CEOS Coastal and Ocean Observations & Applications Strategy

1. CEOS Coastal and Ocean Observations & Applications Strategy Committee on Earth Observation Satellites • Paul DiGiacomo, NOAA, CEOS SIT Team • CEOS 2019 Technical Workshop (Day 2) • Session 7, Agenda Item 7.2 • Fairbanks, Alaska, USA • 12 September 2019

2. Previous Coastal/Ocean Observing Plans Coastal GTOS, 2005 e.g., deltaic systems; urbanization and changes in coastal land use/cover IGOS Coastal Theme, 2006 e.g., land-sea interface; coastal populations & ecosystems at risk Coastal GOOS, 2012 eutrophication/hypoxia; pathogens; HABs; benthic habitats; flooding; acidification, fisheries; integration GEO Blue Planet, 2019 e.g., island flooding, hazards, marine debris, aquatic diseases, coral reefs, fisheries

3. Internal CEOS activities and initiatives • Ocean/coasts still an emerging area for CEOS; mostly VCs so far • That said, there is increasing interest & work across CEOS entities • GEO/LEO/SAR Integration – flooding; water quality/hazards? • WGDisasters; potential WGCV, WGCapD,WGISS engagement • CEOS ARD potential coastal pilot to complement existing work • COVERAGE; SDG-AHTs (SDG-6/14 potential); Role of VCs • External partner activities and initiatives • Many international groups, initiatives etc dealing with coastal & ocean observations and applications, e.g., IOC/GOOS, WMO, UN Environment, GEO Initiatives (Blue Planet et al.) • CEOS direct engagement with stakeholders has not been extensive to date, but opportunities exist (esp. via Blue Planet) Coastal and Ocean Observations & Applications

4. GEO/LEO participants and members of the WGDisasters team have met virtually in a series of conference calls following the last SIT gathering in Miami – emphasis in discussions have been on how to explore integration of SAR as a LEO contribution. • GEO/LEO and WGDisasters see opportunities for collaboration: • Identify a small number of impactful flood (and inundation) events with known, rich volumes of GEO/LEO and complementary SAR data • Identify additional past cases and new, unfolding cases emphasizing availability of multi-frequency and new SAR missions • Bring together GEO/LEO optical and additional SAR maps to explore practices for combining their information. • Leverage ongoing work in the community to infer water depth from extent mapping to improve mapping of impacts • Explore integration opportunities with CEOS ARD Strategy, Data Cube, WGISS and WGCapD efforts. WGDisasters: GEO / LEO Progress

5. Follow up action to assess areas of shared interest and opportunity, including data access and visualization • Dialogue 8/12 identified EO for coastal risks • Modeling and mapping of coastal reef-lined islands prone to flooding and inundation • Combining improved satellite-derived model parameters and bathymetry data • Areas of interest include Caribbean and South Pacific developing island nations • Oil spill monitoring and response in coastal and marine ocean areas • Combining satellite-derived model parameters, UAS, and other marine/coastal data detection • Areas of interest include Caribbean, Baltic and Arctic seas and coasts • Possible cross-cut on polar coastal ice, snow and flooding activities • WGDisasters: • Blue Planet Collaboration

6. CEOS Analysis Ready Data Strategy • Presented a comprehensive, and expansive, ARD Strategy for CEOS review • Resources for implementation of the Strategy need to be considered, and specifically to be brought to the Plenary with concrete requests • The distance between data standards and data formats should not be underestimated based on experience (e.g. SST work on machine-to-machine interoperability) • Good initial progress for the land imaging elements of ARD (CARD4L), and 3 land pilots are identified in Strategy • More general ARD applicability for CEOS needs to be demonstrated with non-land imaging examples • Two potential pilots were identified, one supporting a coastal theme • 2019 SIT Technical Workshop • Analysis Ready Data Strategy

