European Marine Observation and Data Network | EMODnet

2023 was a milestone year for EMODnet with the unification of thematic services, the OSL 3.0 Hackathon, the EMODnet Open Conference 2023 and much more! Learn more in the EMODnet Annual Report 2023, now published. This provides a comprehensive overview of the EMODnet service’s main achievements in 2023, user metrics and key facts and figures, thematic offer updates including new data products, new coverage for the Caribbean Sea and Caspian Sea, EMODnet data ingestion, EMODnet for the European Digital Twin Ocean, wider EU and global partnerships and EMODnet’s key role in the EC communication tool European Atlas of the Seas, etc.

In Spring 2024 EMODnet launched a technical blog, championed by the EMODnet Technical Coordinator Conor Delaney, to update EMODnet's diverse user community on latest service developments. This latest blog (#2 in the series) focuses on the EMODnet Map viewer, explaining how this key tool can be used to discover EMODnet's diverse offer of marine environmental and human activities data and data products and the latest features and functionalities, from map projections to visualisations. Dive in and discover EMODnet!

EMODnet has published the presentations and minutes of the EMODnet 20th Steering Committee (SC), now available on the EC Maritime Forum. The event took place online on 29-30 April 2024. The open session included the EMODnet SC, Technical Working Group (TWG), and representatives from the EC (multiple DGs) and EU agencies. Key discussions focused on EMODnet’s service evolution, and EMODnet for EU Policy, with a session chaired by Rémy Denos, EC DG MARE and involving DG DEFIS, DG ENV, JRC and EEA, among others. Updates on thematic data, user uptake, and portal developments were presented. The closed session covered the EMODnet communication strategy, use cases, partnerships, and planning for Open Sea Lab 4.0. 

Two global biodiversity data networks, Ocean Biodiversity Information System (OBIS) and Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), have agreed to a joint strategy and action plan that will deepen their collaboration, improve the flows and services of high-quality data about marine and coastal biodiversity, and support research and decision-making on the world's oceans. This agreement will have positive implications for EMODnet Biology as data curation and management will become more streamlined and we expect a better and strengthened collaboration we have been developing over the years.

EMODnet’s vessel density maps have received their yearly update. The time series now covers the full period 2017-2023. Released for the first time in 2019, vessel density maps are one of the most popular EMODnet’s data product. The maps report vessel density per square kilometre per month and are broken down by ship type, available for viewing and download on the EMODnet Portal. The maps are created based on a bespoke method developed by the EMODnet team, which is made available on the Portal and has quickly become a de facto standard in the literature, being used by organisations and researchers from all over Europe and beyond. The vessel density maps are updated every year with data from the year before. With the latest update in 2024, the time series available on EMODnet covers the entire period from 2017 and 2023, thus making it possible to have historical comparisons of the evolution of ship traffic.

EMODnet’s coastal and marine Litter data has been used in the REMEDIES Shoreline Marine Litter App co-designed by the Venice Lagoon Plastic Free (VLPF), together with Infordata Sistemi (Italy), developed within the Horizon Europe REMEDIES project. VLPF is a non-profit organization based in Venice (Italy), listed on the National Single Third Sector Registry (RUNTS), the EMODnet data providers list, supporter of the WWF Plastic Smart City Initiative and signatory of the EU Charter Restore our Ocean and Water mission. In the App, EMODnet’s extensive historical marine litter data were used for the pan European marine litter database.

Four ‘Maps of the Week’ were published on the Maritime Forum and the EMODnet website: ‘World Ocean Day – Deepening our Understanding of the Ocean’, ‘Addressing Beach Litter - #EUBeachCleanup campaign’, ‘Day of the Seafarer and Maritime Traffic’ and ‘Nature Restoration and Marine Protected Areas’.

EMODnet is the in situ pillar of EDITO-Infra and the European Digital Twin Ocean , playing a key role at the Digital Ocean Forum (DOF) 2024, held on 12-13 June 2024, at the Palace of the Academies in Brussels. The event celebrated the ongoing technical partnership between EMODnet and Copernicus Marine Service that has delivered the prototype European Digital Twin Ocean, with the event being co-organised by Mercator Ocean International (MOi), Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ), Seascape Belgium and the European Commission (see News Digest highlight for more information).

In early June 2024, the prototype European Digital Twin Ocean (DTO) EDITO-Infra platform was presented to the marine ecosystem modelling community by the EMODnet Technical Coordinator, Conor Delaney. The session “Data Lakes for Ecosystem Modelling” took place in the context of a wider Conference "Ecopath 40 Years – The Ecosystem Continuum: From Knowledge to Decisions", organized by the European Marine Board, held in Ostend, Belgium, from 3-8 June 2024.

