Management and technical developments of the Venice Lagoon Atlas: a brief update

Alessandro Mulazzani (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.), City of Venice- Osservatorio della Laguna e del Territorio;
Claudia Ferrari (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.), City of Venice- Osservatorio della Laguna e del Territorio;
Stefano Menegon (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.), ISMAR-CNR,
Alessandro Sarretta (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.),  ISMAR-CNR,
Matteo Morgantin (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.), CORILA
Andrea Rosina (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.), CORILA

As outlined in 2011 at ICAN 5, one of the main goals of the Atlas of the Lagoon of Venice (www.atlantedellalaguna.it) is the establishment of a “federation” which should include all the bodies involved in geospatial data production for the Venice Lagoon. From the technical point of view this federation is supported by the “Collaborative Interoperable Geographic Nodes” (or CIGNo) i.e. GeoWeb platforms based  on a personalised version of the GeoNode platform (http://geonode.org) developed by the Marine Science Institute of the National Research Council (ISMAR) and by the Consortium for Coordination of Research Activities Concerning the Venice Lagoon System (CORILA).

After one and a half years this goal has been reached. In April 2012, the City of Venice, the promoter of the Atlas, signed a formal agreement with the ISMAR and CORILA for joint management of the Atlas. The partners started to develop together the new Atlas CIGNo, the node to be used for the Atlas’s maps managing and publishing, connected to the already implemented ISMAR node and CORILA node.

A Working Group formed by experts from the three bodies, meet monthly to plan the development of the Atlas.

In January 2013, two major data producers joined the Working Group: the Veneto Region and the Venice Lagoon Water Authority (Magistrato alle Acque), recognising the Atlas as the key tool for accessing and sharing geographical information on the Lagoon of Venice.

In February 2013 the conversion of 355 geographical layers stored in the Atlas has been completed, to allow their publication through CIGNo. All the published maps are now accessible with the new map engine, which is more flexible and up to date.

In 2012 the www.atlantedellalaguna.com portal reached an average of 2150 visits per month.

From the users point of view, the new Atlas management enriches the contents available on the geoportal (e.g.: a work carried out by ISMAR produced very interesting maps on real-time tide height and current speed, which become available quickly for the Atlas users).

The technical improvements allow a better visualisation of the maps, where extra layers can be freely added, directly from ISMAR and CORILA nodes, or from any other geoservices using the OGC’s WMS protocol.

More work needs to be done on several issues, such as Compiling standard metadata, and creating of new thematic maps. Greater interaction with users is planned, for example creating map layers with users’ contributions via smartphone app data.

The 2011 EU Commission report on “Options for coastal information systems” (http://ec.europa.eu/environment/iczm/ia_studies.htm) suggested the Atlas needed enhancements on:

• the understanding of environmental issues (climate change, pollution, subsidence, etc.);
• economic activities (i.e. fisheries);
• governance;
• scenarios; and
• evaluations of project/plans  and alternatives,

However the agreement with nearly all the regional and local data producers, is favourable for the Atlas of the lagoon as an excellent pilot project demonstrating cooperation among research institutes and local/regional governments with the purpose to make environmental information available to all, for education, planning and to increase citizens’ environmental awareness.

EBM Tools Network releases Free Guide to Coastal Climate Planning Tools

Arlington, Virginia (March 14, 2013)—The potential impacts of climate change are already influencing the choices that coastal communities, resource managers, and conservation practitioners are making for ecosystems and infrastructure. To help planners and managers prepare for the far-reaching effects of these changes, the EBM Tools Network today released a free publication, Tools for Coastal Climate Adaptation Planning: A guide for selecting tools to assist with ecosystem-based climate planning.

The guide is designed to assist practitioners responsible for understanding and preparing for climate-related effects. By focusing on software and web-based applications that leverage geospatial information, Tools for Coastal Adaptation Planning will help these professionals account for the health and well-being of ecosystems and human communities in projects and plans.

