Caribbean Marine Atlas: supporting integrated coastal management and governance of the Caribbean region

By Carolina García-Valencia, Leonardo Arias-Alemán, Paula C. Sierra-Correa y Francisco Arias
Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras “José Benito Vives De Andréis” – INVEMAR

https://www.caribbeanmarineatlas.net/

The Caribbean Marine Atlas (CMA) project on its second phase (2016-2020) faces the challenge of transitioning into an electronic repository for quality technical and scientific information of the Caribbean Basin, with the purpose of being a tool for decision-making in the entire region.

The Platform offers data and information on different issues related to Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM), Ecosystem-based Management (EbM), and regional governance at several spatial scales, from the management of user administrators assigned to information/data providers and remote geospatial information services of interest to the region. Through the involvement of participating countries, CMA seeks to support decision-makers, and society in general, so everyone who has any need for information from the Caribbean is able to consult this information free, online, and automatically. At present, the platform offers 1134 layers, 145 maps, 154 documents, 93 linked external information sources, and 24 remote services (WMS/WFS). In addition, due to special interest from partner countries, a report of a set of indicators was generated, which has led to an opportunity to publish ten indicators that identify corresponding gaps in information for the major problems and challenges of the Caribbean region and seeking to use national data from country partners regarding environmental/economic information.

The ten indicators are:

• Coastal population density change (municipalities),
• Coral Health –assessment of reef biota (% cover) (Healthy Reefs Initiative),
• Marine Protected Areas,
• Ecosystems Representativeness (The spatial extent of ecosystems in marine and coastal protected areas as a proportion of the total
• ecosystem extent in the country - mangroves, seagrasses, coral reef, and beaches),
• Coastal economic activities (% GDP by economic activity by political-administrative division of the 1st level),
• Threatened Species (National data / OBIS),
• Invasive Species (National data / OBIS),
• Extreme events (Effects for nine natural hazards: losses of human lives, and frequency of events: tsunamis, storm surges, wind, earthquakes, volcanic eruption, landslides, floods, drought and, hurricanes),
• Sea Level trend (NOAA data and sea level national stations) and
• Global Capture Production (marine capture production by country - FAO data).

Several of these indicators were defined to contribute as a voluntary report for some United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially SDG 14 (https://www.caribbeanmarineatlas.net/indicatorscma2).

Caribbean Marine Atlas

CMA is based on a collaborative approach to strengthening national capabilities from existing national, regional and international marine data and information management programs, projects or strategies of International Ocean Data and Information Exchange (IODE) (cooperation exchange and expertise, strategic synergies, opportunities and tools). The technological tool allows countries self-management over information, which enhances its capability on spatial information management as well as display and publishing opportunities (GIS expert trained/country). Information management involves metadata and standards use, information policy (IODE information Policy www.iode.org/policy), protocols to upload products and quality control. Among the main tools the platform offers is a large repository for geospatial information (layers, maps, documents), a geospatial viewer to freely consult/create/download of maps and layers (shapefile, raster, WMS), display of indicators (graphs and tables), links to other online data sources and a news module.

The adaptation of the platform from the functionality of its graphical user interface offers a repository of geospatial data and information that can be retrieved, stored, periodically updated and made available for particular purposes of a project, agency or initiative. With the technical assistance carried out by the platform administration (INVEMAR), its operation based on GeoNode technology is guaranteed, as well as interoperability with other systems. Linkages with the CaribbeanLarge Marine Ecosystems CLME + project have shown that the visualization of information hosted in the Atlas is possible through graphs and maps for specific purposes allowing the improvement of its services, the activation of its interoperability and the articulation with other initiatives to achieve a technological synergy that links it to other websites dynamically through the GeoNode infrastructure and the caribbeanmarineatlas.net domain. This enhancement of interaction with other regional projects/initiatives or interested countries is increasing the amount of information and the spectrum of topics for the Caribbean region. The CMA landing page was updated to make a visible supporting role in the regional Strategic Action Programme Monitoring & Evaluation (SAP) and  State of the Marine Environment and associated Economies (SOMEE) reporting efforts. Currently, it provides relevant background upfront, as well as a shortcut to access information that specifically relates to certain aspects of the CLME+ SAP (and thus the SOMEE report, whose structure is based on the SAP), hyperlinks to various pages on the CLME+ HUB, acknowledgments and regional ocean governance contacts. At the same time, the CLME+ HUB also links back to the CMA GeoNode (https://clmeplus.org/ ).

