Extreme climate events, pollution, the development of a blue economy and of a sustainable society: these are among the main themes of the “PredictOnTime” workshop, organized by the CMCC Foundation. International scientists gathered to share knowledge and advance research on oceans.

“The concept of global coastal ocean refers to integrating land and ocean in order to capture all the relevant processes that occur in this area,” said Nadia Pinardi, Professor of Oceanography at the University of Bologna and Member of the Strategic Board of the CMCC. “It is now clear that the sources of many problems in the sea come from the land, so we understand that we need to redefine the concept of global coastal ocean to improve our oceanology knowledge. This is a valid scientific topic, and it requires a dedicated understanding and discussion.”

The PredictOnTime workshop, organized by the CMCC, is taking place from 11 to 13 May 2023. Developing around the concept of a global ocean, and on the importance of the interaction between ocean and land, the workshop mainly focuses on coastal areas, and on what can science do to forecast and reduce the impacts of climate and extreme events.

The event gathers in the CMCC headquarters in Lecce, Italy, representatives of the international scientific community, to discuss and develop the key areas of the PredictOnTime project, centered on the theme of observations and predictions of the “Global Coastal Ocean”.

PredictOnTime – Integrated coastal ocean observing and predicting, is one of the key projects of CoastPredict, a scientific programme promoted and supported by the United Nations’ Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030), that has the aim to redefine the science of the observation and forecasting of the global coastal ocean for a sustainable future.

PredictOnTime will provide an observation and forecasting system for oceanic systems, that is transferable, easy to implement and inexpensive. The project’s priority is to fill the knowledge gaps in the field, and to address the scientific and technological challenges in order to lead a radical transformation on the prediction of the future global coastal ocean, by testing, measuring and evaluating the observation and modeling capacities.

CMCC is the leading institution of the PredictOnTime project, which also has the objective of implementing and testing the observation and prediction systems in pilot coastal areas in more than 20 countries in the global coastal ocean.

During the workshop research projects will be presented on systems for coastal observation and forecasting, from the point of view of both development and the consequent procedures of testing, evaluating and assessing.

“I would like to remind everybody about the commitment that CMCC has for this international cooperation programme within the UN decade of the ocean, that is a very important part of our programme of scientific innovation,” said Antonio Navarra, president of the CMCC Foundation in his welcome message at the beginning of the workshop. “I think it’s really the responsibility of the global science community to create connections and foster solidarity, even when the world seems to go in a different direction.”

The main goals of the workshop are:

• Overview the status of PredictOnTime implementation and discussion on the next steps
• Refine the PredictOnTime contribution to the CoastPredict “Global Coastal Experiment”: principles, proposed selection sites, list of outcomes, what new technologies and methodologies are required, testing of hypotheses etc.
• Overview of current initiatives and projects connected to PredictOnTime work packages and activities

In this first edition of the workshop the objective is to share knowledge and experiences within the international community of ocean scientists. Through presentations, networking and discussion sessions, the workshop offers a space to develop roadmaps and common strategies to reach the objectives of the project.

“We not only want to observe and forecast ocean variables, but we also want to observe and forecast the impacts that the extreme events will have on the natural and human resources. And this is a challenge,” said Giovanni Coppini, director of the OPA Division (Ocean Predictions and Applications) of CMCC. “CoastPredict is our reference programme, which will redefine the observing and prediction of the global coastal ocean, and of course will offer data and capability to the worldwide coastal community.”

Online and in person sessions are focused on the following main topics: innovative integrated observing and forecasting systems, modeling capacity, data collection and use of Machine Learning technologies, applications.

More information: https://predictontime.org/workshop-11-13-may-2023/