At the dawn of its 15th year in business, EMODnet Chemistry celebrates the best results of the past year with EMODnet stakeholders. A full article gives key achievements and a forward look, which sees the confirmation of the same consortium at the helm of EMODnet Chemistry for the next two years, coordinated by OGS.
EMODnet Chemistry has recently created new maps on pollutants. The products are grouped into 4 map categories that provide information on the spatio-temporal distribution of measurements in all European seas and beyond, for parameters prioritised in the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD).
The European Commission has initiated a public consultation on the evaluation of the Nitrates Directive, which aims to protect water bodies from nitrate pollution caused by agricultural practices. The consultation, open until March 8, 2024, assesses whether the directive is still effective in promoting sustainable agriculture and food security, especially considering changing environmental conditions. The evaluation will focus on adaptation of farmers, support for new agricultural practices, and promotion of nutrient recycling. Key objectives include simplification, reducing burdens and costs, and aligning with global biodiversity goals. The Nitrates Directive sets limits on fertilizers and encourages good farming practices to prevent harmful effects of excessive nitrates, such as water pollution and economic losses. The evaluation aims to ensure diverse stakeholder interests are considered across the EU.
Starting in this edition, we are launching a news section dedicated to EMODnet's key role in the European Digital Twin Ocean (DTO). EMODnet and Copernicus Marine Service collaborate in the EDITO-Infra project which is upgrading EC marine data services to provide the backbone infrastructure to the EU DTO. At the heart of EDITO-Infra's technical advancements lies the establishment of a comprehensive data lake. This innovative feature seamlessly integrates both EMODnet and Copernicus Marine products. Leveraging cutting-edge, open-source technologies from the cloud computing industry, the data lake offers robust and scalable object storage, coupled with high-performance computing (HPC) resources. This combination is pivotal for enabling on-demand data analysis and the creation of sophisticated 'what-if' scenarios. Stay tuned for more information.
On 26-27 September 2023, EMODnet together with the European Commission, DG MARE, organised an online workshop on ‘’EMODnet Marine Data for Coastal Tourism’’. The main objective of the workshop was to facilitate cross-sectoral dialogue and share experiences from key coastal tourism stakeholders regarding their in situ data needs, existing and emerging uses of EMODnet and wider open source marine environmental and human activities data for coastal tourism operations and applications, and opportunities for private-public data sharing, including optimization of dataflows and EMODnet data ingestion as a public service supporting the European ocean observation and data collection community to enable Findable, Accessible, Reusable and Interoperable (FAIR) data.
The International Council for the Exploration of the Seas (ICES) has released the Call for Abstracts for the Annual Science Conference 2024 in Gateshead, UK (meeting taking place 9-12 September 2024). This year, EMODnet has teamed up with ICES for a joint session "Theme session J: Moving the latest developments from machine learning and AI closer to exploiting mountains and lakes of data" This session is open for abstracts from the ICES and wider community, including those that demonstrate connection between ICES and EMODnet. The deadline for abstract submission is 22 March 2024.
The EDITO initiative, powered by EDITO-Infra, extends an invitation to ocean twinning projects and national initiatives throughout Europe. The primary focus of this initiative is to enhance the capabilities of the European Digital Twin Ocean (EU DTO). Successful participants will have a unique opportunity to showcase their work at the high-level dedicated session during the Digital Ocean Forum 2024.
UNESCO and IUCN have compiled a first-time assessment of the status and trends of species within UNESCO World Heritage sites, revealing specific insights in the species richness of these sites. A number of the marine World Heritage sites are located within European waters, for which EMODnet Biology contributed data.
The European Ocean Observing System Technology Forum will take place in Excel, London, on 13 March 2024. The organisers are calling stakeholders to register their interest online.
The European Geosciences Union (EGU) General Assembly 2024 is calling for abstract submissions by 10 January. EMODnet is planning a number of submissions to this edition of EGU, and it would be great to see EMODnet partners, associated partners and wider stakeholders there.
The European Maritime Day (EMD) 2024 will be a fully-fledged physical event, in Svendborg, Denmark on 30-31 May 2024. Registration will open soon. In the meantime, you can already apply for “EMD In My Country 2024 events” which will also take place all over Europe from 1 April till 31 October 2024. Are you ready to submit your event(s) for 2024? Fill in the online application form before 29 February 2024 and bring European Maritime Day 2024 to your country!
During the EMODnet Open Conference 2023, Kate Larkin, Head of the EMODnet Secretariat, recorded a podcast for the Nippon Foundation & GEBCO Seabed 2030 initiative. She spoke about the objectives and operations of EMODnet, and EMODnet’s offer of high resolution pan-European bathymetric data and data products e.g., Digital Terrain models, for global users. EMODnet is an active contributor to contribution to Seabed 2030, and also works with the private sector e.g., Fugro to increase data sharing. The podcast was produced by Steve Hall, Head of Partnerships for Seabed 2030, and colleagues. Tune into the podcast, interview #2 to find out more!
The EMODnet EC marine data service thanks all of its partners, associated partners and wider stakeholders for a productive and exciting 2023. We look forward to further collaboration in 2024. And in the meantime, Happy Holidays and ocean wishes for the New Year!
The Digital Twins of The Ocean (DITTO) program invites experts to contribute to a groundbreaking initiative integrating marine and satellite data with AI and high-performance computing. Help create sustainable ocean solutions and drive innovative digital twinning projects. Apply now to be part of a diverse team transforming our understanding and management of the oceans. Deadline: 15 January 2024
Save the Date for our upcoming webinar designed to help guide EU Mission: Restore our Ocean and Waters and Horizon Europe projects to harmonise and submit their data to EMODnet. The webinar will take place online on 28 February 2024, 11am-12:30pm CET. Join in the dialogue with EMODnet experts on how to optimise your project output. More information and registration to follow soon in January 2024!
We are thrilled to announce and welcome three new Associated Partners to EMODnet, each bringing unique expertise and a strong commitment to advancing collaboration with EMODnet in the areas of data sharing, best practices in marine data, information technology and data services, and expanding the users of EMODnet, including for the Blue Economy.
The UN Ocean Decade Data Coordination Group is developing a Data and Information Strategy. They are now calling for stakeholder feedback to shape the strategy to achieve 'the science we need for the ocean we want.' Follow the link below to submit your input.
Organised for the first time in 2024, European Ocean Days 4-8 March 2024 will be a week of events related to European maritime topics. It will include the EU Mission Ocean and Waters Forum, events on future priorities for Europe’s Seas, BlueInvest bringing together blue innovators and investors as well as ocean literacy activities and more. EMODnet will be there. Will you? Follow the link below for more information and registration.
In addition to the EMODnet Conference and Jamboree 2023, EMODnet Physics has been busy attending external events in Q4 of 2023. At Festival della Scienza, there were two interesting contributions: the talk “OceanBigData” and the collaboration at OGS Lab Quando la scienza dà i numeri - L’impatto dei dati scientifici, giusti e sbagliati. The keynote “Seas of Data: EMODnet commitment” was held at REMEDIES cluster meeting. Finally, a lecture was given at the IOI at University of Malta on EMODnet utility and functionality for managers and policy makers.
Key outputs of the EMODnet Geology last phase (centralisation contract that ended in late September 2023) include completely new as well as updated data products, produced with data collected over the past two years, and now uploaded on the EMODnet Portal. The greatest extension in areal coverage was gained with a new seabed substrate map added for the Caribbean Sea. This new map covers some 2.700.000 km2, in practice the whole Caribbean Sea. Also, a completely new data product on seabed erosion was added to the portal, that includes available seabed erosion studies and related background information.