The creation of custom layer-based visualizations contributes to the strategic positioning of GeoNode technology, and in particular, its practical expression in the form of the CMA platform with information workflows associated with decision-making processes. In this sense, the Caribbean Marine Atlas can be the tool that marks the beginning of a new chapter for the use of GeoNode in the management of geospatial platforms and Spatial Data Infrastructures in the Caribbean region, and for its effective and long-term use to support the management of marine resources, governance and even management at the transboundary level.

Since 2020 CMA moves forward toward a new phase, in which in addition to initial objectives as a project on the region, the platform will be part of the catalog of the set of sources/systems for geospatial products (maps and atlases) of the Ocean Info Hub project (see article below). This last project is currently being developed by IODE of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission IOC (UNESCO). It is a new initiative to streamline access to ocean science data and information for management and sustainable development that will center on an openly accessible web platform designed to support interlinkages and interoperability between distributed resources including existing clearinghouse mechanisms within the framework of United Nations Decade for Ocean Science for Sustainable Development.

_{[Editor’s Note: The CMA last appeared in the ICAN Newsletter in the November 2016 Edition.]}

Update from the West Coast Ocean Data Portal

The West Coast Ocean Data Portal (WCODP) began in 2014 as a project of the West Coast Governors Alliance on Ocean Health (WCGA). It was launched with the intention of increasing access to and discovery of critical ocean and coastal data for resource managers and policymakers on the West Coast of the United States, and parallels the efforts of other regional data portals around the U.S. The WCGA is no longer active, but the WCODP maintains its original purpose and now works in close coordination with the West Coast Ocean Alliance (WCOA), taking guidance from the WCOA on the development of data products. The WCOA is a Regional Ocean Partnership formed in 2018 from the legacy of the former WCGA and West Coast Regional Planning Body, and is composed of state, tribal, and federal representatives involved in coastal and ocean management on the West Coast.

Technical Enhancements

At the end of 2019, the portal received several technical upgrades. These included an update of the content management system to Wagtail, to allow for easy maintenance of the front end, and an update of the portal visualization tool to Open Layers 5. The move to Open Layers 5 has allowed support for time-enabled web services and for vector tiles; coupled with the new content management system, this simplifies the creation and publication of story maps that highlight resources available through the portal.

This year, the WCODP is continuing to build on these upgrades, and work is being done on the portal to update the geoportal software, rewrite the application program interface (API) and front-end for the portal’s catalog browser, and integrate the catalog and portal functions. When completed, these upgrades will not only improve the overall functionality, query and visualization abilities of the portal, but will also improve efficiency of portal maintenance. In the current iteration of the portal technology, the catalog and visualization tool are not connected, and must be updated individually to make sure that visible layers can be found in the catalog. Portal staff envision that integrating these components will reduce required maintenance effort, and free up time that can be spent improving other aspects of the portal.

Data Projects

In addition to these technical enhancements, the WCODP is focusing on the creation of a number of other data improvement projects to be hosted on the portal, that will improve access to information and be helpful for planning and communication purposes for our users.

West Coast Ocean Health Tool

In 2019, at the request of WCOA members, the WCODP began preliminary work on the creation of a West Coast ocean health scorecard tool, in order to define standards and critical thresholds concerning priority ocean health issues across the region. Thus far, this process has involved a review of existing ocean health tools, including scorecard products and frameworks, and the selection of three priority indicators to be developed by the end of 2020: ocean acidification, beach water quality, and macroalgae. Altogether, the anticipated timeline for this project is three to five years, and as indicator development with partner entities continues, the WCODP will work with WCOA members to determine the best way for users to interact with indicators via the portal interface.

