FOCCUS: Advancing Europe’s Coastal Monitoring and Forecasting Capabilities to Increase Coastal Resilience

The Horizon Europe FOCCUS project (Forecasting and Observing the Open-to-Coastal Ocean for Copernicus Users, foccus-project.eu), endorsed by the UN Ocean Decade and aligned with the CoastPredict Program, strengthens the coastal dimension of the Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service (CMEMS) and supports the implementation of the European Digital Twin of the Ocean (DTO) to improve Europe’s coastal resilience. Bringing together 19 partners from 11 European countries, in collaboration with  Member State Coastal Systems (MSCS) and users,  FOCCUS has already developed and published a suite of innovative digital ocean products and services following three key pillars: i) developing new high-resolution coastal observations, ii) developing advanced hydrology and enhancing coastal models, and iii) establishing co-designed coastal applications for addressing three environmental and societal challenges around Europe. In the realm of coastal observation, products include multiple essential ocean variables, built using data fusion, AI-based algorithms, and leveraging synergies between observing multi-platforms and satellite sensors and missions to improve their accuracy and coverage, as well as detailed inventories of pan-European coastal and river data. Combined with insights from an in-depth analysis of existing European coastal operational systems, these new data products are being integrated into MSCS. In order to further reinforce the connection from land to sea, MSCS are also enhanced by developments in pan-European hydrological data and high-resolution coastal modeling. Vital for integration in the DTO framework, FOCCUS has tested new methodologies to better connect the various MSCS with CMEMS, including the use of innovative nesting methods and new data fusion approaches that incorporate AI technologies. FOCCUS enables the integration of advanced data products into targeted, co-produced applications to address three areas of coastal protection: i) coastal management and protection (including the prediction of coastal erosion risk, marine pollution, and sediment tracking), ii) enhancement of the blue economy (including the co-use of wind and aquaculture resources), and iii) building resilience to coastal climate change (including tracking marine heatwaves, monitoring ecosystem degradation and harmful algae blooms, and predicting storm surge/waves). This project is also set to be integrated within EDITO Model-Lab. The advanced observation data products developed in FOCCUS are to be published in the EDITO Data Catalog, making the datasets and their metadata discoverable, while allowing EDITO users to directly work with these products efficiently, thanks to the collocation of data and computing. The MSCS are planning to also go through uniform validation by utilizing EDITO-Model Lab's Validation Toolbox, a service accessible on the EDITO Platform. FOCCUS showcases how interdisciplinary coordinated advances in observing systems, modeling, and co-design of applications can jointly improve the scientific and operational foundations of CMEMS and accelerate the development of the European DTO to help address natural hazards and extreme events.

FOCCUS is funded by the European Union (Grant Agreement No. 101133911). Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.