IOCARIBEGOOS

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IOCARIBE-GOOS Regional Report 2nd GOOS Regional
Forum FIJI, February 2004
Douglas Wilson, USA Guillermo Garcia, Cuba Cesar
Toro, IOCARIBE
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IOCARIBE-GOOS Priorities   The countries of the
Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico need
IOCARIBE-GOOS as a fundamental tool for
development and sustainable exploitation of the
marine and coastal environment. The following
priorities to be addressed by IOCARIBE-GOOS were
determined at the first IOCARIBE-GOOS Users
meeting in 1999
TOURISM COASTAL POPULATIONS FISHERIES
AGRICULTURE MARINE POLLUTION MARITIME
SAFETY WEATHER FORECASTING STORMS AND
HURRICANES
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• Milestones
• Regional Users Forum planning commenced via
  creation of ad hoc group of experts.
• Advisory Group Meeting MarCuba 5 Symposium
• Advisory Group Meeting OI Americas 01
  Symposium
• Planning completed publication of Strategic
  Plan (GOOS Pub No 115), to be
  implemented under direction of Steering
  Committee.
• Steering Committee created under the
  chairmanship of Guillermo Garcia Montero, Cuba,
  and Doug Wilson, USA.
• - First SC meeting report GOOS Report No.
  135. - OI Americas 03,
  Marcuba 6 Symposia
  
• - Web site has been established at
  www.iocaribegoos.org

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Steering Committee has organized Implementation
tasks can into a plan of action along four
lines Assessment Capacity Building Programme
Coordination and Development Initial Observing
System
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INITIAL OBSERVING SYSTEM D. WILSON L.
INNISS R. PEREZ G. DE SOUZA D. GOMEZ R.
BEACH   1. establish an integrated Initial
Observing System building on existing regional,
national and sub-national level observing
systems, 2.  prepare an engineering and design
analysis to integrate the various existing and
planned ocean observations and provide for the
future adaptability of the system. 3.  organise
data management among the IOCARIBE-GOOS Initial
Observing System elements, to improve data
collection, storage, exchange and dissemination,
building on existing structures, and exploiting
the proposed Ocean Data and Information Network
for the Caribbean and South America
(ODINCARSA).   4.  identify key gaps in the
existing observing systems, and make plans to
fill them.   5. develop and implement
concept-demonstration projects that will
contribute to the long-term health and stability
of IOCARIBE-GOOS  
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• 3.1     CONTRIBUTIONS TO CORE ELEMENTS OF THE
  OBSERVING SYSTEM
• Sea Level
• The US operates tide gauges in the US and
  territories http//www.co-ops.nos.noaa.gov
• The Caribbean Planning for Adaptation to Climate
  Change (CPACC) program, funded by OAS/GEF
  www.cpacc.org
• RONMAC, funded by NOAA, USAID, OAS
  http//www.oas.org/ronmac
• Additional GLOSS reporting stations in the
  Bahamas, Colombia, Cuba, Martinique,
  Jamaica, Mexico, Panama, Bermuda, Venezuela
• Time Series CATS University of Puerto Rico
• CARIACO Edimar, Venezuela and University
  of South Florida, USA
• Coral Reef Monitoring CARICOMP GCRMN
• VOS SeaKeepers Cuban Met Office Program
• Buoys US NDBC MeteoFrance
• Met Stations

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4. CAPACITY BUILDING IN SUPPORT OF GOOS OR
GOOS-RELATED RESEARCH PATOMAC Ocean Measurement
Capacity Building workshops at RSMAS, University
of Miami, Summer 2003 (sponsored Intra-Americas
Sea Initiative)
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• 5. IMPEDIMENTS TO PROGRESS
•  
• Insufficient capacity in marine and coastal
  science and services in most member states - no
  operational marine agencies
• Lack of confidence on the usefulness of the
  system as a tool for sustainable environmental
  and economic development.
• Severe budget limitations due to economic crises
  in most countries.
• Lack of commitment by larger states to initial
  organization.
• Lack of political will.
• IOCARIBE issues?
•  

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•  
• 6. LESSONS LEARNED
•  
• Regional growth needs committed champions of
  GOOS throughout the region. Resources are needed
  to educate significant individuals to the
  operations and benefits of GOOS but need
  demonstrable product to sell.
• Progress would be hastened by the availability of
  dedicated secretariat for IOCARIBE-GOOS. While
  well-intentioned, volunteers cannot commit
  necessary resources to organizational tasks such
  as communications and fund-raising.

