ICAN 2025: Save the Date!

ICAN 2025:Virtual Workshop

ICAN 2025: Building Knowledge, Taking Action

September 30, October 1-2 2025 
Time: 10am-1pm EST, 2pm-5pm UTC, 4pm-7pm CEST

The 2025 International Coastal Atlas Workshop will be held online from September 30 to October 2, 2025, with a series of live and recorded content. The workshop will provide an opportunity to present and discuss recent innovations in atlases, how atlases are answering the Ocean Decade Challenges and it will also investigate synergies with other initiatives around the world.

The Organizing Committee of ICAN 2025 invites abstracts for online live or recorded presentations for:

  • Session I – Innovated Approaches to Atlas Development: Sharing creative approaches to knowledge production and encouraging action through atlas development

  • Session II – Connections to the Ocean Decade: aiming to explore how our Atlases are answering to the Ocean Decade Challenges 

  • Session III – Knowledge to Action: exploring how projects can encourage various types of actions around the worlds

The workshop is free and open to all with pre-registration. We welcome submissions that may fit the above themes, and can accomodate both live and pre-recorded presentations.

Submit your Abstract here

(Registration link for the conference coming soon)

ICAN 9 : Detailed Agenda (English)

ICAN 9: Local to Global
Benefits of Coastal Web Atlas Sharing & Connectivity

September 27 - 29, 2021

2pm-5pm UTC

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The 9th International Coastal Atlas Workshop (ICAN 9) will be held online from September 27 to 29th 2021, with a series of live and recorded content. The workshop will provide an opportunity to present and discuss recent innovations in atlases, how atlases can contribute to the goals of the UN´s Decade of Ocean Science and it will also investigate synergies with other initiatives such as the IODE OceanInfoHub.

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Workshop is FREE and available LIVE in English, Spanish, Portuguese, French

**NOTE** All times are approximate, as organizers may need to adjust the agenda as circumstances arise.

 

Session II: Sept 28th


Atlases, the UN Decade & the SDGs

Tuesday September 28, 14:00 UTC

Aiming to explore how Coastal Web Atlases can contribute to and link in with the UN Decade of Ocean Sciences and the Sustainability Goals

Co-Hosts:
Andrew Sherin, former Director, COINAtlantic
Kate Sullivan, Professor of Anthropology, California State University Los Angeles


Part I

(85 minutes)



Part II

(80 minutes)


 


Session III: Sept 29th


Sharing your Atlas with the World

Wednesday September 29, 14:00 UTC

Aiming to explore how Atlases can share their content more effectively and
make connections to the OceanInfoHub project

Co-Hosts:
Adam Leadbetter, Data Management Team Leader, Marine Institute, Ireland
Lucy Scott, Ocean InfoHub Project Manager


Part I

(80 minutes)


 


Part II

(80 minutes)


 


ICAN 7: Cape Town, South Africa

The 7th workshop for the International Coastal Atlas Network was held in Cape Town, South Africa on 19-20 April 2015. The focus was presentations on the theme Coastal Web Atlases – Supporting Ecosystem Based Management with a special emphasis on ICAN activities in Africa.

 
Participants at ICAN 7 in Cape Town, South Africa


Two mini-workshops were also held:

  • Connecting Atlases – Implementing Semantic Interoperability and Data Accessibility Self-Assessment, and

  • Interacting with Users


The 2nd Session of the ICAN Steering Group for IODE was held after the workshop. The final report from ICAN 7 will appear in the next issue of this newsletter.


A view of Cape Town looking south across Table Bay. Photo: A. Sherin

ICAN 8: Ísafjörður, Iceland

On Friday 28 September 2018 ICAN hosted a mini-workshop at the CoastGIS 2018 conference in Ísafjörður, Iceland.

 

The mini-workshop program featured presentations on recent ICAN member activities around the world, and a brainstorming session on the theme of “How can ICAN and CWA operators contribute to United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14 and the UN Decade of Ocean Science?” Presenters included:

  • Kathrin Kopke, University College Cork, Ireland
  • David Hart, University of Wisconsin Sea Grant, USA
  • Anja Kreiner, National Information and Research Centre, Namibia
  • Francisco Arias, INVEMAR, Columbia
  • Kathy Belpaeme, Provincie West-Vlaanderen, Belgium

After presentations, the room broke into 4 groups for focused discussion on the topics presented, and participants documented their discussions.

Read more: ICAN 8: Ísafjörður, Iceland

ICAN 6 : British Columbia

Ned Dwyer & Kathrin Kopke

The 6th ICAN workshop, entitled Expanding Participation in Coastal Web Atlas Development and Use was hosted by the University of Victoria, Canada on 16-17 June 2013.



Participants in ICAN 6


Dr. Rosaline Canessa and her team in the Department of Geography welcomed over 30 ICAN workshop participants to the beautiful UVic campus, offering traditional British Columbia hospitality during our stay. It was great to meet friends and colleagues who have been contributing to ICAN for a number of years and it was extremely encouraging to see new faces and make new connections over the two days.


In addition to establishing formally the IODE ICAN Project Steering Group and developing and consolidating elements of the work plan for 2013 to 2015, the workshop was conducted under a number of thematic sessions. 

  • Coastal Atlas Training Needs and Opportunities
  • Building Synergies with IOC projects & related Initiatives \
  • Atlas Stories and Progress in expanding the network (focus on Eastern Pacific)
  • Adding your Atlas to the International Web Atlas Portal
  • Data Integration Platforms (including volunteered geographical information)

In the vibrant discussion that took place in the formal sessions as well as in some of Victoria’s many restaurants and bars; it became clear that the skills and expertise of ICAN members are of great relevance in the development of coastal information systems. Taking advantage of such capacity and knowledge to not only progress ICAN objectives but also assist other relevant IOC initiatives including the Integrated Coastal Area Management programme and reaching out to activities outside of IOC such as those of the Coastal Zone Community of Practice of GEO have emerged as ICAN priorities in the coming months and years. The participation of  Hans-Peter Plag of CZCP resulted in an invitation for ICAN to participate in the next meeting of the CZCP that was held in College Park, Maryland on 27-28 August 2013.

All the workshop presentations can be found at http://ican.science.oregonstate.edu/en/ican6_prog  and a full workshop report will be published later in 2013.

Vol, 8, Nr 2 - Now Available!

We are now entering our 9th year publishing the ICAN newsletter. Many thanks to our Editor Andy Sherin!

Please consider preparing an article for the next newsletter that will likely be published in the spring of this year.

Happy New Year!

Photos from CoastGIS 2018

Our friends from CoastGIS 2018 have posted a wonderful gallery of photos, including the recent ICAN mini-workshop:

See how many ICAN members you can spot!