The Global Emissions Inventory Activity (GEIA) was created in 1990 to develop and distribute global emissions inventories of gases and aerosols emitted into the atmosphere from natural and anthropogenic (human-caused) sources. The long-term goal has been to develop inventories of all trace species that are involved in global atmospheric chemistry.
In 2002, GEIA also began providing short reviews of current understanding of emissions for all of the major chemicals and source types.
GEIA is now entering an exciting new phase to better serve the greater global climate change science and assessment communities. 2004 is a year of extensive review and planning.
See the International IGBP Newsletter #57 for more details.
GEIA's decade long mission has been to provide high quality data and information for timely, relevant assessments. The requirements for a data set to be accepted as a GEIA data base include substantial peer review as reflected by acceptance for journal publication and agreement among the individual GEIA project teams.
To ensure that the best available data can be easily accessed by users, GEIA provides links to "pre-GEIA" data for projects that do not yet have a formal GEIA data base and projects where the formal GEIA data need to be updated. These interim pre-GEIA data and data requiring updates have not yet undergone the formal GEIA review requirements. To enhance development and distribution of the highest quality information, GEIA also facilitates communication with other related data base and assessment activities by providing links to these activities.
GEIA's mission is expanding to be more responsive to the needs of the global research and assessment community as a result of the 2003-2004 planning.
GEIA originally was a component of the International Global Atmospheric Chemistry Project, a core project of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program (IGBP). Now GEIA is a cross-cutting program within IGBP with broader responsibilities. GEIA continues to be a volunteer network of several hundred scientists in more than 30 countries who are working together to coordinate and stimulate efforts to address emission changes and their role on climate change and air quality. There are a number of urgent policy-related environmental issues being addressed by the work of GEIA. (Gradel et al, 1993)*. During 2004, GEIA will be expanding beyond the emissions inventory work to serve a more central integrating role within IGBP.
Computer model assessments of past, present, and future atmospheric chemistry rely on inventories of emissions constructed on appropriate spatial and temporal scales with appropriate chemical species. Accurate emissions inventories also are useful to field measurement scientists and the regulatory and policy communities. The GEIA products are expected to become standard inventories for the international community.
The first convener of GEIA was Thomas Graedel, now at Yale University. Gregg Marland of Oak Ridge National Laboratory took over as GEIA convener in 1996.
In May 1998, Marland was succeeded by co-conveners Derek Cunnold of the Georgia Institute of Technology (USA), and Jos Olivier of the Netherlands National Institute of Public Health and the Environment (RIVM). The co-conveners worked closely with the Coordinating Committee:
In 2003, GEIA entered into a new planning phase led by Alex Guenther (USA) and Claire Grainer (France). A draft plan is expected to be ready for review in Fall 2004.
GEIA 2003-2004 is allowing GEIA to assume a broader role in the global change community, going beyond development of standard inventories to provide timely information on emissions on different spatial and temporal scales and related fluxes. These plans were first outlined during the 2001 GEIA workshop and discussed in detail at the 2002 Workshop. Earlier GEIA activities were guided by the GEIA 5-year plans developed in 1998.
The GEIA effort currently includes:
Data management and communication are coordinated by the GEIA Center in Boulder, Colorado, USA .
* Graedel, T.E., T.S. Bates, A.F. Bouwman, D. Cunnold, J. Dignon, I. Fung,
D.J. Jacob, B.K. Lamb, J. A. Logan, G. Marland, P. Middleton, J.M. Pacyna, M.
Placet, and C. Veldt (1993): A Compilation of Inventories of Emissions to the
Atmosphere. Global Biogeochemical Cycles. 7, 1-26.