EMODnet Secretariat progress update - July 2014

NEWS: Join us at the EMODnet@EurOCEAN2014 Pre-event – Connection people with data (Rome, 6 October 2014) – register and find more information here: www.emodnet.eu/eurocean

This update is largely based on the bi-monthly reports of the thematic lots covering the months May and June 2014 supplemented with updates from the Secretariat.

Current progress highlights:

General highlights and achievements from the thematic lots include:

• Thematic portals have secured important additions to the datasets made available through EMODnet and made upgrades to the portals as well as to the underlying software.

• EMODnet datasets were used to publish a high impact paper in the journal Science entitled “Assemblage Time Series Reveal Biodiversity Change but Not Systematic Loss” (see below under EMODnet Biology).

• EMODnet thematic and regional lot coordinators met at the 2^nd EMODnet Steering Committee meeting (4-5 June 2014, Rome) to discuss EMODnet progress, current bottlenecks and actions for the next months. The first results of the user-survey by the Secretariat was presented and discussed: significant shortcomings highlighted by the users will be addressed by each portal in the coming months to make the services more user friendly and fit for purpose.

• EMODnet applications for several high profile events were accepted: in coming months EMODnet will be presented to stakeholders at events including SeaTech Week (Brest, 13-17 October 2014), EurOCEAN2014 (6-9 October 2014) and the 7^th EuroGOOS Conference (Lisbon, 28-30 October 2014).

• Recent participation in several external events revealed that users and stakeholders are often confused about the relationship between EMODnet and various other marine data initiatives in Europe such as MyOcean, SeaDataNet, EuroGOOS, Copernicus, etc. Clarifying these relationships and the place of EMODnet in the wider landscape will therefore become an important goal in future outreach and communication efforts.

Specific progress and achievements include:

• EMODnet Bathymetry data providers prepared and submitted new entries for bathymetric surveys: the total number of CDI (Common Data Index) entries for bathymetric datasets in European waters reached 7671 entries at the end of June 2014 (increase of 1200 entries since end of April). Of these, 327 are unrestricted, while all other require negotiation with the data holders. The first release of the new EMODnet DTM for all European regions is slightly delayed and should be published by end of August 2014 latest, including further integration of new regional DTMs with CDI and Sextant references. To facilitate the generation of DTMs, the GLOBE software by Ifremer received 5 updates. The EMODNet Bathymetry service and results were presented at the 8^TH GEO EUROPEAN PROJECTS WORKSHOP (12–13 June 2014, Athens) and at Shell (30^th June 2014, Rijswijk, The Netherlands). The number of visits of the EMODnet bathymetry pages reached a new maximum in 2014 with 1784 visits in June. DTMs remain a very popular product with 4818 downloads in the months May-June 2014.

• EMODnet Geology compiled index maps showing available information and scale of geological mapping carried out at national level. The overview index map illustrates that in Europe, more than 30 different sediment classification systems are used in seabed mapping because traditionally, European countries have conducted their marine geological surveys according to their own national standards and classified substrates on the grounds of their national classification schemes. An important achievement entails the completion of the seabed substrate map of European water with a resolution at 1:250000 which was subsequently delivered to EMODnet Seabed habitats lot for use in developing their own deliverables. The information on the rate of accumulation and sedimentation and confidence of the substrate map will be provided during later stages of the EMODnet Geology 2 project. The next project meeting will take place in Malta in September 2014 to discuss amongst others the compilation of a map on a more general scale (e.g. 1:1 000 000) to expand the data coverage.

• EMODnet Seabed habitats has increased its efforts to develop maps by end of Summer for three regions: Macaronesia, Adriatic and Iberia. Long term deliverables were kept in focus, in particular in relation to the work within the Black Sea region. Collating data from outside the consortium remains difficult and has proved a lengthy process, but not hopeless. Modelled data from the MEDISEH (Mediterranean Sensitive Habitats) project has not been obtained yet but is expected soon. Success with obtaining inputs from other lots within the wider EMOD-network varies from lot to lot. The EuSeaMap2 project was presented at the 2^nd meeting of Turkey-EU Maritime Dialogue held at the headquarters of Ministry of Affairs, in Ankara, Turkey on 27 May under agenda item “Involvement in EMODnet seabed habitat mapping and marine data networking”.

• EMODnet Chemistry has not provided a bi-monthly progress report with information about progress in this reporting period.

• At the data ingestion side, EMODnet Biology has made available 22 new datasets through its portal in the period May-June 2014 with a total of 527071 new records, ranging from benthic to cetacean data. At the user side, there has been a slight but steady decline in visitors since January 2014 which is compensated by an increase in visitors of the EMODnet Biology information pages on the Central EMODnet Portal www.emodnet.eu. Notably, data retrieved from the EMODnet Biology portal has been used to publish a high profile article in Science: Assemblage Time Series Reveal Biodiversity Change but Not Systematic Loss (Science 18 April 2014:Vol. 344 no. 6181 pp. 296-299, DOI: 10.1126/science.1248484). Noteworthy progress towards achieving the deliverables includes: (i) creation of a draft webinterface with information on introduced and invasive marine species (MSFD Descriptor 2) currently in testing phase (final version to be launched in the second half of the 2014); (ii) publication of overview of all metadata of the datasets that will be mobilized during the project; (iii) testing and validation of methodology for the creation of gridded abundance data product for several benthic species, and an invasive species, from the Baltic Sea. The EMODnet Biology portal was also presented and demonstrated at various meetings and events including a WoRMS related workshop (13 May 2014), the ICES WG DIG (Data and Information Group) Meeting (26-28 May 2014), the LifeWatch Technical workshop (3 June 2014) and the JERICHO summerschool 2014 ( 14-20 June 2014)

