How marine data can be presented at a global scale: The AFRICAN MARINE ATLAS as a case study

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How marine data can be presented at a global
scaleThe AFRICAN MARINE ATLAS as a case study
SCOTT L., ABABIO S., ARMAH A.K., BEEBEEJAUN M.,
BROWN M., DIALLO A., DOVLO E., HAMADY B.O.,
JASMIN R., MASALU D., MAUEUA C., MCCORD M.,
MWANGI T., ODIDO M., ONGANDA H., PISSIERSSENS
P., ROMMENS, W., REED G., SOHOU Z., and WEDEINGE
J.
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The African Marine Atlas
A project of the Ocean Data and Information
Network For Africa (ODINAFRICA) (IODE,
Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC
of UNESCO) a network of National Institutions in
Africa funded by the Government of Flanders
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Ocean Data and Information Network for
Africa(ODINAFRICA)
Over 40 institutions in 25 countries National
Oceanographic Data Centres (NODCs)
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The African Marine Atlas why ?
Responding to challenges

• African Coastal region and marine waters
  biologically diverse, physically complex, and not
  well studied.
• Coastal management and decision-making complex
  and requires access to information
• There are many data and metadata formats in use
  in African institutions
• Limited internet access in Africa
• Limited access to public funded data
  (local-global)
• Need for data products natural resource
  management, coastal planning, and management of
  marine protected areas at a national and regional
  level

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The African Marine Atlas aims outcome

• Improve access to data
• (online Atlas product)

2. Increase capacity to use data (training
courses, work programmes)
The Project
A project that aims to source, collect and format
marine geospatial datasets and make them
available to marine scientists and managers while
building capacity for marine data management.
The Products
A digital GIS atlas, and atlas products,
containing a broad spectrum of informative marine
geo-information about the African coasts and
oceans.
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The African Marine Atlas
Technical Scope

• Five Themes Geosphere, Hydrosphere, Atmosphere,
  Biosphere, Human environment
• The atlas incorporates data sets that are
  relevant in any way to coastal / marine sciences
  or management (initial list of over 200 data
  categories)
• Existing geo-referenced datasets available in the
  public domain (but tailored to meet specific user
  requirements).
• Continental Africa and island states
• Transboundary data sets

40 N
80 E
30 W
50 S
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African Marine Atlas links, partners and
contributors
International Coastal Atlas Network
CoML
GEO/GOOS/GEOSS
GLOBAL
GBIF
OBIS
IOC/UNESCO
NOAA
USGS
UNEP
ODINAFRICA Sea level data facility
AfrOBIS
NEPAD
AFRICAN
AMIS
GeoNetCast-Africa
ODINAFRICA
GOOS-Africa
African Marine Atlas
ChloroGIN
ReCoMap
COI
REGIONAL
Clearing House Mechanism East Africa
ASCLME
SWIOFP
SST
AMESD
Regional Atlases
WIOMSA
WIO-LaB
ACEP
Regional Project databases and products
NATIONAL
Institutions
National IOC coastal modelling projects
NGOs
Universities
State of the Environment reports
Government departments
National Oceanographic Data Centres
Earth observation networks (SAEON)
National Databases and products
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The African Marine Atlas
The ATLAS Team
14 members 12 ODINAFRICA National Data Centre
Managers and 2 regional partners (African
Coelacanth Ecosystem Programme (ACEP) and the
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP))
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The African Marine Atlas
First 12 months

• Protocols, coordination and data mining workshop
  (June 06)
• Selection of product parameters for GIS layers,
  specification of protocols and procedures.
• Standardisation of data parameters, legends,
  image and file formats, file naming conventions
• Sharing of software tools and knowledge
• 2. In-country work (July - November 2006)
• Atlas work continues as planned
• Collaboration and data exchange is through an FTP
  site based at the IODE in Belgium
• 3. Mid-term review (October 2006)
• Meeting to review progress
• 4. Atlas compilation workshop (November 2006)
• Regional Leaders and Project Scientists meet for
  a single, 1-week workshop to assemble their
  products into cohesive, well-organized and
  documented atlas structures with static HTML
  interface
• 5. Atlas website compilation workshop (February
  2007)
• Static website goes live (spatial data
  clearinghouse)

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Product 1 Static website (spatial data
clearinghouse)
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Product 1 Static website (spatial data
clearinghouse)

• gt800 unique data sets, each one
• described briefly
• JPG image provided of the data
• Link to source, citation
• Downloadable zip file
• (actual data, data image and
  metadata in original form)

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Themes data sets
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1. Geosphere Theme

• Soils
• Basic types
• Sediments
• Thickness
• Texture
• Chemical composition (including pollutants)
• Minerals
• Resource potential
• Active sites
• Geohazards
• Faults plate boundaries
• Historic events
• Historic impacts
• Geotechnical problem areas (slumping etc.)

