The Program Organizing Committee of the Workshop was composed of
Shuhua Ye (Chairman, China), Miriam Baltuck (USA), Masao Ishihara (Japan),
John Manning (Australia) and V. N. Strakhov (Russia), and the Local
Organizing Committee consisted of Cheng Huang (Chairman), Chenqi Fu, Detong
Tan and Fumin Yang from Shanghai Observatory. An agenda of Scientific
Program is attached.
The main function of the APSG Project is to unite forces of the
Asia-Pacific area to make cooperative research on crustal plate motion,
crustal deformation and sea-level change in this area, and to enrich
our understandings of geosciences and environmental sciences in this
area. Furthermore, the APSG Project is aiming at the study of serious
nature hazards in this area, especially at the prediction of earthquake,
volcanic eruption, sea immersion and at reducing their hazards. The First
Workshop formally initiated the APSG Project, consulted about organization
of research components and communicated current related projects underway
and new emerging activities and the newest contributions from individual
institutions of the involved countries on the fields of applying space
techniques to crustal deformation, variations of sea level, volcanic
activities.
More than forty reports were received during the meeting, and the necessity
and possibility of the scientific cooperation between participants was
discussed in details. The general research objectives of the APSG
Project, the special research groups, the technique working groups and
the organization structure were discussed in this meeting. Therefore,
A rough project document was drafted according to the primary consideration
coming from participants. During the meeting, the Local Organizing
Committee invited the participants to visit Sheshan observation station,
Shanghai Observatory, introducing the development of space techniques in
China.
All participants recognized the following facts: a) the Asia-Pacific
Region is the most active in global plate motion; b) it is in the
convergence zone of five plates: Eurasian, North American, Pacific,
Philippine and Indo-Australian Plates; c) it possesses complicated
geological structures represented by the Qing-Zang Plateau (Tibet
and Qinghai region) named the " geological window " for its typical
mountain-building movement and the Circum-Pacific island-arc and sea
trench system; d) it is in high frequency various severe natural
hazard zone: frequent earthquakes, volcanic activity, tropical storm,
land slides, flooding and sea-level variation; e) it is of dense
population with rapidly developing economy and of rich natural
resource. Therefore this area is the most appropriate and the most
urgent area for the space geodynamics study.
The APSG Project will promote scientific exchange and cooperation
with international or regional projects, such as the Dynamics Of
the Solid Earth (DOSE), WEGENER, WPLTN to raise the scientific
research level.
The Workshop discussed and approved the general objectives of study, which are:
The Workshop also discussed organization structure and its function.
It was generally agreed by the attendants at the meeting that APSG
would be structured into activities based on scientific questions
and geographic regions. Dr. Peter Wilson, the former President of WEGENER,
recommended the WEGENER's model to APSG. Prof. Ye Shuhua presented a
preliminary APSG organization structure. The tentative framework
of the structure would be the following.
The APSG Program Participant Committee, made up of representatives from
all participating institutions, is the highest division for policy
decision, which includes a APSG Management Board to assess the contents
and achievements of available research objects and to establish the plan
of development for these objects according to the requirements of science
and society. The conclusions reached by the Board will be subject to
review and iteration with the participants. The Board consists of
representatives from the key participating countries, of which the
Chairman is elected from its members. The Board involves a Program
Secretariat, a Technical Coordinate Center (TCC) and a Data Processing
and Archiving Center (DPAC). The Secretariat will provide the operational
interface between the Management Board and the Special Research
Groups(SRGs). It will assist in SRG's planning and will facilitate
communications and arrangements between the SRGs and the measurement
techniques of the TCC. The Secretariat will promote communications with
the DPAC and with international bodies, such as the CSTG, the IERS and IGS.
A member of the Management Board will head the Secretariat. The TCC will
consist of five Technique Working Groups (TWGs), with a Technique Coordinator
appointed by the Management Board. The TCC will provide the interface
between the designated SRG and the established measurement technique.
The TCC is intended as a means of communication and coordination for the APSG
and is not intended to supplant functions routinely performed by established
international bodies such as the CSTG and the IGS. The DPAC will be made up
of Data Center (DC) and Analysis Center (AC)1, AC2, and so on. The
responsibilities of DPAC will be to organize and coordinate the DC and
AC activities, to synthesize and analyze data documents and information
from the DC and each AC. The DC will collect the measurement data from
each TWG and will transmit and archive data in internationally accepted
formats. Many of the stations participating in the APSG will also be
participants in international network activities and will continue to
provide their data routinely to the international network. Any group
participating in the APSG and with the desire of becoming an AC will be
one of the ACs.
The First Workshop elected the first Management Board composed of the following People:
Ye Shuhua (China)
Miriam Baltuck (US)
| Masao Ishihara (Japan)
| John Manning (Australia)
| V. N. Strakhov (Russia)
| Uk Han (South Korea)
| S. Sutisna (Indonesia)
| |
Prof. Ye Shuhua was elected as the Chairman of the First Management Board and
Shanghai was chosen as the location of the Secretariat.
As the decision of the meeting, the APSG Project includes the following SRGs:
SRG 1: | Crustal Motion and Dynamics of Qing-Zang Plateau | ||||||||||
( Convener: Prof. Z. Ma, China ); | |||||||||||
SRG 2: | Crustal Tectonic Motion of the Western Pacific Volcanic-Seismic Belt | ||||||||||
( Conveners: Dr. Y. Bock, USA; Dr. K. Tsukahara , Japan ); | |||||||||||
SRG 3: | Sea Level Variation of Asia-Pacific Region | ||||||||||
( Convener: Dr. T.S. Murty, Australia ). |
Five TWGs and conveners were tentatively designated during the meeting:
GPS Technique Working Group ( Convener: Dr. R. Neilan, USA )
SLR Technique Working Group ( Convener: Dr. J. Manning, Australia )
| VLBI Technique Working Group ( Convener: Dr. T. Yoshino, Japan )
| Gravity Technique Working Group ( Convener: Prof. H. Hsu, China )
| SAR Technique Working Group ( Convener: Dr. M. Baltuck, USA ).
| |
The conveners of every SRG and TWG will convey, by October 1, 1996,
the detailed working plan to the Program Secretariat to complete the
terms of reference of the APSG project, which will be sent to all
participants.
The working plan should include:
Objectives - What geophysical questions do we want to answer?
Rationale - Why is it important?
| Who else is working on the problem?
| Required Measurements - What, Where?
| What is already available ? From whom?
| What else would be required? - Additional sites, upgrades, etc.
| Potential sources for these additional measurements.
| Participating Organizations
| Timeframe
| Project organization
| Special data requirements, archiving, analysis, etc.
| Sources of support
| |
The APSG Program will held its annual Workshop organized by participating
countries in turn, which aims at examining the progress and achievement
of research projects and to improve its plan and terms of reference.