5.	DEVELOPING THE ACTION PLAN

The Action Plan is intended to guide the panel as it works to formulate Strategic and Implementation Plans for the Coastal Module of GOOS. The development process revolved around a discussion of the issues that must be addressed in these plans and of the information that must be gathered to provide the foundations upon which they will be developed.

5.1	THE SCOPE OF C-GOOS

5.1.1

Goals of the GOOS Coastal Panel

The charge to the C-GOOS Panel is to prepare strategic and implementation plans that functionally link measurement programmes (observation systems) to the production of products that are beneficial to society and to various user groups, i.e. an end-to-end system that is responsive to user group needs. The goals of the panel are to:

1. determine user needs in the coastal zone and specify the environmental data and products required to satisfy these needs;
2. identify regions where current monitoring efforts are inadequate and formulate plans to fill these gaps;
3. identify inadequacies in the measurement programs of current observation systems in terms of the variables measured, the scales on which they are measured, and their usefulness;
4. promote regional to global coordination and integration of monitoring, research and modelling;
5. promote the design and implementation of internationally coordinated strategies for data acquisition, integration, synthesis and dissemination of products; and
6. promote the use of regional to global networks to improve now-casting, forecasting and prediction of environmental change in the coastal zone.

As the panel works to formulate strategic and implementation plans for achieving these goals, it will coordinate with OOPC, HOTO and LMR panels to incorporate coastal observations required for the delivery of products to their user groups; with national and regional GOOS activities (e.g. EuroGOOS, NEARGOOS, US Coastal GOOS); and with other relevant programmes (e.g. GTOS, LOICZ, CARICOMP, DIVERSITAS, Coastal LTER networks).

As a point of departure, the panel considered the recommendations of the Miami C-GOOS workshop (February, 1997) which are to form a C-GOOS Panel that will (a) insure analyses of the full range of environmental issues and problems in the coastal zone; (b) define sets of core variables; (c) assess the requirements of other GOOS modules in the coastal zone and integrate them with the C-GOOS module; (d) encourage R&D to meet GOOS goals; and (e) encourage regional GOOS efforts to conduct cost-benefit analyses to determine services of greatest value, promote market research on needs for C-GOOS products, establish stronger links with industry, develop programmes that involve developing countries and promote capacity building, and develop coastal environmental data services.

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5.1.2

Geographic boundaries

In the broadest sense, the limits of C-GOOS are considered to be the landward limit of marine influences and the seaward limit of land influences. More explicit boundaries should be defined based on the problem or issue to be addressed.

5.1.3

Operational categories and ubiquitous issues

The panel considered the viability of the US Coastal GOOS definition of operational categories:

1. Sustain Healthy Coasts;
2. Mitigate Natural Hazards, and
3. Safe Navigation.

After some discussion, a working group was charged with developing operational categories as a means of organizing ubiquitous issues into functional groups. The groups recommended and the panel accepted the following modified version of the operational catagories adopted by US Coastal GOOS:

1. preserve healthy coastal environments,
2. promote sustainable use of coastal resources,
3. mitigate coastal hazards, and
4. ensure safe and efficient marine operations.

These were used to organize globally ubiquitous issues (Table 1).

 

Table 1. Globally ubiquitous issues organized according to operational categories for coastal products and services.
OPERATIONAL CATEGORY	ISSUE
Preserve Healthy Coastal Environments	habitat loss and modification (e.g., wetlands, SAV, coral reefs)
	nutrient over enrichment (e.g. eutrophication, hypoxia/anoxia)
	toxic contamination, oil spills
	diseases in marine organisms
	harmful algal blooms
	non indigenous species
	biodiversity
Promote Sustainable Use of Coastal Resources	exploitation of living resources
	mariculture (pond and open water)
	saltwater intrusion
Mitigate Coastal Hazards	flooding, storm surges, tsunamis
	wind: tropical storms
	harmful algal blooms
	erosion
	sea-level rise
Safe and Efficient Marine Operations	safe navigation
	efficient maritime commerce
	exploitation of nonliving resources
	spills of hazardous materials (oil, chemicals, radioisotopes)
	ballast water (e.g., transport and release of non indigenous species)

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5.1.4

Capacity Building

Building the capacity of developing nations to contribute to and participate in GOOS is a key feature of the GOOS Strategic Plan. This was addressed at the Miami Workshop (Annex V) and is a high priority of the C-GOOS Panel.

