KOREA INSTITUTE OF GEOSCIENCE AND MINERAL RESOURCES

The 54TH CCOP Annual Session & 71ST Steering Committee Meeting

Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources (KIGAM) hosted the “54TH CCOP Annual Session & 71ST Steering Committee Meeting” on October 28th to November 3rd in Busan, Korea. KIGAM, as the representative Geoscience organization to CCOP, held the CCOP Annual Session in 12 years since 2006, and the KIGAM put many efforts specially for this year’s conference because the year 2018 is the 100th ceremonial anniversary for KIGAM counting its beginning history since 1918.

CCOP stands for ‘Coordinating Committee for Geoscience Programmes in East and Southeast’, and it is the international organization for solving the common earth science issues which have emerged in the east and southeast Asian regions. CCOP is consisted with 15 member countries including Korea, and 14 cooperating countries.

* CCOP Member Countries: Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Vietnam, and Mongolia

* CCOP Cooperating Countries: Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russian Federation, Sweden, United Kingdom and United States of America

Dr. Kim Bok Chul, President of KIGAM, emphasized the importances of international-level conference hosting especially in 2018 for commemorating KIGAM’s centennial history at the opening ceremony. At the ceremony, Dr. Wohn, Kwangyun from National Research Council of Science & Technology (NST) declared the official starts for the “54TH CCOP Annual Session”, and there were 250 participants from 19 countries were joined. Also, this meeting was spnsored by the supports from Busan Metropolitan City, Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE), Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT), and Korea Tourism Organization (KTO).  

As the CCOP Annual Session was intended for discussing the emerging Geoscience issues in the CCOP region, the program has thematic session to widen the academic foundings in depth. For this year, the CCOP Organizing Committee prepared the thematic session with four topics: (1) Geo-Information and Geoheritage, Status & Future (2) Geohazard Mitigation and Response (3) Climate Change and Adaptation (4) Environment-Friendly & Smart Technology for Mineral and Energy Resources.

Also, KIGAM and the CCOP Organizing Committee organized “Special Session for Centennial KIGAM” on October 31 for commemorating KIGAM’s 100th history. The session’s main theme was 「Shifting the Geoscience Paradigm」, and we invited the 7 Geoscience global leading organization*. The presentations were focusing on global-warming, the effects of the 4th Industrial Revolution in the Geoscience community, smartcity, and so on. Also, the series of intense discourses were ongoing especially about changing (or adapting) the new paradigm of Geoscience R&D and to the “Age of New Normal” caused from the climate changes and geo-hazards.

* Korea (KIGAM), Canada (GSC), Finland (GTK), Germany (BGR), Norway (NGR), UK (BGS), US (USGS)

At the beginning of the “Special Session for Centennial KIGAM”, there was a handover ceremony of the ‘Geological Map of Chosen’ from 1920 between KIGAM and BGS. The map was scaled in 1:1,000,000, and initially its data collection started in 1911 and end in 1917. Then, the Geological Survey was publishing the ‘Geological Map of Chosen*’ in 1920. The map was very meaningful academic legacy for KIGAM. Dr. Kim Bok Chul, President of KIGAM, gave Dr. John Ludden, Executive Director for BGS, the Plaque of Appreciation as the token of KIGAM’s heartfelt thanks.

*Chosen(Joseon) is the the Royal Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910) in Korea

The very next day, all participants were visiting Geological Park in Busan Metropolitan City for them to observe peculiar Korea’s geological features.

The 71st CCOP Steering Committee Meeting was on November 2~3, and the Member Countries were discussing about the close Geoscience cooperation for the CCS technologies and sustainable geo-technologies in the CCOP region.

According to President Kim, "2018 CCOP is a starting point for opening up a new paradigm in East Asia and Southeast Asian geoscience research," and also he mentioned "Through 2018 CCOP, KIGAM has become a major geological resource research institute in Asia, and we will play a leading role in addressing the proliferation and global geological resource issues."