GOOS regional alliances and the development of the coastal module of GOOS

Abstract

Coastal nations worldwide are experiencing changes in their coastal marine and estuarine systems that jeopardize sustainable development, human health and safety, and the capacity of marine ecosystems to support products and services valued by society. Because these changes and their causes frequently transcend national borders, concerns over their impacts have led to numerous international agreements that require sustained, timely, routine and reliable assessments of the condition of coastal marine and estuarine systems and predictions of the effects of natural hazards, climate change and human activities on them. The Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) is being implemented to provide the required data and information in a routine and continuous manor. Implementation of the coastal module of the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) will provide data and information required to achieve these objectives. To these ends, the IOC-WMO-UNEP Coastal Ocean Observation Panel completed An Implementation Strategy for the Coastal Module of GOOS that presents recommendations for the phased development of a Global Coastal Network (GCN) through the establishment and networking of GOOS Regional Alliances (GRAs) that are governance bodies for GOOS activities extending throughout a nation or group of nations. The Implementation Strategy presents over 50 recommendations for phased development of the coastal module in seven related areas: (1) implementing mechanisms, (2) measurements, (3) data communications and management, (4) analysis and modeling, (5) capacity building, (6) pilot projects, and (7) system performance. This presentation summarizes recommended high priority actions for implementing the GCN, pilot projects critical to establishing the GCN, and recent actions taken by the WMO-IOC Joint Technical Commisssion for Oceanography and Marine Meteorology and the Group on Earth Observations to begin the process of implementation. The full implementation strategy can be found at the following URL: <;http://ioc.unesco.org/goos/docs/GOOS-148-COOP-lowres.pdf>.