On the 24th and 25th of April 2024, the MSPglobal 2.0 initiative facilitated an online workshop to consult experts on ocean data and Spatial Data Infrastructure. The project aims to co-develop a Data Toolbox to support countries in developing their own SDI for MSP. About 30 participants from across the globe joined the sessions to share their knowledge and consult about the Toolbox.
To kickstart the development of this Data Toolbox, an extensive global mapping of experts in ocean data and SDI was conducted. Then, an informative pre-workshop and a 2-day online workshop were organised to meet with interested participants, aiming to inform about the process and collaboratively define the structure and the key content of the Toolbox.
During the main workshop, experts from UNESCO-IOC, UN Ocean Decade, the EU Technical Expert Group on Data for MSP, the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Rio Grande do Sul, the Geological Survey of Sweden, HELCOM, Shom, and Marine-Analyst.eu took over and presented their own experiences with SDI existing tools, challenges, and good practices. These talks were bundled into the following themes related to SDI: SDI connectivity, governance, human resources and capacity development, metadata, interoperability, as well as data security, privacy, and safety. They were followed by group discussions and interactive brainstorming sessions via a digital whiteboard to capture concrete ideas for the Toolbox.
