User:Leonardo.candela/The iMarine e-Infrastructure Initiative for Fisheries Management and Conservation of living Marine Resources

The iMarine initiative is an effort to provide an e-infrastructure for marine and biodiversity specialist communities and science policy decision making. It is aimed at providing access to existing resources and integrated data sets from geographically dispersed organizations. Defined as a Hybrid Data Infrastructure, iMarine is designed for data-intensive science and for the integration of several technologies, including grid and cloud computing, biodiversity, climate and environmental data access.

The Gateway is the access point to several Virtual Research Environments (VREs), a system aimed at providing a web-based working environment with relevant applications, data and computational facilities for a specific set of eScience needs.

Purpose
Aquatic ecosystems, inland, coastal and marine, provide humans with resources for food, livelihood and recreation. They also perform environmental functions that contribute to general human well-being. Achieving the sustainable use of aquatic ecosystems has been the main objective of fisheries management for decades. In order to make more progress in this area, the Ecosystem Approach Fisheries (EAF) requires deeper understanding and better management of fisheries resources, including the capture and distribution of species, especially endangered and vulnerable species. The purpose of a Community of Practice is to share data and knowledge in order to collectively support the Ecosystem Approach.

The purpose of the Virtual Research Environments is to connect scientists and professionals from the Community of Practice by offering specialized functionalities for the management, processing and visualization of scientific data and textual content.

Structure
The iMarine governance model includes a governing board, a steering board, an executive board, and a technical committee. iMarine has established the iMarine Board to provide knowledge in the field and the Advisory Council to provide organizational and policy guidance with regard to the Ecosystem Approach for Community of Practice. The iMarine Community of Practice is made up of organizations such as the Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (DG Mare); FishBase; Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations; International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES); International Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange (IODE); Naturalis; Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS); Marine Management Organisation. It also comprises ESTAT, European Commission; Ministry for Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy (MEDDE); North Atlantic Fisheries Commission (NEAFC); Reference Center on Environmental Information (CRIA). iMarine is currently funded by the European Commission under the 7th Framework Programme.

History
iMarine originates from the D4Science e-infrastructure and was developed and operated using the gCube technology. It is conceptually conceived as a Hybrid Data Infrastructure based on the assumption that several technologies, including Grid, private and public Cloud, can be integrated to provide elastic access and usage of data and data-management capabilities.