Date
15/03/2023 - 16/03/2023
The European Marine Board Secretariat is organizing this foresight workshop, supported by the EU Innovation Action “EuroSea”, which will consider the Ocean Observation System in 2035, and look for pathways to ensure its sustainability in all European Ocean basins to deliver accessible, timely, and actionable data and information to all users who rely on this system’s value chain.
Scenario
Year 2035: across Europe, “extreme” events such as heavy rainfall, floods and heatwaves, have become frequent and the new norm. However, the number of deaths and huge costs for the EU’s economy have been extremely severe this year. The European Commission has been tasked to explore and address some identified issues, and improve the situation of climate prediction. The EU Member States and the other non-EU European countries have National Ocean Observing Committees, a board which has an overview of the plans for marine research, monitoring of the marine environment, hydrographic surveys and management of natural resources, including fisheries and energy. However, mainstream news highlighted that the models failed to predict these disasters as information on the current state of the Ocean have been insufficient to provide reliable and accurate predictions: the dependence of in situ Ocean observations on limited and uncertain funds have left long-term observations vulnerable (and sometimes, even interrupted or stopped); legal barriers have hampered innovation and collaboration between countries, highlighting inefficiencies. The European Commission, in collaboration with the National Governments, have set up a mechanism to discuss these issues for each European sea basin and identify avenues for collaboration in an effort to inform future actions for emergency events’ preparations.
This foresight workshop, supported by the Innovation Action “EuroSea”, one of the European Union’s contributions to the G7 Future of Seas and Oceans Flagship Initiative, will recreate this scenario and look for pathways to ensure a sustainable Ocean Observing System across all Ocean basins in Europe that delivers accessible, timely, and actionable data and information to all type of users who rely on this system’s value chain.
Location
Museum of Natural Sciences
