FORCOAST - Earth Observation services for Wild Fisheries, Oystergrounds Restoration and Bivalve Mariculture along European Coasts*
Authors: Rodriguez Galvez Luis , El Serafy Ghada , Twigt Daniel , Rubio Anna , Capet Arthur , Dabrowski Tomasz , Delbare Daan , Fernandez Vicente 
Published: March 2021

&lt;p&gt;The European Blue Growth perspective suggests a larger share in global economic production&lt;br&gt;and food security appointed to the marine and coastal zone and an increase of marine and coastal&lt;br&gt;infrastructures &amp;#160; and &amp;#160; operations. &amp;#160; However, &amp;#160; this &amp;#160; growth &amp;#160; must &amp;#160; be &amp;#160; aligned &amp;#160; with &amp;#160; increasing&lt;br&gt;environmental constraints as well as complying and restoring regulations and frameworks. The&lt;br&gt;compliance of growth and sustainability requires the adoption of economically and ecologically&lt;br&gt;efficient behaviours, based on a wider incorporation of available information and knowledge from&lt;br&gt;the industry and citizens alike. Marine and coastal managers must make decisions to maintain&lt;br&gt;the social, economic, and ecological health of marine and coastal areas while operating, planning&lt;br&gt;and managing their activities at sea.&lt;br&gt;The European funded FORCOAST project represents a step forward in this direction by bringing&lt;br&gt;the coastal water quality and met-ocean information closer to the target sectors: wild fisheries,&lt;br&gt;oyster &amp;#160; grounds &amp;#160; restoration, &amp;#160; and &amp;#160; bivalve &amp;#160; mariculture. &amp;#160; FORCOAST &amp;#160; will &amp;#160; develop, &amp;#160; test &amp;#160; and&lt;br&gt;demonstrate, in operational mode, novel Copernicus-based downstream information services that&lt;br&gt;will &amp;#160;incorporate &amp;#160;and &amp;#160;combine &amp;#160;Copernicus &amp;#160;Marine &amp;#160;Environment &amp;#160;Monitoring &amp;#160;Service &amp;#160;(CMEMS),&lt;br&gt;Copernicus Land &amp;#160;Monitoring Service (CLMS) and &amp;#160;Climate Change Monitoring Service &amp;#160;(CMS),&lt;br&gt;local monitoring data and advanced modelling in the service.&lt;br&gt;FORCOAST will provide consistent high-resolution data products for coastal applications, based&lt;br&gt;on a standardized data processing scheme. The services of FORCOAST will provide managerial&lt;br&gt;tools (e.g decision support, user warnings, on-demand case study) built upon those products and&lt;br&gt;implemented through cloud-processing infrastructures.&lt;br&gt;FORCOAST will develop and provide those services in eight pilot service uptake sites covering&lt;br&gt;five &amp;#160;different &amp;#160;regional &amp;#160;waters &amp;#160;(North &amp;#160;Sea, &amp;#160;Baltic &amp;#160;Sea, &amp;#160;Mediterranean &amp;#160;Sea, &amp;#160;Black &amp;#160;Sea and &amp;#160;the&lt;br&gt;coastal Atlantic Ocean). Each of those pilots gathers marine information producers (eg. models),&lt;br&gt;providers (dissemination) and user (operating SMEs), to ensure inter-sectoral consistency.&lt;br&gt;The outcome of FORCOAST is a novel commercial service that will provide Copernicus-based&lt;br&gt;downstream &amp;#160;information &amp;#160;coastal &amp;#160;services &amp;#160;to &amp;#160;a &amp;#160;variety &amp;#160;of &amp;#160;stakeholders, &amp;#160;which &amp;#160;will &amp;#160;result &amp;#160;in &amp;#160;an&lt;br&gt;operation, planning and management improvement of different marine activities in the sectors of&lt;br&gt;wild fisheries and aquaculture, having an economic and societal positive effect on the involved&lt;br&gt;parties.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;*This &amp;#160;project &amp;#160;has &amp;#160;received &amp;#160;funding &amp;#160;from &amp;#160;the &amp;#160;European &amp;#160;Union&amp;#8217;s &amp;#160;Horizon &amp;#160;2020 &amp;#160;research &amp;#160;and &amp;#160;innovation&lt;br&gt;programme under grant agreement No 870465&lt;/p&gt;