Marine ecosystems are exposed to the impact of a number of multiple stressors, resulting from multiple drivers. A non-exhaustive list of co-existing pressures includes climate change (e.g. warming and acidification of the sea), pollution (litter, NHS), maritime traffic, exploitation of living and non-living resources, oligo/eutrophication, invasive species. SHAREMED is an Interreg MED Strategic Project led by OGS – Italian National Institute of Oceanography and Experimental Geophysics, addressing the specific request of the Med Secretariat and with the specific goal to define and test the implementation of a transnational and multi-level system of observing systems, able to assess and address these environmental threats in the Mediterranean Sea and along its coasts. The project answers the need identified in the framework of the Interreg Med gap analysis, and targets both the scientific and the governance components required in the definition and the testing of the observing systems. The need to assess and address the increasing presence of coexisting environmental threats, which propagate in space and time across political boundaries, calls for transnational coordinated actions based on evidence-based common understanding. There is a clear need for sharing of data, procedures, information and knowledge, in order to support multi-level governance and shared spatial planning. At the same time there is a need to improve observation and assessment capabilities, by integration of existing systems, development of short term forecast systems, and incorporation of emerging technologies.

ShareMED aimed to:

• engage stakeholders and authorities, to jointly define state-of-the-art and regional strategies;
• collate and harmonise existing info, data and knowledge and contribute to the joint production of a database of coherent data;
• define common procedures and jointly produce an atlas of state and hazard maps;
• integrate existing observing infrastructures in a common transnational system of systems and jointly disseminate observations through common portals;
• enhance forecast capabilities through development and implementation of coastal high resolution transnational systems;
• explore the potential of new observing methodologies;
• define roadmaps, guidelines, action plans.

The actions achieved were intended to:

• enhance the capability of authorities and the scientific community to observe, assess and address environmental threats;
• increase the coherence and efficacy of assessments;
• favour access and use of existing information and project joint products.

The project capitalised on knowledge provided by previous projects and existing EU infrastructures, and contributed to the definition of long term strategies and action plans for assessing and addressing marine environmental threats in the Mediterranean.
The Oceanography Malta Research Group (ex-Physical Oceanography Research Group) was leading the WP that deals with capitalisation. In December 2020, the first of a series of meetings was organised, which brought together leading experts and representatives of major international projects and initiatives relevant to the Mediterranean Sea in the framework of ocean observing systems intended to address major marine environmental threats. Details about the meeting are available here.

For more information visit our Project website: 

sharemed.interreg-med.eu