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The Ocean InfoHub Project

Lucy Scott

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The Ocean InfoHub (OIH) Project is a global initiative that aims to improve equitable access to ocean information, (meta)data and knowledge products for management and sustainable development.
Demonstrates the linking of independent partners through the conventions of the Ocean Data and Information System (ODIS).
Development and implementation principles fully based on co-design.

The Ocean

InfoHub

A project of the IOC/UNESCO, implemented by the UNESCO/IOC Project

Office for IODE and funded by the Government of Flanders, Kingdom of Belgium

Oct 2022

The IOC Ocean InfoHub Project is a global initiative to improve access to marine and coastal data and information.

It brings together interdisciplinary scientific expertise, stakeholders, decision makers, institutions, organizations, individuals, and service providers with the shared goals of Ocean knowledge exchange and cooperation.

It provides an openly accessible online platform to network stakeholders according to their interests, needs, and capacities. The needs of individual users are actively connected with capacities described in the Hub, thereby facilitating the exchange of scientific knowledge, expertise, capacity building, data, resources, opportunities, and technology.

The OIH development and implementation principles will be fully based on co-design: the project seeks the participation of a wide range of partners and end user communities that are involved in the sustainable use and management of marine areas.

It is a a four-year project that started in April 2020.

The project is funded by the Government of Flanders (Kingdom of Belgium) and implemented by the IODE Project Office of the IOC/UNESCO.

The project is very closely linked with:

Ocean Data and Information System (ODIS)
IOC Ocean and Data Information System OIH Catalogue of data sources (ODISCAT) which currently describes over 2000 online sources of marine & coastal data in 16 categories

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Exponential increase in Ocean data and digital resources;
Need to connect existing local, national, and regional digital systems�and infrastructures;
Need to connect independent digital initiatives;
Need for a Clearing-House Mechanism for the Transfer of Marine Technology;

From common needs…

The Ocean InfoHub Project stems from common needs:

Ocean data and digital resources are exponentially increasing daily, in both volume and diversity of data types and sources.
Local, national, and regional digital systems and infrastructures need to be interlinked to strengthen science, technology, and innovation systems and policies for the sustainable use and management of marine areas.
Independent digital initiatives need to be connected to form a diverse, but interoperable and inclusive Ocean Data and Information System.
Need for a Clearing-House Mechanism (CHM). A CHM is a global mechanism to exchange and integrate Ocean related information to promote and facilitate technical and scientifical cooperation, within and between stakeholders. Its need was established by an agreement under the purview of the United Nations in New York, 19–30 August 2019. All regions reported that the development of a CHM for the Transfer of Marine Technology (TMT) would be crucial to the further development of ocean science capacity in national contexts. All regions expressed their preference for an online, central system that integrates all data and information gathered from regional/sectoral CHM portals to achieve interoperability.

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… to shared goals

Improve discovery and interoperability of existing information systems;
Improve access to global oceans information, data, and knowledge products for management and sustainable development;
Link and anchor a network of regional and thematic nodes that will aggregate and improve online access to existing global, regional, and national data, information, and knowledge resources;
Provide capacity building to support contributors and end-users of the global OIH;
Promote a closer interaction across regions and themes to support decision making;
Connect independent digital initiatives to form a diverse, but interoperable and inclusive, Ocean Data and Information System.
Global infrastructure BUT conceptualized by member states and designed together with partners

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One of many UNESCO/IOC services supporting �access to data and information

1. Online data sharing platforms:

International Oceanographic Data and information Exchange (IODE)
Ocean InfoHub Project (OIH) and Ocean Data and Information System (ODIS)
Ocean Biodiversity Information System (OBIS)

2. Monitoring and observation networks:

Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS)
Harmful Algal Information System (HAIS)
Global Ocean Acidification Observing Network (GOA-ON) and ocean acidification data portal

3. Capacity development

Regular Assessment of CD needs
OceanTeacher Global Academy (OTGA)
IOC Regional Network of Training and Research Centres

4. Monitoring ocean science capacity

Global Ocean Science Report (GOSR)

IOC

services

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Three related initiatives

The ODIS Catalogue of Sources (ODISCat) is an annotated catalogue of online resources serving ocean-related data and information products, currently containing over 3000 records.

