Suchergebnisse

The Hydrometeo System Flemish Banks consists of The Monitoring Network Flemish Banks (Meetnet Vlaamse Banken) and the Marine Forecast Centre (OMS). The Monitoring Network was set up for the acquisition of real-time oceanographical and meteorological data along the Belgian coast and continental shelf. The oceanographic parameters monitored are waves, tidal height, current and water temperature; meteorological parameters are wind, air pressure, air temperature and rainfall. The network consists of small measuring platforms on the North Sea with hydro-meteo sensors, of wave buoys, meteorological stations and telemetric water level gauges on the coast. The Network is sponsored by the government of Flanders, and set up and maintained by the Waterways and Maritime Affairs Administration (Administratie Waterwegen en Zeewezen: AWZ). AWZ is also responsible for the central server and quality control of the data. The data resulting from the Monitoring Network are primarily intended for the daily redaction of marine weather forecasts of tidal heights, waves, wind and visibility along the Belgian coast and in the shipping lane to the coastal harbours and to the estuary of the River Scheldt. The marine meteorologists of the Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium at the AWZ Oceanographic Meteorological Station (OMS) in Zeebrugge produce these forecasts several times a day.Flanders Marine Institute (Vlaams Instituut voor de Zee - VLIZ) was invited by AWZ to distribute the data to the academic world, and to create a website offering public access to the most recent measurements. The website also gives a description of the Network, including location of the measuring platforms and buoys, sensors used, and frequency and precision of the measurements.AWZ participates in several international projects on the strength of its Measuring Network. The most important of these is SeaNet, a European project involving nine countries that maintain operational networks in the North Sea. SeaNet Data Interface is a European MAST project, joining measuring networks of six SeaNet partners for the exchange of data in near-real time.

One of the main objectives of the European FP 6 Coordination action ENCORA (=European Network for Coastal Research) is to address fragmentation of and difficult communication between coastal science, practice and policy across Europe. Together with the establishment of national, thematic and affiliated networks, ENCORA developed the ENCORA Portal to support dissemination activities and to share ICZM knowledge through the Web among scientists, practitioners and policy makers (users). The ENCORA Portal was built upon existing technologies and software tools integrating three main different, interlinked database systems. The Integrated Marine Information System (IMIS) served as the searchable contact database of coastal professionals, institutes and projects. The different national and thematic ENCORA networks have started to feed the database and additionally an online edit tool is foreseen for the near future. A State of the Art Coastal Directory is embedded is the Wikipedia software and linked with the contact database. Striking about the ENCORA Portal is the link between registered users of the Coastal Wiki and the contact database, allowing only fully registered users to upload information in the Wiki Coastal Directory and hence allowing an improved authority and quality control. The link and synchronization between the different relational database systems was established through an in-house developed system and will serve as link to any future systems that may need quality control or authorization. A Thematic and National Forum which can be used as discussion and information exchange platform within the coastal community was also integrated in the Portal and is linked with the other systems. The ENCORA Portal can be consulted at http://www.encora.eu.

The SAIL partnership is a transnational ICZM effort bordering the Southern North Sea, seeking regeneration of regional economies of Zeeland (NL), West-Flanders (B), Nord Pas de Calais (F), Kent and Essex (UK), and the protection and enhancement of cultural and natural diversity. Guidelines for ICZM developed by the EU, UNEP and FAO, underline the relevance of indicators to monitor and evaluate effectiveness of ICZM. Starting January 2004, VLIZ is developing a set of indicators for the SAIL region to monitor change in the state of the coastal and marine environments, assess trends in socio-economic pressures and conditions and appraise the effectiveness of policies in addressing these issues. Methodology for indicator selection is based on close examination of the Vision for the SAIL area, from which ICZM strategies are drawn by SAIL partners for priority policy areas (bathing water quality, cultural and natural heritage, sustainable fisheries). Further selection is based on degree of compliance with the following criteria: policy relevance, measurability, performance, data availability, communicative value and transnational compatibility. Information will be available for end users through Internet (GIS interface) with appropriate time series and/or geographic resolution defined by the scope of the indicator, and presented as the first 'State of the Southern North Sea Report' in 2005. The VLIZ proposal is developed in close cooperation with the EU ICZM Expert Group. The set will be used as a template to assist Member States, and Acceding and Candidate Countries, in preparing national coastal strategies by 2006. The challenge for the ICZM approach is to integrate and identify causal relations between environmental, socio-economic and governance performance components within a Pressure-State-Response framework. Effects of ICZM must also be monitored against specific baselines and goals.

Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) requires robust sustainability indicators (SI) that gauge the 'health' of the coast in relation to environmental, economic and social activity. They are essential tools for monitoring the state of the coastal environment to inform managers and policy makers of the effectiveness of strategies in achieving sustainability. At the European level, a set of 27 SI has been adopted in November 2004, to facilitate an integrated and common approach to monitoring, and to measure whether we are moving away from or towards more sustainable coasts.The SAIL partnership is a trans-national ICZM effort bordering the Southern North Sea, seeking regeneration of regional economies of Zeeland (NL), West-Flanders (B), Nord-Pas de Calais (F), Kent and Essex (UK), and the protection and enhancement of cultural and natural diversity. The SAIL project on SI, taken forward by VLIZ from January 2004, attempts to assemble compatible datasets for all 27 indicators at a very local level, through one common methodology and systematization tools such as fact sheets and mapping products. Datasets of different format and from varied sources must be 'pre-packaged' for the coastal zone. Data and metadata are stored in an SQL database and shared on the web. An 'SVG Sniplet Server' (SSS) was developed to improve performance of an interactive mapping tool of high-resolution maps for the SAIL region. Data capture has been completed for 20 indicators covering high-priority policy issues at the coast such as changes in the extent and quality of protected areas, significance of tourism, ports and fisheries, second homes, social deprivation and climate change.This initiative is the first to tackle the EU set of 27 SI for the coastal zone through a coordinated trans-national approach based on a common methodology. The set of SI will be instrumental to EU Member States in preparing their national coastal strategies in 2006.

High-quality information and scientifically underpinned data is needed in support of decision taking and good governance in coastal zones. Good governance does not only pursue effective policies and efficient administration. It also aims at building capacity and commitment within society, by supporting a flow of objective and reliable information towards the stakeholders and the wider public, and in a format that is useful and relevant for its purpose. A set of sustainability indicators (SI) addressing the complexity of ecological, environmental and socio-economic issues involved in achieving an integrated coastal zone management (ICZM) can provide an answer in a format that is useful for policymakers and is an effective communication tool towards a wider range of stakeholders. In a demonstration session, the sustainability indicators (SI) for coastal zones are presented and interactive tools to search, visualize and download data, are displayed. The SI form part of a wider information system for Belgium, as developed by the Coordination Centre for ICZM (www.kustbeheer.be); the SAIL partnership in the southern North Sea (www.vliz.be/projects/SAIL) and European DEDUCE project (INTERREG IIIC South - www.deduce.eu). The initiatives are developed within the framework of the objectives as set forward in the EU Recommendation concerning the implementation of ICZM.

DIMAS is a 2-year project executed by three Belgian partners (EURAS, VLIZ and Ghent University) and funded by the SPSD II research program of the Belgian Science Policy (BELSPO). Several shipping accidents in Belgian territorial waters, made the various government agencies involved aware of the need to develop tools to assess the risks and impact on marine resources in the case of an accidental release of hazardous substances. DIMAS aims at the protection of the North Sea and Western Scheldt in case of accidental spills from ships. In the present project, a relational database is developed, providing reliable, easy to interpret and up-to-date information on marine specific issues. The database contains the latest information on effects (acute and chronic), absorption, distribution, bioaccumulation/biomagnification, GESAMP hazard profiles and physico-chemical properties for a selection of priority substances and is publicly available ( www.vliz.be/projects/dimas ). The selection of the substances is based on criteria such as occurrence on priority lists, volumes transported over sea, frequency of involvement in accidental spills and frequency of transports over sea. The first beneficiaries of this database are the people directly involved in the first phase of a containment plan for an accidental spill. The final indirect beneficiaries are the general public (scientists, journalists, general public, etc.) who will be better informed about the potential impact to man and the environment.

The Census of Marine Life was a 10-year, international research effort to explore poorly known ocean habitats and conduct large-scale experimentation with new technology. The goal of Census 2010 in its mission statement was to describe what did live in the oceans, what does live in the oceans, and what will live in the ocean. Many of the findings and techniques from census research may prove valuable in making a transition, which many governments have publicly endorsed, from single-species fisheries management to more holistic ecosystem management. Census researchers sampled continental margins, mid-Atlantic ridges, ocean floor vents and seeps, and abyssal plains and polar seas and organized massive amounts of past and new information in a public online database called the Ocean Biogeographic Information System ( www.iobis.org ). The census described and categorized seamount biology worldwide for its vulnerability to fishing, advanced large-scale animal tracking with acoustic arrays and satellite archival tags, and accelerated species identification, including nearshore, coral reef, and zooplankton sampling using genetic barcoding and pyrotag sequencing for microbes and helped to launch the exciting new field of marine environmental history. Above all, the census showed the value of investing in large-scale, collaborative projects and sharing results publicly.