User consultation

CoastColour preparatory User Consultation

The first user workshop for the DUE CoastColour project was held at the National Maritime College of Ireland, Cork, on 19-20 March 2009.

Recent research in satellite monitoring of ocean colour in coastal zones has demonstrated continuing advances in the retrieval of important parameters such as the chlorophyll concentration, algal blooms, sediment load, water clarity and river runoff. The societal benefits of this type of information are potentially huge, examples include: coastal ecosystem research, early warning for aquaculture, water quality information for recreational users, and pollution monitoring for coast guards.

The CoastColour project aims to increase global user uptake of advanced information products from ESA's MERIS mission by developing, demonstrating and validating the latest techniques for monitoring water constituents in coastal zones around the world.

In particular, the project will address the user needs of:

scientists studying the bio- and geophysical processes in coastal waters, and
companies and government agencies who specialise in providing water quality information to the aquaculture industry, local authority water quality managers, etc.

The first workshop for the DUE CoastColour project was co-organised with the University College Cork Coastal and Marine Resources Centre, and held at the National Maritime College of Ireland on 19-20 March 2009. The purpose of this workshop was to bring users and experts together to define the detailed set of user requirements for the project, including identifying the priority information types and priority regions of interest.

Over 50 participants from the worldwide scientific and user communities attended the workshop to learn more about the unique capabilities of MERIS for monitoring coastal waters, and to provide their specific requirements for the information services to be developed and tested by CoastColour.