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7. SUCCESS STORY Two potentially significant
implementation developments in 2003 -
IOCARIBE-GOOS is developing an MOU with the
International SeaKeepers Society to make
SeaKeepers observing systems an integral part of
the IOCARIBE-GOOS Initial Observing System.
SeaKeepers has numerous private shipboard
observing systems in the region, is also
committed to installing fixed observing
platforms, and has a developing educational
component. - IOCARIBE-GOOS is using the US
White Water to Blue Water Initiative, a WSSD
deliverable, to build regional partnerships to
advance IOCARIBE-GOOS implementation.
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INVESTMENT IN REGIONAL ACTIVITIES - US NOAA is
also committing 1.2M to WW2BW follow-on in FY05,
at least 200,000 to be dedicated to observing
system development. INVESTMENT IN REGIONAL
COORDINATION - US State Department grant to
IOCARIBE-GOOS co-Chairman to develop
US/intra-regional partnerships to deliver to
White Water to Blue Water conference - 100,000
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White Water to Blue Water An Oceans, Fisheries
and Coastal Zone Partnership Initiative For the
World Summit on Sustainable Development Miami
Conference 21-25 March, 2004 Breakout Session
Day 1 A Caribbean Sea Observing System
Developing Tools for Regional Marine Resource
Management An integrated, sustainable marine
environment and ecosystem management program in
Wider Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico region, as
envisioned in the White Water to Blue Water
initiative, will require the foundation of a
cooperative environmental data acquisition,
management, analysis, and dissemination
network.
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White Water to Blue Water An Oceans, Fisheries
and Coastal Zone Partnership Initiative For the
World Summit on Sustainable Development Miami
Conference 21-25 March, 2004 Breakout Session
Day 1 A Caribbean Sea Observing System
Developing Tools for Regional Marine Resource
Management Modeling Pilot project IOCARIBE-GOOS
/ SeaKeepers Partnership GRAND (GOOS Regional
Alliances Network Development) (A two-year
project funded under the EU - FP6, Sub- Priority
VI Operational forecasting and modelling
including global climatic change observation
systems Recognition of a Caribbean Observing
System as a US Integrated Observing System
component NOAA and/or US multi-agency commitment
to above, including capacity building to insure
long-term viability of the regional observing
system
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IOCARIBE-GOOS Pilot Projects   Pilot projects
would address user-defined gaps or shortcomings
in the observing system by developing
observations or products necessary to meet a
specific need. Often they will be
concept-demonstration projects, conducted in a
limited domain but having the potential to be
expanded within the region. They may also be
focused new applications or integrations of
existing systems.   A major implementation task
is to identify, organize, fund, and carry out one
or more pilot projects. Pilot projects must
include requisite capacity building aspects to
allow implementation or interpretation at a local
level.   The Steering Committee proposes to have
several pilot project proposals ready for
presentation and considering for funding by the
White Water to Blue Water Meeting in Miami in
2004. Bridging the Scales between Coastal and
Offshore Observing Systems
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IOCARIBE-GOOS Modeling Pilot Program
Workshop Thirty invited experts met at the
University of the Virgin Islands in St. Thomas,
USVI, 2-4 February, 2004, to plan a Caribbean Sea
Gulf of Mexico modeling pilot program in
support of IOCARIBE-GOOS implementation. Funding
for the workshop was supplied by NOAA Research
through a grant from the US State Department OES,
and by IOCARIBE. The group consisted of
representatives from regional academic and
research institutions, government agencies,
intergovernmental bodies, and commercial
organizations, from ten different countries and
territories.
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• The group of experts was tasked with developing a
  CDP to
• Make one (or more) operational regional models
  available to the IOCARIBE community with standard
  formats, products, and user interfaces, easily
  accessible, with common (and available) forcing
  assimilation fields
• Identify and make operational one or more
  standard coastal / island models capable of being
  nested within regional model output, that can
  be - run, analyzed, and utilized locally, used
  to address common regional issues (water quality,
  particle tracking, ecosystem dynamics, sediment
  transport, water level, storm response, etc.)
  - linked to (and used to help build) local /
  national observing systems for observational
  support

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• Use modeling pilot project development to
  contribute to other IOCARIBE-GOOS implementation
  issues, including an initial observing system, a
  regional data and information management plan,
  and education and capacity building
• Develop better-defined relationships among
  IOCARIBE-GOOS, SEACOOS, GCOOS, EU institutions
  and EU regional GOOSes, US NAVY, NOAA, other
  relevant regional/national programs within the
  region
• Consider mechanisms to support such a program,
  including how to utilize the WW2BW forum for
  identifying and soliciting partnerships

