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The International Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange (IODE) programme of the IOC was established in 1961 with an aim to “enhance marine research, exploitation and development, by facilitating the exchange of oceanographic data and information between participating Member States, and by meeting the needs of users for data and information products.” This is underpinned by a number of objectives, including supporting the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS), developing best practice for management of data and narrowing the ‘digital divide’ between developing and developed countries.
The IODE programme coordinates a global network of more than 100 National Oceanographic Data Centres (NODCs) and Associate Data Units (ADUs). These centres manage and make available millions of ocean observations that contribute to ocean data products and services developed and used by other IOC programmes, supporting a wide range of applications for the ocean community and society in general.
The governing body of the IODE programme is the IODE Committee, bringing together representatives of its main stakeholder communities: IODE national coordinators (data management and marine information management). National Oceanographic Data Centres (NODCs) and Associate Data Units (ADUs) and other specialists; (Co-)Chairs of Steering Groups of IODE Programme Components, Programme Activities and projects; Partner organizations and Programmes (UN, other international, regional); Observers; IODE Secretariat; IOC Secretariat representatives of other IOC programmes.
The committee meets every two years, usually March/April of the same year as the (June) IOC Assembly.
The UK has been a very active participant in IODE, led by the British Oceanographic Data Centre (BODC) and its predecessors with support from the Marine Environmental Data and Information Network (MEDIN), the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas) and the Marine Biological Association (MBA), contributing both to its implementation and strategic development. The UK has also Chaired the IODE, through Dr Nicholas Flemming (1990, 1992) and Dr Lesley Rickards (2005, 2007).
IODE Network Structure
- National Oceanographic Data Centres (NODC)
The mission of an NODC is to provide access and stewardship for the national resource of oceanographic data. This effort requires the gathering, quality control, processing, summarization, dissemination, and preservation of data generated by national and international agencies.
UK involvement: The British Oceanographic Data Centre is an IODE-accredited NODC. The accreditation procedure and criteria was built on the MEDIN accreditation criteria. The UK National Coordinator for Ocean Data Management is Mark Hebden, BODC.
- Associate Data Unit (ADU)
The ADU brings in wider ocean research and observation communities as key stakeholders of the IODE network. It allows these sectors to share, provide access to and preserve ocean research data.
UK involvement: The UK has three ADUs: MEDIN represented by Clare Postlethwaite, MBA represented by Dan Lear, Cefas represented by Laura Hanley.
Overall activity is coordinated by the IOC Project Office for IODE, where day to day management of the programme is delivered by the IODE Secretariat. The Project Office is informed by the IODE Management Group.
Work is structured around three major Programme Components which are the IODE core activities complemented by Programme Activities and projects:
| IODE Programme Components | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Component | Description | UK Contribution | Point of Contact | Organisation |
| Ocean Biodiversity Information System (OBIS) | The OBIS vision is to be the most comprehensive gateway to the world’s ocean biodiversity and biogeographic data and information required to address pressing coastal and world ocean concerns.
| The UK OBIS node is hosted at the MBA with over 20 data providers and five and half million occurrence records submitted. The MBA sits on the Steering Group of OBIS, the OBIS vocabulary infrastructure project team and the data quality assessment and enhancement project team. | Dan Lear - Co Chair of Steering Group | DASSH at the MBA |
| Ocean Data and Information System (ODIS) | The ODIS concept was presented at the 24th IODE Session after a review of the IOC operations in 2016. At the 25th IODE Session, the purpose of the ODIS was stated to “support the registration of a variety of sources, ranging from data and information, to systems such as catalogues/portals/webs sites, to manuals/guidance/standards”. It is currently in the early stages of development but has already a pilot catalogue site which houses descriptive information of data and access, rather than the data itself. The hope is that the catalogue will bring together information from all National Oceanographic Data Centres (NODCs). | MEDIN (Marine Environmental Data and Information Network) has a cooperative relationship with ODIS through the UK-IOC and participation in related marine data conferences. | Mark Hebden | BODC at NOC |
