Ad Hoc team to address hazards and challenges in coastal zones
GEO, UN entities, coastal stakeholders
Build capacity for a more robust, end-to-end value chain for coasts
There are significant risks and threats to human health and safety, as well as to the abundant ecosystem resources at the land-sea interface of coasts. 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. To address these and other challenges and risks in the coastal zone, CEOS formed the COAST (Coastal Observations, Applications, Services and Tools) team to provide 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.
COAST is implementing high impact pilot projects which leverage the CEOS Analysis Ready Data (ARD) framework already demonstrated for terrestrial applications, as well as leverage the Systems Engineering Office CEOS Analytics Lab. The COAST Ad Hoc Team encourages broader utilization of Earth observations and other CEOS capabilities for societal benefits within coastal zones (e.g., Blue Economy; SDG-14), and demonstrates specific opportunities for CEOS engagement, particularly through the linkage of the Group on Earth Observations Blue Planet and AquaWatch Initiatives, and external stakeholders such as Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission/Global Ocean Observing System, United Nations (UN) Environment, World Meteorological Organization, and the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030). User co-design and co-development are key to the implementation process of COAST solutions.