Transferring Complex Scientific Knowledge to Useable Products for Society: The Role of the Global Integrated Ocean Assessment and Challenges in the Effective Delivery of Ocean Knowledge

Abstract

The ocean provides essential services to human wellbeing through climate regulation, provision of food, energy and livelihoods, protection of communities and nurturing of social and cultural values. Yet despite the ocean’s key role for all life, it is failing as a result of unsustainable human practices. The first global integrated assessment of the marine environment, produced by the United Nations under The Regular Process for Global Reporting and Assessment of the State of the Marine Environment, including Socioeconomic Aspects (the World Ocean Assessment), identified an overall decline in ocean health. The second assessment, launched in April 2021, although recognising some bright spots and improvements, stresses ongoing decline in the ocean as a result of many unabated anthropogenic stressors on the ocean. This highlights that society, as a whole, does not fully recognise or value the importance of the ocean to their lives and impacts on the ocean caused by human activities. Further, recognition of the need for immediate and effective solutions for mitigating impacts and enabling ecosystem recovery, and the associated societal changes required is lacking. The United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development 2021–2030 both recognize that sustainability is both a desired and essential pathway for ensuring the ocean can continue to provide the services society depends on. The World Ocean Assessment has an important role to play in increasing awareness of the ocean, the changes occurring in the ocean, the human activities causing those changes and the progress being made in reducing and mitigating the impacts of human activities on the marine environment. This paper outlines the knowledge brokering role that the Regular Process provides on ocean issues to all aspects of society from policy makers, ocean managers, ocean users to the public. It identifies the challenges faced by the Regular Process in successfully carrying out that role and lessons learned in achieving widespread uptake and recognition. Within the Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, solutions in the form of instructions or guidelines for the use of the assessment can be developed and implemented.

Subversive Submersives

“…40 These impacts have been shown in decades' worth of rigorous marine science and disseminated via regular global environmental assessments but remain largely absent from urban debates. 41 Brenner and Schmid's notion of extended urbanisation can therefore be helpful in confirming that urban processes are operating through the ocean, though not as visible as other spaces on land. Central to the urbanisation of the ocean has been the working of these spaces and transforming their bodies in the service of industrial logics: what geographers Martin Arboleda and Daniel Banoub call a 'market monstrosity'.…”

Advancing Ocean Sustainability for Climate-Resilient Change

“…In 2010, the First World Ocean Assessment (FWOA) was released. It successfully drew global attention to the concerning condition of the ocean and emphasized the urgent need for improved management of coastal and marine environments to safeguard crucial ecosystem services [4]. Results of the FWOA report were shared globally at the UNGA in September 2015, adding the ocean to a longer list of areas of concern regarding the maintenance of a globally sustainable planet.…”

An evolution towards scientific consensus for a sustainable ocean future

“…Address power asymmetries in coproduction of knowledge and scenario building through broad based inclusivity 33,44 Ability to identify gaps in assessment and/or knowledge, and address them: stimulate research 69 Ocean as the starting point for thinking about the biosphere -SDG 14 as a central pivot 68,70 Provide cohesion for integration of knowledge 28,42 Learn from previous processes to ensure influential and action-oriented outcomes for IPOS: recognise that the design of the assessment (or coordination) process will affect its legitimacy, credibility and salience 25,33,42 Agility and speed to provide focused knowledge on specific issue 34 Include imaginative futures thinking with a complex systems approach 21,67 Provide tools for addressing science-policy gap, design outcomes to meet requirements 5,65 Multi-sectoral, transdisciplinary and multilevel approach supported by marine governance system 33,69,80 Autonomous work scope which meets the needs of policymakers thereby improving responsiveness of governance 65,70…”

“…Complement the set of government selected scientists 52,70 Broaden ocean focus (acknowledging SROCC) 34 Embrace the role of climate in ecosystem and planetary health 68 Fig. 2 A comparative literature review of the developments required in current assessment bodies, illustrating the rationale for the IPOS.…”

“…Future scenarios for a sustainable ocean While urgent action needs to be reliably informed about past and ongoing ocean changes, policymaking also requires a consideration of future ocean changes to be sustainable [64][65][66][67][68][69] . While modelling and scenario-building underpin the IPCC and IPBES reports, projections have not been as central in WOA reports 33,70,71 .…”