Developing European operational oceanography for Blue Growth, climate change adaptation and mitigation, and ecosystem-based management

Operational approaches have been more and more widely developed and used for providing marine data and information services for different socio-economic sectors of the Blue Growth and to advance knowledge about the marine environment. The objective of operational oceanographic re- search is to develop and improve the efficiency, timeliness, robustness and product quality of this approach. This white paper aims to address key scientific challenges and research priorities for the development of operational oceanography in Europe for the next 5-10 years. Knowledge gaps and deficiencies are identified in relation to common scientific challenges in four EuroGOOS knowledge areas: European Ocean Observations, Modelling and Forecasting Technology, Coastal Operational Oceanography and Operational Ecol- ogy. The areas "European Ocean Observations" and "Mod- elling and Forecasting Technology" focus on the further ad- vancement of the basic instruments and capacities for Euro- pean operational oceanography, while "Coastal Operational Oceanography" and "Operational Ecology" aim at develop- ing new operational approaches for the corresponding knowl- edge areas.