Spatial Coordination Framework

WCOA members have also asked for a tool to facilitate communication and identify key contacts as they relate to ocean and coastal projects developing on the West Coast. The COVID-19 pandemic has eliminated many opportunities for in-person communication on this subject, and the WCODP plans to develop this tool throughout the rest of 2020. The tool will be founded on a spatially enabled database of contacts, ocean management topics, and general ocean geographies for coordination. The preliminary geographic extents pictured below (Figure 2)  create a generalized way for state, tribal and federal staff members to self-identify their interest in ocean management topics in a particular geographic region. By choosing a geographic area or topic to search by, members can then identify all related entities and staff members that would like to be notified or have expertise for that topic / area. Example topics include, but are not limited to, subjects such as aquaculture, energy, submarine cables, fisheries and sediment management. The tool will not replace regulatory or organizational responsibilities, such as required Government-to-Government consultations with West Coast tribes.

Oregon Offshore Wind Planner

In 2019, renewed interest in offshore wind development off the coast of Oregon led to the revival of the Oregon and Bureau of Ocean and Energy Management (BOEM) Intergovernmental Renewable Energy Task Force. This Task Force consists of representatives from federally recognized tribes, federal agencies, states, and local governments, and serves as a forum to coordinate planning and engagement around the development of offshore renewable energy resources, specifically wind. In the Task Force’s recently released Data Gathering and Engagement Plan, the WCODP is identified as the portal that will display all data related to offshore wind planning off the coast of Oregon, for government and stakeholder use. In addition to the relevant spatial datasets listed in the existing catalog, the WCODP is developing a standalone data visualization tool for this purpose over the course of the next year. This Oregon Offshore Wind Planner will offer a curated selection of the most up-to-date layers relevant to offshore wind planning in the area, along with other products such as pre-made maps according to different subject areas.

Get Involved

Altogether, this year is an exciting one for the West Coast Ocean Data Portal as we look forward to completing technical upgrades and unveiling new content and projects. These projects and regular portal maintenance are currently supported by a combination of funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Bureau of Ocean and Energy Management, and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.

To learn more about the West Coast Ocean Data Portal, visit https://portal.westcoastoceans.org or
contact Marisa Nixon, West Coast Ocean Fellow, at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

[Editor’s Note: An article on the West Coast Ocean Data Portal was last published in the March 2014 issue of the ICAN Newsletter.]

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Report from North Atlantic Regional Meeting for the UN Decade of Ocean Science

ICAN was represented at the North Atlantic Regional Meeting for the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development held from January 6-10, 2020 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. This meeting was hosted by the Canadian research network the Ocean Frontier Institute (https://oceanfrontierinstitute.com) and sponsored by the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans and one of several regional meetings for each ocean basin (visit https://oceandecade.org/activities for details on other regional meetings). The purpose of the meetings was to help “shape the decade” facilitated by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO.

Attendees

One hundred and thirty six delegates from Europe and North America (see Figure 1) participated in working groups organized by the Decade’s societal outcomes, A Clean Ocean, A Safe Ocean, A Healthy and Resilient Ocean, A Sustainable Productive Ocean, A Predicted Ocean and A Transparent and Accessible Ocean.

The meeting began with greetings and prayer by Dorene Bernard, Mi’kmaq Grassroots Grandmother and Water Protector. The meeting was gathered on the traditional and unceded territories of the Mi’kmaw indigenous nations. Elder Bernard led a water ceremony honouring the value of water to the physical and spiritual health of humanity and creation.

Presentations

Plenary presentations were made by members of the Executive Planning Committee and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission. These presentations can be found on the meeting’s website at https://oceanfrontierinstitute.com/un-decade-2020. The meeting had the advantage of the participation of several All-Atlantic Ocean Youth Ambassadors, student note takers from Dalhousie University Masters of Marine Management Program and a graphical facilitator. The final graphic produced by the facilitator is shown in Figure 2.