• EMODnet Physics’ current portfolio includes 746 platforms providing near real time measurements for a range of parameters including sea level, wave and winds, temperature, currents, light attenuation, etc. This is 45 platforms less compared to the previous reporting period largely due to the decrease in measurements from sea level platforms (reasons are under investigation). The integration of validated historical data provided via the SeaDataNet network of National Oceanogrpahic Data Centres (NODCs) is taking more time than foreseen. A specific new service is under development to be able to make the SeaDataNet physical metadata available from the EMODnet Physic map interface. The access to this data will still require the acceptance of the SeaDataNet data access policy license. At the usage side, both the EMODnet Physics landing page and map page have received increasing attention from visitors since last year with a record number of landing page visitors in May 2014. In terms of development of the EMODnet Physics service, following progress is noteworthy: (i) three basic EMODnet Physics products have been developed and are now available via both web service for the EMODnet Central portal and EMODnet Physics end-user page (e.g. provision of monthly averages, maximum and minimum for some of the parameters); (ii) EMODnet Physics and IODE/ODP agreed that EMODnet Physics data provided to ODP will be made available to the WMO Information System (WIS) - http://www.wmo.int/pages/prog/www/WIS - which provides a single coordinated global infrastructure for the collection and sharing of information in support of all WMO and related international programmes; this means that EMODnet Physics data will feed into international exchange of meteorological and related data and products making it available to the entire global community of users of these data and data products.

• Several new datasets are now available through the EMODnet Human activities portal covering among others aggregate extraction, dredging, wind farms, waste disposal and other forms of area management designation. Another batch of datasets are ready to be made available through the portal covering ocean energy facilities, mariculture and dumped munitions. The Human activities data catalogue is currently in beta testing to go live during summer 2014 which will make it possible to download data and metadata, and to retrieve data via WMS/WFS. EMODnet Human activities was presented at the European Maritime Day in Bremen, and at the Baltic MSP Forum in Riga, receiving considerable interests from participants and stakeholders.

Progress indicators

Since January, thematic portals regularly collect and report information on data availability and usage based on a set of metrics and portal use statistics corresponding to the EMODnet progress indicators. Where available and meaningful, summary information has been included in the overview of achievements per thematic lot (see section above). The current inconsistency of metrics and level of reporting between the different lots does not allow for a meaningful integrated presentation of the results. For this reason, the Secretariat will review the current progress indicator reporting practices and work with each lot to align current metrics and improve the reporting effort to allow meaningful trend analysis by the next Steering Committee Meeting.

Highlights from the EMODnet sea-basin checkpoints:

• The Mediterranean sea-basin checkpoint launched its “Oil Platform Leak Bulletin” service on 4 June 2014 which provides forecast/scenario information on the fate and transport of oil leaks emanating from fixed platforms, upon request (http://www.emodnet-mediterranean.eu/emodnet-wp4-oil-platform-leak-bulletin/). The checkpoint also produced its preliminary literature survey report (D1.2) to summarise previous studies of the “adequacy of data” in the Mediterranean Sea basin.

Recent meetings and events:

• The EMODnet Secretariat and EurOGOOS organised a joint workshop at the European Maritime Day 2014 (Bremen, 19-20/05/2014)with support from the Joint Research Centre (JRC) and the European Marine Board, focussing on key European efforts in the lifepath from marine observations and data up to information and knowledge. A short report and the presentations will (one day we hope) be made available by the event organisers here: https://ec.europa.eu/maritimeaffairs/maritimeday/en/stakeholder-workshops.

• < >https://maritime-forum.ec.europa.eu/community/modeg/articles/3568.

  On 17 June 2014, representatives from the EMODnet Secretariat, EMODnet Physics, EMODnet Biology and several EMODnet contributing partners (SeaDataNet, ICES, MyOcean, etc.) presented core elements of the European marine data landscape at the 2^ndsummer school of the FP7 JERICO project (Towards a joint European research infrastructure network for coastal observatories). More information about the summer school and its outputs are available at http://publicwiki.deltares.nl/display/OET/JERICO.

• On 26 June, EMODnet experts and EC representatives discussed possible approaches and mechanisms which would allow to capture data that is being generated in new research projects or licensed facilities offshore. More information and presentations on this data ingestion meeting are available here: https://maritime-forum.ec.europa.eu/community/modeg/articles/3570.

Future EMODnet meetings and events:

• The 3^nd EMODnet Steering Committee Meeting will take place on December 2014 (Brussels, TBD). The meeting will address among others the progress indicators, user-survey recommendations and first year deliverables of all lots.

• EMODnet Secretariat will promote EMODnet at a number of high level events which will take place in the 2^nd half of 2014, including the EurOCEAN2014 Conference (7-9 October 2014, Rome), the 7th EuroGOOS Conference on Operational Oceanography for Sustainable Blue Growth (28-30 October 2014, Lisbon, Portugal) and the Mares Conference on Marine Ecosystems Health and Conservation (17-21 November 20414, Olhao, Portugal).

• Secretariat will organise a dedicated EMODnet Pre-event linked to the EurOCEAN2014 Conference – Connection people with data (Rome, 6 October 2014) – register and find more information here: www.emodnet.eu/eurocean

More information:

More detailed information and the bi-monthly progress reports of each thematic lot can be found attached to this post and on the EMODnet thematic portals:

• EMODnet bathymetry – www.emodnet-bathymetry.eu

• EMODnet Geology - www.emodnet-geology.eu

• EMODnet Seabed habitat s- www.emodnet-seabedhabitats.eu

• EMODnet Chemistry - www.emodnet-chemistry.eu

• EMODnet Biology - www.emodnet-biology.eu

• EMODnet Physics - www.emodnet-physics.eu

• EMODnet Human activities - www.emodnet-humanactivities.eu