The Concept-Development Project will take the
form of a pilot modeling study or studies focused
on the coastal waters of at least two
representative systems, including an island and a
barrier reef. A preliminary description of the
project follows
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• USERS / Applications / Primary justification
• Tailored for Caribbean, focus on facilitating
  smaller coastal scale applications
• Port Harbour management
• Environmental issues water quality such as
  sewage, runoff, algal blooms, coral
  bleaching, tourism leisure
• Off-shore operations Wind farms, oil industry,
  sea-state
• Fisheries mariculture
• Marine Protected Areas
• Water quality, connectivity, ventilation,
  sea-state
• Marine forecasting
• Search rescue, oil spills, sailing/cruise
  ships, sea- state, shipping, leisure, coral
  bleaching
• Sediment transport, Beach erosion

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• Regions
•  
• Considered by
• Available or potential infrastructure
• Pragmatic funding considerations
• Scientific / Societal Significance
•  
• Puerto Rico / US Virgin Islands / British VI
• Yucatan / Meso-American Barrier Reef Coast
• Windward Islands
• Jamaica / Cayman / S Cuba
•  
• Higher resolution venues e.g., San Juan, Cancun,
  Kingston,

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• Tasks
• Assume stewardship (promote rehab
  maintenance) of existing observation network -
  Sea Level, VOS, CMAN, NDBC type buoys,
  SeaKeepers, drifters, floats, remote sensing
  network
• Begin design of necessary observing system at
  all scales
• Data assembly, processing and synthesis,
  satellite and in-situ data (met and ocean data)
  via an integrated data management network?
• Operational and Skill assessment of regional
  models (IAS-NCOM, FOAM) etc, via hindcasts. Use
  best historic observations for assessment
• Archive hindcasts.

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• Forcing data scatterometer winds, and COAMPS
  fluxes.
• Configure nests of local and subregional ocean
  and atmosphere models for chosen proof-of-concept
  sites.
• Acquire adequate bathymetry and topography
• Configure ecological, biological, hydrological
  and chemical components for models at all scales,
  and wave models.
• Mesoscale atmospheric component for forecasting
  (operational COAMPS, ETA)
• Can be developed off-line using archived data.
• Convene annual community workshops for system and
  applications development

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• Year 2
• Model systems run and assessed on a continuous
  basis through end of year 5,
• including applied RD on data assimilation,
  assessment methods, etc.
• Begin necessary enhancement of regional and
  development of local observing network including
  capacity building
• Begin capacity building and visualization
  development at local levels via one-on-one
  interactions

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• Year 3
• Begin product assessments and feedback to models
  on all scales
• Development of demo? products and applications
  and liaison with selected users
• Development of products and data dissemination
  via web-site
• Workshops and short-courses
• Field testing and system refinement
• Year 4
• Implement and evaluate upgrades
• Test portability of system to other sites
•  
• Year 5
• Complete transition to operations

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• Governance
•   
• International Caribbean Modeling Pilot Project
• Non-profit / NGO to manage
• Need to define relationship to IOCARIBE
• Links to other programs
• US regional association for USVIPR
• closely tied to SEA-, GCOOS, and this pilot
  program
• terms of reference based on GCOOS

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• SUPPORT MECHANISMS
•  
• To achieve intergovernmental funding must be
  island (local issues) based not regional
  Caribbean based
• NOAA / Ocean.US
• Individuals and countries
•  
• HOW TO TRANSITION TO OPERATIONAL STATUS
•  

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White Water to Blue Water An Oceans, Fisheries
and Coastal Zone Partnership Initiative For the
World Summit on Sustainable Development   Vision
         Healthy, well-managed and productive
marine and coastal ecosystems that support stable
and secure economies and livelihoods in coastal
countries, through implementation of integrated
coastal, ocean and fisheries management
programs Program The Oceans
Initiative will begin with a pilot program in the
Wider Caribbean in 2003. The pilot program is
designed to promote cross-sectoral management of
watersheds and marine ecosystems. Similar
programs could expand to Africa and the South
Pacific in 2004 and 2005. Objectives
include       Strengthening national and
regional institutional capacity to implement
cross-sectoral watershed and marine ecosystem
management.          Facilitating closer
cooperation and good governance within and among
nations, regional agencies and civil society in
coastal and marine resource management, water
management, health, environmental protection,
agriculture, and urban planning.         
Engaging business partners in the major global
growth sectors, such as tourism, to promote best
business and environment practices, and to
support regional activities in watershed and
marine coastal management.     Initiating Action
The initiative will begin with a U.S.-hosted
kick-off conference in 2003 for Wider Caribbean
stakeholders and partners to identify areas for
improved regional cooperation and national
capacity building in cross-sectoral watershed and
marine ecosystem management. The conference will
also provide networking and match-making
opportunities between implementing organizations
and potential funders. Representatives from
Africa and the Pacific Small Island States will
be invited to participate to facilitate similar
efforts in those regions. Further activities
addressing particular problem areas, such as
fisheries, coral reefs and pollution from sewage
and shipping, will follow.