Bill Erb explained the operations of the GOOS Capacity Building team, which has completed 4 awareness building workshops in India, Mombasa, Malta and Fiji, to address the needs of these regions. Each region has identified Coastal GOOS as its top priority. As part of this exercise the participating nations use a questionnaire to identify their present capabilities and technologies and future needs. This has been a first step in setting up regional GOOS programmes such as WIOMAP in the western Indian Ocean; Pacific-GOOS; and MED-GOOS. Capacity is also built through IOC training programmes, such as those organized annually by NEARGOOS, GLOSS, and HAB. IOC training comes under the Training, Education and Mutual Awareness (TEMA) programme, which needs to be effectively integrated with GOOS activities. Capacity building will be an important part of the C-GOOS Implementation Plan, the formulation of which should consider and build on these efforts.

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5.2	COASTAL TYPOLOGY

With the notable exception of remote sensing, it is obvious that the resources do not exist and will not exist to monitor all coastal systems even if such an effort could be justified. Thus, coupled monitoring-research programmes must be designed and implemented that will allow interpolation among systems and extrapolation to systems or conditions beyond the range of observation. This requires the definition of functional groups of coastal systems early in the design phase of C-GOOS. In considering a possible coastal typology, it was recognised that LOICZ is using a statistical approach (cluster analysis) to develop a classification scheme for coastal systems. Although C-GOOS could adopt the same scheme, it is not clear that it would be appropriate to the goals of GOOS. US Coastal GOOS adopted a different and more subjective approach (section 3.11).

Among other things, functional categories of coastal ecosystems would have to be considered on a watershed scale. In developing a classification scheme for C-GOOS, the following aspects of the problem should be considered:

1. patterns of external forcings (meteorology, terrestrial inputs, exchange with the ocean);
2. habitat characteristics (circulation regime, size, shape, depth, benthic substrate, nature of the margins); and
3. scaling relationships for comparative analyses (e.g. drainage basin area relative to area and volume of the receiving body of water; anthropogenic nutrient load as a proportion of total load; surface area to volume; freshwater fill time; tidal relative to nontidal flows; benthic production relative to pelagic production).

After some discussion, the decision was made to form a working group to address this problem during intersession.

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5.3	DEVELOPMENT OF PILOT PROJECTS

Pilot projects are needed to demonstrate that data and information can be used on larger scales to address problems that are locally relevant and to demonstrate the cost-effectiveness of the C-GOOS strategic and implementation plans. Pilot Projects must not only be tractable (high probability of success), they must demonstrate the utility and value added nature of the GOOS approach.

It was recognized by the panel that there is a need to link bottom-up (priorities of the research community) and top-down (user needs) perspectives (the end-to-end, user driven approach of GOOS). Critical links between these "end members" include precise definitions of those features of environmental change that should be assessed and visualized in real time (e.g. water depth, wave fields, spatial weather patterns); of those attributes that should be predicted; and of acceptable time lags between observation and the production of products (e.g. from now-casting to weather forecasts on daily to interannual scales to predictions of climate change).

Potential users have been identified and consulted through a variety of efforts including

1. the capacity building workshops of the GOOS Capacity Building Panel,
2. the work of the GOOS Coastal Working Group in Miami,
3. the US Coastal GOOS Workshop, and
4. NEARGOOS and EuroGOOS customer surveys.

User groups include policy and decision makers in government; government agencies responsible for regulating and managing coastal zone development, the environment, natural resources; private industry; non-governmental organizations; and the scientific community. The panel also emphasized the importance of public education and the public service role that C-GOOS should play in promoting the use of monitoring data to better inform the public of the causes and consequences of environmental changes that are occurring in the coastal zone. To achieve the goal of an end-to-end, user driven mode of operation, C-GOOS should (i) develop mechanisms for consulting users about their needs and for exploring potential applications of data generated by coastal observing systems, e.g. through workshops, web site discussion groups, regional or national GOOS programmes; and (ii) encourage regional and local GOOS groups to consult user groups about their interests in particular products.

In addition, it was agreed that C-GOOS should organize panel meetings in different regions as a means of promoting linkages with user groups at the grass root level. On these occasions, C-GOOS should organize workshops to

1. convey the C-GOOS message;
2. solicit user input; and
3. entify and address regional needs for capacity building.

The Miami Workshop (Tables 1-5 in the workshop report) provides a useful starting point for the early design phase of pilot projects that demonstrate the feasibility and utility of C-GOOS (Annex V). Additional elements include definition of

1. end products based on model outputs;
2. the time-scales on which forecasts or predictions are required;
3. the kinds of models that might be needed to make predictions and forecasts;
4. inputs to and outputs from such models; and
5. the potential costs and benefits of the data collection-modelling enterprise.

