Second MyOcean User Workshop 9-10 April 2013, Copenhagen Main outcomes May 13 th, 2013 1. Objectives of the MyOcean User Workshop The 2 nd MyOcean User Workshop took place on 9-10 April 2013 in Copenhagen, about one year after the beginning of the MyOcean2 project, and more than two years after the availability of the version 1 of the MyOcean service. It was organised in close cooperation with EEA, in particular to analyse and discuss the MyOcean contribution to the marine environment monitoring activities. The main objectives of this User Workshop were: To present the current status of the MyOcean products and services, and to get feedback from their users; To address the issue of continuity of the MyOcean service beyond MyOcean2 (end by fall 2014); To discuss the response of MyOcean to expectations related to the marine environment monitoring, especially in the context of the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive; To discuss the possible improvements and evolutions of the MyOcean products and service, as well as the sharing of best practises within its user communities. 2. Agenda of the Workshop The Workshop agenda was structured in three main parts: A first plenary session, including a keynote presentation about Environmental data for the Maritime Economy by Professor J. McGlade (EEA Executive Director), and presentations about the Marine Strategy Framework Directive, the MyOcean Service, the MyOcean User Uptake, the MyOcean Service Improvement, the Product Quality Assessment in MyOcean, the R&D in MyOcean, as well as the GMES PURE approach for long term requirements about space observations; Splinter sessions (half-day) dedicated to (i) Coastal and Downstream Services, (ii) Time Series and Indicators and (iii) MyOcean Biogeochemical Products. Each splinter included presentations of user cases, and discussions about the relevance of MyOcean products and their possible improvements, the quality of these products, the information on and access to these products, and the sharing of best practices within the MyOcean user community. Specific emphasis was made on use of MyOcean products for the monitoring of the marine environment. A second plenary session, including the reports of the previous splinter sessions, presentations linked to Copernicus Marine Service Sustainability (Marine Knowledge 2020, Satellite Data Provision, In-Situ Data Provision, the ECOMF approach as well as the ECOMF Strategic Partnership) and a round table discussion. This round table gathered representatives of European stakeholders of the Copernicus Marine Service, including the private sector, and addressed two main issues: (i) the scope of the Copernicus Marine Service and (ii) the benefits of a sustainable Copernicus Marine Service for the national institutions and the private sector. 1
All the presentations given during the Workshop (including splinter sessions) are available at Second MyOcean User Workshop. 3. Participants to the Workshop The MyOcean User Workshop gathered 106 participants from 21 countries (EU and others), including 54 participants currently using the MyOcean Service and 7 involved in EEA Network (WG DIKE or EIONet). About 50% of the audience participated to the Coastal and downstream services session, 30% in Time series and indicators and 20% in MyOcean biogeochemical products ones. 4. Current status of the MyOcean service and users In April 2013, more than 2000 users from 88 (26 EU and 62 non-eu) countries are registered, with deliveries covering 100% of the catalogue. About 100 new users are registered every month. These users are mainly public institutions (65% out of which 50% are educational and research institutions), private companies (20%), and international organisations. The user communities are mainly from the Weather, Seasonal Forecasting and Climate (31%), the Marine and Coastal Environment (30%) and the Maritime Safety (27%) areas. The Marine Resources appears underrepresented (about 12% of the uses). It should be noticed that about 2/3 of users are involved in more than one application area, demonstrating the multipurpose nature of the MyOcean core service. 5. Main outcomes of the Workshop 5.1. General issues The sustainability of the Copernicus Marine Service is a key issue. The efficiency and reliability of the MyOcean service, which offer access to a set of core products through a one-stop-shop, is recognized and welcome. It represents a sound foundation for building a consistent end-toend marine service chain involving in particular the intermediate users of MyOcean. The sustainability of the Copernicus Marine Service, which is stressed from the beginning of GMES, is a key issue for the user uptake, and specifically for the development and consolidation of services and activities downstream, which could rely on the European core service delivery. This sustainability strongly depends on long-term availability of space observations which should be guaranteed through the Sentinels and other European, national and international missions and in-situ observations for which stable solutions based on sharing of activities and funding between the national and European levels must still be defined and implemented. The sustainability is also based on the obligation to maintain the services at the state-of-the-art: it implies in particular that both the observation infrastructure and service capacities are maintained at the right level, and that a permanent link exists between the observation and service designers and operators. 2
