The mandate of Focus Area 2 is to provide a strategic vision, direction, and coordination for a programme of work that will transform our understanding and quantification of the interconnected and multiscale interactions of the Global Coastal Ocean (GCO) system on local to global scales, improve our ability to both monitor and predict the response of the GCO to future climate change and the impact that this will have on coastal ocean ecosystems, services and communities and to deliver accessible downscaling, predictive and characterisation tools that support mitigation and adaptation solutions.