The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) had designed software to facilitate
the development and visualization of conceptual ecological models, and therefore required a large and comprehensive database of environmentally orientated visual icons to include for their users. USACE then partnered with IAN to incorporate our extensive symbol library into their software, and to develop additional symbols of complex ecosystems or ecosystem elements.

For this project, IAN staff collaborated with the authors of a UNEP publication, "Taking Steps toward Marine and Coastal Ecosystem-Based Management - An Introductory Guide." Our role was to produce several key conceptual diagrams for the publication: to help define the five core elements of Ecosystem-Based Management (EBM), it's geographic scope, and to illustrate how planning with an ecosystem perspective works.

Coastal management in the U.S. is in transition toward a stronger, ecosystem-based approach implemented at the regional scale and supported by strong scientific synthesis and prediction. The division of ecosystem components
among different agencies, scientific disciplines, and political boundaries, as well as the complexities of conducting Regional Ecosystem Research (RER) make effective
ecosystem management very challenging. NOAA's Center for Sponsored Coastal Ocean Science convened a best practices workshop of approximately 50 national

This project developed conceptual diagrams related to the final reporting of ecosystem-based management tasks for the Bird’s Head region of West Papua, Indonesia, and provided science communication training to staff involved in management of the marine protected areas in the region.