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Learn about the progress, challenges, stakeholder needs, and future development of the Caribbean Marine Atlas Project. Explore collaborative opportunities with the ICAN community for marine data management.
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Next Steps for the Caribbean Marine Atlas Project Ramon Roach Coordinator Caribbean Marine Atlas Project
Outline • Background of the CMA • Current status of the project • Challenges in implementation • Stakeholder and developer needs • Potential areas of collaboration with ICAN community • Future areas of development of the CMA
Background of the CMA • Call to Create a Geographic Data Sharing Platform for the Caribbean Region • Modeled on the African Marine Atlas • 1st Stakeholder Meeting for the Development of the CMA Project (October, 2007) • Regional information gathering workshop • Participants from 6 Caribbean countries • Core initiative with scope for expansion • Workshop Goals • To inform the participating countries of the potential benefits of a Caribbean Marine Atlas • To identify current national coastal zone management arrangements • To identify national and regional coastal and marine issues that could be the focus of the Caribbean Marine Atlas
Identified Issues and Data Management Challenges • Regional Priority Issues • Coral Reefs, Seagrass, Mangroves • Overexploitation • Natural Hazards • Beaches • LBS Pollution • Regional Data Access Issues • Most or all essential national indicator data collected • Data access from data holders tends to be problematic • Regional Data Management Issues • Little or no data quality control (geographic, range analysis) • No established metadata schemes • Lack of institutional resources • Personnel and training • Equipment
Capacity Building Exercises for Atlas Development • Data Management Courses (2008-2011) • Ocean Data Management • Oceanographic measurements, programmatic and technical aspects of data collection, data formats used for ocean data • Data Mining • Data processing, metadata requirements, FTP folder schema and use • Database Management • Postgres SQL, PostGIS database creation and management for spatial datasets • Atlas Specific Courses (2009-2012) • Mapserver • Introduction to the mapserver open-source platform • OpenLayers • Mapping application development for national atlases • Geoserver • GeoNetwork
Stakeholder Engagement • National Atlas Project Stakeholder Meetings • Saint Lucia (August 5th 2010) • Barbados (March 2nd 2011) • Jamaica (May 25th2011) Institutional Client Surveys
Current Status of the CMA • Main CMA website • http://www.caribbeanmarineatlas.net • Web map server (Geoserver) • http://geoserver.caribbeanmarineatlas.org • Metadata catalog for CMA data (GeoNetwork) • http://geonetwork.caribbeanmarineatlas.org • Mapping application for the regional atlas • http://atlas.caribbeanmarineatlas.org • Prototype national atlases • Barbados – http://barbados.caribbeanmarineatlas.org • Cuba – http://cuba.caribbeanmarineatlas.org • Dominica – http://dominica.caribbeanmarineatlas.org • Jamaica – http://jamaica.caribbeanmarineatlas.org • Trinidad and Tobago – http://tnt.caribbeanmarineatlas.org
Current Status of the CMA • Regional Marine Data Manager Network and Recognized Project • Eleven regional data managers received data management and web-based atlas development training • Regional network has improved communication among Caribbean marine/coastal management agencies • Regional coastal zone and marine management institutions sensitized to marine atlas concept • CMA requested to participate in Caribbean Large Marine Ecosystem project activities and to give technical support to the Caribbean Sea Commission
Implementation Challenges • Capacity Challenges • Limited specialization at national level for coastal/marine data management • Considerable training effort devoted to basic data management/ GIS skill development • Limited resources (primarily time and manpower) to implement national actions • Limited resources to devote to atlas data preparation tasks • Loss of participants due to staffing changes • Limited ability to share in development burden • Technology Challenges • Changes in atlas backend technologies (Mapserver to Geoserver) • Steep learning curve for development languages (Javascript, PHP, etc) and open-source software (Geoserver, Geonetwork, SLD creation, etc)
Stakeholder Needs • Priority Stakeholder Needs • Additional data collection capacity • Additional data management capacity • Easy data and information search, visualization and download • Transparent, well-defined data sharing policy • Policy-relevant applications for spatial data/information • Economic valuation of the benefits of participating in a coastal/marine atlas programme
Developer Needs • Priority Developer Needs • Capacity development in web coding standards* • Application development support (functionality) • Data management and preparation support • Ability to automate some data management tasks • Data sharing and distribution policy development
Potential Areas of Collaboration with ICAN • Stakeholder Re-Examination • Is our stakeholder scope too narrow (regionally, nationally)? • What other services can atlases provide and to which audiences? • How do you address the needs of multiple stakeholders (technologically, administratively)? • How do you maintain stakeholder interest in atlas projects?
Potential Areas of Collaboration with ICAN • Best Practice Guidance • Design considerations in atlas applications to enable advanced functionality (dataset search, etc), code samples • Automation of data integration for continuously updated datasets (e.g. NOAA earthquake database, SST data) • Data use and dissemination agreement development for use with data providers/stakeholders • Spatial data QA/QC best practices
Plans for the Future of the CMA • Official Project End-Date, December 2013 • Commitment from CZMU Barbados and IODE to maintain project components • Greater Collaboration with Regional/International Projects • CMA/OBIS meeting in August, 2013 on Caribbean biological data management • Continued interaction with the Caribbean Large Marine Ecosystem project • Atlas Application Development • Technical consultations with Flanders Marine Institute • Behind the scenes data management tasks
Thank You Ramon Roach Coastal Information Systems Manager Coastal Risk Assessment and Management Project Coastal Zone Management Unit Bay Street, St. Michael Tel: 228-5950/1/2 Fax: 228-5956 Email: rroach@coastal.gov.bb