As end-users will have to use, and benefit from, both Copernicus Marine Service and national marine services, the sustainability of these two layers of services is strongly linked. It implies in particular to promote actions at regional level with a global approach linked to maritime economy, which should be a source of growth and jobs. The need for consolidating the scope of the core service and the role of intermediate users in the service chain were emphasised. MyOcean delivers information to national institutional operators and to the private sector that, in turn, build and deliver value-added information to end users, when necessary through combination of MyOcean and other information. The national institutions and private companies involved in the provision of marine and maritime information represent a major target for the core service delivered by MyOcean and, in the long term, by the Copernicus Marine Service. The link between the Copernicus Marine Service and its intermediate users should be strengthened, in particular over the coastal areas, which constitutes one major area of the maritime economy. For maximizing the benefits of intermediate users and for stabilising their value-added activities (and related business models), it is necessary to consolidate the scope of the Copernicus Marine Service which should be agreed by the Copernicus authorities and to widely communicate this information. The users including the intermediate ones expressed the need that the Copernicus Marine Service really focuses on a limited and well-defined set of core products, to be easily accessible by their users. It implies that the scope of the Copernicus Marine Service should take stock of what has been defined and implemented through MyOcean, and should not seek for enlargement downstream, especially when other activities and services already exist. It can reasonably be assumed that the future Copernicus Marine Service should keep a scope close to the MyOcean one. However, the improvement and evolution of the current MyOcean service must be addressed, especially regarding the provision of information supporting the marine environment monitoring. This evolution should not jeopardize the foundations of the current service, and rely on an acceptable compromise between user expectations, the state-of-the-art and the available funding. R&D activities should contribute to reinforce the links between the Copernicus Marine Service and its intermediate users: these activities should be defined and implemented through an efficient cooperation between the actors of the overall (core and downstream) service chain. This R&D approach should in particular drive the Partnership between the core service operators and the national institutional marine services. Actions for better structuring the response to marine environment monitoring requirements and more specifically to the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive are proposed. Marine environment monitoring requires information on the physical, chemical and biological state of the seas, describing the current status but also providing a sight in the past for analysing the evolution and deriving trends. Consequently, time series data represent an important material to support the marine environment monitoring and should, for this purpose, cover several decades (the past 50 years are the target). 3
The EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) is the EU legal instrument for the protection of the seas, and contributes to the overall objective to maintain a good environmental status of all EU marine waters by 2020. More specifically, the MSFD includes an assessment of the marine water characteristics in European regions and sub-regions, an analysis of pressures and impacts, as well as an economic and social analysis. An indicative list of characteristics, pressures and impacts is included in Annex 3 of MSFD, with physical and chemical features, as well as biological features, are described in table 1 of this annex. The contribution of Copernicus Marine Service to the MSFD is one key requirement for this service, especially through the monitoring of water characteristics. For the moment, its contribution to the analysis of pressures and impacts is more limited. As the scope of the Copernicus Marine Service is focused on deep-sea waters, its provision of MSFD-relevant information must be defined in close complementarity with the information provided by the EU Member States through their national services. For this purpose, it has been proposed to analyse and present, e.g. in the form of a position paper to be discussed in the MSFD framework (e.g. with the DIKE Data Information and Knowledge Exchange Technical Group), the respective contributions of the Copernicus Marine Service and of the national marine services to MSFD, with focus on the marine water characteristics. This action, which should involve representatives of MyOcean, EuroGOOS and the ROOSes, and WG DIKE, should be achieved by end 2013 in order to be instrumental for the next MSFD assessment planned in 2018. 5.2. Specific issues MyOcean Products and Service The main feedbacks and comments included: The good quality and efficient operation of the current service; The potential of MyOcean products to cover a large number of variables, including those identified in Table 1 of MSFD Annex 3, with o Improvement needed in spatial resolution of current products; o Relevance of monthly averages for most variables; o Limitations for describing the pressure on oceans; o Need for longer time series (typically 50 years) to study multi-decadal variability; o Relevance of additional synthetic products, such as heat content, depth of mixed layer, horizontal transport across key sections; The too large number of products, e.g. for temperature, in the MyOcean catalogue; The need for product description and quality information documents, that include short summary (e.g. about usefulness of product), and with specific attention given on clarity and terminology for non-specialists; The great interest of reanalysis and the lesser interest of forecasts for marine environment monitoring purposes, including biological and chemical components. Access to products, including user support, catalogue and formats The main feedbacks and comments included: The importance of accessing free-of-charge to the products; The considerable simplification implemented in access to MyOcean since two years; The ease of use of the browse function linked to the catalogue; 4
