CONSOLIDATING THE MERAN NETWORK

    According to the conclusions and recommendations of the Casablanca meeting, Pr. H.J.BOLLE wrote a document about "research priorities emerging from RICAMARE activities in the field of atmosphere, climat and remote sensing".
    The idea to have a long term post-RICAMARE activity was endorsed by the last Steering Committee meeting in Istanbul (June 18-19, 2001). In particular, the basic role of the MERAN network was acknowledged.
    Pr. Bolle wrote his vision of  the consequences of these debates in the document "RICAMARE RESOLUTION". Some parts of this document are deliberately preliminary or prospective.
    To  start the process, Pr. Bolle also wrote a "Strawman proposal", to be discussed by the MERAN partners. Some of them already suggested some additions, clarifications or changes.

    The initiative should reach its full development under the 6th Research FP of the EC. Nevertheless, the following MERAN 'Concerted Action' proposal has been submitted to FP5/EESD (Key Action 2, Section 2.4, Sub-Section 2.4.2) on October 15th, 2001. Only European partners were eligible for this call. Nevertheles, a close link has to be kept with non-EU MERAN partners. Medias-France is committed to lookfor extra resources to fully integrate these partners.

Essentially MERAN is to monitor and assess the signature of Global Change in the Mediterranean Basin context. A set of scientifically driven 'Anchor Stations' with European partners will be chosen. Integrated high-quality data sets from these stations will be used for validation of remotely sensed data, and testing of regional environmental models. The guiding scientific questions are:

- Is there a measurable change in the Mediterranean water cycle?
- Are water cycle processes irreversibly affected by climate trends predicted by IPCC 2001?
- Which indicators are best suited to measure changes in the Mediterranean area?
- Can regional models adequately simulate Mediterranean climate?
- What is natural climate variability versus anthropogenic changes?


MERAN in support of GMES, will initiate strategic implementation of a long-term Mediterranean Observing Network, towards a finer understanding of socio-economical climate impacts on agriculture, water resources, and biodiversity. But this proposal was unsuccessful. Nevertheless, it was a step further on organizing MERAN.


The MERAN Consortium was originally defined as follows:

A MERAN Consortium proper and an enlarged Consortium which included past activities, post activities, and global activities all attached to similar issues. For example MERAN must be considered as a post-RICAMARE extension and as a key component of GMES. Natural linkages also exist with EUROFEO, ENRICH, INCO-DC, START, IGBP, IHDP, WCRP. MERAN will not survive all by itself but is being maintained and supported by all sort of funding and resources including in-kind. MEDIAS-France and its specific mission is perceived as one of the ideal integrator and facilitator to manage MERAN and becomes part of the Consortium as such.

The specific MERAN Consortium included expertise from a balanced blend of Research Institutions, Public Universities, Foundation and Private organisations. The mixture was also multidisciplinary and implies integration and linkages towards MERAN objectives. The respective Institutions with their key partners listed hereafter:

Foundation for Research and Technlogy-Hellas, OSS, IRD, Forest Research Institute Sofia, University of Tuscia, Laboratoire des Sciences de l'Image, de l'Informatique et de la Télédétection (LSIIT), Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe GmbH, ALFAClima, Universidad de Valencia, Universidad de Castilla La Mancha/UCLM, IMAAA.