Ecosystem Approach Community of Practice: EA-CoP stakeholder group

Template for description of each instance of EA-CoPCommunity of Practice.

• Name of the initiative
• Objective of the initiative
• Positioning of iMarine
• Characteristics of the CoPCommunity of Practice. (target at the end of iMarine project)
  • Type of First range users / second range users / third range users
  • Number of First range users / second range users / third range users
• Involvement of the CoPCommunity of Practice. in the Governance process

Notes:

The terminology "First range users / second range users / third range users" refers to cascading levels of involvement, from users directly interacting with iMarine Board (the first range users) towards end-users eventually benefiting from the iMarine services (second or third range users).

The Type of actors which are potentially concerned as EA-CoPCommunity of Practice. are listed in the paragraphs under Communication messages

Instances of the EA-CoPCommunity of Practice. - as of October 2012

Under BC1

ICIS-SPREAD

The Integrated Capture Information System (ICIS) allows for the import, validation, modification and publishing of time series. It reads csv and SDMX files, and can produce maps, graphs, and SDMX time series.

The use case is described here: http://wiki.i-marine.eu/index.php/Ecosystem_Approach_Community_of_Practice:_ICIS

A specialized case of managing time-series is the Spatial RE-Allocation of Data (SPREAD)

The use case is described here: http://wiki.i-marine.eu/index.php/Ecosystem_Approach_Community_of_Practice:_SPREAD

• Characteristics of the CoPCommunity of Practice. (target at the end of iMarine project)

• Type of First range users / second range users / third range users

• Number of First range users / second range users / third range users

• Involvement of the CoPCommunity of Practice. in the Governance process

VTI

The Vessel Transmitted Information system (VTI) is a specialization of ICIS. It was developed to study the feasibility of an environment where confidential data can be managed.

The main input of the VREVirtual Research Environment. are confidential vessel position records. These are aggregated to anonymous fishing activity intensity per Month per 5*5 degrees. These products can be downloaded or vizualized as maps or tabular date.

The VREVirtual Research Environment. can be accessed (after obtaining credetials) through the iMarine portal

• Characteristics of the CoPCommunity of Practice. (target at the end of iMarine project)

• Type of First range users / second range users / third range users

• Number of First range users / second range users / third range users

• Involvement of the CoPCommunity of Practice. in the Governance process

Fisheries operational data

A first draft of a operational data management environment is made available to the Board members.

It can be accessed through the BSCW.

• Characteristics of the CoPCommunity of Practice. (target at the end of iMarine project)

• Type of First range users / second range users / third range users

• Number of First range users / second range users / third range users

• Involvement of the CoPCommunity of Practice. in the Governance process

Under BC2

Aquamaps

• Characteristics of the CoPCommunity of Practice. (target at the end of iMarine project)

• Type of First range users / second range users / third range users

• Number of First range users / second range users / third range users

• Involvement of the CoPCommunity of Practice. in the Governance process

ecological niche modelling

The requirements for the ecological niche modeling are described in the requirements area.

http://wiki.i-marine.eu/index.php/Ecosystem_Approach_Community_of_Practice:_SpeciesModeller

• Characteristics of the CoPCommunity of Practice. (target at the end of iMarine project)

• Type of First range users / second range users / third range users

• Number of First range users / second range users / third range users

• Involvement of the CoPCommunity of Practice. in the Governance process

Species names reconciliation

• Objective of the initiative:

A first service has been developed in collaboration with University of Reading and CRIA as part of the EUBrazil OpenBio project. The Taxon name reconciliation algorythm which has been integrated was developed by Un. of Reading to serve the CoL.

• Positioning of iMarine: The species name reconciliation builds on the capabilities in the e-infrastructure for the consumption and management of taxonomic information. It can read and produce data in Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A) format.

A description of a planned VREVirtual Research Environment. to support the EA-CoPCommunity of Practice. woring in this area is available here:

http://wiki.i-marine.eu/index.php/Ecosystem_Approach_Community_of_Practice:_TaxonReconciliation

• Characteristics of the CoPCommunity of Practice. (target at the end of iMarine project):

Question: Is the primary user of this first service the Catalog of Life ? who else?

• Involvement of the CoPCommunity of Practice. in the Governance process

VME-Database

• Name of the initiative: Global Database for Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems (VMEs), funded by the FAO Trust fund "BDEMV" (GCP/GLO/309/FRA).

