The Maritime Silk Road was a network of trade routes, formally established during the Ming Dynasty of China, which linked the regions of the ancient world in commerce. Tracing the maritime economy, world history recorded the Maritime Silk Road as a path toward modernization that resulted from trading, commerce, and cultural exchanges. The 21st Century Maritime Silk Road (MSR) is a sea passage for international trade and cultural exchanges, which passes from the southeast coast of China, through the countries along the South China Sea and ASEAN, across the Indian Ocean, into the Red Sea, and terminates in parts of East Africa and Europe. It would pass through major ports throughout Asia, Africa, the Arab States, and Europe. The implementation of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road Initiative will profoundly influence further integration of these regions or countries into the global economy and facilitate the connectivity between China, Southeast Asia, and other countries.

As a vital component of the Belt & Road (B&R), the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road will develop local marine industry by improving access to marine resources, develop cooperation, and encourage trade and investment in industry, energy, and resource development. Earth observation, with the distinct advantages of large information capacity, huge observation scope, high accuracy, and high spatial and temporal resolutions, will be a significant tool in the construction of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, as well as for preliminary planning. On May 16, 2016, the "Beijing Declaration on Earth Observation for Belt and Road" was released and stated that the ent of the B Initiative is a crucial endeavor to meet the development challenges in the future for nations in the ent of the B region. It called for the implementation of the 'Digital Belt and Road (DBAR)' Initiative, a science and technology partnership for optimal use of Earth observation for the sustainable development of the ent of the B region.

The DBAR Coastal Zone Working Group (DBAR-COAST) is one of the seven working groups and mainly contributes to Maritime Silk Road development. The DBAR-COAST will serve the Maritime Silk Road countries as a platform to develop activities in many areas critical for attaining the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)-14 of 'Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas, and marine resources for sustainable development'. The DBAR-COAST intends to collaborate in sustainable management of coastal and marine resources and ecological conservation across the maritime countries through exchanging Big Earth Data and information products, technology, and services in priority areas, such as marine economy, ecology, pollution, and science and technology.

Progress of DBAR Coastal Zone Working Group (DBAR-COAST) Mission and plan

Through strengthened capacities and enhanced collaboration between existing regional and national stakeholders in knowledge generation and potential users, the mission of the DBAR-COAST Working Group is to support the development of a MSR network of partner countries to improve access to appropriate and up-to-date science data, technology, and knowledge on coastal and marine environment monitoring, conservation, and management; and to take full advantage of Earth observation for viewing the 'Maritime Silk Road' from space for the study of coastal resources and environment (Figure 1). So far, the DBAR-COAST Working Group consists of 13 members from six countries, including China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Siri Lanka, and Thailand. The group is open and welcomes interested experts from the countries along the Maritime Silk Road and others.

In line with the overall DBAR Initiative and Maritime Silk Road development, the preliminary plan of the DBAR-COAST Working Group would be as follows:

● To develop an international network of professionals, practitioners, and policy makers through international cooperation;

● To encourage the exchange and sharing of Earth observation data and information;

● To develop coastal satellite information products for the further development and operation of the DBAR Earth Data platform;

● To launch pilot studies and demonstration projects or develop a research strategy for a typical region or a set of countries along the MSR;

● To organize and support the education and training of staff and students with a view to enhance the capacity of the participating organizations;

● To strengthen liaison and coordination with industries, academia, and professional sectors in the participating countries;

● To produce technical advisory reports to support countries on the use of Big Earth Data for the sustainable coastal development;

● To provide other forms of cooperation as jointly decided upon by the participants.

Spatial observation for coastal zones

The DBAR-COAST will focus on promoting cooperation with countries or regions along the Maritime Silk Road to advocate and demonstrate the applications of Big Earth Data in support of the sustainable development of people and economies at local, national, and regional levels for coastal and near shore environments.

Ecosystem monitoring

Ecosystems, such as coral reefs, mangroves, salt marshes, kelp, and sea-grasses are of critical importance to marine health. They are highly productive, provide coastal protection, and are critical resources for food, energy, tourism, and economic development. These and other marine ecosystems are under severe threat and there is a need to better monitor socioeconomic activities and their impacts on natural environment.

Mangroves play an important role in balancing regional ecological systems in tropical and subtropical regions, and are regarded as an important carbon sink linking terrestrial and oceanic ecosystems. However, mangrove ecosystems have suffered severe damage due to lack of attention in past decades. In recent years, with improved public appreciation of the ecological value of mangroves, restoration work in mangrove wetland has been carried out and some progress has been achieved. Figure 2 shows change of the mangrove forest in Shenzhen Bay (also known as Deep Bay) between 1991 and 2011. It demonstrates a significant increase in the mangrove area in Deep Bay, from about 100 hectares to more than 350 hectares during 25 years.

