Ecosystem Approach Community of Practice: iMarine Business Cases

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Business Cases Summary

The iMarine Business Cases (BC's) cover the rationale behind the decision process that govern the selection of the business cases to support and it will illustrate the features of the third and unselected business case that could be addressed in the remaining selected business cases.

The Business Cases in iMarine serve several important purposes, even if they are not immediate drivers of activities. The Business Cases are where the outcome of activities can become evident, and will be 'measurable'. The brackets here are needed since the tools are not equipped with standardized features to measure their uptake, use and impact.

Throughout the life-cycle of the iMarine Project, the BC's purpose changes, and therefore require that the mediation and governance processes that aim to realize them evolve accordingly. The iMarine Board has a role in safeguarding that the overall activity in the project are beneficial to the realization of the Business Cases. The

The overall purpose of the BC's over the life-time of the iMarine project can be aligned with the themes of the planned iMarine Board meetings: 

Semester 1; Mobilization of Board and identification of opportunities for collaboration and technologies;
Semester 2; Stabilization of opportunities and defining the technology scope;
Semester 3; Experimentation with technologies, and expansion of EA-CoPCommunity of Practice.;
Semester 4; Validation of collaboration structures and EA-Cop requirements consolidation;
Semester 5; Exploitation of EA-CoPCommunity of Practice. collaboration frameworks.

These high level themes will be reflected in the respective meeting reports.

Business Case original description (DOW)

BC1 - Support to EU Common Fishery Policy

As a member of FAO, the EU has adopted the FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries (CCRF) and one of its key instruments, the Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries, has become one of the drivers of the European Common Fishery Policy (CFP). The implementation of this EU CFP requires a complex flow of fishery data and information from fishing industry activity, through member states, to supporting EC agencies. As overall picture, the statistics which result of fishery data work-flows are exploited together with other thematic information, in order to formulate scientific advice on the basis of the assessed biological state of resources and socio-economic performance of the fishing sector. In turn, DG-MARE uses this scientific advice to elaborate its management and policy advice. Recently, the overarching need to have more integrated and higher quality data including in coverage, timeliness, resolution and accuracy has been stressed by DG-MARE and a substantial revision of the entire information work-flow and supporting tools has been engaged since 2009. Concerned work streams and priority levels are 

(i) Activities database: forwarding of daily fishing vessels activity data, including VMS, log books, landings; 
(ii) Fleet registry – Fishing licenses database: work flows from member states to EU; 
(iii) Legal data; 
(iv) Scientific data for fixing quotas.


BC2 - Support to FAO’s deep seas fisheries programme: balancing use of marine resources and protection of vulnerable marine ecosystems in the high seas

In 2009, FAO established international guidelines for the management of deep seas high seas fisheries with the aim to protect deep sea fragile ecosystems. In support to the implementation of these guidelines, FAO has formulated a programme of action entitled balancing use of marine resources and protection of vulnerable marine ecosystems (VMEs) in the high seas (DSF programme). One key component of this programme is the development of a VME Mapping Information System which will facilitate the registration, description, analysis and publications of all forms of information related to VMEs, in support to the management of High Seas Deep Seas Fisheries (DSF). In parallel, the Global Ocean Biodiversity Initiative (GOBI), an international partnership advancing the scientific basis for conserving biological diversity in the deep seas and open oceans, was launched in late 2008 in support to CBD’s goals of identifying Ecologically and Biologically Sensitive Areas (EBSAs) in the Deep Seas. GOBI’s work is supported by various sources of scientific data including OBIS and various other scattered information bases.

BC3 - Support to regional (Africa) LME pelagic EAF community

The Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries (EAF) sets as principle that fishery management objectives should strive to reach an optimum balance between the fishery resource productivity, the biodiversity and habitat preservation, and the social and economic goals. The EAF implementation methodology addresses these principles at the level of a selected fishery and strives to ensure that the above mentioned values are given key focus in a management plan. As described by the EAF planning and implementation steps, the objectives for the fishery under consideration have to be specified and prioritized for each of these values, following which a set of multidisciplinary indicators and reference points can be defined. These indicators are monitored through various approaches including scientific assessments, catch or effort monitoring systems, rapid appraisal surveys with participatory methods. The scientific indicators build on spatially explicit models on the distribution of fisheries activity, the socio-economic structure of fishing communities, the concentration and abundance levels of commercially desirable fish stocks, the distribution of non-target species and vulnerable aquatic habitats. For an effective management response, such monitoring across disciplines and levels of data/information/knowledge elaboration requires a well organized (often institutionalized) workflow which orchestrates the inputs of the EA-CoPCommunity of Practice. actors vertically (from the data manager, through the scientist and up to the fishery manager and policy maker) and horizontally (across concerned disciplines).