• Objective of the initiative: provide an avenue to distribute information and raise awareness on recognized VMEs to fishery policy makers, managers, scientists and the public at large. The database will facilitate communication among RFMO/As and States, building partnerships and the creation of a network among the community of users, information contributors and those working on the protection of VMEs in the high seas.

• Positioning of iMarine: The iMarine e-infrastructure provides to data owners, under a controlled access, a scientific collaborative space through Virtual Research EnvironmentA ''system'' with the following distinguishing features: ''(i)'' it is a Web-based working environment; ''(ii)'' it is tailored to serve the needs of a Community of Practice; ''(iii)'' it is expected to provide a community of practice with the whole array of commodities needed to accomplish the community’s goal(s); ''(iv)'' it is open and flexible with respect to the overall service offering and lifetime; and ''(v)'' it promotes fine-grained controlled sharing of both intermediate and final research results by guaranteeing ownership, provenance, and attribution. (VREVirtual Research Environment.) for enhancing their capacity to input, share, and analyse a broad range of ecological, environmental and fisheries data used as proxi-indicators of VME identification criteria. As output of this input-sharing-analysis process, iMarine also allows to elaborate individual VME reports including their spatial definition and to publish them.

• Characteristics of the CoPCommunity of Practice. (target at the end of iMarine project)

Three main user groups:

• Fishery policy makers and managers, and their data managers - 6 RFMOs are primarily concerned (CCAMLR, GFCM, NAFO, NEAFC, SEAFO, SIOFA, SPRFMO)
• Scientists - from the above RFMOs having a scientific mandate, from ICES, and from national research institutes (e.g. DFO Canada, CSIRO Australia, NMFS USA, IFREMER France, IEO Spain, ...)
• Fishing industry representatives, both data managers and science persons - few groups to start with (e.g. SIODFA, ,,,)

The first range users are [geospatial] data managers of FAO, and other international or national research agencies (e.g. ICES, CSIRO) who will provide access to relevant environmental and geospatial databases, including the published FAO VME database. About 5 users can be foreseen by the end of the iMarine project.

The second range users are i) data managers involved in RFMOs VME processes or working for the deep sea fishing industry who will upload VME relevant fisheries observations (e.g. "encounters"), and ii) scientists in fisheries and deep seas ecology who will analyse the available information with the endeavour to identify VME areas. About 5 data managers, and 5 scientists can be foreseen by the end of the project. A successful uptake would raise prospect of a growth of this community up to 10-20 data managers and 30 - 50 scientists in the following years, through activities supported by FAO's ABNJ Deep Seas project.

The outputs of the above direct users will impact on i) policy makers and fishery managers of concerned RFMOs, and of FAO's Member States (where FAO serves its Member States in areas where there is no RFMO), whose capacity to identify VMEs and define management rules will be enhanced; and ii) on the users of the public VME-database including the general public.

• Involvement of the CoPCommunity of Practice. in the Governance process

Species fact sheets (FAO/FishFinder)

• Characteristics of the CoPCommunity of Practice. (target at the end of iMarine project)

• Type of First range users / second range users / third range users

• Number of First range users / second range users / third range users

• Involvement of the CoPCommunity of Practice. in the Governance process

Under BC3

Smartfish

• Name of the initiative: SWIOFC's Regional Fisheries Information System, funded by the Smartfish project in partnership with SWIOFP and iMarine.

• Objective of the initiative: The RFIS will provide a broad range of information in support to EAF oriented decision making in fisheries in the South West Indian Ocean region. RFIS will primarily build on existing complementary information systems (Statbase, Wiofish, FIRMS, national statistical systems).

• Positioning of iMarine: iMarine aims at providing tools to support RFIS. iMarine will enable a seamless integration and harmonization of the existing systems within RFIS. More specifically:

- the first level of harmonization will rely on OpenSearch or Xsearch services enhanced with FLOD knowledgebase

- a more advanced level of harmonization could be later envisaged through direct access to database structures

• Characteristics of the CoPCommunity of Practice. (target at the end of iMarine project)

The first range users are information system specialists and data managers supporting the existing systems. About 8 persons are primarily concerned (2 per target system).

The second range users are the national data managers in the region, which are involved in feeding the existing systems. About 20 persons are concerned (about 2 per country)

The third range are users of the existing systems, ie scientists and regional fisheries policy makers.

• Involvement of the CoPCommunity of Practice. in the Governance process