The ICAN representative had the opportunity to participate in two working groups, A Transparent and Accessible Ocean and A Healthy and Resilient Ocean.

Transparent and Accessible Ocean Working Group

The final reporting from the Transparent and Accessible Ocean focused on three themes:

1. Building a “digital twin” ocean called Atlantic Ocean 5D encompassing data, observations and information;
   1. Ocean 5D will provide “Rapid, standardized, and credited sharing of data, information and knowledge through a distributed digital commons where material is findable, accessible, interoperable, and reuseable i.e. FAIR.”
2. Capacity Building Exchange they called Atlantic Ocean Connect;
   1. Need for a clearing house for capacity exchange activities;
   2. Need for institutional recognition of capacity exchange;
   3. Need to highlight the benefits and best practices for capacity exchange; and
   4. Need for mutual two-way (developed <> developing)
   5. Key words “respect and listening”
3. Ocean literacy they called Atlantic Ocean Knowledge.
   1. Do the present ocean literacy initiatives work? Need for research to answer this question;
   2. Need to professionalize ocean literacy practitioners;
   3. Need for better partnering with educators; and
   4. Need for boundary organizations to transform science to policy

During the first working group session on this theme, the role of Official Development Assistance in enabling capacity exchange between a well-resourced North Atlantic region with other less well-off ocean regions was suggested.

Healthy and Resilient Ocean Working Group

The final reporting from the Healthy and Resilient Ocean working group suggested the following vision for the end of the Decade in 2030:

“By 2030, we seek to have implemented science-based, effective Marine Spatial Planning and Ecosystem Based Management systems and tools to maintain / restore / strengthen ecosystem resilience in the face of competing ocean uses.”

Other priorities identified by the working group included:

1. Evaluating ecosystem resilience;
2. Understanding ocean structure and function (and lose);
3. Quantifying socio-ecological trade-offs of human activities; and
4. Consider governance, policy and engagement.

Other working group reports were:

Clean Ocean Working Group

The Clean Ocean working group categorized pollution issues and sectors by importance and trends. The most important included CO2 and fossil fuels, species transfer, underwater noise and shipping, underwater noise and extraction industries, chemical pollution, plastic and wastewater and plastic and fisheries.

Safe Ocean Working Group

The Safe Ocean working group recommended the development of a North Atlantic Risk Map.

Sustainable Productive Ocean Working Group

A Sustainable Productive Ocean working group recommended the objective of an evidence-based sustainable productive ocean economy in the face of increasing anthropogenic pressure and identified the following research gaps and transformative practices:

1. Governance science and communication;
2. Integration of different knowledge systems;
3. Development of inclusive integrated ecosystem assessments; and
4. Marine spatial planning.

Cross-cutting Themes

Other features of the meeting were reports from participants tasked with looking at cross cutting themes:

1. Capacity building exchange and technology transfer
   1. Delegates were warned to use the language of exchange rather than building and transfer since in every relationship the exchange of capacity and technology is mutual.
2. Partnerships and financing
   1. The OECD report on the Ocean Economy in 2030 was mentioned.
3. Access to information, data, and knowledge
   1. Need for data and knowledge and systems for access need to be “fit for propose”.
4. Awareness raising and inclusivity
   1. Inclusivity is based on respectful relationships and inclusion in the whole process. Too often indigenous communities have been approached for research and data collection but the researchers are never to be heard from again.
5. Transdisciplinarity
   1. There is a need to increase the range of disciplines including historians, ethicists, and planners. The final graphic suggested transformation as the objective transdisciplinarity but it should be considered aspirational. How do we transition through intermediate steps? The process is more important than outcomes.
   2. How do we reconcile when knowledge systems come to different conclusions?

Comments heard during the meeting on several occasions were the need to include other UN agencies with a role in oceans e.g. IMO, WMO, FAO, UNEP and equitable partnership with social scientists.