7. A. Scoping (9mo) B. Prototype Development (1yr) D. Evaluation (6mo) C. Full Implementation (1yr) COVERAGE Initiative • Cross-cutting, collaborative effort within CEOS relevant to the 4 Ocean Virtual Constellations (SST, OST, OCR, OSVW) and GEO projects (MBON, Blue Planet, GOOS) to enable more widespread use of ocean satellite data in support of applications • Response to needs of the ocean community for improved, more integrated data access for societal benefit in support also of SDG-14 relating to marine biodiversity and ecosystem-based resource management • COVERAGE aims to develop a data rich technology platform for more seamless delivery of analysis ready ocean data in order to demonstrate the value added of multivariate ocean data integration in support of science, applications, and public engagement- “Fusion environment” leveraging emerging Cloud infrastructure & open source software- Curated aggregation of high quality, interagency multi-parameter observations- Near real-time and longer-term series, collocated to a common grid, thematically organized- Access via value-added data services (data discovery, visualization, subsetting)- Illustrated in the context of demonstration applications • Development concept: 4 Phases aligning with inputs to CEOS work plan

8. How should CEOS engage and coordinate? • How should CEOS engage internally in terms of identifying and implementing priority coastal activities and initiatives? • How should CEOS engage externally in terms of supporting international community activities relative to coastal and ocean observations and applications, including: • GEO Initiatives: Blue Planet, AquaWatch, Wetlands, etc • Sustainable Development Goals: SDG 6, SDG 14 etc. • OceanObs’19 Follow-up: IOC/GOOS et al. • United Nations DecadeofOceanScience for Sustainable Development (2021-2030) Coastal and Ocean Observations & Applications

9. Suggestion to form a Study Team to initiate the discussion on Coastal observations • Need to define a specific objective or regional scope • Key topic: moving from multi-sensor observations through the value chain to extract information which users can exploit • Engaging end users to articulate a need that EO could address is key, even if initially just a couple of aspects of the problem • Current interface with Oceans end users is complicated • OVCs have a mixed record in understanding and satisfying end user needs • Atmosphere could also be a key area of focus for the coastal zones, since air quality is often at its worst in coastal cities • CARD4Coast may be an interesting concept to consider • 2019 SIT Technical Workshop Oceans and Coastal Outcomes

10. Proposed next steps: • Recommend SIT establish Coastal Study Team (COAST) • Request SIT Action for agencies to express their interest in participating on COAST • Define objective/scope, priorities, value chain approach, potential pilots, & engagement strategy with stakeholders • Evaluate potential role of GEO Blue Planet to facilitate and coordinate CEOS ocean & coastal stakeholder engagement (NB discussion with Doug Cripe) • 2019 SIT Technical Workshop Oceans and Coastal Outcomes

11. Questions and Discussion

12. Review of April 2019 SIT Meeting Coastal Discussion 1) Consider establishing CEOS Coastal AHT/WG 2) Consider coastal scoping workshop bringing together CEOS agencies as data providers with information providers and end users (partner with GEO Blue Planet) 3) Consider targeted demonstration project/s focusing on flooding, water quality, eutrophication, HABs, and/or other ecosystem impacts, addressing coastal urban regions, deltaic/estuarine, and heavily impacted (natural/anthropogenic) regions in both developed and developing areas (e.g., Puerto Rico, Vietnam, Great Barrier Reef, Chesapeake Bay) a. Development of synergistic higher resolution datasets, combining radar (e.g., S1, RCM) & visible imagery (e.g., S2, L8) along with other multi-sensor physical/biological products b. Focus on event-driven as well as climatological anomalies in both retrospective and NRT modes, including new and improved validation approaches (e.g., drones, saildrones) c. Initiate prototype coastal knowledge hub in support of emerging GEO vision, including cloud-based, server-side and integrated community best practices and demonstration efforts (e.g., Horizon 2020 Coastal Waters Research Synergy Framework (http://co-resyf.eu/)) d. multi-sensor coastal bathymetry project, particularly for poorly characterized regions