EMECO

EMECO in a Policy Context

EMECO is developing against a background of significant change in the major drivers that inform the design of monitoring programmes, the requirements for assessing the status of the marine environment and the architecture for the collection, dissemination and use of marine data. The main policy developments are the INSPIRE Directive, the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD), and the Integrated Maritime Policy for the European Union.

The Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD)

The Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) came into force on 17 June 2008, following adoption by the European Parliament. The MSFD applies to all European marine waters under the jurisdiction of each of the Member States.

The main objective is to achieve or maintain good environmental status and requires strategies to be established to protect and preserve, prevent deterioration and, where practicable restore the marine environment. The focus is on ensuring that human activities are carried out in a sustainable manner that results in the provision of dynamic and diverse seas that are clean, healthy and productive by 2020.

Europe's seas have been divided into ' Marine Regions' to act as the basic units for implementation of the MSFD. The regions are,

• The Baltic Sea

• The North East Atlantic

• The Mediterranean

• The Black Sea

Member states of each region are obliged to cooperate on assessing the current status of the marine environment, determining "good environmental status for each marine region", establishing "environmental targets", and implementing an environmental status "monitoring programme" by 2012. 

Member states for each region are then required to develop strategies to "achieve or maintain good environmental status" by 2015, which must be put into operation by 2016 "at the latest" in order to achieve the 2020 target of good environmental status of the marine environment.  

The Integrated Marine Policy for the European Union 

The integrated Maritime Policy for the European Union is an integrated, inter-sectoral approach to developing sea-related policies that was adopted by the European Parliament in 2007. 

The Integrated Maritime Policy recognises that easy access to marine data and information is key to strategic decision making on maritime policy and, amongst other things, calls for a European Marine Observation Data Network (EMODNET) and an Atlas of the Seas.  

Both EMODNET and the Atlas of the Seas will form an infrastructure within which data will be compiled in a comprehensive and compatible format that is easily accessible to all.  

The European Science Foundation (ESF) issued 2 calls for preparatory actions for the development of a European broad-scales habitat map of the Seas and development of EMODNET. The deadline to answers the calls are October 2008 and both projects are for 36-month duration. 

EMODNET will consist of 4 marine data portals that draw marine geological, chemical, physical, and biological data from across Europe together. EMODNET is expected to begin acting as a source of data in 2010. 

The INSPIRE Directive 

In 2007, the Council and European Parliament adopted an INfrastructure for SPatial Information in Europe (INSPIRE).  

The main objective of INSPIRE is data Interoperability and data sharing. The directive aims to make it relatively easy to "view" and "download" spatial data, and will apply to data for the European seas. 

INSPIRE is expected to be fully operational by 2019.

Other Important European Initiatives

Addressing some or all of these policy drivers there are two further important European initiatives.   

The first is a proposal for a marine component to be added to the existing Water Information System for Europe.  A consultation on the WISE- Marine proposal came to an end on 31 July 2008 and further developments will reflect the findings of the consultation.  There is therefore some current uncertainty about the way forward.  A short description of the WISE-Marine proposal is given below. 

The second initiative is the development of marine Core Services as part of Global Monitoring for Environment and Security. A short description of GMES is also provided below. 

The development of EMECO needs to be set in the context of these various policies and initiatives.  

The Water Information System for Europe (WISE) 

WISE was launched in 2007 as part of the wider "Shared Environment Information System" (SEIS).  

There are a number of European policy drivers of WISE, including the Water Frameworks Directive (WFD), the Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive (UWWTD), the Nitrate Directive (NiD), the INSPIRE Directive, and the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) for WISE-Marine.  

WISE is under development to become the main harmonised tool for water related data and information at the European Scale. 

WISE consists of 3 components of water: Freshwater, Transitional and Coastal Water, and Marine Water (WISE-Marine). The WISE (freshwater and transitional and coastal water) data portal and GIS tools are in the construction and development phase and some of the products are available on the European Environment Agency website.  

WISE-Marine is an extension of WISE and will bring together data and information sources that are emerging as part of the MSFD, the integrated maritime policy for Europe (EMODNET and the Atlas of the Seas), the INPIRE Directive, GMES, regional assessments (e.g. OSPAR, HELCOM), and other national and international initiatives (e.g. NOOS). 

The milestones for implementing theses initiatives suggest that the amount of data and information available for WISE-Marine will vastly increase following 2010. WISE-Marine is expected to be operational for receiving data and information from 2012. 

WISE-Marine will be a marine data and information structure that is intended:

• To provide open access to European marine data and information generated from models, monitoring, and research.

• Provide geo-referenced maps displaying European marine data and information.

• Facilitate the sharing of data and information between member states, marine conventions, and the EEA.

• Provide spatial information that allows users to compare the state of the seas in different European regions e.g. pollution levels or trends water quality.

• Become the formal compliance reporting tool between Member States and the European Commission on the MSFD.

Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) 

The GMES initiative is a joint initiative of the European Union and the European Space Agency (ESA). GMES is developing information services that will combine satellite, model, and in situ data and turn them into policy relevant information. It represents a concerted attempt to bring environmental and security data and information providers together with users, to better understand each other and to agree on how to make such information available to the people who need it.