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In the last decade, there has been tremendous development of regional ocean observing systems (ROOS) that provide information on ocean conditions immediately adjacent to the world's population centers. As these systems mature, it is vital to ensure that the ability to deliver societal services is adequately supported by the systems. This paper reviews developments in several areas that influence that ability. The first are the governance and organizational structures that have been created to guide the implementation of three ROOSs -in Europe, the United States, and Australia. The degree to which they provide a mechanism for engaging a broad range of service providers and addressing a variety of research issues is examined to identify similarities and differences in approaches. As ocean observing systems have matured, it has been recognized that to simultaneously engage and support a range of societal service providers, careful attention to regional-scale information management practices is needed, for unlike the governance and organizational structures that permit tailoring to fit regional needs, information management practices must be interoperable to accommodate interactions of providers on local to global scales. The pros and cons of different approaches to ROOS development, including observing, model and information management components being adopted by these and other regional systems are explored. There is an opportunity in the coming decade to promote development of new, sustained observations and an information services interface that unites the global, regional and coastal systems to support a broad range of societal service providers in a fairly seamless fashion. The need for integration from global to coastal services will become more urgent as communities face the need to adapt to climate change in the ocean. Data assimilation, reanalysis and prediction models provide a critical link between global observing and applications at a regional or local scale.

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