An ocean practices maturity model: from good to best practices

Created March 19, 2026

Updated on May 14, 2026

approved

Ocean practices, intended as a wide spectrum of methodologies supporting ocean-related research, operations, and applications, are constantly developed and improved to enable informed decision-making. Practices start from the idea of an individual or a group and often evolve towards what can be called good or best practices. This bottom-up approach may in principle result in different paths for the evolution of each practice, and ultimately generate situations where it is not clear to a new user how to compare two practices aiming at the same objective, and determine which one is best. Also, although a best practice is supposed to be the result of a multi-institutional collaborative effort based on the principles of evidence, repeatability and comparability, a set of individual requirements is not yet defined in literature for a practice to be considered a good, better, and ultimately a best practice. This paper proposes a method for addressing those questions and presents a new maturity model for ocean practices, built upon existing maturity models for systems and software, developed and adopted in the last decades. The model provides attributes for assessing both the maturity of the practice description and its implementation. It also provides a framework for analyzing gaps and suggesting actions for practice evolution. The model has been tested against a series of widely adopted practices and the results are reported and discussed. This work facilitates a common approach for developing and assessing practices, from which greater interoperability and trust can be achieved.

itineris-hub
Tags:
Best Practices
High Frequency Radar
Maturity Model
Methodology
Multibeam
Ocean Practices
Publication - Article
Sea Level
Value Chain
Basic
Language
English
MainTitle
An ocean practices maturity model: from good to best practices
Original ids
https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2024.1415374
Type
publication
bestAccessRight
OPEN
contributors
  • Institute of Marine Sciences, National Research Council of Italy, Lerici, Italy;
  • Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Paris, France;
  • AZTI, Marine Research, Basque Research and Technology Alliance, (BRTA), Pasaia, Spain;
  • RPS Australia Asia Pacific, Sydney, NSW, Australia;
  • CoastalObsTechServices LLC, Virginia Beach, VA, United States;
  • UNESCO -IOC Project Office for IODE, Oostende, Belgium;
  • Ocean Prediction Decade Collaborative Center - Mercator Ocean International, Toulouse, France;
  • School of Engineering, UWA Oceans Institute, Perth, WA, Australia;
  • Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ, United States
countries
Italy
Creator/Author
Full name
  • Mantovani, Carlo, orcid: 0000-0002-0659-6605;
  • Pearlman, Jay;
  • Rubio, Anna;
  • Przeslawski, Rachel;
  • Bushnell, Mark;
  • Simpson, Pauline;
  • Corgnati, Lorenzo, orcid: 0000-0001-5819-7713;
  • Alvarez, Enrique;
  • Cosoli, Simone, orcid: 0000-0002-4417-9538;
  • Roarty, Hugh, orcid: 0000-0002-5048-7043
Other
Description
Ocean practices, intended as a wide spectrum of methodologies supporting ocean-related research, operations, and applications, are constantly developed and improved to enable informed decision-making. Practices start from the idea of an individual or a group and often evolve towards what can be called good or best practices. This bottom-up approach may in principle result in different paths for the evolution of each practice, and ultimately generate situations where it is not clear to a new user how to compare two practices aiming at the same objective, and determine which one is best. Also, although a best practice is supposed to be the result of a multi-institutional collaborative effort based on the principles of evidence, repeatability and comparability, a set of individual requirements is not yet defined in literature for a practice to be considered a good, better, and ultimately a best practice. This paper proposes a method for addressing those questions and presents a new maturity model for ocean practices, built upon existing maturity models for systems and software, developed and adopted in the last decades. The model provides attributes for assessing both the maturity of the practice description and its implementation. It also provides a framework for analyzing gaps and suggesting actions for practice evolution. The model has been tested against a series of widely adopted practices and the results are reported and discussed. This work facilitates a common approach for developing and assessing practices, from which greater interoperability and trust can be achieved.
Publication Date
2024-08-20
Publisher
Frontiers Media SA
Subjects
  • 0106 biological sciences;
  • Science;
  • General. Including nature conservation, geographical distribution;
  • Methodology;
  • 01 natural sciences;
  • Ocean practices;
  • 13. Climate action;
  • Best practices;
  • Value chain;
  • High frequency radar;
  • Maturity model;
  • 14. Life underwater
isGreen
false
isInDiamondJournal
false
Software
Publication
Name
Frontiers in Marine Science
Publication
Article
issnOnline
2296-7745
vol
11
Other Research Product
Detailed informations
system:type
Research Product
Management Info
Author
Catalogue Manager ITINERIS
Version
1
Last Updated
May 14, 2026, 07:55 (UTC)
Created
March 19, 2026, 00:32 (UTC)
Data and Resources

This item has no data

To access the resources you must log in