IGCP 429 "Organics in Major Environmental Issues" successfully launched in Prague
Jan Pasava
Czech Geological Survey, Klárov, CZ-11800 Prague 1, Czech Republic
The Inaugural Meeting of the IGCP 429 was held in Prague, Czech Republic on September 10-13, 1998. The two day meeting was followed by a one day field trip. Forty one participants from 20 countries took part in this event with the aim to present and discuss the proposed Project management structure, work plan, schedule of annual international meetings, creation of working groups as well as publication policy. At the very beginning, the following basic information about IGCP and its rules were presented by Jan Pasava.
Following the official opening of the IGCP 429 Inaugural Meeting, the proposals for the IGCP 429 Management Structure and IGCP 429 - MAB (Man and Biosphere UNESCO Programme) initiative were presented, discussed and approved by the participants.
IGCP 429 MANAGEMENT STRUCTURE
Co-Leaders: Jan PASAVA (IGCP) (CZECH REPUBLIC) pasava@cgu.cz and Jan JENÍK (MAB) (CZECH REPUBLIC) jenik@prfdec.natur.cuni.cz
Scientific Secretary: Andrew Paul GIZE (UNITED KINGDOM) andy_gize@email.msn.com
Regional Vice-Leaders: Kagumbu WALEMBA (AFRICA) 065KABUN@cosmos.wits.ac.za; Delian FAN (ASIA) fandl@public.intercom.com.cn; Bernd LOTTERMOSER (AUSTRALIA) blotterm@metz.une.edu.au; Kirsti LOUKOLA-RUSKEENIEMI (EUROPE) kirsti.loukola-ruskeeniemi@gsf.fi; Tom GIORDANO (NORTH AMERICA) tgiordan@NMSU.Edu; Laecio CUNHA DE SOUZA (SOUTH AMERICA) laecio@geologia.ufrn.br
IGCP 429 MAJOR GOALS
This project is intended as a means of bridging gaps especially between IGCP and MAB activities involving geoscientists, biologists and health specialists, to encourage cross-fertilisation of skills and ideas, and to co-ordinate research efforts in order to be of great value to society as possible.
This project:
i) should help society through studies of organic-metal interactions and the weathering process of fossil organic matter and associated sulphides in developing more sophisticated and effective remediation policies, and treating acid mine drainage from active and former mining areas, thus contributing to the prediction, minimization, and treatment of the negative environmental impacts of mining activities on our planet;
ii) should provide society with very useful analogues to assess the performance of radionuclide containment at man-made radioactive waste repository sites, thus making repository processes more safe;
iii) should help society, through compilation of environmental models, to develop safer exploitation of industrial, widely occurring, black shale hosted mineral deposits;
iv) should help society to identify organic atmospheric factors ranging from environmental to health deterioration, thus to help to become aware of, and minimize, negative impacts of human living; v) should help society to distinguish various sources of traceable organic pollutants in aquifers, thus to contribute to the evaluation of water pollution risk.
The IGCP 429 is the first IGCP Project to be internationally co-ordinated by a geoscientist (Dr. Jan Pasava - experienced leader of several IGCP Projects from the Czech Geological Survey in Prague) and a biologist (Dr. Jan Jeník - MAB chairperson from the Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, Charles University in Prague). The primary objective of this collaborative venture is to integrate varied groups of geoscientists and biologists in order to bridge a gap between two major UNESCO Programmes - IGCP and MAB- and thus serve our society more effectively.
After introduction of Man and Biosphere Programme, Prof. Jenik has strongly encouraged all the participants to get in touch with local MAB representatives in order to inform them about IGCP 429 activities with the aim to initiate joint studies. After acceptance of the IGCP 429 structure and introduction to the IGCP 429 main goals, six keynote lectures (20 min. each) addressed major topics within the IGCP 429. Twenty three talks were presented by scientists from 20 countries during the two full day sessions, which were well attended by 41 participants. The concluding discussions resulted in the constitution of the following eight thematic working groups:
TOPICAL WORKING GROUPS
WG1: Organic matter - metals interaction: A.P. Gize, UK - e-mail: andy_gize@email.msn.com
WG 2: Microbial leaching in environmental clean up: K. Bosecker, Germany - e-mail: k.bosecker@bgr.de
WG 3: Weathering of organic matter: B. Kříbek, Czech Republic- e-mail: kribek@cgu.cz
WG 4: Acid mine drainage: E. Puura, Estonia - e-mail: epuura@math.ut.ee
or erx@ket.kth.se
WG 5: Environmental models of black shale hosted mineral deposits: W. Mayer, Poland - e-mail: wmayer@geol.agh.edu.pl
WG 6: Organic atmospheric particulates: K. Hall, U.K.- e-mail: Keith_Hall_GC2@compuserve.com
WG 7: Organic matter in nuclear waste issues: D. Mossman, Canada - e-mail: dmossman@mailserv.mta.ca
WG 8: Organics in aquifers and water systems: L. de Souza - laecio@geologia.ufrn.br
and R. Melo, Brazil, J. Spangenberg, Switzerland - Jorge.Spangenberg@imp.unil.ch
ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL MEETINGS
Finally, a schedule of annual major international meetings was arranged for the duration of the IGCP 429:
1999-Annual International Meeting (session 2 "Organics in the formation and remediation of mineral deposits", London, U.K (August 25-28; within the 5th SGA-IAGOD Meeting) - confirmed. More info at http://www.immr.tu-clausthal.de/sga.html
2000-Annual International Meeting (within the 31st IGC), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (August 6-17) - under negotiation with the organizers
2001-Annual International Meeting (within the 6th SGA Meeting)
2002-Final Meeting in a country with the most advanced research (most likely at the GAC/MAC Meeting in Canada or GSA Meeting in USA)
The meeting was followed by a one day field trip to the North Bohemian Coal Basin, co-organized by the North Bohemian Coal Mining Joint Stock Company. It has been documented in several case studies that lignite mining and waste heap remediation have to address problems such as the generation of acid mine drainage, and various agrochemical properties resulting from newly formed organic substrates. Such issues will be evaluated during the IGCP 429.
Adding a "training component" and encouraging the involvement of more people especially from developing countries will be another very important aspect of IGCP 429 activities. For this reason, IGCP 429 co-organizes GEOCHIM, a postgraduate training course in exploration and environmental geochemistry (click here for details).
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