The cost-benefit analysis should include assessments of the feasibility (availability of technology and cost) of making the required predictions and measurements in terms of their probable political, social and economic impact.

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A working group was charged with the task of developing a more comprehensive, systematic approach to linking issues to user needs using results from the Miami Workshop as a starting point. The following categories were identified for inclusion in a tabular analysis (Table 2): operational category and issue (from Table 1), users, attribute to be predicted, lead time (between input and prediction), model type, inputs to model (variables), outputs from model (trend, map, etc.), and results of cost/benefit analysis (impact/cost). A second table (Table 3) is also needed that lists each variable to be measured, the required scales of measurement, importance of the variable, the feasibility of measurement, and the availability of proven techniques and technologies.

 

Table 2. Pilot Project Design Table: select operational category (Op Cat) and issue from Table 1; identify and consult user groups; describe attributes to be predicted; determine acceptable lag time between input and product availability; determine the type of model to be used ("model" in its broadest sense, e.g. from simple arithmetic and statistical models to 3-d, time-dependent numerical models); define input variables and determine output form; results of cost-benefit analysis (including feasibility of approach and impact of solving the problem).
Op Cat	Issue	Users	Prediction	Lead Time	Model Type	Model Inputs	Model Output	Cost - Benefit

 

Table 3. Analysis of Input Variables: variable to be measured (model inputs), scales of measurement (required resolution in time and space of measurements, a real coverage and temporal duration of measurements), a ranking of each variable in terms of its importance to the modelling effort (impact), the feasibility of measuring each variable, and availability of proven techniques and technologies.
Variable	Scales	Rank	Feasibility	Technology

This process of linking measurements to products via user needs and of evaluating cost-benefits (feasibility vs impact) will be used to identify and design priority pilot projects for C-GOOS.

In linking measurement to products, C-GOOS should promote the development of sensor technology for the measurement of a wider range of variables as a means of expanding the range of products and services available for users. Particular attention should to be paid to in situ and remote sensing. In regard to in situ sensing, resolving patterns of change (trends) from variability (noise) will require high resolution time series of extended duration to capture the spectrum of variability characteristic of coastal systems. The design and implementation of observation programmes should incorporate high frequency in situ measurements and real time telemetry of data that can be rapidly disseminated, assimilated and visualized for the purposes of now-casting and forecasting environmental variability and change. Technologies are evolving quickly (e.g. new satellite sensors, new in situ sensors, data transmission, faster computers) and the potential for significant increases in measuring and modelling capabilities over the next 5-10 years is high. The panel needs to promote the development of inexpensive technologies and to facilitate their transfer and use by developing countries.

The effectiveness of C-GOOS also depends on high density measurements of appropriate variables (e.g. phytoplankton pigments, temperature, salinity, waves). C-GOOS should promote the use of SeaWiFS and other spaceborne sensors and should support continued efforts to sustain and improve remote sensing programmes that provide data relevant to environmental change in the coastal zone. For example, there is an immediate need for more satellite receivers in coastal areas of developing countries and for expanded development of colour applications. Given the importance of land-sea interactions in the coastal zone, C-GOOS should assess requirements for remote sensing in the coastal zone (terrestrial and marine environments) in terms of existing and planned satellite capabilities. A recommendation on these issues is needed for GOOS to take to the CEOS Plenary in November 1998.

Finally, and perhaps most important, the strategic and implementation plans formulated for C-GOOS should promote continued interaction among research, monitoring and modelling efforts and the application of results for the purposes of public education as well as for specific user groups.

In summary, some Pilot Projects should be devised to address a minimum number of parameters on a global scale. They should address solvable problems, and demonstrate the value of data sharing. They should have a finite lifetime, which could be as short as 2-3 years, depending on requirement. In the GODAE pilot project there will be a series of phases starting in 1998 and leading up to the full scale experiment in 2003-2005. Other Pilot Projects should be driven by user needs on regional scales. Annex IV gives examples of ongoing or possible regional C-GOOS pilot projects. Also listed in Annex IV are the HOTO priority areas for coastal seas (from the HOTO Strategic Plan). More recently, the HOTO Panel has outlined pilot projects in the Red Sea, the Black Sea, the Arctic, N.E. Asia (which would be part of UNEP's Regional Seas programme, NOWPAP), and S.E.Asia. In considering the establishment of Pilot Projects careful attention should be given to what C-GOOS expects to get out of them in the way of products, and to using the projects and their products to attract and create a user community. Attention should also be given to converting C-GOOS project outputs into educational materials. Potential pilot projects discussed by the panel are listed in section 6.

