Evolving and Sustaining an Ocean Best Practices System - a Continuing Evolution

A decade ago, the need for a sustained, global system for best practices was identified through work in the AtlantOs and the Ocean Data Interoperability Platform (ODIP) projects, to address the global challenge to make ocean observations, data management, modeling, and applications more comprehensive and coherent on regional and global scales. In collaboration with, and building on the Repository of the Ocean Data Standards Project of the UNESCO Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) International Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange (IODE), in 2019, the Ocean Best Practices System (OBPS) was adopted as a project by UNESCO-IOC with the sponsorship of IODE and the Global Ocean Observation System (GOOS). The OBPS initially focused on ocean observations and data management and included a repository, a peer-reviewed journal, and capacity building element. There have been additional components, and activities facilitated by OBPS over the last five years, many of which involve community engagement and cultural changes alongside building a repository technology representing methodological documentation supporting the entire ocean information value chain.