Uptake of the Business case during the project

These business cases were initially described in November 2010 in the original iMarine project Description of Work (DoW) proposal. At the first iMarine Board Advisory Council meeting, an update has been presented (Document IMBAC_2012_1) taking into account knowledge inputs gathered in the meantime. Through the iMarine Board's mediation efforts, an iterative process of alignment between EA-policy needs and the data infrastructure services is expected.

The refinement of policy needs and the activities in support of BC2 are described in document IMBAC_2012_1 . After the first iMarine Board meeting, the possible support of iMarine both in terms of "data infrastructure" and in terms of "initiative (as forum, partnership)" is revised/refined as follows:

BC1 - Support to EU Common Fishery policy

The activities in the first semester have resulted in an intensive yet informal collaboration between various EU-level related institutes and the iMarine project. Examples are the active participation to the iMarine Board of representatives of DG-Mare, EStat, and several Regional Fisheries Bodies where EU vessels are active.

The progress towards the objective of the first semester; identification of collaboration opportunities, can be evidenced by participation to meetings on Statistical standards (SDMX), and presentation of the iMarine project at the DG-MARE offices in Brussels.

The consultations in the EA-CoPCommunity of Practice. for this BC resulted in a set of expectations for the e-InfrastructureAn operational combination of digital technologies (hardware and software), resources (data and services), communications (protocols, access rights and networks), and the people and organizational structures needed to support research efforts and collaboration in the large..

The EA-CoPCommunity of Practice. expects the e-InfrastructureAn operational combination of digital technologies (hardware and software), resources (data and services), communications (protocols, access rights and networks), and the people and organizational structures needed to support research efforts and collaboration in the large. to support:

  • VME fact sheet generation through on-line collaborative reporting/document editing workflow;
  • A (semantic) knowledge base to annotate these fact sheets with controlled terms; necessary for summaries or automated map generation;
  • geographic data work-flow enable to generate point or polygon data, either through file upload, interactive drawing, or remote data transfer of geographic data.
  • Aggregate sensitive/confidential high resolution geographic data in secure VREVirtual Research Environment.'s to less sensitive levels that can be shared with broader groups and published; such aggregating processes can be facilitated at source system level before data transfer;
  • Deep sea biodiversity analyses. This requires the selection of biodiversity data, through

i) query capacities across biodiversity data sourced by different systems (OBIS, GBIF, Ecoscope, ...), combined with

ii) data transfer from source systems (e.g. using Darwin Core standards) or individual file upload facilities;

  • Sources of environmental information. These can be accessed through data transfer with other systems (e.g. UNEP-WCMC’s IMAP, EMODNET, OSPAR VME database, International Seabed Authority), or by using iMarine file upload facilities for data and maps (e.g. Seamounts on line, predictive map of coldwater coral distribution in the South Pacific).
  • Species modeling algorithms (Aquamaps, Open Modeler). These allow to generate and assess the probability of presence of species on a given location;
  • Generation of maps. A map viewer would allow interactive selection of geographic data sources and a visualization.
  • Statistical analysis. With statistical services (such as “R”, or the iMarire statistical service) the scientific evidence of key biodiversity criteria required for the identification of EBSAs-VMEs can be refined;


The iMarine initiative (as forum, partnership) should support:

  • by offering a collaborative scientific platform (VREs) which will trigger scientific collaboration among stakeholders involved in deep seas work and willing to share their spatially referenced information
  • by promoting and testing the operationalization of shared standards so to foster the exchange of information among existing systems, e.g. CCAMLR or OSPAR.
  • by enabling tighter, information base, VMEs and EBSAs collaboration.

