Coastal Working Group

EuroGOOS Coastal working group kick-off meeting, 9 May 2018, EuroGOOS HQ, Brussels

The major interface between humans and the ocean occurs in the coastal seas. Marine industries thrive in this area while European citizens make daily use of the coastal ocean for tourism, leisure or recreation. Operational oceanography assists both industry and the general public to make decisions about their use of and access to the coastal ocean.

The EuroGOOS Coastal Working Group will examine the entire value chain from coastal in situ observations, satellite data, ocean forecasts and analysis, to products and services for coastal users. The working group will examine sustainability and fitness for purpose of the existing system and identify future steps needed to secure and improve all elements of the coastal value chain to better serve end users and stakeholders.

The Coastal Working Group builds upon initiatives already completed or underway that have focused on coastal observing, modelling and the generation of products and services. These include, but are not limited to, the work of the JERICO-RI, activities within EuroGOOS working groups, task teams, and the five regional operational oceanographic systems (ROOS).  Activities will be also aligned with the EuroGOOS 2030 strategy.

Key Objectives

The EuroGOOS Coastal working group will examine the entire value chain from coastal observations, satellite data, ocean forecasts and analysis, to products and services for coastal users. The working group will examine sustainability and fitness for purpose of the existing system and identify future steps needed to secure and improve all elements of the coastal value chain. The working group started its work with a kick-off meeting in Brussels on 9 May 2018. 

The EuroGOOS Coastal Working Group will build upon significant initiatives already completed or underway that have focused on coastal observing. These include, but are not limited to, the work of the JERICO and JERICO-NEXT EC projects, activities within EuroGOOS working groups, task teams, and the five regional operational oceanographic systems (ROOS). A key early priority for the Coastal Working Group will be to document the existing and planned activity and provide a status of the coastal observing system at the present time.

List of Members

Co-Chairs

  • Ghada El Serafy, Deltares, Netherlands
  • Arthur Capet, University of Liège (ULiège), Belgium

Members

  • Antonello Bruschi, Italian National Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA), Italy
  • Sebastien Legrand, Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS), Belgium
  • Katrijin Baetens, Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS), Belgium
  • Jun She, Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI), Denmark
  • Antti Westerlund, Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI), Finland
  • Guillaume Charria, French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea (Ifremer), France
  • Ivane Pairaud, French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea (Ifremer), France
  • Angelique Melet, Mercator Ocean International (MOi), France
  • Joanna Staneva, Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon, Germany
  • Tomasz Dabrowski, Marine Institute (MI), Ireland
  • Georg Umgiesser, National Research Council of Italy (CNR), Italy
  • Laura Ursella, National Institute of Oceanography and Experimental Geophysics (OGS), Italy
  • Federico Falcini, National Research Council of Italy (CNR), Italy
  • Antonio Guarnieri, National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV), Italy
  • Lorinc Meszaros, Deltares, Netherlands
  • Øyvind Sætra, Norwegian Meteorological Institute (MET Norway), Norway
  • Helene Frigstad, Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA), Norway
  • Francisco Campuzano, +ATLANTIC Colab, Portugal
  • Joaquín Tintoré and Baptiste Mourre, The Balearic Islands Coastal Ocean Observing and Forecasting System (SOCIB), Spain
  • Marcos García Sotillo, Nologin, Spain
  • Laura Tuomi, Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI), Finland
  • Anna Rubio, Fundación AZTI, Spain
  • Fernando Manzano, Puertos del Estado, Spain 

EuroGOOS Facilitation:

  • Virginie Van Dongen-Vogels, European Global Ocean Observing System (EuroGOOS), Belgium 

Terms of Reference

Outcomes

1. Assessment of operational modeling capacities

The EuroGOOS Coastal Working Group conducted a survey on the operational modelling capacities in the European seas. An analysis derived from the survey, published in Frontiers in Marine Science Journal, drew on contributions from 49 organizations across Europe to assess the current operational modelling capacities and services. The article examined the gaps, needs, and priorities for improving the marine and coastal operational modeling capacity and put forth a number of recommendations. Read the full study here

2. EEA Copernicus In situ coordination project (COINS) 

Members of the Working group have participated in the EEA Copernicus In situ coordination project (COINS) and have produced a series of reports on the availability of Biogechemical observations on the coastal areas (Inventory of existing European Biogeochemical observations) and on the  Copernicus requirements for biogeochemistry essential ocean variables in the coastal ocean.

3. FORCOAST Central Platform

Members of the Coastal WG have participated in the Copernicus uptake EU project FORCOAST which is aiming to provide information services,  co-designed with stakeholders, which provide high-resolution data of water quality and met-ocean variables at coastal zone and nearshore that are used to give focused answers to specific questions from the targeted wild fisheries, bivalve mariculture, and oysterground restoration sectors.

A main outcome of the Project is a Central Platform where all the coastal data services developed in seven pilots sites  can be accessed and run in real time. You can access the Central Platform here.