Med countries join to launch EU funded environmental project

Dr Aldo Drago, executive secretary of MedGOOS, and director of research at the IOI-Malta Operational Centre, University of Malta, writes about a project entitled Mediterranean network to Assess and upgrade Monitoring and Forecasting Activity in the region (MAMA), funded under the fifth Framework Programme of the European Union.

This project brings together a consortium made up of major marine institutions from all the Mediterranean countries, and aims to build the institutional framework and enhance the necessary infrastructure for the concerted basin-wide effort towards the setting up of a Global Ocean Observing System (MedGOOS) in the Mediterranean.

The problems of sustaining marine living resources, protecting and restoring the ecosystem health, controlling marine pollution, abating algal blooms, mitigating natural disasters and protecting public health are long-standing issues in the Mediterranean.

Indeed the combined effects of global climate change and human alterations of the environment are already very pronounced in many coastal waters of the global ocean, including to no lesser extent the Mediterranean Sea.

Yet the economic activity of most of the riparian countries is to a significant proportion linked to the sea and to the use of coastal areas; and this is expected to increase in future.

The increasing range of services, amenities and benefits deriving from the sea are exacerbating pressures on the marine environment and raise even more the need to adequately manage its resources.

Routine and long term monitoring of the ocean and coastal seas, and forecasting of the state of the sea based on sound science, reliable assessment, and efficient co-operation between nations, constitute the main tools for such a management.

In addition, the role of the oceans on the functioning of the global climate system is now well recognised. The mutual influence and interaction between the ocean and the atmosphere is even more apparent in a land-locked sea like the Mediterranean.

Meteorologists use atmospheric observations from a network of land and ocean surface measurements to produce three- to five-day weather forecasts to anticipate the impact of storms, warm periods and other day-to-day events.

Reliable longer term climate predictions covering the broader patterns of the weather over seasons and years requires additional and improved observations within the upper layer of the oceans.

An improved understanding and functioning of climate variability has thus to rely on systematic observations of both the ocean and atmosphere with concomitant improved predictions of both.

Sustained, integrated and routine data sets of the ocean and coastal seas will at the same time target other applications and multiple users. The advent of multi-disciplinary, spatially widespread, long term data sets is expected to trigger an unprecedented leap in the economic value of ocean data.

This will bring about a radical transformation in our perception of managing marine resources, and furnish direct applications and benefits to many sectors in industry and services such as marine transportation, safety and public health.

MedGOOS is an informal association founded under the auspices of the UNESCO/Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) to facilitate the development of such an operational ocean observing and forecasting system at a basin to coastal scale in the region.

The MedGOOS secretariat, hosted by the IOI-Malta Operational Centre, co-ordinates the network of leading marine institutions participating in this effort.

The European Union is currently funding a large project to promote MedGOOS, with a partnership consisting of major institutions from all the Mediterranean countries.

The secretariat had an important role in the technical preparation and contractual agreements related to this project, and is assisting the MedGOOS chair from the International Marine Centre (IMC) in Italy to co-ordinate and run the project.

MAMA aims to facilitate the development of ocean observations and forecasting to the benefit of a wide group of users in the Mediterranean.

This project will enable MedGOOS to take the first concrete steps and be in a position to provide guidance to the Mediterranean states, stimulating the necessary awareness, invoking capacity building and pre-operational to ensure that MedGOOS is fully effective when it is eventually established, hopefully in ten to 20 years time.

The kick-off meeting of MAMA was held at the UNESCO/IOC headquarters in Paris from March 11 to 13. The meeting was organised by the IOC/GOOS Project Office in collaboration with the MedGOOS secretariat and IMC.

It brought together the members of the consortium from all the Mediterranean countries to fine tune the implementation of this three-year project, and detail the methodology and work schedules for each of its nine work packages.

MAMA is staging a concerted effort between countries in the region to put in place the institutional networking and establish the basic infrastructure for the future Mediterranean Global Ocean Observing System (MedGOOS) in favour of the sustainable use of the coastal zone.

MAMA focuses on the trans-national pooling of scientific and technological resources in the basin, through the sharing of experiences and the transfer of expertise, to bring capacities in operational oceanography at comparable levels, and provide an integrated effort towards the planning and design of the initial ocean observing and forecasting system in the Mediterranean.

Furthermore, MAMA will interact with end-users, stakeholders and relevant international organisations; work in the whole basin to trigger local awareness on the benefits of operational oceanography and ocean forecasting with dissemination of results and demonstration products, and build momentum towards long term commitments by governments.

In the words of Patricio Bernal, executive director of IOC, MAMA is pioneering the implementation of GOOS by an unprecedented effort and novel approach that will put the region at the forefront of operational oceanography.

The main thrust of MAMA builds on the concept of shared efforts, on co-development and co-ownership, on bringing capacities at comparable levels and on networking between all the nations in the region.

MAMA is moreover preparing the ground for the region to take full advantage of the emerging funding opportunities in environmental monitoring and large marine integrated projects in Europe, with the Mediterranean being conceived as a unique test base for implementation.

For further information on MedGOOS and MAMA contact Dr Drago by e-mail on aldo.drago@ um.edu.mt or visit the Website www.capemalta.org/medgoos.