High Level Schedule of COAST Activities, Years 2019-2022
History of COAST
One of the outcomes identified during the Ocean and Water Session of the Virtual Constellation/Working Group (VC/WG) Day of the 2018 CEOS Strategic Implementation Team (SIT) Technical Workshop was the suggestion for CEOS to consider potential pilot projects in the coastal zone targeting high priority user needs (e.g., flooding, water quality). This traces back to previous extensive CEOS engagement in the Integrated Global Observing System (IGOS) Coastal Theme Report (2006) and Coastal Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) activities and more recently in the GEO Blue Planet Initiative, and noting that a majority of the world’s population lives within close proximity of a coastal zone.
At SIT-34, ongoing CEOS Agency interest in analysis ready satellite data provision for the coastal domain was discussed, as was the potential for a future workshop on coastal observation coordination. An action was given to the CEOS Blue Planet Expert (Paul DiGiacomo) to bring forward ideas for a coastal observing and applications study team. Dr. DiGiacomo presented on the coastal strategy topic during the VC/WG/ad hoc (AHT) Day and again at the 2019 SIT Technical Workshop. He recommended that the SIT establish a Coastal Study Team that would define the objective, scope, priorities, and value chain approach for a CEOS coastal engagement strategy, including identification of potential pilot project(s) and the engagement strategy with internal and external stakeholders.
In response to this action, a CEOS Coastal Observations and Applications Study Team (CEOS-COAST) was proposed and approved at the 33rdCEOS Plenary in October 2019. Agencies were requested to express their interest in participating on CEOS-COAST and to identify participants with appropriate expertise and interest. In January 2020, the CEOS-COAST kickoff meeting was held virtually, with extensive CEOS Agency, Working Group and Virtual Constellation participants, as well as experts from GEO Secretariat and the GEO Blue Planet and AquaWatch Initiatives. Regular monthly meetings, coupled with more frequent special topic meetings, were held throughout 2020 to coordinate and prepare COAST Phase 1 deliverables for the 2020 SIT Technical Workshop. These included three scoping whitepapers for COAST Phase 2 pilot activities in 2021, a compilation of relevant international projects, and an annotated bibliography (see https://ceos.org/ourwork/ad-hoc-teams/ceos-coast/). In response to these COAST Phase 1 activities and deliverables, the request to transition COAST from a Study Team into CEOS-COAST AHT was approved in October 2020, with Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) formally confirming that they would serve as Co-lead, complementing NOAA in this capacity.
Since 2021 the COAST Team has compiled and refined products for the two pilots, 5 themes and 5 geographical demonstration areas. Two successful user outreach events occurred in conjunction with GEO, one daylong stakeholder engagement event was held with partners in the Bay of Bengal region in 2022, and nearly a dozen stakeholder events have been held with partners in the Chesapeake Bay region.
Rationale for a CEOS-COAST Ad-Hoc Team
Coastal zones are extraordinarily important from a societal and economic perspective. They are home to much of the global population, amongst the most productive ecosystems on Earth, and crucial to the emerging Blue Economy as essential sites of commerce, transportation, food security, and recreation. Within both developed and developing nations, coastal zones continue to grow and diversify. In this regard, there is a compelling need to better observe, understand, manage, and predict changes in these regions in support of sustainable development. Our ability and more so capacity to address changes in these regions is still relatively limited, particularly in the developing world. Coastal zones are characterized by complex processes, with rapidly changing and evolving conditions that can be challenging to effectively observe in both time and space, particularly given their inherent transboundary and transdisciplinary nature. Within coastal zones there is dynamic coupling of terrestrial, aquatic and atmospheric domains; complex, episodic and often ephemeral physical and biological/biogeochemical processes; and finally, the overarching challenge of integrating environmental sciences with social sciences.
There are also significant risks and threats to human health and safety, as well as the abundant ecosystem resources from these regions. Coastal hazards such as flooding and inundation, as well as water quality and associated impacts (e.g., eutrophication, hypoxia, harmful algal blooms, sediment loadings and coral reef et al. habitat degradation) to ecosystem health and productivity, represent particularly great challenges for society to address. The Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) formed the COAST (Coastal Observations, Applications, Services and Tools) team to address these and other challenges and risks in the coastal zone, toward providing new and improved scientific/technical capabilities and building capacity for a more robust end-to-end value chain (observations to data to products to information to actionable knowledge) in support of coastal stakeholders and global sustainable development.
Focusing on this user-driven value chain, the CEOS-COAST Ad Hoc Team (AHT) facilitates targeted work and engagement on priority coastal observations and applications within CEOS, addressing the identification, extension/expansion, integration and transformation of multi-sensor observations into fit-for-purpose information supporting existing and emerging stakeholder requirements. This dedicated coastal-focused activity helps bridge land and aquatic observations within CEOS, and given its cross-cutting nature, will integrate across multiple CEOS entities and domains, both thematic and technical.
There is significant opportunity for the COAST AHT to facilitate technology transfer from developed to developing nations and building capabilities and capacity, with an eye toward scaling up from individual demonstration activities at national and regional levels to full global implementation. The strategic approach of the COAST AHT will be to:
- Maintain a CEOS perspective and ensure a clear focus on the “upstream” end of the value-chain, i.e., observations to data to products, addressing issues such as fit-for-purpose/analysis ready data; new/improved, higher resolution, integrated products et al.
- Co-design and co-develop specific, tractable high priority pilot projects and related activities in geographical areas that resonate with stakeholders/users in GEO, UN et al., particularly technology transitions toward broader global implementation
- Identify, leverage and integrate appropriate CEOS capabilities and capacities across agencies, VCs, and Working Groups (WGs)
- Identify and articulate exactly what the novel contribution is from CEOS relative to other existing and planned community activities, ensuring complementarity and avoiding redundancy
- Collaboratively work with stakeholders to ensure pilot products meet existing and emerging user needs and to identify a path forward for longer term implementation
- Develop a viable strategy to identify and acquire the necessary resources (human, Internet Technology et al.) from CEOS members to successfully execute the Phase 2 implementation plan.
Objectives
The specific objectives of Phase 2 in the CEOS-COAST AHT are to:
- Identify and analyse opportunities for new and emerging satellite-based observations and derived capabilities to support coastal needs, challenges and opportunities (e.g., new methods, new data, new products)
- Implement COAST priority pilots & supporting infrastructure identified in Phase 1
- Engage with GEO, UN entities and other relevant authoritative stakeholders on coastal needs and issues, working together on pilot project implementation, and building partnerships to transfer and sustain COAST deliverables after Phase 2
- Provide a forum for sharing/communicating best practices and approaches across CEOS and the broader international community in support of COAST activities and priorities, providing easy access to methodological development, tools and platforms, and ready discovery and accessibility to high priority global/regional data sets
- Strategically utilize CEOS assets and bodies to engage with users and advance capabilities for COAST pilot project implementation, and also generally for future COAST planning and activities.
Expected Duration
COAST’s Phase 2 Implementation commenced in late 2020, with a progress report provided at year SIT meetings. Pilot project efforts will continue through Fall 2023, at which time the status of COAST would then be revisited during the CEOS Plenary, with possible transition to a Virtual Constellation to tackle Phase 3 activities.