CCCA experts are taking the opportunity to comment on the GSA Establishment Act (GeoSphere Austria). It's welcome news that this draft legislation brings a lengthy discussion to a provisional conclusion. However, given the intention stated in the government programme to create a new competence centre for public services, the new institution would need to be designed more comprehensively, so that all abiotic elementary processes in the Earth system are represented within a single agency. The proposed merger of ZAMG and GBA does not achieve this.
Nevertheless, even within the current draft legislation, there are some important suggestions and comments to be made on several points.
The proposed clarifications, amendments, and additions are made in the spirit of
a) improving public services in Austria, in particular by securing the provision of weather forecasts and warnings and the coordination of climate scenarios as a state service for the public, and
b) enhancing the performance of Austrian research in the field of geosciences, including meteorology, through content-based coordination amongst relevant research institutions and through improved data exchange — in particular by providing a data repository for observational, monitoring, and research data that would otherwise be barely accessible over longer periods of time, which amounts to a loss of public assets.
