Ocean Decade Data & Information Strategy.

Abstract

The United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (the ‘Ocean Decade’) seeks to transform humanity’s relationship with the ocean, applying the full range of ocean science and knowledge to diagnose problems and generate solutions. This encompasses a wide array of data, information, and technology, including natural and social sciences, local and Indigenous knowledge, global sensor networks, community-driven research programs and citizen science. While we are making progress with incremental improvements, we need to drive a step change in our digital capabilities; and the Ocean Decade is the transformational opportunity. Through the Ocean Decade, and through this strategy, we have a unique opportunity to transform the way ocean data and information are produced, shared, managed and used globally and equitably. With the rapid development of new sensors, autonomous platforms and diverse techniques to measure and monitor the ocean, the number of data sources is growing rapidly, which is making the landscape increasingly complex. Despite the multiplication of data from diverse sources we still have major data gaps to fill. Common standards, increased interoperability, and enhanced partnerships are essential. The tools to manage, share and interact with our expanding range of digital resources require a similar transformation to ensure we maximise information value and its benefit to society for the investment in the observations themselves.