1. WISE – Marine Towards an integrated marine environmental information
7th of December 2016
Presentation by EEA Water & Marine Group

2. Outline Description of WISE – Marine Target audience Structure
IT Needs
Work Plan
Expected benefits
WISE – Marine & other EU Information Platforms
Aditional Information
Closing Remarks
In order to address the key issues relevant to the further progress of our work, my presentation is structured focusing on five ítems extracted directly from the WISE business plan.
These are:
WHAT IS WISE MARINE
PROPOSED WISE MARINE STRUCTURE
GOVERNANCE OF WISE MARINE
SOURCES OF INFORMATION and
THE WORK PLAN PROPOSED FOR THE PERIOD 2016 TO 2020
Finally, I will close my presentation with some considerations for the next steps in our Action Plan for 2017

3. A wide need Description of WISE – Marine
Aims to be a web-based portal for sharing information on the marine environment at EU level to:
facilitate the sharing and use of information at EU level.
build a consistent and updated knowledge base.
assist an effective uptake of the relevant knowledge to decision makers.
contribute to a greater level of coordination among sectors, marine regions and institutional levels.
On the wider context, WISE-Marine aims to be a web-based platform for sharing information on the marine environment at EU level to:
facilitate the sharing and use of information with regards to the marine environment at EU level
build a consistent and updated knowledge base
assist an effective uptake of the relevant knowledge by decision makers and
contribute to a greater level of coordination among sectors, marine regions and institutional levels.

4. MSFD Context Description of WISE – Marine WISE-Marine aims to:
provide an ‘information platform’ for member state, regional and European efforts, showing progress against targets set for good environmental status within the MSFD.
manage the dissemination of information emanating directly from the MSFD reporting as a central source, and secondary sources (Water Framework, Habitats and Bird directives, Marine Spatial Planning Directive).
Within the MSFD context, WISE-Marine aims to:
provide a ‘shop window’ for member state, regional and European efforts in describing the state of the marine environment and demonstrating progress against targets set for good environmental status within the MSFD
manage the dissemination of information emanating directly from the MSFD reporting obligations implementation as a central source, supplemented by other data sources, such as from the Water Framework, Habitats and Bird directives.
WGDIKE

5. Cooperation at the regional level
Description of WISE – Marine
Cooperation at the regional level
WISE-Marine will allow the sharing of regional thematic assessments, assessment products, reported information, indicators, and data sets at the regional and the EU level.
WISE-Marine will be an aid for aligning regional standard typologies and references, facilitating a European assessment building on the existing regional efforts.
With regards to the cooperation at regional level, WISE-Marine will be structured to allow sharing of regional thematic assessments, assessment products, reported information, indicators, and data sets among marine regions and the EU level.
The value of WISE-Marine will be to aid in aligning standard typologies and references for how each region describes and assesses the marine environment, so that a European assessment can be developed building on the existing regional efforts.
In general, the homogenization and standardization of the regional distributed data and metadata systems requires more efforts as the data cannot be easily shared among the different systems.
The rationale behind enhancing, cooperation at regional level is to be found in the characteristics of the marine ecosystem, that (1) a need of a certain degree of coherence in the way we assess, monitor and carry out actions within (and across) regions; and (2) certain topics and problems that need to be addressed and that are not confined to national boundaries.
Synergies within and between marine regions should therefore continue.

6. Description of WISE – Marine
The better the reported data the better the national and European overview of the marine environment and actions implemented and planned by countries

7. WISE – Marine: Target Audience
EU institutions
Member States (national, regional and local administrations working in marine policy development or implementation)
Regional Sea Conventions
Professionals from public or private organisations
Scientists
The intended users of WISE- Marine are governmental decision-makers, and organisations providing support to them, working on marine and coastal management at transnational, national and sub-national level. Its geographical scope is the EU28 member states, and the non-EU 5 EEA member countries.
This list is being proposed following existing European Information Platforms such us BISE ( ), CLIMATE Adapt ( ) and WISE ( ).
Ountries
WISE – Marine: Legal Ownership
WISE-Marine is being developed in a partnership among Commission services, and the EEA.
More specifically it consists of DG-ENV, JRC, EEA (and it’s ETC/ICM), but other important European contributors are anticipated to be Member States, DG MARE, Eurostat, RSC’s and ICES. WISE – Marine is a deliverable under the Marine Strategic Framework Directive.

8. WISE – Marine: Structure
WISE-Marine will be organised via a portal:
WISE-Marine landing page (ENV)
Topics (EEA)
Policies (ENV)
Data & Information products (EEA)
Research & Modelling (JRC)
Marine regions (RSC's)
Countries
Links to other initiatives
The information in WISE-Marine will be organised via a portal: which will be maintained by the EEA/European Commission, and which will contain a landing page as well as the overarching structure of content that is to be developed under the portal (Figure 1). Following the examples of other successful European Information Platforms (CLIMATE- Adapt, BISE, WISE, etc.), the following seven key areas are proposed for WISE-Marine: Topics, Policy, Data & Information Products, Research & Modelling, Marine Regions, Countries and Links to other initiatives .

