MARITIME AFFAIRS AND FISHERIES - EU cooperation on seabed data helps UK Meteorological Office improve forecasts

Charting the water depth is an activity almost as old as sailing. Now measurements are made by acoustic soundings rather than plumb lines dropped from ships but, until recently, the purpose was the same – avoiding the grounding of ships in areas where the water was too shallow.

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Maritime Affairs

date: 09/01/2017

However, the coming of the EU's integrated maritime policy and the concept of "measure once, use for many purposes" has revolutionised this traditional activity. A group of scientists, hydrographers and engineers, working under the auspices of the European Marine Observation and Data Network (EMODnet) have stitched together surveys from different countries, with different standards, different baselines and different formats to create a topographical map of the European seabed. There are still many unsurveyed areas and work is ongoing to improve the resolution but this product is already having dramatic effects. For instance the United Kingdom Meteorological Office found that it made massive improvements to their storm surge forecasts: particularly for the east coast which suffered the disaster of 1953 and which recent studies indicate as being particularly vulnerable. They have now adopted EMODnet in their new system. The reduced uncertainty will cut the cost of protecting life and property in coastal areas and offshore and reduce the risks of further investment.

EMODnet does not only deliver data on water depth; It also covers other parameters such as geological strata, seafloor habitats and marine life; all free of charge and all free of restrictions of use. As awareness of its products increases, it is becoming an essential underpinning for the blue economy. Governments and businesses are more productive because they do not need to resurvey areas that had already been surveyed but for which the data were not available and it costs them less to assemble pictures of the sea's behaviour using data from different sources. Small companies can offer innovative new products and services because it is not only the holders of data who can provide added value services.

All of this has taken skill and commitment from the 150 or so institutions involved in sharing their data and developing the products. The effort is paying off handsomely.