1.1 About the Guide

This Guide provides practical support to countries for the use of global data on ocean assets in developing national ocean accounts. It supports a Global Ocean Asset Data Inventory that updates an initial inventory produced by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN ESCAP) and the Global Ocean Accounts Partnership (GOAP) in 2019. The Guide aims to enable national ocean accounts compilers to make informed decisions on the use of global ocean datasets that are varied in quality, accessibility and purpose.

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’) and with the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) produced under the auspices of the United Nations Statistics Division.

Ocean asset accounts provide the biophysical foundation for ocean accounting. Consequently, many countries are prioritising ocean asset accounts as a starting point for compiling national ocean accounts. Ideally, ocean asset accounts are produced using national data. However, many countries face challenges if data of suitable quality is not available within their national statistical systems, or from other custodians of national ocean data.

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.

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 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) 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. 

The current update aims to increase the usability and uptake of the inventory. Building on the original work, the Global Ocean Asset Data Inventory version 2.0 (hereafter referred to as ‘the Inventory’) focuses the scope on global data relevant to ocean assets. Ocean asset accounts organise information about the state of the ocean’s natural capital stocks. They provide an important biophysical basis for determining and valuing the benefits that the economy and society receive from the ocean. As such, accounting for ocean assets provides the foundation for wider ecosystem and environmental accounting. As many countries are prioritising ocean asset accounts, having a robust Inventory of global datasets focused on ocean assets is both timely and relevant. An important extension to the original inventory, as identified by GOAP, was the need to provide accompanying advice on the selection of suitable datasets and more detailed metadata to inform that selection. 

Updates to the Inventory include: 

• 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.  

1.3 Methodology for updating the Inventory 

To ensure user relevance, the methodological approach to updating the Inventory was guided by a consultation on user needs. Meetings were held with those involved GOAP pilot studies and other ocean accounting efforts from different regions of the world and at various stages of implementation. The consultation highlighted data needs, as well as key criteria that are important or useful to countries when considering datasets for ocean accounts. Suggestions were also made on account components and asset types to include (e.g. for ocean carbon accounts). Some of the experiences that were discussed in the consultations are presented in the Guide in ‘country experience boxes’. 

The selection of criteria for the updated Inventory structure was further informed by a review of different data quality assessment frameworks for national statistics and environmental-economic accounting. From these frameworks, the most commonly used criteria were selected as the basis for the Inventory to ensure that the Inventory aligns with other data assessment frameworks and accounting data standards national statistical offices will be familiar with. More details about the consultation process and criteria selection, as well as an overview of the types of datasets included in the updated Inventory are available in Annex I. 

1.4 Intended use of the Inventory and Guide 

The Inventory provides a resource for identifying global datasets that can be used to fill national data gaps. It is not intended to be the starting point for compiling national ocean accounts. Before turning to the Inventory, countries should have consulted their national data and established whether availability and quality of national data meet the requirements for the intended ocean accounts. 

The Guide provides practical advice for using the Inventory to identify relevant global ocean asset datasets and assess their suitability for application in national (and subnational) ocean accounts. Given the diversity of global datasets and national contexts, the Guide does not attempt to provide prescriptive instructions on which datasets could or should be used in specific cases. Instead, the Guide provides information about the limitations and other key considerations that may help determine whether a particular dataset is suitable for compiling ocean asset accounts in a specific national context. It offers a practical stepwise approach that guides national ocean account compilers through the decisions that lead to the selection of appropriate global datasets. The Guide also provides illustrative examples and experiences from existing applications intended to help share lessons learned and offer inspiration. 

The Global Ocean Asset Data Inventory and accompanying Guide are primarily aimed at national ocean accounts compilers who are developing and piloting ocean asset accounts. Besides this, the Guide may be a useful resource for policy experts, statisticians, scientists and researchers to better understand the role that global ocean datasets can play in accounting. It is also anticipated that the Guide and Inventory may be of interest to international data providers to help understand the gaps in global datasets and build the case for investing in the development of data products that address key data needs for ocean accounts. 

1.5 Structure of the following Chapters 

• Chapter 2 provides some context on ocean asset accounts in line with the GOAP Technical Guidance on Ocean Accounting and the SEEA, as well as specifications for the Inventory (including the ocean asset typology and ecosystem classification used for the Inventory, data needs addressed by the Inventory and an overview of the updated Inventory structure). 

• Chapter 3 explains at what point in the ocean account development process the Inventory should be consulted, discusses some of the advantages and limitations of global data and points to additional sources of global ocean data. 

• Chapter 4 presents a stepwise approach for selecting datasets to support the compilation of national ocean asset accounts.  

• Chapter 5 concludes the main part of the Guide with a summary of key reflections on the opportunities, limitations, gaps, and future prospects for global ocean data and their use in ocean accounts. 

• Annex I describes the process and methodology applied to improve the structure and user functionality of the existing Global Ocean Data Inventory, including an overview of the datasets covered by the updated Inventory. 

• Annex II shows the physical ocean asset accounts tables, as described in the GOAP Technical Guidance, for reference. 

• Annex III provides a ‘check list’ template, which can be used to record any considerations on the stepwise process for assessing and selecting datasets.