columbia University's Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory near New York in October 2002. That meeting will provide more than a dozen members of the ISPC with the opportunity to complete a diverse set of tasks, including identification of major themes for the open meeting, identifying keynote speakers to be invited, establishing a tentative agenda for the open meeting, and developing written announcements inviting HDGC scientists to the open meeting. The open meetings, which have been held every other year, have proven to be very valuable opportunities for HDGC and related researchers from many different nations to meet, share research results, identify future problems requiring attention, and develop collaborative relationships. The efficacy of the open meetings depends of careful advanced planning. This award will facilitate that planning, thereby increasing the likelihood that the 2003 open meeting will be a valuable forum for HDGC scientists from the U.S. and many other nations.