OIH

ODIS

ODIS-

CAT

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Three related initiatives

The ODIS Catalogue of Sources (ODISCat) is an annotated catalogue of online resources serving ocean-related data and information products, currently containing over 3000 records.
The Ocean Data and Information System: Is the underlying architecture / infrastructure of the system (online, open source)

OIH

ODIS

ODIS-

CAT

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Three related initiatives

The ODIS Catalogue of Sources (ODISCat) is an annotated catalogue of online resources serving ocean-related data and information products, currently containing over 3000 records.
The Ocean Data and Information System: Is the underlying architecture / infrastructure of the system (online, open source)
The Ocean InfoHub Project: The OIH Project has developed the first phase of the architecture underpinning ODIS, and is concerned with involving user communities and establishing proof-of-concept of ODIS.

OIH

ODIS

ODIS-

CAT

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Initial data types

The initial priorities for the Project (as identified by partners) were to develop specifications to facilitate discovery for six priority themes:

(i) Experts and institutions/organizations,
(ii) Documents,
(iii) Spatial data and maps,
(iv) Research vessels,
(v) Education and training opportunities,
(vi) Projects.

Data categories in ODIS-Cat

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Sustainable, interoperable, inclusive, and openly accessible;
Composed of nodes, through which data providers and partners can share (meta) data
Does not depend on a central Hub, the web is our collective Hub;
Partners have complete ownership and control, and choose which metadata they would like to share.
Anyone can develop thematic or regional portals.
Partners can pull data from the system or push data or both.
Architecture is lightweight, minimal layer and workflows should not need to change.

The Ocean InfoHub & ODIS

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The ODIS-architecture

ODIS links nodes through a schema.org based, decentralized interoperability architecture (ODIS-Architecture). As with natural ecosystems, ODIS will be resilient to the gain or loss of parts, and accommodate a high diversity of products and services, while maintaining its core functions.

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The OIH

has already achieved….

Active technical working groups;
Proof-of-concept achieved (it works!) sharing >500,000 content items
Open source documentation available for the ODIS-Arch;
IOC partners and three regional communities implementing one or more of the patterns;

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OceanExpert : People, institutions and events
AquaDocs : Documents and Publications
The GOOS/IODE Ocean Best Practices System (OBPS)
Data: the Ocean Biodiversity Information System (OBIS)
[Planned soon] Data: the World Ocean Database (WOD)

OIH links Global IOC/UNESCO

databases

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Three regions have participated in designing the project and are taking a lead on pilot projects to test interoperability between existing information hubs.

Pilot

regions

Latin America

and the Caribbean

Africa

Pacific Small Island

Developing States

The project benefits marine and coastal stakeholders across the globe, but its initial focus has been on responding to requests for data products and services from three regions: Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Pacific Small Island Developing States.

Institutions from these regions were involved in designing the project from proposal stage, and are fully engaged in the co-design process, to meet their unique user community (thematic and language) requirements.

The initial priorities of the Project are to develop communities of practice for these three pilot regions and to formalize partnerships with other UN agencies and key international partners. Through these actions, the OIH enables a digital ecosystem where users, from any entry point, can discover content and services that they require while also having opportunities to become content creators themselves.

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Partners currently indexed and discoverable

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LAC OIH Regional node (led by INVEMAR) developed: http://portete.invemar.org.co/chm#/

Partners:

CLME+ Training and Capacity Development Portal.
The Sargassum Information Hub. An Atlantic wide Hub
Caribbean Marine Atlas
Other (NODCs, ADUs, vessels, programmes, etc.)

Region: Latin America and the Caribbean

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Region: Pacific Small Island Developing States

Working with two existing portals in the region (Pacific Data Hub of SPC, Pacific Environment Portal of SPREP)
Enabling interoperability with global databases
Building capacities among users
Testing curation of global data curation to country level (visible, useful outputs to countries)
Supporting State of the Environment Reporting

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Support for National Oceanographic Data Centres and ADUs to become partners
Partners included in the technical working group for development of the ODIS-architecture.
Together with the University of Ghent and OTGA, developed an online database for discovering marine training opportunities.
Online training course (free, can be taken any time)
Supporting the revitalization of ODINAFRICA and the African Marine and Coastal Atlas

Region: Africa and the Western Indian Ocean Region

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The Ocean InfoHub Project is helping to address:

Challenges related to trust that may hamper data sharing
Challenges related to differing capacity across regions and institutions (focus on data equity, not sophistication of the system).
Awareness of projects and opportunities within regions, and globally
Awareness of the existence of digital resources (from local to global scale)
Improved access to global information resources