Knowledge management of coastal environments

Existing ports and shipping lanes are considered as the main contributory factors to this trade enhancement. Some countries along the Strait are facilitating international trade and economy through their shipping infrastructure facilities and water channels, others are increasing the rich marine diversity and tourism by rearing biota such as seagrasses, corals, and aquaculture species, which can ultimately provide enormous ecosystem services. However, those countries involved in shipping activities and coastal development are often less concerned about coastal and marine biodiversity conservation than immediate economic gains. Consequently, anthropogenic disturbances are identified as a main cause of marine habitat degradation and loss of marine organisms. Figure 3 illustrates the recent spatio-temporal changes of dugong habitat along the Straits of Johore due to coastal reclamation work. The western end of the Strait of Johor, connects to the eastern side of the Malacca Strait, and the eastern end of the Strait of Johor leads to the western side of the South China Sea. This strait has been very much influenced by the Maritime Silk Road.

Coastal infrastructure and harbor development

The motivation for the B&R Initiative was the modernization and development of major infrastructure along both the land and Maritime Silk Road. Ports and port cities will play important roles in the construction of the Maritime Silk Road. Sri Lanka is one of the most pivotal nodes in the Maritime Silk Road because it is the critical gateway from Southeast Asia to West Asia, East Africa, and beyond. Colombo port is one of the largest artificial ports and the most important station for shipping across the Indian Ocean. Figure 4 shows the dramatic changes in the port, urban expansion, and vegetation greenness in Colombo, Sri Lanka from 1992 to 2016 using Landsat and MODIS NDVI data. Colombo port underwent rapid expansion from 1992 to 2016, especially from 2010 to 2016. Along with port development, the built-up land area tripled that of 1992. With the urbanization process, vegetation greenness declined overall from 2000 to 2015, and the area of vegetation significantly degraded, was in accordance with the area of urban expansion.

Tracing the maritime economy

Linking the Maritime Silk Road with Earth observation technology may improve the ability to observe the marine shipping lanes for trading, product and service hubs, natural resources along the transportation lanes, exploitation of marine natural resources along the transportation lanes, and may project the economic value of trade and resources along the routes of maritime voyages. Visible Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite Day/Night Band (VIIRS DNB) and its predecessor, Defense Meteorological Satellite Program operational line scanner (DMSP OLS) are able to monitor vessel movement based on the IR radiation available at night. The integration of vessel monitoring system (VMS) and radar satellite technology is able to monitor illegal fishing boats and may assist in decreasing the economic loss from illegal fishing along the maritime voyages (Figure 5).

Disaster monitoring

Myanmar is very vulnerable to natural disasters such as floods, landslides, earthquakes, fires, cyclones, storm surges, and tsunamis, as a result of its geomorphology. Most of the catastrophic hazards in Myanmar are caused by cyclones and tsunamis. During the pre-monsoon period of April to May and postmonsoon period of October to December, severe cyclone-related events used to occur. They caused heavy rains, floods, and storm surges, especially in the coastal region of Rakhine State, where cyclone-related disasters occurred every three to four years. Nowadays, Myanmar is cooperating with global as well as regional partners in disaster risk reduction to become a disaster resilient country. Flood monitoring using satellite data has proven to be an effective method to get quick and precise overviews of flooded areas (Figure 6).

Comments from Representatives of Different Countries Malaysia

DBAR Initiative has enormous importance in Malaysia to make a sustainable contribution to the Earth observation (EO)-based marine resource inventory through sharing data and methods. Thus, all efforts must be available for its scientific management. Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), the national geospatial research institutes, and Disaster monitoring Myanmar is very vulnerable to natural disasters such as floods, landslides, earthquakes, fires, cyclones, storm surges, and tsunamis, as a result of its geomorphology. Most of the catastrophic hazards in Myanmar are caused by cyclones and tsunamis. During the pre-monsoon period of April to May and postmonsoon period of October to December, severe cyclone-related events used to occur. They caused heavy rains, floods, and storm surges, especially in the coastal region of Rakhine State, where cyclone-related disasters occurred every three to four years. Nowadays, Myanmar is cooperating with global as well as regional partners in disaster risk reduction to become a disaster resilient country. Flood monitoring using satellite data has proven to be an effective method to get quick and precise overviews of flooded areas (Figure 6). Comments from Representatives of Different Countries Figure 6 Satellite detected flood water extent intensity by township as of 14 July 2016 (Source: Floods in Rakhine State, Myanmar Situation Analysis Preliminary Report; United Nations Institute for Training and Research (Unitar, Unosat)) Mazlan bin Hashim, Professor, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. Prof. Dr. Mazlan Hashim is currently the Senior Director of Research Institute of Sustainable Environment, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM); and Fellow of the Geoscience and Digital Earth Centre (INSTeG), UTM. He is one of top 3 leading authors in remote sensing applications under planetary and earth sciences, led to be awarded as one of Top Research Scientists Malaysia by Malaysia Academy of Sciences for his outstanding contributions in advancing Remote Sensing Technology applications Malaysian Remote Sensing Agency (Remote Sensing Malaysia) along with other research organizations are engaged in remote sensing research. However, none of these organizations has a public portal entirely to deal on Earth observation metadata. Both UTM and Remote Sensing Malaysia have their own system in developing research agenda. But the need of the end-users including the managers is addressed inadequately in setting research programs. There is a lack in the mechanism of interacting at the end-user level in conservation of Marine Protected Areas. Therefore, a workable mechanism is needed to involve the coastal managers and other stakeholders in diagnosis of research problems. A mechanism (sharing the annual plan of operation) for such an interaction at the regional level under DBAR-COAST initiative is proposed. UTM, Malaysia has limited capacity on separate discipline entirely to deal on EO-database portal. A full-fledged separate unit for DBAR research is proposed in collaboration computing centers such as center for ICT, UTM, or even to newly launched Big Data Centre, UTM. A task force may be formed in UTM that will address marine biology and ecology research on a priority basis. One of the main constrains in dissemination of research results in UTM is the lack of organizational infrastructure. It is an immense need to make DBAR-COAST fully functional for coordination of research plan development and oversee the progress.

