Connecting Land and Sea for Global Awareness: The OGC Federated Marine Spatial Data Infrastructure Pilot 2023 Calls For Participation

Pilot will investigate how marine navigational data can be used in new ways in the Caribbean, and how Digital Twins can be created for coastal management in Singapore and the Arctic.

3 March 2023: The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) has issued the Call For Participation (CFP) for the OGC Federated Marine Spatial Data Infrastructure Pilot 2023. Funding is available. Responses are due by April 14, 2023. A Bidders Q&A Webinar will be held on March 23 at 00:00 UTC, and again on March 24 at 14:00 UTC.

FMSDI 2023 has three parts, each with the goal of making Marine Spatial Data Infrastructures more powerful and user-oriented. Existing data will be used more effectively and new concepts such as Digital Twins will be tested in different areas. 

Part 1: Digital Twin of Land and Sea Interfaces - Singapore. Part 1 will develop and demonstrate the concept of the digital twin in the context of a land-sea scenario in Singapore. The focus is on the evaluation and exploration of existing OGC, IHO, UN-GGIM, and ISO standards and guidelines. Since the areas of land and water are traditionally separated organizationally, integrating data concerning land, sea, and their interface at the coast poses a challenge. With approximately 30% of Singapore’s land mass being less than 5m above sea level, data integration and analysis of “what if” scenarios within the Digital Twin are a top priority for Singapore.

Part 2: Digital Arctic Connecting Land and Sea - Canada. Part 2 also addresses data integration issues in the context of Digital Twins, but this time for the Arctic. With the loss of sea ice in the Arctic, continuing ocean warming, stronger winds and currents, and accelerated shoreline erosion affecting Arctic communities, efficient data usage and analysis is of the utmost importance for Canada. 

Part 3: Integrating Land & Sea for Various Use Cases - Caribbean. Part 3 of the project will use the warmer climes of the Caribbean to investigate how data developed primarily for navigation at sea can be used in other ways. The goal is to gain a better understanding of the data situation in the Caribbean and improve data integration. The pilot will invest in local capacity building and explore the potential of marine data in expanded sea-land contexts.

Are you interested? Join the OGC FMSDI 2023 pilot project and help realize the full potential of marine data and digital twins where land and sea meet! The Call for Participation is available on the OGC Federated Marine Spatial Data Infrastructure Pilot 2023 webpage. Funding options are available!

The OGC Federated Marine Spatial Data Infrastructure Pilot 2023 will be conducted under OGC's Collaborative Solutions and Innovation (COSI) Program. To learn about the benefits of sponsoring an OGC COSI Program Initiative such as this, visit the OGC COSI Program webpage.

This initiative builds on the result of the OGC FMSDI Pilot Phases 1, 2 and 3, which ran from September 2021 to January 2023. These pilots built on the works of prior OGC COSI Program initiatives, such as the Marine Spatial Data Infrastructure Concept Development Study, the Maritime Limits and Boundaries Pilot, and the Arctic Spatial Data Pilot. 

Further information, including the Call For Participation document, how to respond, and details for the Bidders Q&A webinars, are available on the OGC Federated Marine Spatial Data Infrastructure Pilot 2023 webpage. Responses to the CFP are due by April 14, 2023.

About OGC

The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) is a collective problem-solving community of more than 550 experts representing industry, government, research and academia, collaborating to make geospatial (location) information and services FAIR - Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable.

The global OGC Community engages in a mix of activities related to location-based technologies: developing consensus-based open standards and best-practices; collaborating on problem solving in agile innovation initiatives; participating in member meetings, events, and workshops; and more.

OGC's unique standards development process moves at the pace of innovation, with constant input from technology forecasting, practical prototyping, real-world testing, and community engagement.

OGC bridges disparate sectors, domains, and technology trends, and encourages the cross-pollination of ideas between different communities of practice to improve decision-making at all levels. OGC is committed to creating an inclusive and sustainable future.

Visit ogc.org for more info on our work.