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The updated Inventory and accompanying Guide are part of the technical support provided by GOAP for the advancement of ocean accounting. Both are aligned with the GOAP Technical Guidance on Ocean Accounting for Sustainable Development (hereafter referred to as ‘GOAP Technical Guidance’) [1] and with the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) [2] produced under the auspices of the United Nations Statistics Division.
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Global data on ocean assets can be used to fill gaps where national data are not available in order to enable the development and pilot testing of national ocean asset accounts. These pilot accounts, in turn, can help to demonstrate the utility of ocean accounts to inform ocean policy decisions for sustainable development and make the case for investments in improved national data availability.
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[2] System of Environmental Economic Accounting (SEEA): https://seea.un.org/
1.2 The Global Ocean Asset Data Inventory
A review of the status of ocean data conducted in 2019 by UN ESCAP and GOAP found that existing ocean data inventories did not fully meet the needs of ocean accounting. In response to this finding, the initial OCEAN ACCOUNTS Global Ocean Data Inventory[3] was developed. The initial inventory was designed to align with the structure of accounts proposed by the SEEA Experimental Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA EEA) and the SEEA Central Framework (SEEA CF). It included 138 datasets and other resources relevant to ocean ecosystem extent, ecosystem condition, designated use, assets, ecosystem services supply and use, as well as ecosystem typologies. By identifying and describing a broad range of global resources relevant to ocean accounts, the initial inventory provided a valuable resource for early national ocean pilot accounting studies.
Since the compilation of the initial inventory, there has been significant progress in the fields of both ecosystem and ocean accounting. Physical ecosystem accounting became an official international statistical standard via the SEEA Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA EA) [4] in 2021. Further, through the efforts of GOAP and other initiatives, the state-of-the-art in ocean accounting has progressed substantially since 2019. Therefore, it was timely to update the original inventory to better evaluate global ocean datasets and capture key metadata that will be helpful to practitioners in evaluating their use for national ocean accounting.
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An improved structure based on key data needs for physical asset accounts and criteria for assessing data quality.
Added functionality through filter options and increased searchability of standardised entry formats.
Inclusion of available global datasets on produced assets and other pressures.
Addition of datasets that have become available since 2019.
[3] The 2019 OCEAN ACCOUNTS Global Ocean Data Inventory can be accessed here: https://stat-confluence.escap.un.org/display/RPOES/Regional+Ocean+Accounts+Platform
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1.3 Methodology for updating the Inventory
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