Summary Graphic

 A wonderful summary infographic captured the major themes and findings of the meeting:

Next Steps

The results of the regional meetings will be presented to the Second Global Planning Meeting for the Decade to be held in Paris in March. The Decade implementation plan will be presented to the United Nations Ocean Conference to be held in Lisbon in June. The kick off for the Decade will take place in Germany in May 2021.

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ICAN 9 - Save the Date!

ICAN has a New Look!

Thanks to the wonderful talents of Amy Dozier, Research Assistant at MaREI Centre, University College Cork, ICAN has both an updated logo and color scheme, and the new look has been applied throughout the web site at: https://ican.iode.org. Thank you Amy!

To celebrate the new look, we’ve also moved a wealth of articles from the Newsletter archives onto the website, and we are working on linking these to the searchable directory of Atlases that is currently in progress.

If you have an old ICAN logo on your Atlas, we appreciate the support, and are ready to supply updated versions depending on your needs. Both horizontal and vertical versions are available, as well as a version that works side-by-side with the IDOE logo. The two most common versions are available at:

https://ican.iode.org/download/ican_member_logos.zip

Please let us know if you need other versions or sizes!

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ICAN Tweets @ICANAtlas

ICAN is active on Twitter since August 2018  and has since gained 337 followers and while activity on social media varies and strongly relates to ICAN members taking part in events; ICAN gains on average 20 new followers and receives about 44 profile visits per month. The account reaches on average 4115 monthly tweet impressions, which refers to the number of times a tweet shows up in a twitter users timeline.

Themes

Numerous ICAN tweets to date are relevant to the UN Decade of Ocean Science and support associated dissemination of information and engagement with relevant topics. ICAN twitter audiences are gender balanced with 59% of the ICAN audience identifying as female according to Twitter analytics from June 2019.

Engagement

In May 2019, in support of the 1st Global Planning Meeting of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development in Copenhagen ICAN generated 20 organic tweets with 17 specifically using the hashtag #OceanScience or #OceanDecade to encourage and disseminate event specific information in addition to relevant retweets from event participants that use twitter. ICAN in that month reached nearly 8000 tweet impressions, which refers to the number of times a tweet shows up in a twitter users timeline. In return the networks twitter account received 100 profile visits demonstrating interest of attendees in finding out more about the network.

Next Steps

ICAN commits to the continued retweeting of relevant content related to the Decade as well as tweeting original content accompanied by Decade Tags where appropriate.

Follow us @ICANAtlas

 

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University of Wisconsin initiates two phase study of coastal web atlases

David Hart
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The University of Wisconsin’s Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute and the Cartography Lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are conducting a two-phase evaluation to identify best practices and future directions for the design and use of coastal web atlases. Preliminary results of this research will be presented at the Social Coast Forum in Charleston, South Carolina in February 2020.

Phase I

The first phase involves a comparative analysis of coastal web atlases in the United States Atlases from Indiana, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Texas, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin will be reviewed by their interface design, usability, map representations and data services. The analysis is organized by the broad categories of maps, tools, catalog and learning resources, where:

• Maps are defined as: “Web maps which allow users to view coastal topics as presentational items and lack advanced analysis through exploration.”
• Tools are defined as: “Web maps and other tools which have advanced analysis and/or exploration features to guide decisions about coastal management.”
• Catalogs are defined as “Collections of data and/or media which is often accessed through an exploratory interface.”
• Learning resources are defined as: “Mostly textual information and/or story maps about a particular coastal topic which aim to educate the user on the topic.”

The only maps, tools, catalogs and learning resources included for review are those linked from the home page or other affiliated pages of the state coastal web atlases.

Phase II

The second phase is a survey that will be sent to representative users of the same 10 state coastal web atlases beginning in November 2019. The survey will track the same four broad categories of the comparative analysis (maps, tools, catalog and learning resources) and will ask questions about user experiences, values, and opinions regarding these resources.