The guide targets practitioners and decision makers involved in conservation, local planning, and the management of coastal zones, natural resources, protected areas, habitat, and watersheds in the coastal United States including the Great Lakes. In addition to detailed information about a key collection of visualization, modeling, and decision support tools, Tools for Coastal Climate Adaptation Planning offers instructive case studies about how other professionals have successfully applied the tools in a several coastal communities in the United States. Professionals from inland and international regions will also benefit from the guide’s tool information and lessons.
Funded with the support of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and the Keith Campbell Foundation for the Environment, Tools for Coastal Climate Adaptation Planning can be downloaded for free at www.natureserve.org/climatetoolsguide
 

COINAtlantic introduces Version 2 of its Search Utility

Andy Sherin
Director, ACZISC Secretariat
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The Atlantic Coastal Zone Information Steering Committee (ACZISC) has released version 2 of the COINAtlantic Search Utility (CSU2). The CSU2 is a web-based tool that searches the internet for spatial data resources that meet the search criteria of the user and enables the user to add the resulting spatial resources to an interactive map (see Figure). The CSU2 uses the Google search API to find spatial data resources in KML or as OGC Web Mapping Services (WMS) and displays the first twenty results for the user to choose from to add to the map. The user can also add a layer to the map from a WMS they know the url for. The CSU2 is customizable taking the default map layers from an editable configuration file.  Online mapping is done using the Open Source Geospatial Foundation's OpenLayers Web mapping software.

Version 2 replaces COINAtlantic Search Utility Version 1 released in 2008 that relied solely on searching one data base via an API, Canada’s GeoConnections Discovery Portal (GDP). Initially the GDP was intended to grow to be a national repository for metadata, but over the years, organizations developed their own data bases so the GDP focussed mostly on spatial data delivered by one department of the Canadian federal government. This development severely limiting the scope of searches that could be satisfied. CSU2 was designed to bypass accessing individual data bases and use the ubiquitous internet searches to find spatial data resources.

The CSU2 works together with the COINAtlantic GeoContent Generator (CGG), another web-based tool developed by the ACZISC. The CGG enables a user to describe an organization, a project, a report or publication of a data set with basic attribute information (see Table) and link it to a point, line or polygon that describes the spatial extent of the entry. The tool then builds a KML file of the attribute and geographic information and stores it as a file on the ACZISC site and informs the Google search utilities of its location using a Sitemap submission. The CSU2 automatically refers to these files when executing a search.

The user can describe the geography of the entry in the CGG in three ways:

• By hand drawing a point, line or polygon;
• By using one of the polygons from the CGG library of polygons for jurisdictions (e.g. municipal boundaries) and biophysical areas (e.g. watersheds); or
• Uploading an existing KML file from their computer.

Enhancements to the tools are planned. For the  CGG, the user friendliness of the interface for the CGG will be improved, the library of KML polygons for users to choose from will be expanded, and the functionality to permit users to edit their own files will be introduced. For the CSU2, the legend functionality will be improved, ways for the user to add WMS layers to the interactive map will be expanded, inclusion of Catalog on the Web (CWS), Web Feature (WFS) and Web Processing (WPS) services will be investigated, and the migration to an open source GIS infrastructure will take place.
The CGG and the CSU2 are available for use and exploration at www.coinatlantic.ca/cgg and www.coinatlantic.ca/csu respectively. The ACZISC Secretariat would appreciate any feedback on your experience using these tools. Please contact us with your comments at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Southeast Pacific region (Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama and Peru) will join ICAN through SPINCAM Project

Julian Barbière (IOC-UNESCO),
Fernando Félix (CPPS),
Alejandro Iglesias-Campos (ICAN) 

Introduction to SPINCAM

The Southeast Pacific data and Information Network in support to Integrated Coastal Area Management, SPINCAM Project (www.spincamnet.net) , aims to establish a coastal management indicator framework in each country of the Southeast Pacific region (Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama and Peru), focused on environmental and socio-economic conditions within the context of sustainable development and integrated coastal area management.
The project is being executed through the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC/UNESCO) (http://ioc-unesco.org) with the financial support of the Government of Flanders (Belgium) (www.flanders.be).

Specifically, SPINCAM aims to create an information system at national and regional level that support the development of indicators, their spatial representation, and the dissemination of ICAM (Integrated Coastal Zone Management) resources and experiences with the following objectives:

1. To support the implementation and effectiveness of ICAM through the improvement of data and information management capacity, knowledge, communication and networking at regional and national level;
2. To improve the delivery of data and information on the status of coastal resources and their management for the use by all coastal stakeholders (decision makers/civil society);

The expected outcome of the project is to build technical and managerial capacity for the development of indicator-based reports (state of the coast report for decision makers/civil society), including their spatial representations within the framework of existing national and regional ICAM programmes.

