Architecture of Coastal Ocean Observing Systems in the 21^st Century

Presented By: Dr. Philip Bogden

The Gulf of Maine Ocean Observing System (GoMOOS) and the Southeastern Universities Research Association (SURA) have been advancing a multi-institutional collaboration to design and prototype a modular, distributed system for real-time prediction and visualization of the coastal impacts from extreme atmospheric events, including hurricanes and nor’easters. GoMOOS is a stakeholder organization that helps establish regional end-user priorities and product requirements, and the SURA partners bring the strength of the university research community (experts in coastal science, information technology and computer science). The vision is a community "cyberinfrastructure" that enables advances in the science of environmental prediction and coastal hazard planning. The system architecture is a coordinated and distributed network of interoperable, modularized components that include sensor systems, numerical models, information catalogs, distributed archives, computing resources, and network infrastructure. The components are linked over the Internet by standardized web-service interfaces in a "service-oriented architecture" (SOA). The design philosophy allows geographically disparate partnering institutions to provide complementary data-provider and integration services. The overall system enables coordinated sharing of resources, tools, and ideas among a virtual community of scientists. The distributed design builds on the notion that standards enable innovation, and seeks to leverage successes of the World Wide Web by creating an environment that nurtures interaction between the research community, the private sector and government agencies working together on behalf of the nation. The presentation will introduce the data-integration framework (www.OOSTethys.org) based on specifications from the Open Geospatial Consortium, plus a working prototype of the event-driven, ensemble-prediction system (http://scoop.sura.org).

Inventory of Canadian Marine Renewable Energy Resources

Presented By: Andrew Cornett, Ph.D., P.Eng.

Global warming, the Kyoto protocol, the depletion of conventional reserves and the rising cost of electricity generation have sparked renewed interest in renewable ocean energy within Canada and internationally. Significant advances in ocean energy converters have been made in recent years and there is a growing realization that these technologies will be ready for large scale deployments within the next decade. This presentation will review results of recent studies conducted to quantify, characterize and map Canada's extensive renewable marine energy resources due to waves and tidal currents. Dissemination of these results through the creation of a web-enabled digital atlas of marine energy resources will also be discussed.

GeoCod: Geomatics for the sustainable development of fish stocks

Presented By: Dr. Rodolphe Devillers

This presentation will provide an overview of the Canadian GeoCod project that looks at applying GIS approaches to improve the sustainable management of fish stocks. The GeoCod project is a two-year initiative co-funded by the Canadian GEOIDE Network of Center of Excellence and the Canadian Center for Fisheries Innovations. Its objectives are (1) to integrate Canadian and US fisheries data (Cod, Capelin, Shrimp and Crab) for the NW Atlantic region, as well as environmental data, (2) to analyze the data using spatial statistics techniques to better understand the spatial and temporal variations in the abundance of these four species and (3) develop GIS-based visualization tools that can support experts in fisheries in their decisions. The project is ongoing and this presentation will give an outline
of the progress.

St. Lawrence Global Observatory(SLGO)

Presented By: Paul Bellemare

The vision of the SLGO is to provide quick and transparent Web access to data and information from the network of federal, provincial, academic and other member organisations for the sustainable management of the St. Lawrence global ecosystem. The SGLO aims at providing a choice of value-added products and services adapted to the various user needs and designed under a multidisciplinary and innovative approach. The content accessible via the SLGO includes many disciplines, themes and areas of interest such as environment, natural habitats and economic activities. The targeted client base is very large and includes both producers and holders of information, the general public, local round tables, specialized clienteles such as academic research, consulting firms or various communities of practice such as environmental assessment... The synergy created by clustering the means and expertise of the SLGO and its members will result in the optimization of information dissemination and will help to meet the objectives of large programs such as the Canada-Quebec Agreement on the St-Lawrence. The SLGO will contribute to the creation of a pole of excellence, complementary with other initiatives such as the Great Lakes Observing System, the Northwset Atlantic Ocean Observing System, the Gulf of Maine Ocean Observing system and the Smart Bay initiative.

Use of GIS in Community-Based Coastal Resource Management: an experience in the Philippines

Presented By: Andrew Song

This presentation illustrates a brief experience in the Philippines where the use of a relatively simple set of GIS techniques aided the progress of a community-based coastal resource management project led by the WWF-Philippines. GIS maps and spatial information that were generated depicted a network of proposed marine protected areas as well as the extent and use patterns of other coastal resources. They have been an essential component in the planning stage of a management scheme, and will further contribute to the future management of coastal resources in the targeted project area. This experience revealed some insights with regard to (1) the current level of acceptance and usage of GIS technology in rural parts of a developing country like the Philippines, and (2) benefits GIS can potentially bring to other similarly-natured management efforts.

SmartBay: Technology solutions for integrated management

Presented By: Bill Carter

The Placentia Bay Demonstration Project – ‘technology solutions for integrated management’ (more commonly referred to as SmartBay) is a primary project under Canada’s Ocean Action Plan.

