Objective
Human activities are increasingly concentrated in coastal regions, which are relatively fragile ecosystems. The drive for economic development through urban and industrial expansion and tourism and improved food security through fishing and agricultural activities can lead to rapid degradation of coastal habitats and resources. However, not all effects on coasts are due to human activities; climate can have significant direct and indirect effects. Many of the demands on coastal water depend on, or are affected by water quality, which can be inferred from parameters such as temperature, turbidity, primary productivity, biochemical oxygen demand and concentration of pathogens.
There is general consensus that information derived from satellite ocean colour data could dramatically improve the information available about some of the above parameters, but a recent European report has highlighted barriers to its effective use which could threaten to confine the data to the research laboratory rather than operational management of coastal zones. These include poor access to data, limited frequency of measurement, absence of local calibration/ validation, insufficient integration with other data sources and inadequate analysis and dissemination approaches. We propose to resolve these issues by assembling and testing a system that will transform time series of oceanographic satellite imagery into water quality and resource maps of the coastal zone. The Integrated Coastal Analysis and Monitoring System (ICAMS) will address each of the major weaknesses listed in the report and will provide detailed spatial and temporal information that will aid in the conservation and management of the coastal zone. In particular it will provide information that will help answer questions of whether changes in water quality have been caused by weather conditions or by natural or human related pollution sources.
ICAMS will support (1) intelligent selection and ingestion of ocean colour and temperature data from several satellite sources, (2) conversion into water quality information relevant to the needs of our pilot project end users, (3) combination with a variety of other data from satellites, surface measurements and end-user archives in order to produce water quality maps and (4) end-user access to a comprehensive analysis package to visualise and manipulate the four dimensional nature of the information. The data quality will be further enhanced by calibration through comparison with measurements from ships and buoys; transmission of this information in near-real time through a satellite data messaging system will also allow local interpolation of results between available ocean colour coverage. We strongly contend that the full potential of satellite imagery as a tool to monitor and analyse the coastal environment cannot be realised without the integrated, multivariate processing that characterises ICAMS. This view appears to be supported by the majority of the operational coast management community who have experience of using satellite data.
ICAMS will be driven by the needs of end users who will be involved throughout the project: defining their needs, the detailed specification of ICAMS, integration of existing capabilities into ICAMS, applications of ICAMS and finally, the evaluation of the entire programme in the context of relevance to European policies and international scientific programmes. It is also envisaged that an operational ICAMS would provide both significant export potential for Europe and an important technology for transfer to developing countries. To demonstrate the that ICAMS is applicable to a range of coastal issues, the application aspect of the pilot project is divided into three separate, but related investigations, at different sites in Europe, and with different environmental concerns, including coastal pollution, eutrophication and fisheries management.
Our team consists of a private company, two national governmental organizations responsible for coastal research and monitoring, a major European research centre, and a major international organization, based in the UK, Italy, Greece and Eire. The project also includes participation from a wide cross-section of associated end users with strong interests in the successful outcome of the project. The team combines the complementary experience of oceanographers, remote sensing experts and systems analysts with many years of relevant experience .
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- engineering and technology materials engineering colors
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences hydrology
- engineering and technology mechanical engineering vehicle engineering aerospace engineering satellite technology
- engineering and technology environmental engineering remote sensing
- social sciences other social sciences development studies development economics
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Programme(s)
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Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Coordinator
GU9 7QU Farnham
United Kingdom
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.