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Supports FAIR principles

1. Findable (Metadata and data should be easy to find. For example through the use of globally unique and persistent identifiers, described with rich metadata, and indexed in a searchable resource)

2. Accessible (Retrievable by their identifier using a standardized communications protocol)

3. Interoperable (enabling integration with other data – applications or workflows, vocabularies that follow FAIR principles)

4. Reusable (the ultimate goal of FAIR is to enable the reuse of data. Well documented and described).

Further reading https://www.go-fair.org/fair-principles/

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Impacts on international frameworks

The Ocean InfoHub is leading OceanData-2030, a registered Programme of the UN Decade for Ocean Science for Sustainable Development

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Benefits to:

Data providers
Share (meta) data only once. Retain ownership and control. Change visibility of your data as you choose. Increase visibility of your data and information to the world.

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Benefits to:

Data providers
Share (meta) data only once. Retain ownership and control. Change visibility of your data as you choose. Increase visibility of your data and information to the world.
Data users
Find data and information more easily from numerous sources. Easily see which are trusted sources (IODE accreditation)
Access the same data set through the portal or resource best suited to you.

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Benefits to:

Data providers
Share (meta) data only once. Retain ownership and control. Change visibility of your data as you choose. Increase visibility of your data and information to the world.
Data users
Find data and information more easily from numerous sources. Easily see which are trusted sources (IODE accreditation)
Access the same data set through the portal or resource best suited to you.
Existing global portals
Access the ODIS knowledge graph and >500,000 content items from partners. Re-share those of regional or thematic interest to your portal. Every record always links to the original source.
One can be a contributor as well as a user

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Benefits to:

Data providers
Share (meta) data only once. Retain ownership and control. Change visibility of your data as you choose. Increase visibility of your data and information to the world.
Data users
Find data and information more easily from numerous sources. Easily see which are trusted sources (IODE accreditation)
Access the same data set through the portal or resource best suited to you.
Existing global portals
Access the ODIS knowledge graph and >500,000 content items from partners. Re-share those of regional or thematic interest to your portal. Every record always links to the original source.
One can be a contributor as well as a user
Existing regional portals (eg SPREP)
Regional Seas organisation serves the needs of member states in the Pacific.
SPREP links to the Ocean InfoHub to increase access to global data useful to member states and for State of the Environment Reporting.
SPREP facilitates member states / institutions to share their metadata for global discovery.

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The Global Search Hub: demonstration of the system

(staging site, not yet public)

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Search by category

In a test phase, not currently accessing the full knowledge graph

The OIH has many impacts:

Support IOC capacity development strategy.
Addressing knowledge needs of national and regional requirements for sourcing marine data and information.
Strengthening of science, technology and innovation systems and policies (such as Marine Spatial Planning, Integrated Coastal Area Management plans and related policies/legislation) for the global ocean community, through free, low-threshold and open access to ocean related data and information.
Considerably enhance the discovery of, and access to, a wide range of ocean related data and information services and products by a wide range of stakeholders, which will enable them to increase their efficiency and effectiveness related to their actions in and near oceans and coastal areas.

The benefits on data and information discovery include:

Improved system-to-system interoperation, thus allowing custom portals with varied objectives to efficiently harvest and serve distributed global content while presenting unified views of these resources to users;
Enabling searching across multiple data/information types in order to get a better overview of available data/information across the complete ecosystem;
Enabling advanced and complex searches by leveraging semantic technologies, linked data and controlled vocabularies (e.g. search for a course on marine biodiversity in 2021 taught in Spanish and providing grants for students from developing countries).

These capacities are especially important in many developing countries (and especially in SIDS), where Internet access is available, but usage time is costly and bandwidth is low. In such conditions it is important to minimize searching time and maximize output.

Improving the access to information ultimately enables a better management and decision-making for the sustainability of Ocean ecosystems.

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Global search example

The OIH has many impacts:

Support IOC capacity development strategy.
Addressing knowledge needs of national and regional requirements for sourcing marine data and information.
Strengthening of science, technology and innovation systems and policies (such as Marine Spatial Planning, Integrated Coastal Area Management plans and related policies/legislation) for the global ocean community, through free, low-threshold and open access to ocean related data and information.
Considerably enhance the discovery of, and access to, a wide range of ocean related data and information services and products by a wide range of stakeholders, which will enable them to increase their efficiency and effectiveness related to their actions in and near oceans and coastal areas.