Insights from both the comparative analysis and user survey will be used to improve the design of the Wisconsin Coastal Atlas. Results should be relevant to developers of other coastal web atlases and could be used more broadly to guide the design and use of geospatial information and maps for coastal management. For more information about this study, contact David Hart with Wisconsin Sea Grant at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Resources

• Cartography Lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison: https://geography.wisc.edu/cartography/
• Sea Grant, University of Wisconsin: https://www.seagrant.wisc.edu/

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New York State Gateway Survey Results Summary

Jeff Herter
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New Yorkers rely on the New York Department of State Office of Planning, Development and Community Infrastructure’s Geographic Information Gateway (Gateway) every day to answer important questions. The Gateway provides answers to questions on habitats and environments, specific regulatory boundaries, coastal risk areas, and planning changes to local communities. All programs within the Office use the Gateway in their day to day operations from locating projects in relation to the State’s Coastal Area Boundary and significant coastal fish and wildlife habitat areas by Consistency staff to Brownfield Opportunity and Downtown Revitalization Initiative areas and Local Waterfront Revitalization planning efforts.The federally mandated Coastal Atlas is built on the Gateway and is used by homeowners and marine contractors alike as they prepare project submissions for consistency review. For those in local government or sister state agencies, the Gateway facilitates important decision-making by presenting relevant jurisdictional boundaries, providing information on grants possibilities, delineating areas of significant coastal fish and wildlife habitat, and illustrating climate change issues.

 

Figure 1: Example of a Coastal Map of Long Island, NY from the Gateway

 

Survey

In September the Gateway team developed and conducted a short survey to get a sense of who is using the Gateway and glean some stories about how they are using it. Here is some of what we found out:  68 % of respondents worked for state government and 12% for local governments, counties, cities, towns and villages.  Non-governmental organizations and those identifying as academic users each represented 5% of respondents and the general public only made up for 2%.  This result really helped us understand that we had some real outreach work to do with regard to our target audience, local government and the general public.   Users showed pretty broad interest regionally, with two data areas really standing out Great Lakes and Local Waterfront Revitalization Program data. All other data areas, Atlantic Ocean, Long Island Sound, Long Island South Shore Estuary Reserve and the Mohawk River Watershed had at least 25% of respondents showing interest.  Over 1/3rd of respondents use the Gateway between 1 – 10 times a month and 41% use it a few times a year.  And a few more numbers: Over half of the respondents feel the Gateway provides an easy intuitive experience; 61% said they would recommend the Gateway to their peers and co-workers; over 2/3rds, 68%, felt the Gateway provides information specific to their geographic area of interest, and finally, the average of respondents value for the Gateway was about $4000 per year (it’s free and will stay that way!)

 

 Stories

Some of the stories we heard about how folks are using the Gateway:

• The Gateway is being used to access the New York Department of State risk areas for resilience planning and by State contractors and Lake Ontario communities engaged in the Lake Ontario Resiliency and Economic Development Initiative (REDI) through a REDI Mapper.
  
  
• Agencies and stakeholders involved in the Governor’s Office’s Environmental Justice and Just Change Working Group use a saved bookmark of the Gateway viewer to visualize potential Environmental Justice indicators.
  
  
• Educators and academics use the Gateway regularly as an in-depth learning opportunity and endless data source for a variety of topics, from high school geology students learning about deep-sea bathymetry to graduate-level marine biology researchers investigating fish and bird migration patterns.
  
  
• We heard from one private sector user, who provides software to State election boards, that relies on the Gateway for resolving redistricting disputes and would have to pay a corporate entity for data if the Gateway was not available.
  
  
• Other private sector businesses have told us that the Gateway offers an invaluable tool for revealing coastal zone management reviews, performing GIS analysis for clients, and providing mapping reference for geocoding projects.