ICAM in Latin America

Integrated Coastal Area Management (ICAM) is a process that unites government and the community, science and management, sectoral and public interests in preparing and implementing an integrated plan for the protection and development of coastal ecosystems and resources. Since the 1990s the concept of ICAM has been recommended by UNCED (Rio de Janeiro, 1992) and, more recently, WSSD (Johannesburg, 2002), as well as several global and regional Conventions (CBD, 1995; GPA-LBA, 1995; Regional Seas Convention, revised in 1995). These instruments have recognized ICAM as way to achieve the sustainable management of the coastal zones.

ICAM initiatives have been implemented in Latin America and Caribbean countries, most of them at sub-regional and local level. Some of these projects were successful, and there are lessons to be learned from them. The establishment of a dedicated coastal management network at the regional level is needed to support the sharing of information, experience and expertise not only amongst the countries, but even within the countries,among different agencies, institutions, and stakeholders who share a common interest for the management of coastal zones.

At the regional level, the Permanent Commission for the South Pacific (CPPS, in Spanish) (www.cpps-int.org), which includes Chile, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia, is the organization responsible for the coordination of marine policies of its Member States. Through the Action Plan for the Protection of the Marine Environment and Coastal Areas of the Southeast Pacific (Lima Convention), in which a fifth country, Panamá is also a partner, countries have agreed to work collectively for the wise planning of coastal zones.

In 1989, with the formal approval of the Plan for Territorial Organization of Marine and Coastal Zones, on the occasion of the fourth Intergovernmental Meeting of the Southeast Pacific Action Plan, this regional cooperation mechanism, supported by UNEP and other international organizations, initiated the execution of activities on integrated coastal management. The objective of the Plan for Territorial Organization of Marine and Coastal Zones is to develop regional policies and actions for sustainable territorial planning, as well as to promote capacity building in the field of marine and coastal zone management in the Southeast Pacific countries. From the start of the SPINCAM project in 2008, the need to frame the project in response to the existing regional governance framework was recognized, and as a result CPPS was requested to act as the regional coordinator of the project.

The SPINCAM project contains a substantial data and information management component that underpins the development of indicator-based reports at national and regional level.

The principal mechanism for managing and exchanging oceanographic data and information within the region is the Ocean Data and Information Network for the Caribbean and South America region (ODINCARSA) (www.odincarsa.org), which is a project of the International Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange (IODE) (www.iode.org) programme of the IOC/UNESCO.

ODINCARSA was set up to strengthen ocean data and marine information management capacity in the Caribbean and Latin America region in order to contribute to Ocean Sciences, operational oceanography development and integrated coastal management activities at the regional level.

Launched in 2001, the IODE programme established a regional network of more than 60 National Institutions within 19 IOC Member States, with 237 experts from different sectors related to ocean and marine activities. ODINCARSA is an excellent platform for ICAM projects in the region and connections have been built and consolidated with Governmental organizations, especially in Pacific South America to support ICAM initiatives in this region.

A core element of the IODE data system is the National Oceanographic Data Centre (NODC). This national facility is responsible, at the national level, for the quality control and archiving of oceanographic data as well as for the dissemination of these data (and products) to users; at the international level, the NODCs exchange data with other NODCs in the IODE network and they provide the national data to the ICSU World Data Centres for Oceanography for global dissemination. The development and support of NODCs in the Caribbean and South America region is one of main objectives of ODINCARSA.

In terms of marine information (library) management, ODINCARSA has made considerable progress in building information networks such as the Latin American Group on Marine information management and the Regional working Group on Digital repository (OceanDocs). ODINCARSA has furthermore actively promoted active and effective relationships among marine institutions in the Project area and is a suitable partner to enhance the SPINCAM Information system where the NODCs role will be paramount in providing data for the development of coastal indicators and their dissemination to various stakeholders.

SPINCAM II – Towards a Southeast Pacific Coastal Atlas

SPINCAM II seeks to strengthen the integrated coastal management processes initiated in the first phase of the project, the development of tools to support decision-making and to improve capacities on data and information management, knowledge, communication and networking at national and regional level, attending the needs of each country.

