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The African Marine Atlas developed by the Ocean Data and Information Network for Africa (ODINAFRICA)
was officially launched on 23 February 2007 at the IOC Project Office
for International Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange (IODE) in
Ostend, Belgium.
The African Marine Atlas
provides substantial maps, images, data and information to coastal
resource managers, planners and decision-makers from various
administrative institutions and specialized agencies in Africa. The
Atlas will be of immense benefit to national institutions and a variety
of users such as environmentalists, local administrators, park
managers, scientific community, fishing cooperatives, tourists, hotel
keepers, teachers, NGOs, the general public, and any other interested
persons. It has over 800 downloadable data products derived
from the fields of marine geo-sphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere,
biosphere, geopolitical and the human socio-economic dimensions.
The Atlas indicates areas of intense use along the coastline requiring
careful management and provides potential foresight on likely
consequences of specific decisions. Further, the Atlas indicates gaps
in knowledge and information base, where additional efforts may be
directed. The Atlas will also act in other ways as a guide to
recreational opportunities and tourist attractions.
In developing the Atlas, the main objective was to collate
available geospatial datasets and information on the marine environment
and to summarize it into an African Marine Atlas suite.
The website is one of a set of Marine Atlas products that will include
web data services, web mapping and an Atlas publication when completed.
The Atlas was realized through intensive work between May 2006 and
February 2007 by a team of 16 marine scientists and GIS experts from
NODC’s in Benin, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique,
Namibia, Senegal, Seychelles, South Africa, and Tanzania. International
ocean data experts provided key inputs in data analysis. It is based on
an extensive survey of coastal and marine data needs undertaken in
early 2006 in all the countries participating in ODINAFRICA.
Primary partners in this project were the United Nations Environment
Programme (UNEP), and the African Coelecanth Ecosystem Programme
(ACEP). UNEP will develop a clearinghouse and information system on
coastal and marine resources of Eastern Africa from the regional atlas.
The Atlas has brought great benefits to participating national
institutions and Africa as a whole, by encouraging scientists to work
together, learn new techniques, and build teams that will continue to
regularly update the Atlas with national and local scale data sets.
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IOC/IODE and its African Marine Atlas is a participant in the International Coastal Atlas Network (ICAN). The International Coastal Atlas Network (ICAN) is a group of organizations that aim to scope and implement data interoperabilit y
approaches to coastal web atlases (CWAs). The mission/strategic aim
of ICAN is to share experiences and to find common solutions to CWA
development (e.g., user and developer guides, handbooks and articles on
best practices, information on standards and web services, expertise
and technical support directories, education, outreach, and funding
opportunities, etc.), while ensuring maximum relevance and added value
for the end users. The long-term view is for global-level operational
interoperability which will evolve as the ICAN community strives to
increase awareness of the opportunities that exist for increased
coastal and marine data sharing among policy makers and resource
managers as strategic users of a CWA.
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