The benefits on data and information discovery include:

Improved system-to-system interoperation, thus allowing custom portals with varied objectives to efficiently harvest and serve distributed global content while presenting unified views of these resources to users;
Enabling searching across multiple data/information types in order to get a better overview of available data/information across the complete ecosystem;
Enabling advanced and complex searches by leveraging semantic technologies, linked data and controlled vocabularies (e.g. search for a course on marine biodiversity in 2021 taught in Spanish and providing grants for students from developing countries).

These capacities are especially important in many developing countries (and especially in SIDS), where Internet access is available, but usage time is costly and bandwidth is low. In such conditions it is important to minimize searching time and maximize output.

Improving the access to information ultimately enables a better management and decision-making for the sustainability of Ocean ecosystems.

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In summary

Data / information owners retain complete control of their own data and just expose the metadata that they would like to share.
OIH always links back to the original, authoritative source
Anyone can access the records in the knowledge graph for their own portal.
Anyone can link in and contribute records
Please use our resources and share your feedback

The OIH has many impacts:

Support IOC capacity development strategy.
Addressing knowledge needs of national and regional requirements for sourcing marine data and information.
Strengthening of science, technology and innovation systems and policies (such as Marine Spatial Planning, Integrated Coastal Area Management plans and related policies/legislation) for the global ocean community, through free, low-threshold and open access to ocean related data and information.
Considerably enhance the discovery of, and access to, a wide range of ocean related data and information services and products by a wide range of stakeholders, which will enable them to increase their efficiency and effectiveness related to their actions in and near oceans and coastal areas.

The benefits on data and information discovery include:

Improved system-to-system interoperation, thus allowing custom portals with varied objectives to efficiently harvest and serve distributed global content while presenting unified views of these resources to users;
Enabling searching across multiple data/information types in order to get a better overview of available data/information across the complete ecosystem;
Enabling advanced and complex searches by leveraging semantic technologies, linked data and controlled vocabularies (e.g. search for a course on marine biodiversity in 2021 taught in Spanish and providing grants for students from developing countries).

These capacities are especially important in many developing countries (and especially in SIDS), where Internet access is available, but usage time is costly and bandwidth is low. In such conditions it is important to minimize searching time and maximize output.

Improving the access to information ultimately enables a better management and decision-making for the sustainability of Ocean ecosystems.

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Resources

Website https://oceaninfohub.org/

Documentation https://book.oceaninfohub.org/index.html

Walk-through of documentation (free OTGA sign-in required)

IOC/OTGA/OIH Training course: Implementing the Ocean Data and Information System (ODIS) architecture. 25-29 October 2021 [online]

https://classroom.oceanteacher.org/course/view.php?id=722

Global Search Hub staging site Please contact me for access and for a preview (we need your feedback!) L.Scott@unesco.org

Find out more / become a partner: L.Scott@unesco.org

The OIH has many impacts:

Support IOC capacity development strategy.
Addressing knowledge needs of national and regional requirements for sourcing marine data and information.
Strengthening of science, technology and innovation systems and policies (such as Marine Spatial Planning, Integrated Coastal Area Management plans and related policies/legislation) for the global ocean community, through free, low-threshold and open access to ocean related data and information.
Considerably enhance the discovery of, and access to, a wide range of ocean related data and information services and products by a wide range of stakeholders, which will enable them to increase their efficiency and effectiveness related to their actions in and near oceans and coastal areas.

The benefits on data and information discovery include:

Improved system-to-system interoperation, thus allowing custom portals with varied objectives to efficiently harvest and serve distributed global content while presenting unified views of these resources to users;
Enabling searching across multiple data/information types in order to get a better overview of available data/information across the complete ecosystem;
Enabling advanced and complex searches by leveraging semantic technologies, linked data and controlled vocabularies (e.g. search for a course on marine biodiversity in 2021 taught in Spanish and providing grants for students from developing countries).

These capacities are especially important in many developing countries (and especially in SIDS), where Internet access is available, but usage time is costly and bandwidth is low. In such conditions it is important to minimize searching time and maximize output.

Improving the access to information ultimately enables a better management and decision-making for the sustainability of Ocean ecosystems.

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The Ocean InfoHub is leading OceanData-2030, a registered Programme of the UN Decade for Ocean Science for Sustainable Development

Join the Ocean InfoHub and build a truly shared Ocean

Contact us through e-mail at info@oceaninfohub.org

We can help you share your organisation's Ocean data

https://book.oceaninfohub.org

https://oceaninfohub.org

https://www.odis.org