Aim, activities and early outcomes of the Coastal Working Group of the European Global Ocean Observing System (EuroGOOS)

The major interface between humans and the ocean occurs in the coastal seas. Marine industries thrive in this area while European citizens make daily use of the coastal ocean for tourism, leisure and recreation. Operational oceanography assists both industry and the general public to make decisions about their use of and access to the coastal ocean. The EuroGOOS community has developed, based on in-situ and satellite observations, data and modelling capacities, a wide range of products and services for such use cases. The EuroGOOS Coastal working group examines the entire value chain from coastal observations, satellite data, ocean forecasts and analysis, to products and services for coastal users. The working group reviews sustainability and fitness for purpose of the existing system and identifies gaps and future steps needed to secure and improve all elements of the coastal value chain. The EuroGOOS Coastal Working Group builds upon significant initiatives already completed or underway that have focused on coastal observatories. These include, but are not limited to, the work of EMODnet, SeaDataNet, CLMS, and CMEMS-In Situ Thematic Centres (INS TACs), which play significant role in making available key datasets for coastal areas, the JERICO-NEXT and JERICO-S3 EC projects, which work towards sustaining the JERICO-RI on long term, as well as activities within EuroGOOS working groups, platforms task teams, and the five regional operational oceanographic systems (ROOS). More specifically, the main activities of the EuroGOOS Coastal Working Group are: (i) mapping primary users of coastal products, (ii) reviewing available and potential coastal data sources with special focus on river discharges, (iii) preparing a comprehensive inventory of European operational models, (iv) reviewing coastal data assimilation frameworks for optimizing coastal sea monitoring and forecasting systems, (v) preparing an inventory of integrated coastal products and services, and (vi) formulating a EuroGOOS roadmap for the enhanced integration of coastal services into a EuroGOOS Coastal Working Group White Paper. The outcomes of the EuroGOOS Coastal Working Group activities are primarily designed to support four specific areas of the EuroGOOS Strategic Agenda 2020 and the short-term priority areas, namely (1) sustained fit for purpose observations, (2) data matters, (3) product development and (4) communication and outreach. On the other hand, in broader sense these activities contribute to the coastal community through peer reviewed articles such as the review of operational modelling capacity in European Seas (Capet et al., submitted) and by promoting collaboration to initiate new opportunities to effectively serve the coastal users in the industry (e.g. aquaculture sector) as in the H2020 FORCOAST project (www.forcoast.eu).