On 19 June 2024, EMODnet, Copernicus Marine Service, EUMETSAT and ECOPS delivered a joint webinar on Marine Data for the UN Ocean Decade: A European focus. Attracting > 300 registrations from ocean professionals spanning early to later career, and from many nations in Europe and beyond, the webinar showcased EU earth observation capacity, and EC marine data services that offer in situ and satellite marine data, open for all.

On 31 May 2024, EMODnet, the European Blue Economy Observatory (EBEO) and the European Environmental Agency (EEA), co-hosted an engaging workshop titled "Diverse Data Serving EU Policies and the Blue Economy for a Sustainable Future" as part of European Maritime Day (30-31 May 2024) in Svendborg, Denmark.The workshop presented the marine knowledge offer and services of EMODnet, EU-BEO and EEA and discussed the uses of diverse data from the marine environment, human activities at sea and socio-economic data to provide more integrated and holistic ocean knowledge as interoperable data layers that can work together for multiple uses, and as the marine knowledge evidence-base for ocean and wider environmental assessments. A new article with further information on the workshop is now available on the EMODnet Portal.

As part of European Green Week 2024, EMODnet Chemistry was invited to bring its experience and present EMODnet at the event "ONE-BLUE: synergies towards the Ocean and Marine Environment Protection". The event took place on 6 June and was centered on the Horizon Europe ONE-BLUE project, which aims to research the effects of emerging pollutants and climate change on marine biodiversity and biota. EMODnet’s Chemistry offer on marine pollutants and contaminants are very relevant for this work.

On Monday, 17 June 2024, the European Marine Board (EMB) hosted a Brown Bag Lunch focused on marine habitat mapping to meet biodiversity, conservation, and restoration objectives. This event also marked the launch of EMB's Future Science Brief No. 11 on 'Marine Habitat Mapping.' The Future Science Brief was developed by the EMB Working Group on Marine Habitat Mapping, which includes several EMODnet Seabed Habitats experts.

Sebastian Mieruch and Reiner Schlitzer from the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) presented the Ocean Data View (ODV) software and its online version, i.e. webODV, to the EMODnet Chemistry Board of experts on the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive in a webinar on 31 May. AWI, a regular partner of EMODnet Chemistry since its inception, has been developing the ODV software for three decades and launched the webODV Data Explorer and Extractor in 2016. This provides cutting-edge and flexible tools for users who want to get the most out of EMODnet Chemistry's eutrophication and contaminant data.

EMODnet participated in the JPI Oceans Strategic Navigation Forum 2024, held on 11 June at the Comic Arts Museum in Brussels. This high-level event brought together stakeholders from the national, regional and European levels to discuss marine and maritime priorities post-2025. EMODnet experts are involved in a number of JPI activities including the JPI-Oceans and JPI-Climate Knowledge Hub for Sea-Level Rise, which will deliver the first European Sea-Level Rise Assessment later in 2024, and a new Knowledge Hub on Blue Carbon. EMODnet’s Head of Secretariat Kate Larkin emphasized the opportunity of using EMODnet and the European Digital Twin Ocean for integrated ocean knowledge and future marine and maritime decision-support tools. The event also discussed the importance of viewing ocean observation and marine data services not as costs but as crucial investments with significant returns on investment (ROI). 

The forum featured a plenary session with keynote addresses from leaders in marine and maritime research, followed by expert-led discussion panels and brainstorming, which will all be used to inform JPI-Oceans future agendas. 

For more details about the forum you can visit the JPI Oceans website

Join us on 22 October 2024 for the EMODent for Business online workshop "Marine data for ports, marinas and boating". The workshop will demonstrate the EMODnet service for the ports, marinas and boating industry sectors including how these Blue Economy sectors can further use and benefit from EMODnet, together with opportunities for data sharing.

The workshop is by invitation only. To express interest to attend, please contact: emodnet4business@emodnet.eu

On 3 July 2024 from 2:00-3:00 PM CEST, BLUEMISSIONAA will host the Atlantic & Arctic Weekly Hour featuring the European Digital Twin Ocean (EDITO). In this webinar, Dr. Conor Delaney, European Marine Observation and Data Network (EMODnet), will showcase the successful centralization of EMODnet and demonstrate how to find and download the data products of EMODnet. In addition, the role of EMODnet in the European Digital Twin Ocean infrastructure project (EDITO-Infra) will be described and attendees will get an understanding of what functionalities are available. EDITO-Infra is a joint EMODnet and Copernicus Marine Service project to publish their respective data products on a common Data Lake that will provide fast, robust and scalable data access and computation and can be used for building Digital Twins of the Ocean.

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