The international union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG) was established in 1919 as a nongovernmental organization. Original members were Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Japan, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and the United States. It is based at the University of Colorado in Boulder, Colorado, and is also known by its French name, Union Geodesique et Geophysique Internationale.
Geodesy and geophysics refer to the study of the sciences of the Earth and its position in space. Individual fields within these faculties include composition and tectonics of the Earth, dynamics of the Earth and its components, Earth shape, internal structure of the Earth, gravitational and magnetic fields, hydro-logical cycles of the Earth including ice and snow, magma generation, volcanism and rock formation, solar-terrestrial relations, and anything to do with the atmosphere, ionosphere, magnetosphere, and oceans. Additionally, study can be extended to the moon and the other planets in our solar system. These studies can be carried out using data collected on the Earth or via high-altitude data-collection instruments or artificial satellites.
The IUGG is "dedicated to advancing, promoting, and communicating knowledge of the Earth system, its space environment, and the dynamical processes causing change." When a natural disaster occurs, the IUGG partners with the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to investigate. UNESCO is a United Nations agency that was established in 1945 to foster international communication in the fields of culture, education, and science.
Members to the IUGG are individual countries. When a country wishes to join the IUGG, a current member country must first nominate the country; the nominating country is thereafter called the adhering organization. The country must next nominate a national committee to serve the IUGG, including at least an officer. There are multiple associations within the IUGG; joining countries must nominate a correspondent to each association. Finally, the applying country must choose to be a regular or associate member. As of 2007, there were 65 member nations representing Africa, Asia, Central America, Europe, North America, Oceania, and South America.
The IUGG is currently a scientific union within the International Council for Science (ICSU), along with 24 other unions. The ICSU was founded in 1931, as the International Council of Scientific Unions (hence the acronym); it became the International Council for Science in 1998, keeping the acronym ICSU as a tie to its history.
Within the IUGG, there are eight associations. These associations are the International Association of Cryospheric Sciences (IACS), the International Association of Geodesy (IAG), the International Association of Geomagnetism and Aeronomy (IAGA), the International Association of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS), the International Association of Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences (IAMAS), the International Association for the Physical Sciences of the Ocean (IAPSO), the International Association of Seismology and Physics of the Earth’s Interior (IASPEI), and the International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth’s Interior (IAVCEI).
The IUGG is a self-proclaimed "purely scientific organization," with the objectives of "the promotion and coordination of physical, chemical and mathematical studies of the Earth and its environment in space." It is managed by an IUGG council and holds a general assembly with delegates from each adhering body. The first general assembly was held in Rome, Italy in 1922. Since then, it has been held around the globe approximately every two to four years; it was held in Boulder, Colorado, in 1995, and at Perugia, Italy, in 2007. The first recorded attendance rate is 333 people for the 1930 meeting in Stockholm, Sweden; the 2003 meeting in Sapporo, Japan hosted 4,151 people. All member countries are invited to propose to host the general assembly; applications must be submitted at least six months prior to the scheduled meeting date.