This second phase will emphasize the need to institutionalize the SPINCAM project. Another crucial issue is to define clear and effective mechanisms at the national level for funding future developments and maintenance of SPINCAM outputs, as well as to promote training processes.

The Project will be structured in this second phase around four specific objectives:

• To strengthen the framework of national and regional ICAM indicators to assist in decision making through partnerships and collaborations among institutions.
• To coordinate and integrate further coastal and marine data and information systems at national level through the IODE National Oceanographic Data Centers.
• To design and implement a strategy for dissemination and awareness of the ICAM indicator framework among local and regional stakeholders.
• To promote continuous training and formation to strengthen the institutional capacities.

SPINCAM Coastal Web Atlas

The development of indicators on the state of the coast during the first phase of SPINCAM Project has facilitated the implementation of a geoportal as a work space which maintains, exchanges and displays the spatial information and experiences among countries.

The SPINCAM Coastal Atlas (http://190.95.249.246/geoportal/geovisor/index.html) is structured with an interactive legend for the active layers, an overview of the region, the main viewer with different functionalities and the list of layers available.

Layers of information currently available for all countries are coastal and marine protected areas, population density in coastal regions and the quality of coastal and marine waters.

Besides the information on coastal indicators, data from other sources, such as the IOC/Flanders/CPPS project, the Southeast Pacific Information System on Biodiversity and Protected Areas (SIBIMAP/SEPIS) can be easily uploaded.

In addition, the Atlas allows combining layers of coastal indicators and layers with information on cetaceans, sea turtles and sharks, and their respective metadata
The data viewer contains in its initial stage functionalities that will be extended during the second phase of the project. Currently, the user is allowed to zoom in/out, pan, to obtain information about the attributes of information shown and the ability to add layers of information from the user.

SPINCAM and ICAN

Since 2011, representatives of International Coastal Atlas Network (ICAN) have joined the SPINCAM workshops emphasizing the value of information in integrated coastal zone management and the pillars of Integrated Coastal Zone Management: 1) environmental data, indicators, tools 2) dissemination and good practices and 3) importance of knowledge for public participation and cooperation worldwide.

The membership of SPINCAM in ICAN increases the area of cooperation and collaboration with other Coastal Web Atlases in Latin America and the Caribbean that favour the exchange of experiences and good practices, both in terms of technology development, content and exploitation of coastal atlases.

As a first contact with the ICAN Community, SPINCAM will participate in the next ICAN event, and will lead a side event on the advances in the implementation of the Southeast Pacific Data and information Network in Support to Integrated Coastal Area Management (SPINCAM) Project (IOC-UNESCO/Flanders/CPPS) during the CoastGIS 2013 Conference, 18-21 June 2013 in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.

It's Official! ICAN Approved as an IODE Project

At the 22nd Session of the International Oceanographic Data and Exchange (IODE) committee of the UNESCO Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) that concluded in Ensenada, Mexico on 15 March 2013, ICAN was accepted as an official project of the IODE. A modest budget through until 2015 was also approved. In the recommendation leading to the approval, the IODE noted “with appreciation that ICAN has already influenced, guided and informed users on development and use of coastal and marine web atlases, through periodic workshops and international conferences held in 2006, 007, 2008, 2009, and 2011.” and acknowledged “the importance of atlases as interdisciplinary products that assist decision makers .” The recommendation also encouraged Member States to support the development of IODE/ICAN.

Members of the Interim Steering Committee for the IODE/ ICAN Project

Dawn Wright, who represented  ICAN at the meeting, stated in her message to ICAN members after the project was approved that “our acceptance into IODE gives ICAN some long-term sustainability in terms of both international notoriety and funding, also with acknowledgement of the important role that coastal web atlases play within the overall universe of oceanographic data management, decision-support and associated capacity building. Now that we are under the umbrella of IODE, we are also linked to other important efforts” such as  GOOS (Global Ocean Observing System), ICAM (Integrated Coastal Area Management), GEO/GEOSS (Group on Earth Observations/Group on Earth Observations System of Systems).

