Venue: Hotel Continental, Brno, Czech Republic.
Highlights: The members of the Regional Organization Groups and Global Coordination Group for the Global Monitoring Plan (GMP) for POPs met in Brno, Czech Republic from 17 to 20 September 2013. Among the issues discussed were the implementation of the second phase global monitoring plan including air monitoring, human matrices, water; regional capacity building activities in the second phase of the global monitoring plan; the GMP data warehouse and data handling for the second phase global monitoring plan; as well as timelines for completion of regional monitoring reports. The meeting also addressed the GMP membership to the effectiveness evaluation committee and the further update of the guidance document to include HBCD and more detailed water monitoring guidance.
One of the major objectives of the meeting was to further enhance data comparability and consistency through finalization of the GMP data warehouse for use within the second phase GMP. The experience with transferring GMP 1 data was reflected in the proposals for future GMP campaigns, including electronic data collection, standardized data structure and code lists as well as visualization tools. The aim was to develop a robust system that is sustainable and will continue functioning for all future campaigns, including tools for statistical processing and analysis of the data, as well as data visualization tools including a GIS module allowing the user to work with dynamic map service layers. The GMP data warehouse can be accessed at www.pops-gmp.org.