Still in its first year of operation, SmartBay serves as an operational, user-driven ‘ocean information system’ for Placentia Bay. User needs for access to information are driving the development and implementation of the system, including; what data are needed to support informed decisions; how these data are managed, processed and analyzed to generate information; and the applications that bring the information to the users desktop.

SmartBay: Better information, better decisions.

Implementing Canada’s National Marine Mapping Strategy

Presented By: Dick Pickrill

With an offshore territory of 4.6 million km2 Canada faces many challenges in managing offshore lands. In addition under UNCLOS Article 76 Canada could lay claim to substantial additional territory on the Atlantic and Arctic margins. Rapid climate change in the Arctic and sustainable management of the fishery are providing additional stresses to resource management. Government response to these challenges has been to enact new policy (Canada’s Oceans Act 1997), to develop new strategies (Canada’s Ocean Strategy 2002), leading to realignment of existing research programs (Geoscience for Oceans Management in the NRCan), and to fund new programs such as Canada’s Oceans Action Plan, and a 10-year program to support the Canadian UNCLOS claim.

Management of offshore lands has been constrained by a lack of high quality information on marine ecosystems. Seafloor maps are a foundation knowledge base upon which regional management plans are being developed. Over the last three years a national seafloor mapping program has been developed and implemented. In the federal budget of 2005 Canada implemented the Oceans Action Plan, which incorporated a national seafloor mapping program to be delivered by NRCan in partnership with the Canadian Hydrographic Service. Through a series of stakeholder workshops priority areas of national importance have been identified, while a habitat mapping strategy has been developed to optimise program outputs. A new national marine map series has been developed as a foundation to support integrated ocean management. Maps are being produced at scales of 1:50,000 and 1:100,000 with four separate sheets in each area, multibeam bathymetry, backscatter intensity, interpreted geology and benthic habitat; in selected coastal areas maps are produced at 1:10,000. More than 100 maps are currently in production, incorporating approximately 120,000 km2.

Use of geostatistics and GIS in fisheries: an application from coastal Newfoundland

Presented By: Dr. George Rose

Fisheries and marine environmental data are fundamentally spatial yet have been typically analyzed otherwise by science. In some cases results are likely to have been erroneous because of inappropriate spatial averaging. In others, the inevitable spatial correlation which characterizes most natural phenomena was a problem for random statistical methods. Recently, fisheries data have used spatial statistical methods which measure appropriate scales and use the spatial correlation. These methods also enable the production of mapped surfaces which aid interpretation and communication of scientific results. Geostatistics is one approach in which a fundamental model of the spatial correlation is used to determine the magnitude of a measured attribute and its variance. Here, I show how these methods can be used in surveys of Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) in Smith Sound, Trinity Bay, to assess the biomass of the fish, the survey uncertainty, and to map fish distribution. I also show how applying these methods to the chief uncertainty in the acoustic method, the target strength, may assist in achieving more accurate survey and fish size estimates.

WWF-Canada's geospatial contributions to marine conservation priorities in the Northwest Atlantic Ecoregion

Presented By: Jennifer Smith & Graham Bondt

Increasingly, geography matters to marine conservation. We are waking up to the realization that the oceans are neither limitless nor homogeneous, that healthy habitats matter to fish stocks - and that the spatial patterns of our ocean uses have an impact on marine biodiversity. Geographic data, analysis and information products have a critical role to play in implementing the shift toward ecosystem-based management.

WWF-Canada has established the Northwest Atlantic Ecoregion program to help facilitate this shift. Providing analyses that support the implementation of spatial conservation is a critical part of our work. Some of our geospatial contributions to conservation in the Northwest Atlantic Ecoregion include:
This talk will present some of the outputs of these projects and show how what we’re learning can be used to make our fisheries more sustainable and help Canada meet its commitments to marine conservation.

Creating a Canadian Ocean Biogeographic Information System

Presented By: Bob Branton

Canadian ocean biogeographers advocate data management policy and plans to ensure that their data are available to the research community as a whole as opposed to individual projects. Two emerging initiatives, namely, the Ocean Tracking Network and the Canadian Healthy Oceans Network are given as examples of how these policies and plans may be realized. Both are expect to provide the data management focus for a wide range of biodiversity discovery projects following methods pioneered by the Centre for Marine Biodiversity OBISCanada system, which although appearing as an autonomous website, is in reality be an integration of existing open standards based systems and facilities. In addition to upholding and maintaining common standards of practise, these initiatives would oversee central data management functions, particularly when it comes to quality control, long term security of data and public interaction through global scale data systems such as the Global Change Master Directory, Ocean Biogeographic Information System and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Even though the general plan is to minimize overall risks of failure through use existing standards and facilities, these initiatives are expected to be a very challenging undertaking.

Spatial Risk Analysis for Maritime Activities

Presented By: Ronald Pelot, Ph.D., P.Eng.