The interest of direct connection with experts with several levels of expertise available through the service desk; The lack of logics in the catalogue organisation; The non-consistency of NetCDF files among different products and the need for further harmonisation across products and providers; The need for availability of GIS-compatible format; The limitations for accessing to large size files; The need for a better graphical presentation of the products. Best practices The suggestions included: The improvement of dialogue between service providers and users with: o The appropriateness of the national level for such a dialogue; o The interest of user interviews (direct dialogue and better sampling) for obtaining user feedback or advice; o The importance of tutorials and the need for putting more efforts on their availability; o The need for an on-line user forum, The appropriateness of the Regional Conventions or EU Directive frameworks for sharing best practices: o These Conventions and Directives should enable to find better synergies between the European core service and the downstream service levels; o More specifically for the MSFD, the sharing of best practices should be sought through the existing processes and in particular the DIKE Technical Group. Evolution of the MyOcean service The following needs or suggestions mainly focused on availability of additional information to users were emphasised: To add a guide or a summary table for product selection (expert selection); To consider the citation of MyOcean data, in particular through DOI (Digital Object Identifier); To provide more information about format conversion tools, based on commonly used software; To better inform users on product and information quality through: o The development and dissemination of Quality Information Documents, including the description of processing methods; o The traceability back to sources, in order to improve the confidence in the added-value of models; o The dissemination of validation results obtained by users at local scale; o The availability of scientific validation papers (especially those not identified in the referred literature); To better organize the two-way links with downstream services, in particular through: o Regular meetings with downstream service providers; o Better information about the downstream services (what they do, what are their performances) through the MyOcean website; To better inform users about the service and product evolution, especially regarding the processes considered for these evolutions (e.g. from research to implementation) and the involvement user communities including at Member State level for e.g. MSFD in this evolution. Moreover, some specific issues about products and services were highlighted: For the wave and atmospheric forcing products: 5
o The need to define the actions and the timeframe for making this information available through MyOcean; o The need for information about the status of ocean-atmosphere coupling; For the availability of products with higher spatial resolution including time series: o The need to address this issue jointly between the MyOcean / Copernicus Marine Service and the national marine services; For the biogeochemical modelling: o The quality of old data should not prevent from the generation of long time series that are important for marine resource applications; o The need for models addressing eutrophication, with nesting between regional (European core service) and coastal models; o The use of MyOcean as platform for facilitating the use of biogeochemical models for responding to MSFD requirements. 6
6. Conclusion The 2 nd MyOcean User Workshop enabled fruitful discussion about the current status of the MyOcean products and service and their possible improvement and evolution, especially for marine environment monitoring and response to the EU Marine Strategy Directive requirements. The sustainability of MyOcean through the Copernicus Marine Service is a key issue. The recent and positive news about a possible Copernicus funding in the next EU Multiannual Financial Framework is likely to increase the confidence of user communities in the long-term availability of information describing the physical and biogeochemical state of the global ocean and European regional seas. The sustainability of the Copernicus Marine Service is of course linked to solutions for the long-term availability of space and in-situ observations. The scope of the Copernicus Marine Service must also be consolidated at both political through the Copernicus Regulation and technical especially with national marine services levels. This consolidation will enable to ensure a consistency along the marine service chain, and to prepare service evolutions involving the European and national service levels for maximising the benefits of user communities. The process currently implemented by MyOcean to engage users in the service uptake, in particular with collection and update of user requirements, user feedback (e.g. through User Workshops), and close dialogue between the Copernicus Marine Service and the downstream sector, should be strengthened during the operational phase of Copernicus, and should rely on Copernicus Marine Service providers. Regarding the marine environment monitoring, and more specifically the MSFD, it has been proposed to analyse and present by end 2013 and through a position paper the respective contributions of the Copernicus Marine Service and of the national marine services, with focus on the marine water characteristics. Finally, the process for deciding and implementing the propositions made during the workshop will take into account what can be done without significant additional resources, what needs consideration for the long-term, and more specifically how environmental users will be involved. 7