LME and Open Ocean Plenary

1. 9/25/2012IWSC 2012
Ramesh Ramachandran
Hartwig Kremer
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2. 8/18/2014IWSC 20122
Five Major Trans-boundary Water Types
1. Groundwater
2. Lakes
3. Rivers
4. LME &
5. Open Ocean
 In this conference Coastal waters / ecosystems are
subsumed under LME and Open Ocean.

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 Coastal zone – a spatial and temporal edge/ a resource
sustainable edge:
 >30% human population
 20% biological productivity
 90% global fisheries
 Global Ecosystem Services
 ~ US $16 – 54 trillion/year
 Hence there is an urgent need to provide strong
emphasis for “COASTAL WATERS” in the Trans-
boundary Water Portfolio

4. 9/25/2012IWSC 2012
 LBPS projects demonstrated significant and successful
“scientific” components
 Social sciences were included in some of the projects….
 However… a seamless integration of Natural and Social
Science into a “systems approach” that will strengthen
ecosystem based, adaptive management within the IW projects
was rather limited
 A few projects demonstrated this integration very successfully
and we categorized them as “Lighthouse Projects”
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5. 9/25/2012IWSC 2012
 Classic examples of “LIGHTHOUSE” projects:
 PEMSEA [The Partnership for the Management of the Seas of East
Asia (PEMSEA)] – addressed through DEMONSTRATION PROJECTS
– the
 trans-boundary environmental issues in the Gulf of Thailand &
 Pollution “ hotspots” in Manila Bay and Bohai Sea
 WIOLAB science towards adaptive management
LOICZ (Land Ocean Interactions in the Coastal Zone) – assessed
 Biogeochemical fluxes on a global scale and pointed towards
 Application of Governance and Management of Social-Ecological Systems
 Some 185 peer reviewed publications resulted and regionally communities keep
further developing the application until today
 Most of these “lighthouse” LBP projects had good science base and
excellent underlying documentation
 These projects have created a strong knowledge base with inputs from
science and management
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6. 9/25/2012IWSC 2012
E.g. use of Indigenous Knowledge
MADAM (Mangrove Dynamics and Management) Project in Brazil uses
indigenous knowledge to support the formulation of mangrove
management recommendations
SPICE [Science for the protection of coastal ecosystems] project in the
Indonesian Archipelago – looked at structure/functioning of coastal
ecosystems – i.e. mangroves, reefs, coastal pelagic systems and peat
swamps, and human alteration – developed and applied criteria for social
system resilience and indicators
ELME [European Lifestyles and Marine Ecosystems] linking social
development, aspirations and wellbeing to environmental quality and
change in European coastal seas (a social ecological systems approach)
including horizon scanning (scenarios)
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 Coastal urbanization and Coastal Mega-cities (e.g. subsidence)
 Deltas – transboundary drivers of vulnerability and degradation
 Eutrophication and interaction between sea bottom water column
 Dissolved Oxygen – especially HYPOXIA – an ecological indicator
 as a consequence of increased investments in biofuels and aquaculture
 Pollution incl. microplastics
 Drastical transformation of near shore continental shelves – an unprecedented
large scale experiment
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Marine Drive, Mumbai Ganges Delta Coastal Eutrophication

8. 9/25/2012IWSC 2012
 Nutrient reduction and pollution
 need to build on rather innovative approaches
across the water cascade and traditional scientific
boundaries
 FUTURE EARTH – RESEARCH for GLOBAL
SUSTAINABILITY (ICSU, ISSC, UNEP,
UNESCO, UNU, Belmont Forum)
 UNEP/GEF launched the GPNM (Global
Partnership on Nutrient Management) –
 A global platform to steer dialogues and actions
to promote effective nutrient management
 Case Study: Chilika Lagoon, India
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9. 9/25/2012IWSC 2012
 Challenges that International Waters are likely to face – are largely
in the context of:
 institutionalizing applied sciences
 building constituency to promote changes in behavior and measure those
 requiring a clear understanding of and protocols for monitoring of the key parameters
in a social ecological system scale – including both social science, natural science
parameters and information from the humanities;
 needs a widely accepted understanding on how to deal with uncertainty and risk
 New Science is also needed in future global change and in response to it –
 on local regional or global scale – decisions need to be made and scientifically
informed – irrespective of knowledge being incomplete and forecasting coming
with large uncertainty levels : e.g. Blue Carbon and Blue Societies
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