Across the EU there are a range of modelling and decision support tools available for progressing Marine Spatial Planning, related to data provision, pressures and impacts of human activities etc. This project will identify best practice technical tools in the Irish context. Their value is to inform policy makers of technical options to progress nationally.
This project proposal looked for funding to cover the costs of a Marine Mammal Observer (MMO) on an Underwater Television (UWTV) survey of nine days in August 2022 and 2023. This was the first time an UWTV survey was conducted on a Research Vessel with enough on-board space to accommodate an MMO and necessary scientific complement. UWTV surveys lend themselves well to MMO operations owing to their standardised operations in defined areas.
Programmes such as MSP, MSFD and DCF require access to trusted and well-managed data from a wide variety of sources. The ability to access and re-use these data requires appropriate quality-assured processes and storage systems. This project will extend the Marine Institute’s Data Management Quality Management Framework to additional data processes underpinning marine environmental reporting and management, ensuring that these processes are quality assured via an internationally accredited framework.
The capture of spatial data relating to bird use in inshore and offshore environments and interpreting these data as it relates to various anthropogenic activities is important in implementing management actions. Specifically, the capture of data and subsequent analysis will aid in understanding the interactions between bird species of special conservation interest (SCI) in Special Protection Areas (SPAs), and aquaculture and fisheries activities. This is an important requirement to the management and mitigation of these industries in Natura sites and more widely.
Horizon scanning and foresight activities provide important evidence and data to support strategic decision making. This includes stocktaking of national, EU and international current and future policies, regulations, and initiatives with potential relevance to Ireland’s blue economy. A number of marine foresight initiatives have been carried out at EU and international level, however these need to reviewed in the context of Ireland’s blue economy and the advancement of IMP in Ireland.
The National Marine Biodiscovery Laboratory in Ireland (NMBLI) at the Marine Institute (Oranmore), aims to strengthen Ireland’s capacity as research leaders in marine biotechnology. This facility aims to develop economic growth and job creation through innovative knowledge-generating activities and collection of baseline data to support sustainable economic growth and job creation through the development of new products and services.
While currently there are valuable data assets residing across multiple Marine Institute teams and partner organisations, our ability to leverage these data to provide information which is current, reproducible, and readily available across multiple locations is limited.
Converting these data into usable information to meet new programme requirements requires improved access to data analysis and visualisation tools, services and techniques.
Currently the availability of data required for programmes such as MSP and MSFD is limited, in part due to technical differences or limitations across organisational boundaries. The deployment of consistent data services interfaces will greatly facilitate access and integration of data held by different groups both within and external to the Marine Institute.
Currently data required for programmes such as MSP, MSFD and DCF are held by a number of organisations and in a range of formats. The development of data integration best practice for Ireland’s marine data will provide guidance as to how data from multiple sources (including across internal organisational boundaries) can be combined together for analysis and reuse. The publication of these best practices will also facilitate the connection of new nodes to the Institute’s data services platform, furthering the integration and reuse of marine data within Ireland.
Programmes such as MSP, MSFD and DCF require access to data from a wide range of sources. Access to these data requires appropriate Data Governance to ensure compliance with licensing terms and legislation such as GDPR. Without an adequate level of Data Governance these is a risk that access will be limited with a default low/no-risk approach leading to low-availability.