EMECO

EMECO: An Overview

What is EMECO?

EMECO is a consortium of agencies and institutes with responsibility for both monitoring and assessment of marine ecosystem threats and status (health), and also for improving understanding through research in European shelf-seas.

The consortium brings together an existing monitoring, modelling, research capabilities to create a European infrastructure and was formed to improve the evidence base for formal environmental assessments, provide integrated assessments (from physics to fish) and to meet the challenges posed by the new Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD).

In this way, EMECO is an "End-to-End" system from data to integrated, policy relevant information products (Figure 1).   

Figure 1. Overview of EMECO. EMECO partners operate a variety of observation and modelling programmes that generate European marine data. This In situ, remote sensing and modelled data is transferred to the operators databases and / or other European and national databases. Data may be available in real-time, near real-time and / or delayed mode and may be quality assured (QA'd) or non-quality assured (non-QA'd). The EMECO XML Schema interfaces with these databases to import data into the EMECO Database. Users can then query the EMECO database using the online query tool to generate integrated information products.

EMECO in Practice

EMECO partners are responsible for a number of long-term marine ecosystem monitoring and modelling programmes. EMECO brings these resources together to create a a cost effective observatory that has the potential to operate at the pan European scale.

As a starting point the North-west Europe provides a number of opportunities for synergy between on-going monitoring and research programmes operated by EMECO partners.

For example, a Cefas SmartBuoy is deployed on the Dutch Oyster Grounds in collaboration with the Dutch Rijkswaterstaat and Deltares. This region is also in the vicinity of a joint Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR: route HE) and a GKSS FerryBox route between Immingham and Cuxhaven as well as overflights by satellites that provide maps of water quality parameters derived from ocean colour.

In addition, many EMECO partners run complex coupled hydrodynamic models within North Sea and Celtic Sea domains that benefit from these observations and in return provide tools for improving understanding and predicting changes in the ecosystem in this region.

In order to create the data to information system (Figure 1), EMECO has developed a suite of web-based tools that enable rapid integration and visualisation of multi-platform, multi-parameter, and multi-national data. The purpose of the datatools is to deliver policy-relevant information products in a transparent and auditable manner that increases confidence in the outcome to formal environmental assessments at a regional scale. 

Users are able to select and view data from novel and traditional monitoring platforms as integrated data sets (XML, CSV), time series charts, and maps (KML and bespoke assessment maps). The assessment maps, currently of the greater North Sea and UK waters, are composed of a data "mash-up" displayed in set of policy-defined water bodies. These outputs are generated "on the fly". Figure 2 shows a schematic of the EMECO Datatool.  

Figure 2. Schematic of the EMECO Datatool