ICES Ecosystem Overviews use risk-based methods to identify the main human activities and associated pressures in an ecoregion and explain how these affect key ecosystem components. They provide information on recent trends in the ecosystem and perform a crucial role in providing the context for ecosystem-based management.
The Workshop on fourth generation ecosystem overviews (WKEO4) is a follow up of the WKEO3 held in 2019, to develop recommendations on the next generation of ICES ecosystem overviews, including how to improve their utility to meeting advisory and decision-making needs. The workshop will identify and document progress to date on priority topics, produce updated medium and long-term priority lists, and advance specific sections in the ecosystem overviews to meet end-user needs, with consideration of the ICES Framework for Ecosystem-informed Science and Advice (FEISA). In addition, the workshop will identify opportunities for streamlining and information flow, including how to improve alignment and integrate indicators, data, and information from other state of the environment reporting (e.g. OSPAR, HELCOM, Norway, EU MSFD, NAFO).
WKEO4 will meet in person at ICES Headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark with an online option from 16–20 June 2025. It will be chaired by Henn Ojaveer (Estonia), Nathalie Steins (Netherlands) and Debbi Pedreschi (Ireland).
Workshop participation is open to individuals with expertise in ecosystem assessments or other state of the environment reporting. If you are interested in attending, please register your interest by 2 June 2025 using the linked form to the right.
WKEO4 Terms of Reference
- Review and update priority topic lists for the Ecosystem Overviews (EOs). Identify and document progress to date, existing gaps and emerging topics, and prioritise based on available knowledge and advice users' needs. Produce updated medium (3–5 years), and long-term (5–10 years) priority lists, taking into account the ICES Framework for Ecosystem-informed Science and Advice (FEISA).
- Considering FEISA, advance specific sections in the EOs to meet end-user needs and by developing/proposing:
- A common template structure for the climate change section (flexible to regional needs and available data), to be piloted in the Central Arctic Ocean and Oceanic Northeast Atlantic ecoregions.
- A common template structure for the social and economic context section, flexible to regional needs and available data, and flagging future needs/directions
- A general schematic summary for communicating the main key signals of the EO.
- Develop recommendations on how to improve the utility of EOs to meet advisory and decision-making needs, improve communication and accessibility, and address capacity challenges by:
- Reviewing Integrated Ecosystem Assessment (IEA) and EO production processes to identify opportunities for streamlining and improving information flow and integration across groups and products, including data and evidence management.
- Investigate how to improve alignment and integrate indicators, data, and information from other state of the environment reporting (e.g. OSPAR, HELCOM, Norway, EU MSFD, NAFO) into the EOs to reduce redundancy and address capacity challenges.
Critically review current EO format to assess how to improve accessibility, such as via interactive outputs from IEA and EOs (e.g. Shiny apps, ArcGIS Story maps, Web Services, etc.).