The strategic goal of the IODE / ICAN Project is to encourage and help facilitate the development of digital atlases of the global coast, based on the principle of distributed, high-quality data and information, at local, regional, national or international scale. This will be achieved by sharing knowledge and experience among atlas developers in order to find common solutions for coastal and marine web atlas development while ensuring maximum relevance and added value for users. Many of these atlases will play an important role in informing national and regional decision- and policy-making across several themes, including: marine spatial planning, climate change impacts, coastal vulnerability, coastal governance (boundaries, protected areas, etc.),    coastal conservation and protected areas management, coastal hazards monitoring and planning, coastal disaster management and mitigation, population pressures and resource availability and extraction. The participants in the Project will include all experts previously involved in ICAN as well as other relevant experts designated by IOC Member States. An interim Steering Committee has been established. The members of the Steering Committee are listed in the table above.

ICAN Tech Team Member Roy Lowry receives IODE Achievement Award

Roy has made numerous contributions to IODE over the past 3 decades – beginning with the software to accompany General Format 3 (GF3) in the 1980s – an early attempt at interoperability! The (GF3) system was developed by IODE as a generalised formatting system for the exchange and archival of data within the international oceanographic community. The next stage of Roy's career was spent compiling integrated data sets from major multidisciplinary oceanographic field programmes for UK, European and international projects, including leading the Joint Global Ocean Flux Study (JGOFS) Data Management Task Team. This also included a lot of work on controlled vocabularies which has evolved into one of his main areas of interest and impact. In particular, over the last 10 years or so, he has focused on the development of semantic infrastructure both in terms of technical and content governance.

Roy is responsible for the semantic framework underpinning the EU SeaDataNet project (which includes IODE) and has also led the ontologies work package for the NETwork for MARine Environmental Data (NETMAR) project and the ICAN coastal erosion and water quality ontologies. One final area of Roy's influence which should be mentioned is his contribution to the emerging subject of data publication and citation, through his contribution to the workshops and case studies of the joint project established between SCOR, MBLWHOI and IODE to investigate this topic. One last comment: Roy is a person who likes to get things done – and done properly! And he is always happy to discuss areas of interest whether in a workshop or over some beers! ICAN would add its appreciation to the that of the IODE for Roy's tremendous achievements.

Liz O’Dea said “Roy has been a valuable contributor to the ICAN Technical Working Group since ICAN’s inception, sharing his knowledge and providing great insight.”
(Extensive excerpts were used from the presentation speech published on the IODE website www.iode.org which also has a video of the award presentation.)

Small but complex: an atlas for the Belgian coast

Kathy Belpaeme
Coordination Centre, ICZM
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Figure 1: The cover of the 2nd edition of the Belgian coastal atlas

With its 67 km, the Belgian coast seems tiny compared to the neighbouring countries. Its importance and complexity is, however, not less important. Mapping all the uses and users in an atlas proved very helpful, both for the stakeholders and the general public to understand the need for a coordinated management.

The Belgian coastal atlas was first published in book format in 2004, and updated in 2011. The online version was launched in 2005, and revised thoroughly in 2011 and is available in four languages.

 The atlas is appreciated as a portal for the Belgian coast and sea, supporting the ICZM process for a wide range of coastal actors, planners and managers. It provides core information through an interactive website, to help local citizens, stakeholders and policy makers make better decisions or gain a better understanding of the coast. Great attention has been given to an attractive lay-out and the ease of navigating through the website. The information is thematically arranged in 13 chapters, taking the land-sea interface into consideration. Each chapter provides static, ready-to-use maps, coastal data and an interactive map. All static maps can be downloaded in PDF format; the data in excel format. The interactive map contains tools such as measuring, zooming, and printing. Furthermore, the sustainability indicators are integrated into the Coastal Atlas. Twenty-one indicators are grouped in seven chapters, giving an insight to the state of the coast and the sustainability of its development. Examples of indicators are: the age percentage of residents in the coastal communities, the extent of sea level rise or the amount of waste per household. Whenever possible, the indicators are visualised geographically on the interactive map, showing differences between the municipalities.

Since the launch of the second on-line atlas in June 2011, the web statistics tool used has changed. Consequently Web statistics before and after June 2011 cannot be compared. The figure shows the trend for the total number of visits and the number of unique visitors since the launch in June 2011 until website and why. The results of the poll showed that people mainly look for: general info on the coast, the interactive mapping tool and touristic information (= top 3), and that the profile of the visitors is very diverse. Clearly all different sorts of people find their way to the website. The book version of the Coastal Explorer has been officially launched on 1 September 2012. The launch was embedded in the three day workshop of ICAN, the International Coastal Atlas Network, taking advantage of the international scene of this conference.

