The Geographic Approach to Our Ocean, Our Future

In this invited seminar as part of the NOAA Integrated Ocean and Coastal Mapping Seminar Series (and in association with the multi-agency and White House National Ocean Mapping, Exploration, and Characterization (NOMEC) Council), the author briefly lays out the case for a “geographic approach” for bringing the importance of the ocean front-and-center in the minds of policy-makers and the public, for making the critical intersection between ocean mapping and climate, and all within the context of the very-important UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development. Included are descriptions of new geospatial applications with end-to-end capability, from creating content to high-end modeling and novel analytics to effective science communication back to communities. This is especially the communities who truly understand that the ocean is not too big to fail or fix. Our very future depends upon it.