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5.4	GLOBAL INVENTORY OF COASTAL MONITORING PROGRAMMES

If C-GOOS is to be effective in its role of networking coastal monitoring programmes on regional to global scales and of identifying local-regional gaps in coastal measurements and capabilities, a global inventory of monitoring programmes (metadata) will be needed. A similar need has been identified by the LMR Panel. There is a clear need for a comprehensive directory of programmes and associated metadata.

As a start, information on current monitoring operations may be found in the GOOS National Reports submitted by participants in I-GOOS meetings. Panel members, national GOOS contacts, and IOC national contacts can all assist in developing the list of local observing systems and can act as local agents to spread information about GOOS. The UNEP network of regional seas programmes may also be exploited for this purpose. In due course, C-GOOS will need to evaluate this information to establish (i) the extent to which they can contribute to the goals and objectives of C-GOOS, (ii) gaps in the use of existing technologies; and (iii) gaps in geographic coverage.

5.5	COORDINATION

The number of programmes that are relevant to the work of the C-GOOS Panel is large and growing. If C-GOOS is to keep from "reinventing the wheel" and duplicating the efforts of other groups, the panel must work to become familiar with these programmes. In this regard, the Panel asks that the IOC not only provide it with relevant reports, but that it also informs relevant programmes of the activities of the C-GOOS Panel and works to coordinate activities as needed.

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5.5.1

Relations to LMR, HOTO and OOPC Modules of GOOS

The goal of the LMR Module of GOOS is to "provide operationally useful information on changes in the state of living marine resources and ecosystems" with an emphasis on "offshore conditions dominated by oceanic processes." The goal of the HOTO Module is to "provide a basis for the assessment of the state and trends in the marine environment regarding the effects of anthropogenic activities including, inter alia, increased risks to human health, harm to marine resources, alterations of natural change and general ocean health." Given that most living marine resources are in the coastal zone, where human impacts are most pronounced, the strategic and implementation plans for C-GOOS must integrate and synthesize the needs of the LMR and HOTO panels into comprehensive, holostic plans to address the operational priorities of C-GOOS (Table 1). The contributions of C-GOOS to this process include developing plans for

1. implementing coordinated, integrated programmes of monitoring, research and modelling that provide meaningful indicators of ecosystem health and useful predictions of environmental change;
2. evaluating the efficacy of actions taken to manage environmental impacts and the exploitation of living resources; and
3. responding to the information needs of decision makers, government agencies, industries, and the public as related to the preservation of healthy coastal environments, the sustainability of coastal resources, the mitigation of coastal hazards, and safe and efficient marine operations.

Recognizing that most environmental perturbations affecting the health of the ocean are manifested in the coastal zone, the strategic plans of the HOTO and the Coastal Modules will be implemented as one. The development and implementation of the Healthy Coasts and Sustainable Resources elements of the C-GOOS Strategic Plan will use the good offices of the GIPME Programme to coordinate with and build on existing (e.g. MARPOLMON) and planned (e.g. NOWPAP, CAOS) monitoring networks.

The goals of the Ocean Observations Panel for Climate (OOPC) are to monitor, describe and understand the physical and biogeochemical processes that determine ocean circulation and its influence on the carbon cycle and to assess the effects of the ocean on seasonal to multi-decadal climate changes. The OOPC has identified data assimilation to make the best use of satellite observations as the immediate, major challenge and is addressing this through the Global Ocean Data Assimilation Experiment (GODAE, a Pilot Project of OOPC). The chair of this panel has asked the C-GOOS Panel to advise the OOPC Panel on the information needs and products from OOPC required to achieve the goals of the C-GOOS module.

To ensure effective linkages to the other GOOS Panels, the Panel recommends that the Chairman of C-GOOS, or his representative, be invited to participate as an observer in meetings of the HOTO, LMR and OOPC Panels.

