The Caribbean Marine Atlas (CMA) Project Ramon Roach Water Quality Analyst Marine Research Department

Outline Caribbean Marine Atlas  Background  Components  AMA example CMA Development  Stakeholder meeting  Requirements CMA National Coordination  Establishment of group  Identification of training needs

CMA Background CMA Project part of a global network of initiatives  IOC  Established in 1960  Address scientific uncertainties for environmental management  Improving operational capability for management and sustainable development  Building capacity in marine science  IODE  Established in 1961  Enhance marine research  Facilitate exchange of data and information  Provide access to data and data products  NODCs and marine libraries  ODINCARSA  Established in 2000  Facilitate capacity building, equipment and operational support at the regional level  Products and services

CMA Components Data and Information Distribution System  Interactive, online mapping tool  Collection of GIS data layers (vector and raster)  User defined data frame within AOI  Geographic features (scales, grids, coordinates)  Advanced data control  Layer list (one layer, multiple)  Feature selection  Results tables  Metadata viewing  Links to websites, documents, auxiliary data  Data download  Shapefiles  Attached metadata  Documents, images

CMA Components Cont’d Thematic Data Structure  Geosphere  Natural hazards  Soil types  Land use  Hydrosphere  Bathymetry  Physical oceanography  Chemical oceanography  Biosphere  Habitats  Marine flora and fauna  Protected areas  Atmosphere  Climate  Weather  Human Environment  Settlements  Infrastructure  Tourism

African Marine Atlas Example African Marine Atlas AMA Project  ODINAFRICA Initiative  1 Year startup  Hosted by IODE Click to go to website and then click ‘Go to Atlas’ on the left hand menu

Importance of CMA Local and Regional Data Management for Policy Making  Integrated Coastal Area Management (ICAM)  Data required for planning, implementation, monitoring, evaluation  Regional scale information availability  Communication with policy makers  Inter and intradepartmental data sharing  Local CMA equivalent  Provide easy access to restricted data  Data quality and metadata standards  Improved data sharing  Data and information warehousing  Communication with public  CMA and local equivalent  Central access point for marine data  Enhance data and data product delivery  Reduce product delivery overhead

Role of IODE Facilitation and Institutional Strengthening  Capacity building for ocean/coastal data management  Training Workshops  Online training services  Links to resources (software tools, data sources)  Standards development for data descriptions and data quality control  Training workshops  Metadata standards information  Metadata creation tools  National data infrastructure development  Distributed database technology training  NODC establishment  Equipment funding  Products/services development  Marine atlases  Standard Databases  Online data retrieval services

CMA Project Development 1 st Stakeholder Meeting for the Development of the CMA Project (October 8-10, 2007)  Regional information gathering workshop  Participants from 9 Caribbean countries  Core initiative with scope for expansion  Workshop Goals  To inform the participating countries of the potential benefits of a Caribbean Marine Atlas  To identify current national coastal zone management arrangements  To identify national and regional coastal and marine issues that could be the focus of the Caribbean Marine Atlas  To identify the national resource requirements of the participating countries to enable full participation in a Caribbean Marine Atlas Pilot Project  To prepare a draft work plan of a Caribbean Marine Atlas Pilot Project, for submission to, and approval by the respective national governments

Stakeholder Meeting Regional Stakeholder Exercises  Priority Issues  Primary environmental concerns  Identification of indicators  Identification of responsible agencies  Data accessibility High Priority Medium Priority Low Priority

Regional Priority Issues  Coral Reefs, Seagrass, Mangroves  Overexploitation  Natural Hazards  Beaches  LBS Pollution Regional Data Access Issues  Most or all essential indicator data collected (Barbados and Cuba leading)  Data access from data holders tends to be problematic Workshop Conclusions Regional Data Management Issues  Little or no data quality control (geographic, range analysis)  No established metadata schemes  Lack of institutional resources  Personnel and training  Equipment

For the Atlas  Identify geographic Area of Interest (AOI) for the Atlas  Agree the topic outline  Gather available data according to the scope of topics, geographic limits and temporal considerations  Describe metadata and source location URLs  Review gridded datasets for data value ranges  Convert all data to appropriate GIS formats  Shapefiles for vector data  ASCII ArcGrids for gridded data and satellite imagery  Geo-referenced images to accompany most arrays  Clip all GIS files to the AOI  Convert data to required products (e.g. seasonal climatological grids/contours)  Convert these products to the correct GIS formats  Create a browser interface to the GIS files, with links to the metadata files and source location URLs  Publish the atlas on the Internet with a interface using static HTML pages  Publish the atlas as an interactive Map Service  Publish the browser-based atlas on DVD for dissemination  Produce a hardcopy publication CMA Requirements

For the National Atlas Coordinating Group  Identify national teamleader  Identify required training to participate in Atlas project  Detail equipment requirements (and send to IODE secretariat)  Identify if data are available in electronic or paper form  Identify restrictions on use of data  Locate all historical records available nationally  Perform data quality control on data  Conversion of data sets into shapefiles  Import layers into national mapserver system* CMA Requirements

CMA Training Courses Basic Courses  DM 101 Introduction to Ocean Data  Oceanographic measurements (parameters, units, conventions); programmatic and technical aspects of data collection; data formats used for ocean data and their special characteristics  DM 102 Ocean Data Collection  Development Building a national ocean data collection from the World Ocean Database 2005 and other local and published data sources; basic data analysis with popular software programs  DM 103 Ocean Data Products & Synthesis  Developing a suite of standard and specialized ocean data analysis products from the national data collection, and the synthesis of these products with other available analyses in Geographic Information Systems Advanced Data Management  DM 203P Geographic Information Systems for Coast & Ocean Management  An intensive, hands-on tutorial in the use of proprietary (ESRI) Geographic Information System software to assemble and analyse coastal and marine data for environmental management purposes

CMA Training Courses Advanced Data Management Cont’d  DM 203N Geographic Information Systems for Coast & Ocean Management  This course is the equivalent of DM 203P, with the major difference that the software used throughout is in the public domain Marine Atlas Courses  DM 207 MapServer Application for a Marine Atlas  This course introduces the Data Manager to an open source software application to build spatially-enabled internet applications to publish maps and to build an interactive map application demonstrator for a marine atlas. The African Marine Atlas is used here as the training model  DM 210 Marine & Coastal Atlases  Practical workshop intended to address the creation of a Marine & Coastal Atlas for a specific geographic area, including the construction of the static HTML interface to the GIS data products. The workshop builds upon the theoretical concepts presented in prior courses, but it includes the real-world considerations of exactly where the Atlas will cover, what themes will be included, and the construction of the actual products for this area

Thank You