The Integrated Global Observing Strategy (IGOS) Partnership brings together the world's space agencies in the Committee for Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS), the Global Observing Systems and their sponsors, and international research programmes (see www.igospartners.org). Through IGOS, the partners organize strategic planning processes that link research, long-term monitoring and operational programmes, as well as data producers and users, in a structure that helps determine observation gaps and identify the resources to fill observation needs.

Coral reefs are a significant coastal ecosystem under major threat, with an urgent need to improve and coordinate observation capabilities, and to integrate space-based and in situ observing programmes in support of management action. Therefore in November 2001, the IGOS Partners adopted a Coral Reef sub-theme proposal submitted by UNEP, as a step towards a broader Coastal Theme. An expert team was assembled to prepare a Coral Reef Sub-theme Report to identify strategies for improved observations of coral reefs, both from satellites and in the field, in order to support better coral reef management. This followed the first approved IGOS theme report on the IGOS Oceans Theme (pdf). All themes follow a workplan developed in accordance with the IGOS process.

UNEP and NOAA co-led the preparation of the IGOS Coral Reef sub-theme report. At the same time, NOAA developed a proposal for a broad Coastal Theme, which was approved at the same time as the final Coral Reef Sub-theme Report. The development of the IGOS Coral Reef sub-theme has been linked to the International Coral Reef Action Network (ICRAN), a partnership of international organizations, Regional Seas programmes and non-governmental organizations working to reverse the decline in coral reefs. The theme report thus fits immediately into an appropriate user context with mechanisms for its implementation. 

Objectives

The objectives for the Coral Reef sub-theme fall into two categories: those relevant to the observing community in the IGOS Partnership, and those of particular interest to the coral reef community. The first deal with means and the second with ends. 

IGOS Objectives

The immediate objective in the context of IGOS was to produce a specific set of observational requirements corresponding to the special needs of the coral reef and coastal research/management communities. The report reviews the usefulness of various sensors and image processing techniques, resolutions and sampling frequencies for collecting relevant data or imagery in shallow coastal waters with coral reefs, as well as the types of research necessary to improve observational techniques or to fill data gaps. It provides the basis for coordinating existing operational and research observing programmes for coral reefs and for linking them to major user programmes such as ICRAN. It recommends remote sensing products meeting the objectives of the coral reef community identified below, and will stimulate wider use of such products for coral reef research, protection and management. 

Coral Reef Objectives

The repot addresses the need for improved observations of coral reefs and associated ecosystems to meet the following objectives: 

1) quantify the global extent and distribution of coral reefs and associated ecosystems and their spatial relationships; 

2) quantify the loss of coral reefs and associated ecosystems over time; 

3) document the health of coral reef ecosystems to the extent possible with remote sensing and in situ approaches and their combination; 

4) monitor changes in coral reef ecosystems over time, both to determine natural variability and anthropogenic degradation from local sources, and to identify the effects of global change; 

5) provide early warning of, and monitor the extent of, major stressful events such as raised water temperature and associated coral bleaching; 

6) supply improved data on stresses and risks coral reefs face, such as adjacent land use and runoff changes, coastal construction and dredging, human pressures on fringing reefs and the coastline, human use from vessels/fishing, etc.; 

7) document large scale and long term phenomena and characteristics important to the productivity and maintenance of coral reefs; 

8) develop a geomorphological unit classification of habitats and seascapes in coral reef and associated ecosystems and its map representation; 

9) generate observational products of immediate use to coral reef and coastal zone managers and planners, and to different resource user communities (fishing, tourism, biodiversity protection, etc.); 

10) provide evidence if possible of the effectiveness of marine protected areas for conserving coral reefs. 

Coral Reef Sub-theme Team

The theme team membership represented leading experts from space agencies, research groups and user organizations. 

TEAM MEMBERS

Arthur Dahl - Co-leader
Former Director, Coral Reef Unit, United Nations Environment Programme, and Acting Director,  International Coral Reef Action Network (ICRAN) (until September 2002), Geneva, Switzerland (international coral reef programmes, regional seas programmes, coral reef ecology, long-term monitoring, user requirements, ICRAN Steering Committee)

Alan E. Strong - Co-leader
Physical Scientist/Oceanographer, NOAA, Camp Springs, Maryland, USA (NOAA's Coral Reef Watch Project: remote sensing of coral reefs, coral reef bleaching)

Serge Andrefouet
University of South Florida/Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD) (remote sensing of coral reefs)

Felipe Arzayus
NOAA, USA (NOAA's Coral Reef Watch project: remote sensing of coral reefs, coral reef stress) 

Billy Causey 
Superintendent, Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, Marathon, Florida, USA (coral reef management, marine protected areas)

Ned Cyr 
Global Ocean Observing System, Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, and NOAA, Maryland, USA (Global Ocean Observing System, coral reef monitoring, Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network)

Ed Green
Head, Marine and Coastal Programme, UNEP-World Conservation Monitoring Centre, Cambridge, UK (coral reef assessment and mapping, remote sensing of tropical coastal areas, GIS)

Georg Heiss
Reef Check Europe, Bremen, Germany (ReefCheck, participatory coral reef monitoring)

Tiit Kutser 
University of Uppsala, Sweden; formerly CSIRO Office of Space Science & Applications, Canberra, Australia (hyperspectral remote sensing of reef health)