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5.5.2

GTOS, GLOSS, Regional GOOS efforts, and other related operational programmes

The Global Sea Level Observing System (GLOSS) is an example of a global network that is producing coastal data and products that must be integrated into the strategic and implementation plans for C-GOOS (contact: Dr Philip Woodworth). Likewise, observation systems that document local to regional weather patterns and changes in land-cover and land-use in drainage basins of coastal aquatic environments must be integrated into C-GOOS, an effort that will require coordination with the Coastal Zone Working Group of the Global Terrestrial Observing System (GTOS); (contacts: Dr Vineeta Hoon, Dr Jim Gosz).

C-GOOS should capitalize on and declare a vested interest in presently existing or planned coastal seas regional projects (e.g. NEARGOOS, EuroGOOS, MEDGOOS, PacificGOOS). As recommended by the Miami C-GOOS Workshop participants, the C-GOOS panel should work with regional GOOS programmes to encourage the use of cost-benefit analyses to determine services of greatest value, to promote market research on needs for C-GOOS products, to establish stronger links with industry, to develop programmes that involve developing countries and to promote capacity building, and develop coastal environmental data services.

The Caribbean Coastal Marine Productivity (CARICOMP) network of marine laboratories provides a model for the kinds of regional efforts that C-GOOS should promote and help to link into a global network (contact: Dr John Ogden). CARICOMP was established in 1985 and currently has about 25 cooperating sites in over 16 Caribbean and Latin American countries. CARICOMP is funded by the sites themselves and by UNCESCO/CSI, the MacArthur Foundation, and the ICRI (through NSF). Since 1992 the network has conducted a standardized, synoptic set of measurements of coastal ecosystems (coral reefs, seagrasses and mangroves) structure and function and of meteorological and oceanographic variables. Data are archived and distributed by the University of West Indies (Kingston, Jamaica). The network also provides the infrastructure to respond to phenomena such as coral reef bleaching and disease events.

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5.5.3

LOICZ

C-GOOS should promote functional interactions between research and monitoring programmes (monitoring to quantify variability and detect change; research to determine the underlying causes and consequences of change). The IGBP programme to study Land-Ocean Interactions in the Coastal Zone (LOICZ) is an example of such a research programme. The goals of LOICZ are to

1. determine on global to regional scales (a) the fluxes of material among terrestrial, marine, and atmospheric systems through the coastal zone, (b) the capacity of coastal systems to transform and store particulate and dissolved matter, and (c) the effects of changes in external forcings on the structure and function of coastal ecosystems;
2. determine how changes in land-use, climate, sea-level and human activities alter coastal morphodynamics and the fluxes and storage of particulate matter in the coastal zone;
3. determine how changes in the coastal zone affect the global carbon cycle and trace gas composition of the atmosphere; and
4. assess how such changes influence human activities in the coastal zone and provide the information needed for integrated management of the coastal environment.

Clearly, the C-GOOS Panel must coordinate its activities, including the development of pilot projects, with research programmes conducted under the auspices of LOICZ and other research activities that are directly related to the design and implementation of coastal observing systems [e.g. GLOBEC, CoOP, Coastal Index Sites, and Long-Term Ecosystem Research (LTER) programmes in the coastal zone]. The C-GOOS Panel will need an inventory of such programmes with documentation and contact persons so that it can begin the task of determining how best to utilize the research results and discoveries for the purposes of GOOS and to promote research in the coastal zone through the dissemination of data and products. This effort can benefit from the development of research and monitoring networks by other agencies, such as the Commission of Maritime Regions in Europe (Action: Elisabeth Lipiatou to send the information to the GPO).

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5.6	COMMUNICATION

C-GOOS will be represented at the TOS meeting on coastal oceanography in Paris (June 4-7, 1998) and at the MTS meeting in Baltimore (November 1998). C-GOOS will coordinate its activities with EuroGOOS by sending a representative to the EuroGOOS conference planned for spring 1999. In due course, the C-GOOS Panel will organize a workshop to advertise the C-GOOS programme, to attract involvement, and to explore user needs. The conference on Environmental Management of Enclosed Coastal Seas (EMECS) to be held in Turkey during the fall of 1999 may provide a venue for this purpose.

The Panel recommends that a C-GOOS brochure be produced following the completion of the strategic plan. This would be used by Panel members and other to advertise C-GOOS regionally. In the interim, a GOOS brochure is being developed to describe the international GOOS programme. C-GOOS will be invited to contribute to its design and content. For meetings, it may be worthwhile developing a C-GOOS poster; there is a GOOS poster available, but it is large and cumbersome, and not easily transportable.

The Panel will rely on e-mail for most communications. It was requested that the IOC put up a web site (password access) to facilitate communications among Panel members and the completion of intersession tasks by working groups.

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