Hong Kong, China

The Belt and Road Initiative is expected to fully open China to the outside world and boost China's economic cooperation with many of its neighbors and partners over the long-term. It has been strongly supported by Hong Kong regional government. While most countries along the Maritime Silk Road is mainly located in the tropical and subtropical regions, remote sensing technologies provide great potential but challenging tools to support the implementation of this initiative. Compared with mid-and high-latitude areas, the tropical and subtropical region presents an all-year-round cloudy and rainy climate feature with a very long rainy season and rich precipitation even in short-term dry season. Particularly, a lot of countries in the MSR regions are developing countries with limited capability of remote sensing technologies. Therefore, there is an urgent need to establish a comprehensive platform for discussion and promotion of advanced remote sensing applications in this region. DBAR is providing all related countries such an ideal platform to promote the Belt and Road Initiative. The operation of HK Station enabled Hong Kong to provide timely data for monitoring the environment of Hong Kong and neighboring region. Since its operation in 2005, it has been and will be very helpful to investigate those countries along the Maritime Silk Road about their land use and infrastructure, environment monitoring and disaster risk assessment, urban and regional planning, and natural resource management.

Indonesia

The goodwill Maritime voyages of Admiral Zheng He, inspire the role of remote sensing, an Earth observation technology, in maritime economic within the scope of modern silk roads. Ancient silk roads were manually and terrestrially mapped the voyage lanes and project uncertainty economic value. By using remote sensing technology, 21st Maritime Silk Road may assist to collect information about the planet Earth's physical, chemical and biological, encompassing the collection, analysis and presentation of spatial data. It also uses to monitor and assess the status and changes of the natural environment, built environment, minimize negative impacts with the opportunities to improve social and economic well-being. The development of Earth observation technology can provide information for assessing the economic value of 21st Maritime Silk Road.

The economic value may be estimated from the trading activities by using the vessel information from remote sensing derived data and so do other methods of economic valuation, such as effect on production for fisheries and other marine resources. Some methods can be employed to project the benefit of resources along the MSR by using certain mapping units derived from remote sensing data.

Myanmar

Providing reliable Earth observation data is one of the biggest challenges to implement disaster risk management. Not only data but also technologies are the great challenges to carry out disaster reduction for developing country like Myanmar. Therefore, Maritime Silk Road may play an important role for Myanmar as it could bring the economic opportunities for the country developments. Although it could have many policy issues, it would be benefit for Myanmar as it is a developing country.

As Myanmar has a lot of coastal challenges and also its ports are included in the middle parts along Maritime Silk Road, it also plays an important role in contribution of Maritime Silk Road. Regarding with the key priorities of DBAR, it is agreed that policy issue is the most important one. The second one is infrastructure like high speed railways, which is also important issue. Other keys such as trade connection, financial and people connection are important as well.

China

Along with the construction of the Maritime Silk Road, the demands for port throughput and transport function will be substantially increased, resulting in the expansion of major port cities. The rapid expansion of harbors, together with the coastal urban population and changes in land-use practices, will bring challenges to coastal ecosystems and environment. Climate-induced changes in sea level are likely to increase the risk of inundation in many parts of the coastal zone, especially areas that are currently densely populated and low-lying. The sustainable development of the coastal zone and the carrying capacity of coastal resources and environment will be threatened by coastal development. All the countries along the Maritime Silk Road have an interest in the sustainable management of their coastal and marine ecosystems. On November 2015, the "International Symposium on Earth Observation for Maritime Silk Road" convened the 'Intention for Cooperation for a Collaborative Network for Earth Observation Science and Technologies along the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road' and the 'Sanya Declaration'. The 'Sanya Declaration' emphasized the strategic contribution of Earth observation for dealing with poverty reduction, addressing the development gap among the countries, disaster mitigation, urban development, ecological protection, natural resource management, and climate change. It calls for promotion of the benefits of Earth observation in the countries along the Maritime Silk Road. These achievements provide DBAR-COAST access to networks at international, national, and local levels. The DBAR-COAST will advocate and demonstrate the applications of Big Earth Data in support of the sustainable development of people and economies at local, national, and regional levels and deliver critical sustainable development policies and strategies for coastal and near shore environments.