Preface

WEGENER is the acronym for Working group of European Geoscientists for the Establishment of Networks for Earth-science Research. At present, WEGENER is the Inter-commission Project 3.2, between Commission 1 and Commission 3, of the International Association of Geodesy (IAG). For almost thirty years, WEGENER has promoted the development of scientific space-geodetic activities in the Mediterranean and European area by supporting international cooperation and by being a Forum for European and all other Earth scientists interested in the Eurasian/African plate boundary zone. In particular, it has contributed to the establishment of geodetic networks designed specifically for Earth science research. The mission of WEGENER is the development of interdisciplinary work for the integration of space and terrestrial techniques in the study of the Eurasian/African plate boundary deformation zone and adjacent areas, including the establishment of an European velocity field. On September 15-18, 2008, WEGENER held its 14th General Assembly in Darmstadt, Germany, with the title “WEGENER: an interdisciplinary approach to Earth science research and modeling”. This special issue of the Journal of Geodynamics compiles a selection of manuscripts resulting from papers presented during this assembly. Today Earth Science research has reached an unprecedented level. The Global Earth observations Systems and the underlying satellite missions, such as the Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), altimeter satellites both for sea level studies and for radar imaging of surface deformation and, in particular, the gravity field monitoring missions like GRACE and GOCE are contributing each year terabytes of new data allowing to detect and interpret previously unobservable effects. These recent technological and scientific achievements have broadened the scope of WEGENER since a global view on many phenomena and data combination is often necessary for a comprehensive, integrated multi-technique assessment of Earth Science research and modeling. Recent developments and the most significant advances are presented in the manuscript “The Interdisciplinary Role of Space Geodesy – Revisited” by Reiner Rummel who delivered the opening lecture of the assembly. The program of the 14th Assembly of WEGENER was articulated around five major sessions: Current plate motions and inter- and intraplate deformations. Focusing on Europe, the Mediterranean and surrounding regions; Contribution of new Earth observation systems and methodologies; The Global Geodetic Observing System (GGOS) and its regional implementations; Open Session: Geosciences from Northern Africa to Central and Northern Europe; Special Session: The Mediterranean: A geohazards focus area. Classical WEGENER topics were presented in the first session. The unraveling of the tectonic complexity of the region calls for an integrated approach involving observations of crustal and surface deformation. The session on new Earth observation systems and methodologies focused on exploring the benefits of integrating different positioning techniques with other geodetic/geophysical information. The presentations and the selected papers in this volume show the vast emerging capacities of SAR in numerous geo-sciences applications. The regional contributions to GGOS, such as those provided by WEGENER, were discussed to a large extent, since GGOS is the main project in the high-level international geodetic cooperation among agencies, research institutions and individual scientists. The open Session on Geosciences from Northern Africa to Central and Northern Europe dealt with different strategies and techniques to be adopted both in a recent as well as in a mature environment for geodynamical studies. Different perspectives in the application of GNSS networks in the Southern Mediterranean and the Central European Countries were shown that covered both continuous and episodic monitoring of recent deformation...