IOC-CEC-ICSU-ICES Regional Workshop for Member States of Eastern and Northern Europe (Global Oceanographic Data Archeology and Rescue [GODAR] Project), World Data Centre B, Oceanography Obninsk, Russian Federation 17-20 May 1993.

Abstract

The GODAR Workshop held in Obninsk, Russian Federation, from 17-20 May 1993, was a result of the IOC Assembly decision to have the first regional workshop for eastern and northern Europe in the Russian Federation, taking into account the availability of the unique datasets in the region, particularly in Russia, Poland and the Ukraine, and the real danger of losing them. This Workshop was seen as the first and most urgent step in the development of GODAR in a wide and global perspective. It is expected that this Workshop will be followed by other similar regional workshops in different parts of the world, facilitating international exchange of data under the IODE umbrella. The purpose of the Workshop was to make data available to the wide international community in order to build global oceanographic databases for different fields of application, including global change and climate studies, world ocean research and global ocean monitoring, and to help in the capacity building of national, regional and global infrastructures. The desired outcome was to assess the state of data holdings in the region, to identify common goals and problems with data preservation, and to recommend implementation steps and approaches to solve these problems. The Workshop was also considered as a start for laying the groundwork for a major upgrading of the entire regional ocean data management system, a major step in the development of a region wide ocean data system modernization programme.