Vision

Terms of Reference

The InterCommission Committee on Theory (ICCT) was formally approved and established after the IUGG XXI Assembly in Sapporo, 2003, to succeed the former IAG Section IV on General Theory and Methodology and, more importantly, to interact actively and directly with other IAG entities. As a result of this restructuring, and recognizing that geodetic observing systems have advanced to such an extent that geodetic measurements

1. are now of unprecedented accuracy and quality, can readily cover a region of any scale up to tens of thousands of kilometres, yield nonconventional data types, and can be provided continuously; and
2. consequently, demand advanced mathematical modelling in order to obtain the maximum benefit of such technological advance, the ICCT
   1. strongly encourages frontier mathematical and physical research, directly motivated by geodetic need/practice, as a contribution to science/engineering in general and the foundations of geodesy in particular;
   2. provides the channel of communication amongst the different IAG entities of commissions/ services/projects on the ground of theory and methodology, and directly cooperates with and supports these entities in the topic-oriented work;
   3. helps the IAG in articulating mathematical and physical challenges of geodesy as a subject of science and in attracting young talents to geodesy. The ICCT should strive to attract and serve as home to mathematically motivated/oriented geodesists and to applied mathematicians; and
   4. encourages closer research ties with and gets directly involved in relevant areas of the Earth sciences, bearing in mind that geodesy has been always playing an important role in understanding the physics of the Earth.

Objectives

The main objectives of the ICCT are

• to be the international focal point of theoretical geodesy,
• to encourage and initiate activities to further geodetic theory,
• to monitor research developments in geodetic modelling.

To achieve these objectives, the ICCT interacts and collaborates with the IAG Commissions and other IAG related entities (services, projects).