Webinars
Upcoming Webinars
Valuing Marine Ecosystem Services for Better Decisions
Wednesday, April 8, 1 pm US EDT/10 am US PDT/5 pm UTC/6 pm BST. Presented by: Angela Fletcher and Glen Delaney of Earth Economics. Description: Marine and coastal ecosystems provide many ecosystem services that are essential to human communities, including food, recreational opportunities, and protection of infrastructure from natural disasters. These benefits are not often framed in economic terms, which can lead to them being overlooked in decision-making. Communicating ecosystem services in economic terms can support more holistic decision-making that accounts for the full range of benefits these systems provide. In this webinar, Angela Fletcher and Glen Delaney of Earth Economics will introduce the fundamentals of ecosystem service valuation and demonstrate how they have applied these methods in marine and coastal contexts. Earth Economics is a nonprofit economic consultancy with 26 years of experience applying valuation techniques in decision-making, policy, and project implementation. They will begin with a brief overview of ecosystem services and valuation basics, then walk through three real-world case studies that illustrate how valuation can inform conservation, restoration, and policy decisions: a valuation study of kelp forests along the California coast; the use of valuation to inform a National Marine Sanctuary application for the St. George Unangan Heritage site; and how valuation can support funding for salmon habitat restoration in the Duckabush Estuary in Washington State.
Coastal Marine Litter Observatory: Combining drones and AI for real-time beach and coastal monitoring
Thursday, April 16, 10 am US EDT/7 am US PDT/2 pm UTC/3 pm BST/4 CEST/5 pm EEST. Presented by: Kostas Topouzelis of Scidrones. Description: Marine litter is a significant environmental problem that can dramatically affect flora and fauna and have severe economic impacts on coastal communities, tourism, and fisheries. Currently, most mapping protocols for marine litter in the coastal environment rely on conventional on-site sampling, with limited ability to spatially display concentrations of coastal zone marine waste. To provide real-time, actionable data, Scidrones has created the Coastal Marine Litter Observatory (CMLO), an online platform that detects, maps, and monitors marine litter in the coastal zone using Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) and machine learning. UAS aerial images – collected using the Scidrones data acquisition protocol and uploaded to the CMLO platform – provide wide area coverage of actual litter, and machine learning algorithms are used to detect marine litter and categorize it (i.e., plastic, paper, metal, cloth, glass and ceramic, rubber, and wood). Marine debris in the coastal zone is then visualized through high-resolution density maps and spatiotemporal analytics, enabling scalable, operational monitoring and empowering stakeholders to take precise, data-driven action for cleaner beaches and coastlines. A free trial covering 1 km of coastline is available, allowing users to test and explore the platform’s capabilities.
Past Webinars
Toolkit for Engaging Local Communities in MPA Management
This webinar originally aired on April 10, 2014. Presenter(s): UM Graduate Students Click here to View on YouTube
Global Ocean Refuge System to Protect Marine Life Worldwide (GLORES)
This webinar originally aired on Mar 13, 2014. Presenter(s): Lance Morgan of Marine Conservation Institute
Monitoring and Evaluation of spatially managed Marine Areas
This webinar originally aired on February 25, 2014. Created by the European Community, the MESMA framework is a step-wise approach to the evaluation and monitoring…
Ecosystem Services Harmonization in Theory and Practice
The scientific community and policy makers recognize marine and coastal ecosystem services (MCES) as extremely important for human survival…
Valuing Ecosystem Services in the Face of Climate Change in North Carolina and Hawaii
To correctly value ecosystem services both today and when considering future climate change and adaptation strategies…
Coastal Resilience 2.0
Coastal Resilience 2.0 is a suite of interactive tools to help decision-makers assess risk and identify nature-based solutions to reduce socio-economic vulnerability to coastal hazards…
MPAs as Sentinel Sites
“Sentinel sites” are areas with the capacity for sustained ocean observations to track environmental change. Within national marine sanctuaries…
Assessing Habitat and Community Sensitivity to Climate Change Impacts
The National Estuarine Research Reserves (NERRS) are uniquely positioned across the U.S. to assess climate change impacts and the sensitivity…
Demonstration of Marin Explore
Making sense of the increasing volume of complex ocean data is a difficult and time-consuming task. Marin explore is a “big data platform” to help offshore industry…
Impacts of Sea Level Rise on National Parks
Climate change and sea level rise will challenge National Park efforts to protect natural and cultural resources and to provide visitor access and recreational opportunities.