Ocean Health Index or IdSO evaluated aspects such as biodiversity, clean waters, coastal protection, artisanal fishing, tourism and recreation, among others, in the 103 coastal communes of the country. The initiative will be the basis for the development of the ocean data platform IDEOS together with Data Observatory.
The Millennium Institute in Coastal Socio-Ecology (SECOS) and the High Latitude Marine Ecosystem Dynamics Research Center (IDEAL), in a joint work carried out over two years and with analysis of multiple sources, databases and reviews of ten key indicators, they presented the results of the first evaluation of the Ocean Health Index (IdSO), a scientifically recognized international indicator, which analyzed the state of marine ecosystems of 103 coastal communes in Chile, from Arica to Punta Arenas.
This first comprehensive assessment of the health of the ocean and its activities associated with coastal communities of the country, resulted in an intermediate-high state of national ocean health, where Chile generally obtained 61 points out of a maximum of 100 in the measurement, placing our sea in a relatively healthy state, but at least 10 points below the global average. of the 220 countries that have measurements, which averages 73 points.
This assessment was carried out through a collaborative effort between the IDEAL center and the Millennium Institute SECOS, with the objectives of analyzing in an integrated way the health of Chile's marine-coastal ecosystems, identifying priority areas for action in the coastal communes of Chile that require improving ocean health, and promoting public awareness about the importance of ocean health and its impact on the coastal communities", mentions Laura Nahuelhual, coordinator of IdSO Chile and researcher at SECOS and IDEAL.
The IdSO measures the health status of the world's oceans, from global scales to local or community scales, and defines an ocean as "healthy", as long as it provides in a sustainable way a variety of benefits to people, now and in the future. These benefits are manifested through 10 indicators or "goals", which include: Biodiversity; Carbon Sequestration; Clean Water; Coastal Protection; Sense of Place; Opportunities for Artisanal Fishing; Natural Products; Economies and Livelihoods; Fisheries Food Supply artisanal and aquaculture; and Tourism and recreation.
For Nahuelhual, also a researcher from the University of Los Lagos, "the results place Chile in an intermediate-high position, where the weighting of each target is summarized in this figure, but with significant variations between each one, so we think there is a lot of room for improvement for the country in several of its targets and communes".
Results
In a global comparison, Chile is more than 20 points behind the best evaluated countries, such as Seychelles (87), United Arab Emirates (85), Portugal (84), Russia (83) and New Zealand (82), among others..
In Latin America, the best rated is Venezuela (82), followed by Brazil (80) and Ecuador (80)In another group of high range scores, Argentina (72), Peru (72) and Colombia (71) are found, where the lowest score was obtained by the Falkland Islands (58), the only lower score than that of Chile.
Regarding the results by target for Chile, of the 10 targets evaluated, the Biodiversity target achieved the highest score with a value of 73.8 (where the maximum for each target is 100)), with 68.9% of municipalities in the “High” category (above 80, up to 100).
In contrast, the goals Opportunities for Artisanal Fishing and Natural Products scored the lowest (27.9 and 30.4 respectively), reflecting management and governance challenges in these areas, but also an opportunity to advance and improve these aspects.
Of the results per commune, we identified six groups of municipalities with similar profiles regarding certain goals, but without following a clear spatial trend. For example, some communes had very low scores in Artisanal Fishing Opportunities and Natural Products, while others had very low scores in Tourism and Mariculture.
From detail per commune, the best evaluated considering the 10 goals were Toltén (73), Papudo (72), Castro (72), Swans (72), Queilén (71), Christmas (70), Valdivia (70) and Algarrobo (70), with high scores in several goals and others in the middle range, where none of them went too far from the national average of 61 points.
Ongoing evaluation
This enormous volume of open data, shared by various sources and public organizations, and which were part of the assessment, constitutes critical information for decision-making for coastal sustainability. Like this, the evaluation of the IdSO will be part of IDEOS, project Fondef IDeA R & D, recently awarded to a multidisciplinary team that integrates the Catholic University of the North (UCN), Data Observatory (DO), and the Instituto Milenio en Socio-Ecología Costera (SECOS), which will develop for 2 years, the IDEOS ocean data platform, which will allow a constant and permanent assessment of the health of the ocean in Chile.
The IDEOS project provides for the creation of an integrated database, as well as an interactive open access web platform, where results from Chile can be reviewed, by IdSO target and by commune. It will also have a map server that will allow its interoperability with other open sources of information.
"At Data Observatory we understand deeply the relevance of data, and especially those that fall into the category of "open", which allow us to advance in research, innovation and the design of effective public policies. This commitment allows us to unify and optimize the value of various data sources, encouraging a style of co-governance of these, so that informed and sustainable decisions can be made. Ours. the objective is to maintain a constant evolution of our platform, attracting more collaborators that provide valuable data, thus enriching our analyses and perspectives, actively involving us in the so-called life cycle of the data", says Rodrigo Roa, Executive Director of Data Observatory.
Like the first IdSO evaluation, the data are collected from public bases, and institutions that make their information available to collaborate with the IDEOS platform. It is proposed in the future to have easily accessible visual elements such as infographics or traffic lights, to democratize the understanding of this information, both for experts and for the ordinary citizen.
Download the document with the results for freein addition to databases, sources and other resources in this link.
You can also review the video recording of the release of the IdSO results for Chile:
Credit referential images: Partnerfish
