6 
The GOOS Concept 
Chapter 17.1 of UNCED Agenda 21 calls for innovative approaches to the management and 
development of the oceans and coastal zones in the following programme sectors: 
a) Integrated management and sustainable development of coastal and marine areas, 
including Exclusive Economic Zones; 
b) Marine environmental protection 
c) Sustainable use and conservation of marine living resources of the High Seas and of 
marine living resources under national jurisdiction 
d) Addressing critical uncertainties for the management of the marine environment and 
climate change 
e) Strengthening international, including regional, cooperation and coordination 
GOOS will be developed utilizing the available results of existing scientific programmes (e.g. 
WOCE, TOGA, JGOFS), of CLIVAR (Climate Variability and Predictability), and of existing 
operational observation and data exchange programmes (e.g. IGOSS, WWW, IODE). The 
objectives are 
- to monitor, describe and understand the long-term physical and biogeochemical processes 
governing ocean circulation and the effects of seasonal and long-term climate changes, 
- to provide consistent data sets and information making it possible to assess climate changes 
and their effects on the coastal zone, to predict the effects of sea level changes and the 
impact of marine pollution on ecosystems and fisheries, 
- to develop and run operational models suitable for describing the state of the marine 
environment and predicting its development. 
GOOS is co-ordinated by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of 
UNESCO jointly with WMO, ICSU, and UNEP. The current planning of GOOS provides for 
the following five modules: 
Module 1 
Module 2 
Module 3 
Module 4 
Module 5 
Climate Monitoring, Assessment and Prediction 
Monitoring and Assessment of Marine Living Resources 
Monitoring of the Coastal Zone Environment and Its Changes 
Assessment and Prediction of the Health of the Ocean 
Marine Meteorological and Oceanographic Operational Services 
WMO is not planning an independent concept for the oceanic sector of the Global Climate 
Observing System (GCOS); therefore, the GOOS climate module simultaneously constitutes 
the oceanic component of GCOS. 
GOOS will use remote sensing data and ground-based data from stationary, automatic 
recording stations as well as in-situ measurements of research vessels and so-called ships-of- 
opportunity, which include merchant ships, ferries, and fishing vessels. Additional innovative 
measuring techniques will have to be developed to obtain long time series of constant data 
quality. 
GOOS data must be available much faster than the measuring data from current research 
programmes. They must be accessible to the public for information, advice, and predictions 
within a few hours or days. For environmental protection and hazard prevention purposes, as