| OceanTeacher Global Academy (OTGA) | The OGTA has trained nearly 2000 students from 120 countries since 2005. This web-based training platform supports classroom training, blended training (combining classroom and distance learning), and online learning and courses include: Scientific Knowledge and Research, Sustainable Use of Marine Resources, Marine Spatial Planning, Marine and Coastal Ecosystems, Disaster Risk Reduction, International Marine Law, Ocean Acidification, Marine Pollution. The courses contribute to the implementation of the IOC Capacity Development Strategy, enabling equitable participation of all IOC Member States and IOC Programmes. | MEDIN in collaboration with OceanWise created a free training course in 2021 for those responsible for collecting or managing marine data. | N/A | N/A |
| IODE Programme Activities | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Activity | Description | UK Contribution | Point of Contact | Organisation |
| AquaDocs | An open access repository covering the natural marine, coastal, estuarine /brackish and freshwater environments and includes all aspects of the science, technology, management and conservation of these environments, their organisms and resources, and the economic, sociological and legal aspects. Joint activity with the International Association of Aquatic and Marine Science Libraries and Information Centers (IAMSLIC) with support from the FAO Aquatic Sciences and Fisheries Abstracts. | Numerous organisations have contributed documents covering freshwater as well as marine activities. | N/A | N/A |
| Global Oceanographic Data Archaeology and Rescue Project (GODAR) | The goal of GODAR is to increase the volume of historical oceanographic data available to climate change and other researchers by locating ocean profile and plankton datasets not yet in digital form, digitizing these data and ensuring their submission to national data centres and the World Data Service. In addition, data on electronic media that are at risk of loss due to media degradation are also candidates for rescue. | Since the establishment of ICES over a century ago, the UK has provided oceanographic data to the Service Hydrographique, often in the form of printed reports. These were subsequently digitised by ICES and the WDS for Oceanography and contributed to GODAR. At the IODE XVI (2000), GE-GLOSS requested that sea level data be included as part of GODAR which was accepted by the IODE Committee. It was agreed that GLOSS would coordinate a sea level data archaeology project with PSMSL as the focal point. Sea level data rescued reported at IODEXVIII (2005), IODEXIX (2007). Subsequently GLOSS has continued to rescue sea level data by digitising manuscript and paper chart data and making them freely available largely independently of IODE. The UK has initiated several data rescue projects. A GLOSS data archaeology workshop was held in 2020 and a Data Archaeology Working Group has now been set up. The UK contributed to the workshop and is a member of the WG. | Mark Hebden
Elizabeth Bradshaw (for sea level data) | BODC at NOC |
| Global Ocean Surface Underway Data Project (GOSUD) | The main objectives of GOSUD are is to collect, process, archive and disseminate in real time and delayed mode, sea surface salinity and other variables collected underway, by research vessels and ships of opportunity for research purposes and for satellite data validation. Project has subsequently been renamed the ‘Underway Sea Surface Data Archiving Programme Activity’ but retains the acronym ‘GOSUD’. | The UK was involved in the early days of GOSUD and participated in Steering Group meetings (and may submit data in the future). | N/A | N/A |
| Global Temperature and Salinity Profile Programme (GTSPP) | GTSPP is a cooperative international project seeking to develop and maintain a global ocean temperature-salinity resource with near real time and delayed mode data that are both up-to-date and of the highest quality. Fisheries and Oceans Canada plays a central role in the real-time and near real-time data acquisition within the program. National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) maintains the program’s long-term archive. | UK has been involved in GTSPP in the past through participation in Steering Group meetings. The Met Office were invited to the GTSPP meeting in 2019 to provide feedback on GTSPP data that was used for the Hadley Centre EN4 dataset. The Met Office is looking to become a GTSPP Product Centre. | Mark Hebden | BODC at NOC |
| Rachel Killick (GTSPP user) | Met Office | |||
| International Coastal Atlas Network (ICAN) | The strategic aim of the IODE ICAN project is to share experiences and to find common solutions to coastal web atlases (CWAs) development while ensuring maximum relevance and added value for the end users. | The UK has historically had individuals take part in the project, but as it stands there are no known individuals who are currently part of this steering group or project. | N/A | N/A |