 

Figure 2: Example from Resiliency and Economic Development Initiative (REDI) mapper for Lake Ontario near Rochester, NY

 

Across the state, individuals access the Gateway when their need for information cannot wait. The Gateway’s availability as a real-time resource for latest conditions on tides, currents and recreational hotspots is integral to decision making for hundreds of visitors, from New York and all over the world. The Gateway’s “Story-Mapping” feature facilitates engagement with the Atlantic Ocean and climate change topics, providing stories of resilience and mitigation and highlighting the important work of the DOS Office of Planning and Development.

Figure 3: Example from the Environmental Justice visualization

 

The latest iteration of the Gateway has been met with consistent praise. The experience of browsing today’s Gateway is easy and intuitive, a unique feature for a deeply data-rich interface. The value of this ease of use cannot be understated, as a tool that is highly effective but difficult to use for much of its audience becomes immaterial. As the Gateway improves and grows, it continues to replace older and less engaging data sources, builds on ease of use and expands functionality. The Gateway is a platform for all New Yorkers and beyond, from every corner of the state, every professional sector and every background.

Traffic

Over the past 4 years we’ve had visitors from 105 countries outside the U.S., 54% of the countries in the world today. All 50 states and 3 U.S. territories have visited the Gateway and on average we get visits from 28 states outside of New York and 14 countries every month. The Gateway has exceeded 60,000 unique visitors since its launch. There have been over a quarter million pageviews, over three quarters of a million actions, and over 300,000 minutes or 5100 hours spent on the Gateway. On average we receive over 1220 visits and just over 5300 pages views a month. As the Gateway grows and improves, it will become more and more integral to planning efforts, day to day work flows and information dissemination.

Resources

• Access the New York Geographic Information Gateway at http://opdgig.dos.ny.gov/index.html#/home

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Examples of Atlases for UN Sustainable Development Goals

Andy Sherin
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Several on-line atlases have been developed that are relevant to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Three are highlighted here. Please send examples of other SDG relevant atlases to Andy at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for future articles.

Protected Planet

Protected Planet is a publically available online platform where users can discover terrestrial and marine protected areas, access related statistics and download data from the World Database on Protected Areas. It is updated monthly and is managed by the United Nations Environment World Conservation Monitoring Centre with support from IUCN and its World Commission on Protected Areas.

Protected Planet provides data in several formats, supports an API and an ESRI Map Service.

Figure 1: Sample map showing marine protected areas and statistics from the protectedplanet.net website

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World Bank Atlas of Sustainable Development Goals

The 2018 World Bank Atlas of  Sustainable Development Goals has over 180 maps and charts showing the progress societies are making towards the 17 SDGs. The Atlas has annotated data visualizations, which can be reproducibly built form source code and data. The Atlas can be viewed online, download the PDF publication, and access the data and source code behind the figures.

Figure 2: Maps of the impact of ocean acidification on organisms in 2018 and projected for 2100
in a high emission scenario from the 2018 World Bank Atlas of Sustainable Development Goals

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Canadian Climate Atlas

Environment and Climate Change Canada  has released the climateatlas.ca that allows the user to interactively compare present conditions to future conditions for several significant climate parameters. The atlas doesn`t yet show ocean related  parameters. Hopefully that will change in the near future. Shown in Figure 3 are two maps showing the present day frequency of very hot days (> 30 ° ) in Canada compared to predictions for the period 2051-2080 for a high GHG emissions scenario.

 

Figure3: Example map from Canada’s Climate Atlas website showing predicted differences between present day frequency of very hot days (top) and the frequency of very hot days in the period 2051-2080 assuming a high GHG emission scenario

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ICAN contributes to planning for UN Decade of Ocean Science

ICAN was represented by Steering Group Member Ned Dwyer at the recent 1st Global Planning Meeting for the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, held in Copenhagen, Denmark from 13-15 May 2019.

As was mentioned more than once  during the meeting the UN Decade offers the ocean community a once-in-a-life-time opportunity to join efforts, mobilise resources, create partnerships and engage governments and other stakeholders in moving towards “the Ocean We Need for the Future We Want”.

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