BC2 - Support to FAO’s deep seas fisheries programme: balancing use of marine resources and protection of vulnerable marine ecosystems in the high seas

The refinement of policy needs and the activities in support of BC2 are described in document IMBAC_2012_1 . After the first iMarine Board meeting, the possible support of iMarine to BC2 is revised/refined as follows:

The data infrastructure can support: - VME fact sheets can be generated through on-line collaborative reporting/document editing workflow; - the services of a code list manager or a semantic knowledge base enable to enhance/annotate these fact sheets with controlled terms; such controlled terms are necessary for summaries or automated maps generation; - geographic data reporting workflow enable to generate point or polygon data, either through file upload, interactive drawing, or streamlined transfer (i.e. machine driven – using OGC standards) of geographic data among systems; - in VREs, sensitive/confidential high resolution geographic data can be aggregated to less sensitive data products that can be shared with broader groups and eventually published; such aggregating pre-process can also take place at source system level before data transfer; - deep sea biodiversity analyses primarily require the selection of biodiversity data of interest, thanks to i) query capacities across biodiversity data sourced by different systems (OBIS, GBIF, Ecoscope, ...), combined with ii) streamlined transfer from source systems (e.g. using Darwin Core standards) or individual file upload facilities; - sources of environmental information are added as required through application of streamlined data transfer with other systems (e.g. UNEP-WCMC’s IMAP, EMODNET, OSPAR VME database, International Seabed Authority), or by using the iMarine individual file upload facilities for relevant data sources and maps (e.g. Seamounts on line, predictive map of coldwater coral distribution in the South Pacific). - species modeling algorithms (Aquamaps, Open modeler) allow to assess probability of presence of species on a given location; - mapping viewer can allow interactive selection of geographic data sources and visualization, and analytical services (“R”, statistical data processing) can help refine scientific evidence of key biodiversity criteria required for the identification of EBSAs-VMEs;

The iMarine initiative (as forum, partnership) can support: - by offering a collaborative scientific platform (VREs) which will trigger scientific collaboration among stakeholders involved in deep seas work and willing to share their spatially referenced information - by promoting and testing the operationalization of shared standards so to foster the exchange of information among existing systems, e.g. CCAMLR or OSPAR. - by enabling tighter, information base, VMEs and EBSAs collaboration

BC3 - Support to regional (Africa) LME pelagic EAF community

It should also be noted that the third business case has been altered to take into account the reduction of funding (minus 1 millions Euros) between the original project proposal and the budget finally agreed for iMarine, and actual partner project opportunities. Regarding the later, both the FAO Smartfish project (supporting development of fishery management plans in the Indian Ocean), and the FAO ABNJ*-Tuna project have been identified for collaboration with iMarine. Both these projects fit within the scope of BC3, and can benefit features developed for BC1 and BC2.

(*) Areas Beyond National Jurisdictions

The data infrastructure can support: - by managing classifications, code lists and vocabularies among different systems, as well as mapping capacities among these distributed sources, iMarine can support the harmonization among Wiofish, Statbase, FIRMS and Fishcode-STF/Artfish; - through interactive delivery of ocean observation satellite products (SST, Salinity, Chlorophyl) easy to integrate with other biodiversity or fisheries data sources; - by enabling a scientific collaborative environment (VREVirtual Research Environment.) dedicated to the sharing of by-catch species data and to their spatial analysis, so to map priority areas for these species and their overlap with Tuna fisheries; such capacity would re-use tools already described under BC2; it would also apply VTI or e-logbook exchange mechanisms (considered under BC1) for the transfer of on-board Observer data on by-catch species; such capacity can be experimented with IRD (a iMarine partner) through its Observatoire Thonier Tropical (OTT) and ObsTuna data base. - by enabling an interactive Tuna Atlas VREVirtual Research Environment. as scientific collaborative environment; such Tuna Atlas would re-use statistical data exchange, harmonization and processing capacities described under BC1 and deliver key fishery indicators as tabular, graphic or map services to the ABNJ portal; - extending the interactive Tuna Atlas VREVirtual Research Environment., by providing data processing algorithms such as reallocation of catch or effort statistics to geographic resolutions for which data are not originally available; such type of approach is already followed by IOTC in assessing national catch quota allocations hypotheses.


The iMarine initiative (as forum, partnership) can support: - By offering to reuse the tools, services and facilities developed through the iMarine core partnership, - By offering a governance mechanism for developing data sharing policies and a framework for developing software of interest to the involved stakeholders

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