The Marine Environmental Data and Information Network (MEDIN) is a collaborative and open partnership, working together to improve access to and management of marine data. Our vision is that all UK marine data are findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable. We are delivering this vision by providing:  

The British Oceanographic Data Centre (BODC) have demonstrated a one-click download of data from the MEDIN metadata portal using a tool called ERDDAP. ERDDAP is a technology developed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) which has been adopted globally for marine data management ^[1]. Supporting the development and use of ERDDAP infrastructure allows federated data services and improved accessibility of data under the Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, and Reusability (FAIR) guiding principles for data. 

Through ERDDAP, a user can choose to subset the data by parameters, time frame, location and other filters to download the data they need and from a range of file formats ERDDAP provides.

MEDIN funding enabled BODC to start building a new delivery workflow for discrete water measurements. As a demonstrator, the Liverpool Bay Coastal Observatory Discrete Water Sample Data Set was chosen to be exposed. This dataset contains 38 parameters and 35,767 data values. A user handling this dataset through traditional delivery routes would have to interact with thousands of files. ERDDAP can give the user this data in one file.

Users now have two options for downloading this dataset (Figure 1). One click of the URL on the MEDIN metadata record downloads the entire Liverpool Bay Coastal Observatory dataset, in a .csv file format, or a click to the ERDDAP instance of this dataset. Here users can subset or graph and subsequently download a subset of the dataset.

BODC are keen to improve the FAIRness of their data holdings and see ERDDAP as a great tool for improving data accessibility.

While large collections of physical records remain, a recent student placement has moved archived material from a structured, but scattered collection of digital files into a central database with a flexible data model that can take in new data collected. The student placement was part of the Data Lab annual placements of MSc. Students in data science courses from Scottish universities. The Data Lab is a Scottish Innovation Centre for promoting the uptake of data science and technology led solutions.

Due to Covid restrictions, Georgios Orfanakis from Aberdeen’s Robert Gordon University (RGU) worked completely remotely on the project, but connected regularly with staff from Marine Scotland to discuss data models, and practical questions on different samplers, vessels, projects etc. Over the course of 12 weeks, he transformed and imported data from 57 surveys. This now provides Marine Scotland Science staff with access to more than 215,000 zooplankton samples and more than 18 million results of plankton species or size category abundance data.

Much of the data involved was from projects which involved staff who have retired or moved so it was important to capture this in a well-structured and accessible format. Georgios worked exceptionally well with his analytical and data management colleagues to plan out a flexible data model which will be used to help monitor the status of zooplankton, an absolutely fundamental component of marine food webs, and for research and assessments, for years to come.

We hosted 85 flash talks (delivered from all around the globe) in sessions which included five general science sessions, and special sessions on Governing Scottish Seas: theory, practice and future horizons; Structures in the Marine Environment (joint with the INSITE team); Marine Climate Change; Coastal ecosystem-based solutions; Multiple Marine Stressors; Aquaculture; and Technologies & Methodologies.

When not listening to talks, attendees participated in e-poster sessions and speed-networking, visited our global exhibitors, or linked up for one-to-one’s with others visiting the conference.

We were delighted to host four enthusiastic and inspiring plenary speakers:

• Matthew Dawkins, an R&D Engineer with the US Company Kitware talked to us about VIAME - Video and Image Analytics for Marine Environments: an Open-Source Do-it-yourself AI Toolkit. 
• Peter Macreadie, leader of the Blue Carbon Lab at Deakin University, Australia gave us a whistle-stop tour of his research, which spans wetland carbon, ecology, ecosystem restoration, climate change, natural capital, citizen science and more!
• Gideon Henderson, Chief Scientific Advisor at DEFRA gave us a policy perspective by outlining why the UK Government cares about the Ocean.
• Kerstin Forsburg, Founder & Director of Planeta Oceano, Peru (and a PhD student at Heriot Watt University) provided our final plenary, looking at multi-disciplinary and participatory strategies for marine conservation.

MASTS and the Society for Underwater Technology hosted the workshop “Salvage, Decommissioning & Wreck Removal. Influence, educate and unlock opportunities: Informing global sustainability challenges”. This workshop hosted Laura DeLa Torre who spoke about the OSPAR Strategic Overview. Other workshops included “Plastics in the Ocean”, which was jointly hosted by MASTS & ScotChem, and training led by Prof Mark Reed and ARCH-UK for PhD students and ECRs looking to maximise the impact from their research.

The Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) has awarded the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) one of seven individual grants that will use cutting-edge digital technology to advance environmental outcomes.

Led by Dr Jenny Brown, NOC Coastal Oceanographer, the new project ‘Coastal REsistance: Alerts and Monitoring Technologies’ (CreamT) will develop a new point-of-impact flood hazard nowcasting system to meet national coastal management needs, which will have the potential to issue flood alerts to the National Flood Forecasting Service. This work carries on from the WireWall project which developed a novel field instrument able to measure the speed and volume of individual waves as they overtopped a sea wall.

The programme is supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra). In total, the grants comprise an investment of more than £6 million. You can find out more about the seven successful projects, all lasting 24 months, on the NERC/UKRI website.

If you want to try it out, please access a demo version of RCXL Oceans and other OceanWise mapping products here. 
 
To purchase, if you are a commercial customer you can purchase the range of OceanWise mapping products via their Licensed Partners (including; FIND Maps, Emapsite, Europa Technologies and Digimap Jersey/Guernsey etc ). Please see their website for more details www.oceanwise.eu/partners/find-a-partner/

Since launching Raster Charts XL, OceanWise has been gradually extending coverage as new areas become available. This latest development comes “as part of an ongoing dedication to improving and innovating digital marine mapping so that we can better support those who work in coastal and maritime industries”.   

The Nippon Foundation – General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans (GEBCO) Seabed 2030 Project launches a study on the value of seabed mapping. Seabed 2030 has been established to revolutionise the world’s understanding of the ocean floor. We want to catalyse policy decisions, sustainable actions and scientific research informed by detailed bathymetric information. 

The project was launched officially by the Chairman of The Nippon Foundation at the UN Ocean Conference in 2017, with operational activity commencing in 2018. In time terms, therefore, we are now nearly a quarter of the way through our 13-year challenge of mapping the world’s seafloor by 2030. We have been hugely encouraged by the support we have received to date from the marine geospatial community. Advice, support and enthusiastic encouragement has been gratefully received.

The more data we acquire about the details of seabed shape, the more we recognize that the ocean and its floor are more dynamic than we ever thought. The shape of the seabed is a crucial parameter for understanding ocean circulation patterns that distribute heat between the tropics and poles.

We started the Seabed 2030 project with a strong commitment to avoid duplication and instead work towards fostering a close collaboration for the most efficient use of global resources.
 

To improve the accessibility of data collected through NERC-funded research, or managed by NERC data centres, we are collecting feedback on the user experience (UX) to improve the navigation of our various web portals to assess these data.

To gather feedback we are inviting you to take part in our Environmental Data Discovery Trails. The events will run as a short online quizzes, which will ask you to navigate a website and find the information linked to each trail. If you complete all of the feedback boxes you’ll be entered into a prize draw for a reward.

At the end of November we will launch two events to give you the opportunity to navigate “From the river catchment to deep ocean” following a trail through the UK-CEH SCAPE and BODC websites. There will be daily draws made for 10 NERC water bottles and a single prize draw for £100 made after each event. Post-event the trail link will remain available as an educational resource only.