It is crucial that the data of the atlas is kept up-to-date. Interaction with data holding and management authorities is very important in achieving this goal. A working group meets yearly to evaluate the atlas. Receiving feedback from the users is also very valuable to highlight any problems or needs.

DE KUSTATLAS online   http://www.coastalatlas.be/en/

Washington Coastal Atlas Continues Upgrade

Liz O’Dea
Washington State Department of Ecology
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The Washington Coastal Atlas (https://fortress.wa.gov/ecy/coastalatlas/) team has completed phase two of its three-phase redesign project.  In addition to its new look and feel, the atlas now has four use-specific tools that users can access directly from the home page.

Shoreline Photos:  The Washington Department of Ecology’s oblique photo time series of Washington’s marine and freshwater shorelines has been the most widely used component of the Coastal Atlas over the years.  The new Shoreline Photo viewer improves the ease of finding a photo for a specific area from multiple time periods.  The viewer enables users to quickly navigate through images along a shoreline and simultaneously see the location on a map.  It also provides a comparison page, where users can view the same area over time from the collection of years. Each year’s photos can be independently navigated so that the user can choose the images that allow the best shoreline comparison.

Flood Hazard Maps:  A new viewer for FEMA flood maps makes Digital Flood Insurance Rate maps downloadable directly from the Coastal Atlas, which helps inform real estate decisions and transactions.  The ability to view flood maps superimposed on aerial photography helps people better understand flood issues within the context of the landscape.

Public Beach Access:  Public access is only available on about 30% of Washington’s marine shorelines, and the public’s right to access the shoreline is one of the three pillar policies of Washington’s Shoreline Management Act.  We have made it easier for people to discover where they can access the shore.  People can find beaches by name, location, or by specific amenities or activities.  Beach information includes photos, amenities, directions, and links to tides, weather, and local information sources.

Beach Closures:  Users can also find beach closure information and monitoring results for all locations monitored by the Dept. of Ecology/Dept. of Health BEACH program.

Former Washington Coastal Atlas Manager and ICAN member Kathy Taylor has transitioned to another position in the Department of Ecology.  She was a wonderful leader who guided us through the first two redevelopment phases, and was a strong cheerleader on the value of the Washington Coastal Atlas for the people of Washington State.  Her replacement, Brian Lynn, has been involved with the Coastal Atlas for many years and leads us forward through our third phase of redevelopment: migrating the Washington Coastal Atlas Map from ArcIMS to ArcGIS Server using the JavaScript API, including a new interface design.  This is due to go live in November.

Regional Data Management and Portal Design Workshop / New Marine Planning Listserv

Adam Bode
NOAA Coastal Services Center
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The NOAA Coastal Services Center hosted a Regional Data Management and Portal Development Workshop in Charleston, SC on June 27-28, 2012.  The objectives of the workshop were to build awareness among participants of the status of existing regional and national marine information systems; develop strategies for integration of national and regional coastal and marine data and systems-related activities; identify common data management and exchange standards and procedures; and identify methods to increase collaboration among marine data management groups.  The workshop report can be found here: link

Based on feedback received during this workshop, the ocean.data.gov team recently created the Marine Planning Portal Network listserv, which will serve as one of the main conduits for communication between state, regional, and national portals, applications, and planning efforts.  As systems become more distributed and technology continues to evolve, the need to share information (lessons-learned, best practices, etc) and provide a venue for open dialogue is paramount.  This listserv is designed to serve this purpose.  If you are interested in joining the listserv, please visit the following link to register - link

In addition to the listserv, the following ideas have been discussed to help spark engagement and continue the discussions from the Workshop:

• Webinar Series - The frequency of these is still to be determined but the initial thought is to have them every other month, focused on the following
  
  
• Round Robin Updates - Short updates on the current status of state, regional, and national efforts.  Used for quick information sharing and also to spark interest in technical topics, issues, or additional discussion
  
  
• Featured Presentation – In-depth presentations/demonstrations of existing products or beta releases
  
  
• Technical / Topical Discussions – Based on the input from the Network, these could focus on a certain technical issue, topic, or discussion point.  For instance, this could be the start of a discussion on a Network-wide metadata strategy.
  
