About EMOD-PACE

EMODnet Partnership for China and Europe (EMOD-PACE)

China-EU Marine Data Network Partnership (CEMDnet)

As a concrete step towards achieving these common Partnership objectives, both the EU and China have set-up two collaborative projects with a focus on marine data exchange and diplomacy, which are intricately connected:

• The European funded EMOD-PACE (EMODnet PArtnership for China and Europe); and

• The CEMDnet (China-EU Marine Data Network Partnership) - ‘中国-欧盟海洋数据网络伙伴关系’

On this website, you will find further information about the interconnected projects from EU and China bringing together NMDIS and EMODnet, the outputs of both projects as they become available, as well as more general information about marine data resources available from China and Europe. The content is structured as follows:

• About EMOD-PACE (EMODnet PArtnership for China and Europe) and China-EU Marine Data Network Partnership (CEMDnet)

• About CEMDnet（China-EU Marine Data NetworkPartnership- ‘中国-欧盟海洋数据网络伙伴关系’）

• EMOD-PACE Background

• Overview of the Work Plan

• Data Information and overview of problem

• Useful Documentation and Links for Project Participants

• Project Partners

The WMO_ICO Centre for Marine Meteorological and Oceanographic Climate Data (CMOC/China) is the executive of the CMOC/China and promotes its general interest.

EMOD-PACE CEMDnet leaflet

Find more information in our project leaflet about the EMOD-PACE CEMDnet European Union and China Partnership for Marine Data.

Background

The EU and China both have both common and differing best practices approaches in ocean governance and for the sharing and managing data and data products. The EU and China collaborative projects (EMODnet & CEMDnet) establishing an effective Partnership on marine data are a step towards this common objective.

The overall aim of this project is to promote international ocean governance with China and support the implementation of global commitments by making ocean marine data and data products more easily accessible and by providing better data and data products. Concrete EMOD-PACE objectives are summarised and described as follows:

• Establish a solid and effective working relationship between EMODnet and Chinese counterparts, in particular the National Marine Data and Information Service of China (NMDIS).
• Support processes related to collaboration with China with a view to improve discovery of and access to marine data and data products by establishing interoperability of data and information systems.
• Support ocean-related policy objectives and policy dialogues as well as to enhance cooperation in key areas of ocean governance.
• Facilitate political convergence towards a collective approach to tackling global ocean challenges such as climate change, marine litter, and environmental protection and biodiversity, in particular in the context of the Convention for Biological Diversity (CBD).
• Support the use of internationally agreed standards for marine data, both by the public and private sectors.

In detail, the project will strengthen the relationship between EMODnet and NMDIS by:

• Setting up a bilingual English-Chinese project information website providing a gateway to the project results.
• Maximizing interoperability between EU and Chinese marine data services, and data products and information systems.
• Comparing European and Chinese numerical ocean models by
  • comparing reanalysis and model results with historic data;
  • analysing the applicability of each side's models for seabed habitat and ecosystem vulnerability.
• Providing reliable information to support coastal adaptation on the sea route between China and Europe.

EMOD-PACE work plan

EMOD-PACE runs for a duration of 34 months. The work packages (WP) are as follows:

Data Information

Marine data sharing

The publication and sharing of marine data follows established best practice. The EU shares marine observation data through EMODnet and ocean modelling data through Copernicus Marine Service. In general, European marine observation data originates with the Member States, and is aggregated by EMODnet for publication on the EMODnet Central Portal as a centralised hub for European marine data.

In China NMDIS is responsible for national marine data collection, management, processing and distribution, and the construction and operation of the marine environmental and geographical information service platform, undertaking quality control and evaluation of marine data and information products. In addition, it is responsible for operational tide and tidal current forecast, sea level change prediction and evaluation and development and release of marine environment data re-analysis products.

Optimising data sharing and user access between EMODnet and NMDIS – the Challenge

Marine observations are fundamentally geospatial in nature. An observation consists of measurements associated with any particular parameter (temperature for example) at a location for a certain time. Each component of the observation can vary depending on standards used, for example:

• Temperature, Fahrenheit, Celsius and Kelvin are all valid measurements.
• Time can vary depending on local sunrise and sunset.
• Location description can be depending on the geospatial grid being used to describe the Earth.

Science can address some of these problems, for example, through the development of standardised units for measurement and by recording a universal time. Also, in general the World Geodetic System (WGS84) is used as the reference coordinate system, but not always, and the geographic coordinate system (datum and projection) will vary depending on the region in the world, and also on the area being mapped).

The necessity to share scientific quality environmental data online for the support of research, policy formulation and implementation and others, has led to the realisation that observations need to be annotated by metadata (data that describes data), to provide more context to the observations. For example, who made the observation, what were the general weather conditions or what datum was the observation location made against.

With EMODnet, EU has gained considerable experience over the past decade with providing users access to a wide range of multidisciplinary datasets at European level by fostering interoperability of data collected and stored by different countries, institutes and thematic and regional data assembly initiatives. In this project, we will be looking at ways to optimise data sharing and user access between EMODnet and NMDIS. In particular it will look at ways to improve interoperability between EMDOnet geodata servers and NMDIS geodata servers. For example, part of this project we will examine the suitability of the following aspects facilitating the exchange and interoperability of data from different sources:

• Open Geospatial Consortium web services.
• Metadata standards
• File format standards.

The project delivers a searchable catalogue of EMODnet and NMDIS data that can be either downloaded or displayed in a web map. This catalogue will exist in duplicate on both the EMODnet Central Portal and NMDIS portal

Project Partners

EMOD-PACE Consortium

*The European Commission inter-services Steering Committee is charied by Directorate-General Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (MARE) and Foreign Policy Instruments.

National Marine Data and Information Service (NMDIS)

Communication

News

• NMDIS news item: 国家海洋信息中心和欧洲海洋观测与数据网签署谅解备忘录 中国-欧盟海洋数据网络伙伴关系合作阶段性成果丰硕

Reports

• EMOD-PACE Deliverable 4.5 (6 MB) - May 2022: EMOD-PACE final report on the "Marine Resource-Environment Carrying Capacity and Spatial Development Suitability" approach application to Europe, showing the Bay of Biscay as an example". Short summary: Analysing the applicability of each sides models (i.e., the models used within Europe and China), by testing the European model for seabed habitats in Asian waters and the Chinese model for ecosystem vulnerability in European waters. This includes a description of the methodology used in the analysis.
• EMOD-PACE Deliverable 4.4 (3 MB) - December 2022: This report details the collaborative effort between partners from Europe and China to deliver the first broad-scale habitat map for a Chinese sea basin, using the EUNIS (European Nature Information System) approach. The case study site selected for this work covers part of the Beibu Gulf, located in the north-western parts of the South China Sea. Included is a summary of the methodology used, as well as a presentation of the habitat map, its input layers and associated confidence assessments. Furthermore, discussed are limitations of the approach, applicability to Chinese sea basins and proposed next steps to improve in this work.

Media

• EMOD-PACE final project video (5 min)

Email 邮件

Send EMOD-PACE user feedback 提交用户反馈