The World Ocean Council (WOC) SMART Ocean-SMART Industries program is working to develop a comprehensive structure and process to scale up industry involvement in hosting or deploying instruments to gather data and/or sharing previously collected data.
Date: 22 September 2020
Time: 15:00-16:00 Eastern US
Ocean industries operate tens of thousands of vessels and platforms, and more than a million km of submarine cables, all with the potential for cost effectively collecting information, often in data poor areas. At a time when the need for ocean, weather and climate data has never been greater, the budgets for data collection by government and research institutions are decreasing and operating costs are increasing.
An industry-led system for strategic and sustained data collection from the ocean can significantly and cost-effectively increase ocean, weather and climate knowledge. This can provide direct benefits to society and industry, e.g. through improved forecasting and predicting of extreme weather events, resulting in safer, more responsible ocean use and more resilient coastal communities and economies.
WOC CEO Paul Holthus outlined the opportunities for expanding industry involvement in observations through the WOC SMART Ocean-SMART Industries program, and the potential for collaboration with NOAA and other ocean, weather and science agencies and institutions.