Why World Ocean Day matters
Every year on June8th, people around the globe celebrate World Ocean Day, a day dedicated to raising awareness about the oceans vital role in the health of our planet. The oceans cover more than 70% of Earths surface, produce over half of the worlds oxygen, regulate climate, and provide food and livelihoods to billions of people.
In 2020, the theme Planet Ocean Ocean of Life highlighted the interdependence between marine ecosystems and human societies, urging individuals, communities and governments to act responsibly.
GMES & Africa: An overview
GMES (now called Copernicus) is the European Unions Earth observation programme, offering free and open satellite data, services and tools for environmental monitoring. The GMES & Africa initiative adapts Copernicus capabilities to African needs, supporting sustainable development, disaster risk reduction, and climate resilience across the continent.
Through partnerships with regional organisations, universities and NGOs, GMES & Africa delivers highresolution imagery, seasurface temperature data, chlorophyll concentration maps and many other products that help decisionmakers understand marine dynamics.
GMES & Africa coverage across the continent
The 2020 Contest Objectives and Scope
The World Ocean Day 2020 GMES & Africa Contest was launched to engage students, earlycareer professionals and citizen scientists in using satellite data to address realworld ocean challenges in Africa. Participants were invited to submit projects that demonstrated:
- Creative use of open Copernicus marine products.
- Clear relevance to Sustainable Development Goals (especially SDG14 Life Below Water).
- Potential for actionable recommendations or policy insight.
Four thematic tracks guided the submissions:
- Marine Pollution & Plastic Waste
- Coastal Erosion & Habitat Loss
- Fisheries Management & Food Security
- Ocean Climate Monitoring & Extreme Events
How participants worked with the data
The contest provided access to a toolbox of GMES & Africa resources, including:
- Sentinel3 OLCI ocean colour for detecting phytoplankton blooms and suspended sediments.
- Sentinel1 SAR useful for mapping oil spills and monitoring coastal change under all weather conditions.
- Copernicus Marine Service seasurface temperature, currents, wave height and sealevel anomalies.
- Interactive web portals (e.g., CEOCS, MyOcean) that allow users to visualise time series without programming.
Many entrants combined satellite observations with local data setssuch as marine protectedarea boundaries, fishery catch records, or communityreported litter surveysto produce richer, contextaware analyses.
Selected winning projects
1. Plastic Hotspots along the Kenyan Coast University of Nairobi
This team used Sentinel3 oceancolour data to identify areas of high turbidity linked to plastic debris accumulation. By overlaying the results with shoreline cleanup reports from local NGOs, they produced a weekly plasticalert map that helped authorities prioritise collection efforts. The project also proposed a lowcost dronebased verification system for future monitoring.
2. Predicting Harmful Algal Blooms in the Gulf of Guinea Institut Pasteur de Dakar
Using a combination of chlorophylla concentrations, seasurface temperature anomalies and historic bloom records, the team built a simple machinelearning model that forecasted bloom occurrences up to seven days in advance. The model was integrated into a public dashboard, allowing fishers to avoid affected zones.
3. Coastal Erosion Mapping for Mozambiques Southern Shoreline Universidade Eduardo Mondlane
Sentinel1 SAR images spanning 20162020 were processed to calculate shoreline retreat rates. The study highlighted villages losing up to 1.5m per year and recommended naturebased solutions such as mangrove restoration to attenuate wave energy.
4. SeaLevel Rise Impact on Lagos Flood Risk Lagos State University
By combining sealevel rise projections from the Copernicus Marine Service with highresolution digital elevation models, the researchers identified neighborhoods most vulnerable to future storm surges. Their policy brief suggested strategic zoning and the construction of green buffers.
Impact and future directions
The contest succeeded in three key ways:
- Capacity building: Over 200 participants gained handson experience with Earth observation tools, many of whom continue to use the data in their research or NGOs.
- Policy relevance: Winning projects were presented to national ministries, resulting in pilot initiatives in Kenya, Mozambique and Senegal.
- Community outreach: Socialmedia campaigns and webinars reached more than 50000 people, raising public awareness of ocean health.
Looking ahead, GMES & Africa plans to institutionalise the contest as an annual event, expand the data catalogue (e.g., adding Sentinel6 oceanaltimetry), and strengthen partnerships with African oceanographic institutes.
How you can get involved
Even if you didnt take part in the 2020 edition, there are many ways to support ocean stewardship across Africa:
- Explore the Copernicus Marine Service all data are free and openly licensed.
- Join local beachcleanup groups or citizenscience platforms such as IUCNs citizenscience network.
- Contribute to opensource tools for marine data visualisation (e.g., Python libraries like
pydapor webapps built withLeaflet). - Share your own findings on social media using the hashtag #WorldOceanDay2020 and tag @CopernicusEU.
Collective effort is the cornerstone of a healthy planet ocean. By turning satellite insight into concrete actions, we can protect marine ecosystems for future generations.
