Integrated Monitoring Supports Ocean Resilience in Developing Economies

Emerging and developing economies often face constrained financial, technical, and institutional capacities to establish and maintain the ocean-based in situ observational networks that underpin marine decision support applications. This limitation heightens their exposure and sensitivity to the cumulative impacts of marine environmental hazards, including harmful algal blooms and marine heatwaves. In this perspective, we present an example of an operational, co-developed ocean monitoring framework that is explicitly structured around user requirements, local scientific expertise, established software engineering practices, and openly available satellite and numerical model data and algorithms. The framework is instantiated through the South African National Oceans and Coastal Information Management System (OCIMS) Fisheries and Aquaculture Decision Support Tool, which is employed as a representative implementation case study and potential reference architecture for application in other regional contexts. We demonstrate that satellite-derived and model-based products can markedly accelerate the establishment of operational marine environmental monitoring capabilities in settings where dense, long-term in situ observing systems are absent or sparse, thereby enhancing societal preparedness and adaptive capacity in relation to intensifying, climate-driven marine risks. Furthermore, we discuss how such frameworks can underpin resilient, equitable, and evidence-based blue economy development in the Global South.