Experimental Ocean and Coastal Ecosystem Accounts for Norwegian Municipalities (EOCEAN)

EOCEAN will use the SeaBee drone infrastructure (seabee.no) to produce ultra-high resolution local habitat maps. These maps will then be upscaled to regional scale for our partner municipalities using Sentinell-2 satellite images and machine learning. Coastal ecosystems on land and at sea will be mapped back in time with the help of historical satellite images.

With the regional maps, EOCEAN will build ecosystem extent accounts at the municipality scale. The maps and extent accounts will provide our municipality partners with key information about the spatial distribution and area of important coastal ecosystems and how these are changing over time.

EOCEAN will develop a methodology for regular mapping and monitoring of coastal ecosystem condition. The focus will be on condition indicators that would enable the production of coastal ecosystem condition accounts. Condition accounts will provide the municipalities with valuable information about how the health of their coastal ecosystems is evolving over time, reflecting impacts from human pressures or management measures.

EOCEAN is particularly interested in exploring options for monitoring condition of coastal ecosystems using drones and satellite images. Remote sensing of key condition indicators could make regular monitoring of coastal ecosystems more feasible and cost-effective.

Governance accounts are a new concept developed by the Global Ocean Accounts Partnership. The idea is to spatially map governance arrangements, including policies, regulations and key institutions, and record changes in these arrangements over time. Using the same spatial map base as ecosystem accounts allows to assess changes in ecosystems in connection with changes in governance arrangements.

EOCEAN will develop a theoretical framework for coastal governance accounts for Norwegian municipalities and test this framework in our partner municipalities. Through these coastal governance accounts, we also aim to demonstrate the usefulness of coastal ecosystem extent and condition accounts for spatial planning and management decisions in the coastal zone.

EOCEAN is working with innovative technologies and methods for coastal drone-based research and ecosystem accounting. Tailored training and close, interdisciplinary collaboration between researchers and practitioners are key for success.

EOCEAN is organising a series of practical workshops with three objectives: 1) to provide training on the development and use of coastal ecosystem maps and accounts, 2) to collect input from our local authority partners on their information needs as well as validation of project results and output design, and 3) to disseminate the maps and accounts produced by the project.