Lowestoft Web Design - Blue Lobster IT

EMECO Data Tools: Regional scale information products for environmental policy needs

Authors:

Keeble K¹,²  Mills D¹, Forster R¹, Rees J¹, Keeble S²

¹Cefas, Pakefield Road, Lowestoft, Suffolk, NR33 0HT

²Blue Lobster IT, Quayside Business Park, Lowestoft, Suffolk, NR33 9NW

As part of the European Marine Ecosystem Observatory (EMECO – www.emecogroup.org) initiative we have developed a suite of web-based tools that enable rapid integration and visualisation of multi-platform, multi-parameter, and multi-national data. The purpose of the Data Tools is to deliver policy-relevant information products in a transparent and auditable manner that increase confidence in the outcome to formal environmental assessments at a regional scale.

Users are able to select and view data from novel and traditional monitoring platforms as integrated data sets (XML, CSV), time series charts, and maps (KML and bespoke assessment maps). The assessment maps, currently of the greater North Sea, are composed of a data “mash-up” displayed in set of policy-defined water bodies. These outputs are generated “on the fly”.

Currently available data sources include ICES, the Cefas SmartBuoy and Waveney programmes and satellite derived chlorophyll. This allows users to create maps of various parameters including chlorophyll, nutrients, oxygen, and temperature. The user interface is interactive and intuitive making it easy to select time periods, parameters, water bodies, and platforms of interest. For each water body the user can reveal information on the value of the selected parameter, its standard deviation, and estimates of confidence in the value of the selected variable.

Future developments include extending the geographic domain of EMECO to the Celtic Seas in the context of a new Western Shelf Observatory. Incorporation of new data sources are planned including benthic biological data. EMECO has already put in place a European network poised to meet the challenges set by the new European Marine Strategy Framework Directive. Further development of the Data Tools will take place to align them with the need to determine Good Environmental Status as required by the new directive.