Report of the workshop on the Implementation of Multidisciplinary Sustained Ocean Observations (IMSOO)

To date, largely independent observing systems have evolved to meet the needs of particular disciplines and end users – many of these still measure only ocean physical variables routinely. The Implementation of Multidisciplinary Sustained Ocean Observations (IMSOO) workshop was held to identify priority steps to further multi-disciplinary collaborations in coordinating continuous and long-term ocean observations for the benefit of better understanding of the ocean and its ecosystems, as well as human impacts and vulnerabilities. The workshop was designed to follow the approach of the Framework for Ocean Observing (FOO), within which societal and scientific requirements for measurements as well as the feasibility of making such measurements combine to prioritize Essential Ocean Variables (EOVs). With the goal of supporting the global implementation of the FOO, an international and multi-disciplinary group of experts in ocean observations and modelling successfully addressed the three major aims of the workshop which were: To build on the established societal and scientific requirements expressed in EOVs and identify the key applications and phenomena that will benefit from co-located multi-disciplinary sustained observations; To identify near-term innovation priorities for observing platforms and sensors to enable multi-disciplinary observations; and To identify programmatic and professional connections between existing and emerging observing networks and modelling efforts that will increase multidisciplinary observations and analyses. To provide an innovative mechanism fostering convergence across the ocean disciplines, the workshop focused on three “demonstration themes”, chosen because they represent global and challenging problems that are best addressed through collaboration of physical, biogeochemical and biological observations and analyses

Evolving and Sustaining Ocean Best Practices to Enable Interoperability in the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development

The UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (Ocean Decade) challenges marine science to better inform and stimulate social and economic development while conserving marine ecosystems. To achieve these objectives, we must make our diverse methodologies more comparable and interoperable, expanding global participation and foster capacity development in ocean science through a new and coherent approach to best practice development. We present perspectives on this issue gleaned from the ongoing development of the UNESCO Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) Ocean Best Practices System (OBPS). The OBPS is collaborating with individuals and programs around the world to transform the way ocean methodologies are managed, in strong alignment with the outcomes envisioned for the Ocean Decade. However, significant challenges remain, including: (1) the haphazard management of methodologies across their lifecycle, (2) the ambiguous endorsement of what is "best" and when and where one method may be applicable vs. another, and (3) the inconsistent access to methodological knowledge across disciplines and cultures. To help address these challenges, we recommend that sponsors and leaders in ocean science and education promote consistent documentation and convergence of methodologies to: create and improve context-dependent best practices; incorporate contextualized best practices into Ocean Decade Actions; clarify who endorses which method and why; create a global network of complementary ocean practices systems; and ensure broader consistency and flexibility in international capacity development

Technologies for a FAIRer use of Ocean Best Practices

The publication and dissemination of best practices in ocean observing is pivotal for multiple aspects of modern marine science, including cross-disciplinary interoperability, improved reproducibility of observations and analyses, and training of new practitioners. Often, best practices are not published in a scientific journal and may not even be formally documented, residing solely within the minds of individuals who pass the information along through direct instruction. Naturally, documenting best practices is essential to accelerate high-quality marine science; however, documentation in a drawer has little impact. To enhance the application and development of best practices, we must leverage contemporary document handling technologies to make best practices discoverable, accessible, and interlinked, echoing the logic of the FAIR data principles [1]

Best practice summary Report

Report summarizing the relevant best practices available in the GEOSS (AtlantOS) best practices registr

Evolving and sustaining ocean best practices and standards for the next decade

The oceans play a key role in global issues such as climate change, food security, and human health. Given their vast dimensions and internal complexity, efficient monitoring and predicting of the planet’s ocean must be a collaborative effort of both regional and global scale. A first and foremost requirement for such collaborative ocean observing is the need to follow well-defined and reproducible methods across activities: from strategies for structuring observing systems, sensor deployment and usage, and the generation of data and information products, to ethical and governance aspects when executing ocean observing. To meet the urgent, planet-wide challenges we face, methods across all aspects of ocean observing should be broadly adopted by the ocean community and, where appropriate, should evolve into “Ocean Best Practices.” While many groups have created best practices, they are scattered across the Web or buried in local repositories and many have yet to be digitized. To reduce this fragmentation, we introduce a new open access, permanent, digital repository of best practices documentation (oceanbestpractices.org) that is part of the Ocean Best Practices System (OBPS). The new OBPS provides an opportunity space for the centralized and coordinated improvement of ocean observing methods. The OBPS repository employs user-friendly software to significantly improve discovery and access to methods. The software includes advanced semantic technologies for search capabilities to enhance repository operations. In addition to the repository, the OBPS also includes a peer reviewed journal research topic, a forum for community discussion and a training activity for use of best practices. Together, these components serve to realize a core objective of the OBPS, which is to enable the ocean community to create superior methods for every activity in ocean observing from research to operations to applications that are agreed upon and broadly adopted across communities. Using selected ocean observing examples, we show how the OBPS supports this objective. This paper lays out a future vision of ocean best practices and how OBPS will contribute to improving ocean observing in the decade to come

Evolving and Sustaining Ocean Best Practices Workshop 15 – 17 November 2017 Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, Paris, France: Proceedings

There is an ever-present need for the dissemination and uptake of best practices in the multidisciplinary field of ocean observation. However, the complexity of this domain and the diversity of its stakeholders make discovering relevant ocean best practices (OBP) a considerable challenge. The new paradigms of the information age - onboard processors, large memories, access to the internet and ubiquitous cloud resources opens new and significant opportunities to access and use best practices. Working across disciplines, the requirement for a trusted best practice discovery and access system includes: a web-accessible archive location; appropriate vocabularies or ontologies for improving discovery of best practices; and some means for a scientist or engineer to understand the background, provenance (including any certification) and value of a best practice. Best Practices within the System should cover the full value chain from sensors and platforms to modeling and analysis to data management and users

Best Practices uptake process across the Ocean Observing Community

This paper explores the uptake processes that different communities use with regards to their standard operating procedures and best practices Across our five case studies, we noted what made uptake processes successful or challenging and distilled a set of recommendations to further develop the OBPS’s approach to supporting communities in developing and converging methods into best practices

Interoperability Across Ocean Research Infrastructures Through Use Of Ocean Best Practices

Climate change and sustainable use of natural capital demand increased collaboration across the sciences. The first steps for effective collaboration often focus on improving interoperability between observation and analyses methodologies. This is traditionally done through a combination of standards and best practices. The ocean observation community and observing infrastructures - with regionally diverse members working in physics, chemistry, biology and engineering - is looking toward a dynamic consensus-building approach to match the rapid pace of technological evolution. This is an essential part of the long-term cooperation among ocean observing infrastructures. In the last 12 months, the ocean observing community has implemented an Ocean Best Practices System (OBPS). This System was recently adopted by the Intergovernmental Ocean Commission as an international project under GOOS and IODE. The System consists of a permanent OBPS repository hosted by IODE with state-of-the-art semantic discovery and metadata indexing for improved access to best practices and, eventually, to the data associated with them. There have been discussions to understand how to deal with differing best practices and standards on the same observation or analyses objective and other issues that arise from a comprehensive ocean best practices system. A recent survey, to be described, offers options on alternative approaches. Further, we have created a forum, in “Frontiers in Marine Science” for discussion of best practices and their applications. This presentation will cover options for evolving and sustaining ocean best practices across infrastructures. The recommendations build upon the community survey, the OGC experience, the outcomes of the OceanObs’19 conference as well as inputs from the Decade for Ocean Sciences community meetings. The extension of this work to other communities will also be examined