John McManus
Director, National Center for Caribbean Coral Reef Research, RSMAS, University of Miami, Florida, USA (coral reef management science, ecological analysis and modelling, fisheries)

Peter J. Mumby
University of Exeter, United Kingdom (remote sensing of coral reefs, habitat mapping, hyperspectral measurement of coral cover, effects of habitat type, depth, turbidity and resolution)

Jamie Oliver
Senior Scientist (Coral Reef Projects), World Fish Centre, Penang, Malaysia (ReefBase, coral reef data management)

Bradley Opdyke
Department of Geology, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia (international research programmes in the coastal zone, land-ocean interactions in the coastal zone, IGBP)

Bernard Salvat 
Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, URA EPHE-CNRS 1453 Recifs coralliens, University of Perpignan, France (status of coral reefs in Polynesia, coral reef protected areas, classification of reef habitats, quanitifcation of reef survaces with remote sensing)

William Skirving
Head, Remote Sensing Unit, Australian Institute of Marine Science, Townsville, Australia (hyperspectral remote sensing, coral bleaching, coral reef health)

Marjo Vierros
Programme Officer, Marine and Coastal Biodiversity, Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, Montreal, Canada 

Clive Wilkinson
Coordinator, Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network, Australian Institute of Marine Science, Townsville, Australia (status of coral reefs of the world, coral reef assessment and monitoring, early warning)
 

ADDITIONAL EXPERTS who were kept informed and who made inputs on a limited basis: 

Dan Claasen
Chief, Early Warning Branch, Division of Early Warning and Assessment, UNEP, Nairobi 

Chris Crossland
Executive Officer, LOICZ IPO, IGBP, Texel, The Netherlands (international research programmes in the coastal zone, land-ocean interactions in the coastal zone, coral reef typologies and pressures)

David Jupp
Head, Office of Space Science and Applications & Earth Observation Centre, CSIRO, Canberra, Australia 

Agneta Nilsson
ICRAN Project Coordinator, UNEP, Nairobi, Kenya (ICRAN, coral reef management in Eastern Africa)

Peter Petrov
Remote Sensing Expert, Regional Organization for the Protection of the Marine Environment, Kuwait (in situ spectral measurements related to hyperspectral description of coral reefs changes; observational requirements for space-based imaging spectrometers (hyperspectral systems) for monitoring coral reefs; end-user GIS applications)

Richard P. Stumpf
Center for Coastal Monitoring and Assessment, NOAA National Ocean Service, Silver Spring, USA (satellite remote sensing of US and international coral reef environments; development and implementation of techniques for regional monitoring and characterization of coral reefs using IKONOS, Landsat, SeaWiFS)

Kristian Teleki
Acting Director, International Coral Reef Action Network, UNEP-WCMC, Cambridge, England

Team process

The available members of the team met in Cebu City, Philippines in April 2001, Maputo, Mozambique in November 2001, Magnetic Island, Australia in January 2002 and Cancun, Mexico in June 2002 as well as corresponding by e-mail. A user survey was distributed in January 2002. The report outline was also agreed in January 2002. Writing groups and individuals produced drafts for parts of the report which were compiled and circulated to the team members through much of 2002. Status reports were provided to the CEOS Strategic Implementation Team (SIT) on 15 April 2002 and to the Ninth IGOS Partners Meeting on 31 May 2002. The draft report was circulated to all team members for comment and approval on 4 December 2002, and after incorporating all comments received was submitted to the IGOS P Secretariat and the SIT on 3 January 2003. The draft was reviewed by the CEOS members in SIT at their meeting on 5 February 2003, and posted on the Internet for public comment. After incorporating changes recommended during the widespread review period, the report was approved by the IGOS Partners on 5 June 2003.

The final report is now available on this web site (or for download as a pdf document or a Word document) as well as on the IGOS website (http://ioc.unesco.org/igospartners/coral-reef.htm) and was published by NOAA in 2003.

Evaluation Criteria

Criteria to judge the effectiveness of the team's work and the theme report include:
- coverage of the inventory of observational activities;
- quality of the definition of observational requirements;
- usefulness of the final theme report for implementation. 

Resources

The team was able to carry out its work within existing resources. Much of the work was performed by e-mail, and there were sufficient meetings within the coral reef community that ad hoc meetings of members could be organized along-side existing events. 

Implementation of the sub-theme recommendations will be overseen by the Global Ocean Observing System and the Global Terrestrial Observing System. The theme report identifies existing organizations with at least some of the capacity to implement its recommendations. These include the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network, the existing operational mechanism for reef observations, as well as data management mechanisms such as ReefBase and the UNEP-World Conservation Monitoring Centre. It provides inputs to coral reef assessment processes and coral reef management action through the International Coral Reef Action Network (ICRAN) and other activities. These will all benefit from the improved integration of space-based observations into their work. Where additional financial resources needs are identified, they can be included in the fundraising activities of ICRAN. 

The Coral Reef sub-theme is also now being integrated into the IGOS Coastal Theme during 2004 (http://ioc.unesco.org/igospartners/Coastal.htm).
 
See also the Coral Reef sub-theme page on the IGOS Partners web site: http://ioc.unesco.org/igospartners/coral-reef.htm