9. Descriptors/Indicators
WISE – Marine: Structure
Zoom in TOPIC sections (level 2 &3) for WISE-M portal
Descriptors/Indicators
In the TOPIC SECTION, information units on the state and trend of the different components of the marine environment, on pressures and activities impacting the health and function of Europe’s marine ecosystems, as wells as links to other relevant topics such as Marine Indicators and Assessment Tools will be developed.
The content development of this Section falls under the responsibility of the European Environmental Agency. A first draft of contents for this section has been compiled already.
This figure offers also a quick overview of possible contents (level 3) to be allocated in each of the 5 information units proposed for this Section.

10. Data (EEA) WISE – Marine: Structure
Zoom in elements of data component of WISE-Marine (level 2 and 3)
WISE-Marine landing page (ENV)
Data (EEA)
Data products (information shown)
Indicators
Assessment tools
Data services (e.g. EMODNET)
Reference layers and MSFD maps
MSFD reported data
MSFD Art 8, 9 and 10
MSFD Art 13
MSFD Art 11
MSFD Art 19.3
The overall rationale for the structure of the data section is to produce and/or disseminate data and information products that relate to the state of the marine environment. The information produced under the MSFD will be the central piece (which will be managed and maintained in a database hosted by the EEA), while also making the necessary links to other data and information sources where appropriate, such as RSC information products, EMODnet, etc.
WISE marine will provide a platform for querying the data/information as compiled and made available by the member states as part of their reporting obligations for the MSFD. In addition, regional and European indicators and relevant data products will also be available to inform on the state of the European environment in relation to the MSFD criteria. Figure 6 offers a quick overview of possible contents (level 2 and 3) proposed for this Section.

11. WISE – Marine Work Plan 2016 -2018
2017
Design of the web –portal
Ensure coordination with other related initiatives on information platforms (e.g. EMODNET, MARATLAS, Copernicus) and with RSCs (e.g. in relation with the roof-reports).
Initial development of a European Indicator Library
Possible development of a European Photo Catalogue
Launch of the website
2016
Drafting of the WISE – Marine Business Plan
Presentation of the paper to DIKE
Governance Agreements with DG ENV, DG MARE, DG JRC, ICES, RSCs
Ressources planning
A phased approach is envisaged, starting with a portal that will progressively evolve from providing basic quantitative information to including the MSFD reporting data by 2018.
Timeline:
If possible, a first version should be available in the first semester of 2017 and the launch should be programmed for September 2017.
2018
Preparation for access to MSFD 2018 reported data

12. WISE – Marine: Expected benefits
1) Improved dissemination of data to domain experts by:
• Identifying and making linkages to the portal in a coordinated and standard way
•Allowing information and data to be re-used between Directives and geographical scales without the need to establish new or duplicate data reporting and dissemination structures.
•Benefit from existing datastreams and data products, such as some of the RSC thematic streams, the Marine Knowledge 2020 initiative or the WFD and the Habitats and Birds Directives.
2) Increase productivity by:
•Making a better use of information available at the european level, while improving coherence across and between regions – streamlining indicators etc.
•Better assess cumulative pressures and impacts, and communicate about ecosystem change (at a systems level)
•Improve and further develop our understanding of ecosystem-based management of human activities in our seas

13. WISE – Marine: Expected benefits
3) Improvement of cooperation with partner organisations
 Improve the policy integration and response assessment. Link better regional targets, commitments and actions to EU policy.
Better support towards goals (individual and joint) and MSFD art. 20 requirements. 3) Improvement of cooperation with partner organisations
Ad hoc support to IT development
Lack of coordination with Regional Sea Conventions and other key partners
Business risks

14. WISE – Marine & other EU Information Platforms
EMODNET, EUROGOOS, MCC, COPERNICUS, MSP, BISE, JPI…
A specific platform for our common MSFD implementation efforts.
An oportunity to coordinate with the related information platforms which have different stakeholders and sources of information.
With regards to the relationship to other EEA IT projects: A close link between WISE – Marine and BISE, WISE, CLIMATE- Adapt is foreseen. Links with Copernicus (CMEMS +C35), Marine Competence Centre (JRC) and EMODNET will also be ensured.

15. WISE – Marine: Additional information

16. Closing remarks Governance
WISE Steering Group: DG ENV, DG MARE, JRC, EEA, RSCs, ICES - next meeting on 25 January in Brussels
Ressources committed on a multi-annual perspective for both content and IT developments from EEA and DG ENV
Process
A 2 stage approach in line with the ToRs for the WG DIKE and TG Data
Coordination with other related initiatives (EMODNET, MCC, CMEMS, C3S, JPI Ocean, MSP platform, EuroGOOS). Coordination meetings with EC and RSCs (15 Nov 2016).
WG DIKE informed on a regular basis and to provide feedbacks and comments throughout the implementation of WISE-Marine
EEA member countries informed and consulted on a regular basis.