The dates for the ODINAFRICA Scientific Symposium have been changed to 30 November - 02 December 2011. The symposium, which is organised by the Ocean Data and Information Network for Africa (ODINAFRICA), in collaboration with the Centre de Recherche Océanographique de Dakar Thiaroye (CRODT) and the Direction des Pêches Maritimes (DPM) will be held in Saly, Senegal.

BACKGROUND

Integrated management of coastal and marine resources and environment is essential for balancing competing needs of different sectors and industries such as fisheries, tourism, mining (including oil and gas), shipping and navigation e.t.c. Reliable, up to date data and information is required for understanding the ecosystem, and forecasting the effects of environmental change. This knowledge can then be applied to improve livelihoods of coastal communities, and mitigate or reverse undesirable trends or effects.

The African Coastal countries and international partners have initiated an increasing number of activities in recent years to address coastal and marine resource management in an integrated manner. These have generated substantial amounts of data, information and related products. However, though most of this information is in the public domain, many marine scientists, resource managers, decision makers and other stakeholders, have not been able to access and utilize it for their work.

The symposium will provide a forum for presentation of the results of these initiatives, and discussions on how the data and information generated has been used, or can be accessed and utilized in support of development and management of the coastal and marine areas.

Click here for ODINAFRICA SYMPOSIUM DETAILS

The Mauritius Meteorological Services hosted the ODINAFRICA Coastal and Marine Atlases workshop from 25 – 29 July 2011 in Grand Baie, Mauritius. 26 participants from 13 countries participating in ODINAFRICA attended the workshop (Angola, Benin, Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, Seychelles, and Tanzania).

The participants made presentations on the progress they had made in the development of their national coastal and marine atlases. Invited experts and resource persons from other atlas initiatives assisted in assessing the progress made in development of the national coastal and marine atlases and advising on improvements to be made. Tasks identified included:

• Metadata record should be created for each data type, with valid link to metadata in GeoNetwork.
• ABSTRACT field in the mapfile should be completed for each data layer. The abstract should be in the language of the targeted users (English, French, Portuguese, Swahili e.t.c). Standard Abstracts should be prepared for global data sets
• There should be LEGENDs for layers, with units and ranges for classification clearly indicated.
• ATTRIBUTES – the mapfile template section or all vector layers should be completed.
• Short names should be used for LAYERS and FOLDERS. Other details such as source should go into abstract. Separate folder should not be created where there is only one layer.
• All layers should use the same PROJECTION. Use of layers with different projections causes some layers not to be visible.
• Common COLOR PALATTES should be used for symbols (eg mangroves should be green, reefs should be pink). Duplicate color palettes should not be used for different data layers.
• Concerted efforts should be made to include national scale data. Atlas will be a useful tool only if it contains local-scale data
• An editorial team should be established to review the layers (QA/QC) and ensure compliance with standards.

On the whole the invited experts were impressed by the results achieved so far, and pointed out that these were typical problems faced in atlas development.

The Eighth session of the IOC Regional Committee for the Western Indian Ocean (IOCWIO-VIII) was officially opened by the Mauritius Secretary to the Cabinet and Head of Public Service, Mr S.C. Seebaluck on Wednesday 25 May 2011 at Grand Bay, Mauritius. The IOCWIO Chair and Acting Director of Mauritius Meteorological Services, Mr Mohamudally Beebeejaun, and the IOC Executive Secretary, Dr Wendy Watson-Wright, also addressed the opening session.