  
• GeoTools Conference Tools Showcase - Similar to the Map Gallery at the ESRI UC, this is an informal opportunity to present/demo your tool and application.  A dedicated space may be available to highlight the various state, regional, and national applications and portals.
  
  
• Oral Presentation - Based on interest, there may be a track or session dedicated to Regional Data Management and/or Portal Design.
  
  
• Informal Network Lunch/Happy Hour - Lastly, there are plans to re-design the Technical Community of Practice (link) within the Ocean Community to serve as a landing page for this Network.  The new webpage will more effectively provide access to the best practices and resources most relevant to your efforts and serve as a location where a variety of information relevant to this Network can be accessed.

Smart Atlas Enhances Marine Data Sharing in Africa

Ali Al Othman(This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.), Yassine Lassoued(This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)
Coastal and Marine Research Centre, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland

As part of UNESCO’s International Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange (IODE) Ocean Data and Information Network of Africa (ODINAFRICA) project, the Coastal and Marine Research Centre (CMRC) has developed a second version of the underlying technology used in the Marine Irish Digital Atlas (MIDA: http://mida.ucc.ie ). This system called Smart Atlas is being deployed and used by ODINAFRICA partners. Smart Atlas includes up-to-date web mapping technologies to make it easier to explore coastal and marine information through the development of web-enabled, customised Geographic Information System (GIS) that allows users to visualise and identify marine sources of data. A key feature of Smart Atlas is that it promotes and supports distributed marine dataset sharing, which is vital to facilitate marine information exchange between coastal African states.

This project follows INSPIRE (Infrastructure for Spatial Information in Europe) Directive recommendations for Data discovery, view, and download services. Being conformant to well established web services makes the services developed available to other organisations to consume and view with minimum effort of integration. The new web client mapping application features expanded functionality, plug-in-free animation, and a new architecture with a rich user experience for every browser. The system provides greater accessibility to data and information in the form of a web enabled and customized GIS, data access and data analysis combined with mapping tools for identification of data sources, visualisation, management, and analysis for different use case scenarios.

Smart Atlas is developed using open source software technology with greater performance, a much more simplified, flexible, and customisable interface using the latest JavaScript frameworks and it supports new mapping tools for adding features, zooming, drawing, measuring, and customised printing. Smart Atlas Layers contain views of layers organised in different tabs with built-in base layers, such as Google maps and Open Street maps, overlays that includes the atlas layers and selected layers that contains the list of active layers, sorted by depth, with the possibility of changing the layer order and layer transparency.

Smart Atlas introduces the integration of Catalogue Services for the Web (CSW). The atlas can be configured to connect to metadata catalogue servers (e.g. Geonetwork, ESRI ArcServer, etc.) so that users can search for data layers within the atlas or other metadata stores included in the search through the distributed CSWs.

Metadata provides information about the content, purpose, location of the data, as well as quality and reliability of the data itself. Using standard metadata web protocols makes the mediation and integration between different metadata providers seamless. Standardised metadata supports users in accessing data by using a common set of terminology and metadata elements. This allows for a quick means of data discovery and retrieval from metadata catalogue servers. The metadata based on standards ensures information consistency and quality, and avoids the loss of important knowledge about the data.

Smart Atlas supports distributed Catalog Service for the Web (CSW) search. The search can be done through a simple and advanced search. The user can simply enter free text in a box and hit the search button or do an advanced search using more detailed criteria like controlled vocabulary keywords that support a more standard search based on  keywords pubpublished by standardization organizations. Users can also select a geographic extent for the searched metadata records. Participating metadata server catalogues can be selected by the user to be validated and included in the search.

Three methods are used for presenting metadata record search results. These are Summary metadata record, Full metadata record and FAQ Metadata record viewed as a simple FAQ style where basic questions/answers about the metadata record are presented.

Once a particular metadata record is presented, it is also possible to either download the datasets associated with it or overlay these datasets on the mapping area through Web Map Service (WMS) for further analysis. This is designed to enhance spatial information exchange, and promote sharing between different organisations through instant search on local and distributed geospatial catalogues.

The CMRC is making Smart Atlas available for download and use via an open source free software license. Contact Ali Al Othman for further details and for the available support options. A Smart Atlas user training workshop for ODINAFRICA participants will take place  in Nairobi, Kenya from 24 - 28 September 2012.