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2. Hydrosphere Theme

• Historical surveys
• Cruises stations
• Moorings
• Existing atlases and products
• Physical oceanography
• Salinity, temperature, density distributions
• In-situ observations analyses (V)
• Satellite observations analyses
• Currents
• Traditional
• Ship based
• Moorings
• Operational
• Drifters floats
• Satellites
• Sea level
• - Tide gauges tides and mesoscale
• Satellites - mesoscale

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• Chemical oceanography
• Major nutrients oxygen
• Station maps
• Climatological analyses
• Micronutrients
• Water quality
• Low O2
• H2S events
• Major oil spills
• Optical oceanography
• Compilation of statistics for standard
  measurements
• Particulates, detritus, scattering
• Limnology
• Drainage basins
• Major rivers estuaries
• Locations
• Hydrographs (/w extreme)
• Impacted ocean shelf areas
• Coastal wetlands lagoons

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3. Biosphere Theme

• Biological oceanography
• Phytoplankton
• Chlorophyll
• Zooplankton
• Marine/coastal plants
• Algae and kelp
• Mangroves and seagrasses
• Terrestrial and coastal vegetation
• Fisheries data (FAO to country level)
• Species distributions
• Critical habitats
• Fishing areas and landing sites
• Catch statistics
• Species distributions

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4. Atmosphere Theme

• Weather
• Synoptic weather patterns
• Extreme event paths, frequencies and impacts
• Maximum storm conditions
• Climate
• Temperature
• Precipitation
• Winds

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5. Human Environment Theme

• Land
• Countries
• States/internal divisions
• Marine
• EEZ boundaries
• Treaty lines
• Military activity zones
• Offshore dumping areas
• Major shipping routes
• IMO regular activity zones (distance limits)
• IMO special activity zones
• Navigational fairways anchorages
• Pipelines
• Cables
• Minerals leases platforms

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• Population
• Municipal population densities
• Rural population densities
• Infrastructure
• Roads
• Ports coastal engineering structures
• Railroads
• Bridges
• Airports
• Energy transmission
• Information transmission
• Industry commerce
• Factories and production facilities
• Discharges
• Industrial
• Sewerage
• General non-point sources

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• Tourism
• Tourist targets
• Local/national cultural historical
• UNESCO cultural historical
• Ecological resources of note (see also Protected
  Areas)
• Hotels resorts
• Diving, sportfishing surfing locations/areas
• Socio-economic data
• Employment/unemployment levels
• Income levels
• Employment sectors

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Product 2. African Marine Atlas WebMapServer

• Demonstration site developed
• Selection of themes
• Training and working meetings (2)
• Current display www.africanmarineatlas.net

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Challenges

• Expectations
• Metadata management
• Standards choosing data formats and standard
  legends
• Selecting appropriate data of interest and
  meaning at continental scale
• Logistics of working together from several
  countries
• Remote access to servers
• Access to the Internet from countries
• Biological data specific permission had to be
  requested and recorded, data citations were
  complex
• Sustainability

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Opportunities possible future developments
Planning meeting for ODINAFRICA IV (2-6 June)

• Results of coastal models (current and future
  projects of regional institutions) incorporated

• 1. Rates of shoreline erosion
• 2. Coastal flooding prediction guides
• 3. Storm surge prediction models
• 4. Climate prediction models
• 5. Critical/sensitive habitats (mangroves, coral
  reefs etc.)
• 6. Productivity of coastal oceans
• 7. Biodiversity Status (Assessment) of coastal
  and offshore waters
• 8. Tide data (near real-time and locally
  sensitive)
• 9. Bathymetric Charts of inshore waters

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Opportunities possible future developments
Planning meeting for ODINAFRICA IV (2-6 June)

• Results of coastal models (current and future
  projects of regional institutions) incorporated

• National high resolution pilot sites
• use cases for coastal management applications
• Collaboration with other programmes (for example
  African Large Marine Ecosystem Programmes)
• application to transboundary natural resource
  management policy development
• Merging of Clearinghouse WMS systems
• Participation in guidance by the International
  Coastal Atlas Network (ICAN)
• Searchable Metadata portal (global standards and
  controlled vocabularies)
• Data exchange with other portals
• Monitoring effectiveness use of products in
  Africa

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Opportunities possible future developments
Participation in guidance by the International
Coastal Atlas Network (ICAN)

• newly-founded informal group of organizations
  that build Coastal Web Atlases (CWA).
• Aim data interoperability between CWAs.
• Sharing of experiences
• Find common solutions for CWA development.
• Increasing the awareness of the possibilities of
  CWAs.
• Enhancing international collaboration to increase
  the added value for individual countries.
• Aim globally integrated locally-maintained
  coastal atlases as premier source of spatial
  referenced information about the coastal zone

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Opportunities possible future developments
Lesson exchange and support of other developing
region atlases Caribbean Marine Atlas (CMA)
under development, small island
statesOceanTeacher Training Materials Tools
for Capacity BuildingIODE Training Centre
(Ostend, Belgium)
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www.africanmarineatlas.netL.Scott_at_ru.ac.zawoute
r.rommens_at_iode.org
Acknowledgements IOC/UNESCO, UNEP, ACEP, ASCLME