GEO “Oceans and Society: Blue Planet” Initiative 2020 – 2022 Implementation Plan GEO Blue Planet Implementation Plan Version 2.0 – March 2019 1. Executive Summary ................................................................................................................... 1 2. Purpose and Activities ................................................................................................................ 2 Cross-cutting Activities ............................................................................................................... 4 Stakeholder Engagement and Societal Awareness Working Group ....................................... 4 Capacity Development Working Group .................................................................................. 7 Data Discovery, Access and Utilization Working Group........................................................ 7 Thematic Activities ..................................................................................................................... 9 Understanding Flooding on Reef-lined Island Coasts Working Group .................................. 9 Multi-hazard Information and Alert System for the Wider Caribbean Project ..................... 10 Water-related diseases Working Group ................................................................................. 11 Marine Debris Working Group.............................................................................................. 11 3. Background and Previous Achievements ................................................................................. 12 Symposiums .............................................................................................................................. 12 Workshops ................................................................................................................................. 13 Publications ............................................................................................................................... 14 4. Relationship to GEO Engagement Priorities and to other Work Programme Activities ......... 15 GEO Engagement Priorities ...................................................................................................... 15 Work Programme Activities...................................................................................................... 15 5. Stakeholder Engagement and Capacity Building ..................................................................... 18 6. Governance ............................................................................................................................... 18 7. Resources .................................................................................................................................. 19 8. Technical Synopsis ................................................................................................................... 19 9. Data Policy ................................................................................................................................ 20 Annex A – Acronyms and Abbreviations ..................................................................................... 22 Annex B – List of References ....................................................................................................... 24 Annex C – CV of Project Leader .................................................................................................. 28 Annex D – Terms of Reference .................................................................................................... 36 GEO Blue Planet Implementation Plan Version 2.0 – March 2019 1 1. Executive Summary 2 3 “Oceans and Society: Blue Planet” Initiative (GEO BLUE PLANET) 4 5 Overview 6 We live on a blue planet, and Earth’s waters benefit many sectors of society. The future of our Blue 7 Planet is increasingly reliant on the services delivered by marine, coastal and inland waters and on the 8 advancement of effective, evidence- based decisions on sustainable development. GEO Blue Planet is a 9 network of ocean and coastal-observers, social scientists and end-user representatives from a variety of 10 stakeholder groups, including international and regional organizations, NGOs, national institutes, 11 universities and government agencies. GEO Blue Planet aims to ensure the sustained development and 12 use of ocean and coastal observations for the benefit of society. 13 14 GEO Blue Planet’s mission is to: 15 16 advance and exploit synergies among the many observational programmes devoted to ocean 17 and coastal waters; 18 improve engagement with a variety of stakeholders for enhancing the timeliness, quality and 19 range of services delivered; and 20 raise awareness of the societal benefits of ocean observations at the public and policy levels. 21 22 Planned Activities 23 During the 2020 – 2022 work programme period, GEO Blue Planet will work to identify and share best 24 practices on stakeholder engagement and societal awareness; communications; data discovery, access 25 and utilization; and capacity development. The initiative will collaborate with various GEO activities and 26 partners to support GEO’s engagement priorities and strengthen linkages with stakeholders. GEO Blue 27 Planet will also work to develop the below knowledge hubs and decision-support tools. 28 29 Knowledge hubs for fisheries, coral reefs and ocean-related SDG monitoring 30 Multi-hazard Information and Alert System for the Wider Caribbean 31 Early Warning System for Marine Flooding of Reef-lined Islands 32 Early-warning Systems for Water-associated Diseases 33 Systems for observing, quantifying, and classifying marine debris 34 35 Points of Contact Name Email Role Steering Committee Co-Chair Paul DiGiacomo [email protected] Steering Committee Co-Chair Sophie Seeyave [email protected] Secretariat Lead Emily Smail [email protected] 36 Version 2.0 (February 2019) GEO Blue Planet Implementation Plan | 1 37 2. Purpose and Activities 38 39 We live on a blue planet, and Earth’s waters benefit many sectors of society. The future of our blue 40 planet is increasingly reliant on the services delivered by marine and coastal waters. For example, 41 approximately 60 million people rely on fisheries and aquaculture for their livelihoods and over 80% of 42 the world’s trade is carried by sea (FAO, 2018; UNCTD, 2017). The social and economic future of these 43 and many other sectors is increasingly dependent on the services delivered by marine and coastal 44 waters. In recent years, the global community has prioritised the need for concerted action to maintain 45 these services through the agreement on the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 46 targeted at the oceans (SDG 14: Life Below Water) and the proclamation of a Decade of Ocean Sciences 47 for Sustainable Development (2021 – 2030) (UNESCO, 2017; UNGA, 2015). Maintenance of these 48 services relies on the advancement of effective, evidence-based decisions by governments, civil society 49 and the private sector about sustainable development, ecosystem management, food security, ocean- 50 resource utilization and natural disasters. 51 52 Evidence-based decisions in the marine realm need to be underpinned by the collection of physical, 53 chemical and biological data about coastal and open-ocean areas through direct (or “in situ”) 54 measurements and remote-sensing technologies, commonly referred to collectively as ocean and 55 coastal observations. These observations are transformed into information products, ocean forecasts 56 and services that can be used to create knowledge for effective, evidenced- based management and 57 policy decisions. For example, the implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 58 requires ocean observations for early warning systems to allow people to prepare and mitigate against 59 ocean-related hazards such as tsunamis, storm surges and extreme waves (Arduino et al., 2017; UNISDR, 60 2015). The ocean has significant impact on global climate patterns, and observations provide essential 61 information for forecasting precipitation and drought, the source of replenishment of water supplies, 62 and of climate events that can lead to public health incidents or changes in energy demand (Malone et 63 al., 2010; McCarthy et al., 2018; Mendez-Lazaro et al., 2014). 64 65 Coastal and ocean observations are important Essential Climate Variables (ECVs) developed in support 66 of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) (GCOS, 2016). These are 67 now fully incorporated in the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) Framework for Ocean Observing 68 (Lindstrom et al., 2012) as Essential Ocean Variables (EOVs) that address biology, ecology, and 69 biogeochemistry in addition to physical ocean characteristics. A further complement are the Essential 70 Biodiversity Variables (EBVs) being developed by Marine Biodiversity Observation Network (MBON), a 71 theme of the GEO Biodiversity Observation Network or GEO BON (Miloslavich et al., 2018; Muller-Karger 72 et al., 2018; Navarro et al., 2017). In addition, ocean observation of these variables helps improve 73 predictions of longer-range forecasts of weather (Legler et al., 2015). Ocean biological and biodiversity 74 observations are critical in monitoring the health of and changes to ocean ecosystems, and biodiversity 75 and are required to gauge progress towards the Aichi biodiversity targets (Andrefouet et al., 2008; CBD, 76 2010, 2014;