| International Quality Controlled Ocean Database (IQuOD) | The primary focus of IQuOD is to produce and freely distribute the highest quality and complete single ocean profile repository along with (intelligent) metadata and assigned uncertainties for use in ocean climate research applications. This goal will be achieved by developing and implementing an internationally-agreed framework. | One co-Chair of the IQuOD is a UK representative, with two other UK representatives on the steering team. Rachel Killick is a member of the Steering Group. NOC and the Met Office are IQuOD affiliated institutions. | Rachel Killick Matthew Palmer, Simon Good | Met Office |
| Catia Domingues | NOC | |||
| OceanExpert | OceanExpert serves as IOC’s the main repository to manage information on experts, institutes, IOC events and other relevant information. It serves as a connector between several IODE Programme components and IODE programme activities, avoiding duplication of the information shared between them. | There are over 1000 UK individuals included in OceanExpert. | N/A | N/A |
| Ocean Best Practices System (OBPS) | OBPS was formally approved in 2019 and supersedes the OceanDataPractices repository project. OBPS provides publication, discovery and access to relevant and tested methods, from observation to application, as well as a foundation for increasing capacity. The Ocean Best Practice System supports the entire ocean community in sharing methods, developing best practices and capacity development in their use. | Scientists, data managers and technical experts from the UK have contributed to many ‘best practice’ documents. These include documents relating to international organisations, programmes and communities (e.g. ICES, IODE, SeaDataNet, Argo, OceanGliders, GLOSS sea level, EuroGOOS, EMODnet) which can be found using the OBPS search engine. | Justin Buck | NOC |
| IODE Quality Management Framework (IODE-QMF) | This provides the overall strategy, advice and guidance for NODCs and ADUs to design and implement quality management systems for the successful delivery of oceanographic and related data, products and services. | BODC has contributed to the IOC Manuals and Guides describing how to develop a quality management framework, including accreditation criteria. We have also reviewed accreditation applications and contributed to a training course through OceanTeacher Global Academy. The SG-QMF is currently chaired by Lesley Rickards (BODC). Mark Hebden (BODC) is also a member of the Steering Group. | Mark Hebden | BODC at NOC |
| World Ocean Database (WOD) | The WOD represents the world’s largest collection of vertical profile data of ocean characteristics available internationally without restriction. The WOD is part of hosted by the WDC World Data Service for Oceanography, hosted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), USA. | Data have been submitted to the WOD by UK Hydrographic Office (XBT data) and BODC (CTD data). BODC intends to resume data supply in the future. Currently some UK data arrives via Argo and GTSPP. | Mark Hebden | BODC at NOC |
| IODE Projects | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Project | Description | UK Contribution | Point of Contact | Organisation |
| Marine Protected Areas Europe (MPA Europe) - IODE as partner or contractor | Aims to identify the locations within the European seas where MPAs would protect the highest number of species, habitats and ecosystems. This information is crucial to establish a functional MPA network and will help managers to propose further areas for conservation in the future. Factors in the potential blue carbon benefits of the prioritization. The OBIS secretariat are contributing information to the project. | EU Horizon project running until April 2026 with various UK contributions. | Fabrice Stephenson | Newcastle University |
| Michael Burrows | SAMS | |||
| Helen Lillis | JNCC | |||
| Eleanor Stewart | JNCC | |||
| Integration of biodiversity monitoring data into the Digital Twin Ocean (DTO-BioFlow) - IODE as partner or contractor | Significant advancement has been made in Europe to collect, harmonise, and make available data on marine biodiversity, DTO-BioFlow aims to unlock data amongst these that would otherwise be unavailable and inaccessible. It enables the sustained flow data into the EU Digital Twin Ocean. It will create a digital replica of marine biological processes transforming new and existing data flows into evidence-based knowledge. | The MBA and St Andrews University are project partners. EU funded and currently ongoing. Three UK projects were chosen as recipients of the DTO-BioFlow First Open Call, these were led by Bangor University, Mentor Môn and BODC. A further UK project was awarded as part of the Second Open Call to The Shark Trust, based in Plymouth. | Dan Lear | MBA |
| MARCO-BOLO | MARine COastal BiOdiversity Long-term Observations (MARCO-BOLO): Strengthening biodiversity observation in support of decision making. A project that will strengthen European marine, coastal and freshwater biodiversity observation to understand and restore ocean health. | Contributions include some on Data management, eDNA-based approaches, workshops and reporting, sensor network design, biodiversity mapping, training. Full details for each partner organisation are provided on the website. EU Horizon Europe programme. UK participants in MARCO-BOLO are supported by the UKRI’s Horizon Europe Guarantee Scheme | Dan Lear | MBA |
| Julie Robidart and Mojtaba Masoudi | NOC | |||
| Iveta Matejusova | Marine Scotland | |||