A variety of risks are associated with maritime activities, from accidents involving a vessel, to medical emergencies of passengers or crew, from environmental impacts to coastal security concerns. Spatial and temporal evaluation of patterns associated with such events can provide useful insight for multiple purposes: identifying hazardous or sensitive areas; improve mitigation planning such as search and rescue, or emergency response; and providing better baseline information for marine domain awareness and coastal security. This talk will give an overview of methodological advances and software implementations to address such issues.

Applications of Multibeam Sonar Data in Nearshore Environments of Eastern and Arctic Canada

Presented By: Trevor Bell

The availability of multibeam sonar (MBES) data has provided new opportunities for mapping the seabed in nearshore and shelf environments for geological and biological applications. In this presentation I describe ongoing projects that use MBES data to: (i) reconstruct past glacial dynamics of the Newfoundland Ice Cap (Placentia Bay, NL); (ii) investigate present dynamics of calving tidewater glaciers (Belcher Glacier, Devon Ice Cap, NU); (iii) map marine geology, geomorphology and hazards in fiord environments (Oliver Sound, NU and northern Labrador fiords, NL); (iv) prospect for submerged archaeological sites on submerged landscapes (Newman Sound, NL); and (v) classify benthic substrates and habitats in nearshore environments (Gilbert Bay, NL).

COINAtlantic: Now and in the Future

Presented By: Andy Sherin

COINAtlantic, Coastal and Ocean Information Network Atlantic, is an initiative of the Atlantic Coastal Zone Information Steering Committee (ACZISC), whose membership represents Canadian federal and provincial agencies with a mandate for coastal and ocean management. In addition to government agencies, the ACZISC membership includes academe, non-governmental organizations and geomatics industry representatives.
The ACZISC has provided a forum in Atlantic Canada for information sharing since 1992.

COINAtlantic will provide open access to regional data and information within the Canadian Geospatial Data Infrastructure (CGDI). COINAtlantic is driven by the information needs to implement integrated coastal and ocean management as defined under Canada’s Oceans Act and in particular the Integrated Oceans Management for Sustainable Development pillar of the Oceans Action Plan.

The Eastern Scotian Shelf Integrated Management Plan (ESSIM) is the first management plan for a Large Ocean Management Area developed under the Oceans Act and developed through consultation with a wide stakeholder community. ESSIM is structured around three themes or objectives: Collaborative Governance and Integrated Management, Sustainable Human Use and Healthy Ecosystems.

COINAtlantic when Phase 1 is complete will support all three themes and demonstrate its relevance to integrated management in a wider context. The ACZISC intends that COINAtlantic will provide a focus for discussion for the development of a national information system to support integrated coastal and ocean management.

The paper provides a brief history of the COIN concept, what aspects of COIN are already a reality and the specific plans for COINAtlantic Phase 1 development.

The paper will also give emphasis to how COINAtlantic is being structured to ensure the its sustainability.

SmartBay - Ireland

Presented By: Eoin Sweeney

Recent developments in Marine Science and Technology in Ireland are described. SeaChange, a 7-year strategy for the marine sector, launched by the Government in March this year, is presented and the specific objectives for the Marine Technology sector are outlined. Ongoing projects in the field of Sensors and ICT are presented and the current scoping of SmartBay is detailed. This is Test and Demonstration platform currently under development in Galway Bay, a major multi-user bay on Ireland’s west coast.

Supporting Decision Making in the Sustainable Exploitation of Marine Aggregates

Presented By: Yassine Lassoued

The case for commercial exploitation of marine aggregates from the Irish Sector of the Southern Irish Sea is strengthening as a consequence of rapid economic expansion, and in the light of sustainability criteria assessments which favour this option over current terrestrial supply practices. However, if extraction of these important construction raw materials is to proceed, the nature of extractive processes means that both strategic and site specific environmental impact assessments will be required. The decision making that follows will require detailed consideration of large volumes of complex marine environmental data. The competent authorities tasked with decision making often now rely on the use of Decision Support Systems (DSS) to provide them with crucial maps, information, and meta-information that is presented in a manner that is appropriate and specific to their requirements. Such a system has been developed as part of the Irish Sea Marine Aggregates Initiative (IMAGIN). The overall aim of the IMAGIN project is to facilitate the evolution of a strategic framework within which development and exploitation of marine aggregate resources from the Irish Sea may be sustainably managed with minimum risk of impact on marine and coastal environments, ecosystems and other marine users.

To achieve this, the project brought together a trans-national scientific consortium comprising organisations with expertise in coastal processes, geology and marine resource management for the purpose of developing a strategic framework to underpin future policy development for Irish Sea aggregates. It is intended that this framework will provide the operational guidelines and regulatory processes necessary for the environmentally sustainable management of Irish Sea aggregates. Thus, two key aspects of the IMAGIN project are:

Collection of Survey Data - Scientific studies to evaluate available aggregate resources and ascertain where they may best be exploited with the minimum of disturbance to the environment and human activities.

Planning Database - The development of a marine database and decision support system to (i) manage and present pertinent spatial information, including profiles of other marine users; (ii) inform stakeholders and scientists, (iii) act as an operational tool to facilitate the management of future regulatory processes.