PASS-SWIO (Portagauge and Satellite Sea Level Monitoring System for the Southwest Indian Ocean)

Principal Investigator: Amani Becker

PASS-SWIO is funded by ESA. It aims to implement and evaluate a low-cost sea level monitoring system for Madagascar, which combines data from a relocatable in situ tide gauge (Portagauge) with satellite altimeter sea-level measurements and analyses.

Madagascar currently has very limited tidal prediction capability (based primarily on model data) and no national sea level monitoring capacity. The project partners will work closely with the national Madagascar Meteorological Agency who will take responsibility for the local maintenance and operation of the Portagauge, and receive training in carrying out data processing and analysis (for tide gauge and satellite altimeter data). Discussions with key stakeholders will review the project and agree a Road Map for the sustainable long-term implementation of a national sea-level monitoring system for Madagascar, which can serve as model for other island states and coastal countries in the South West Indian Ocean (SWIO) region and beyond.

Resilience of Traditional Structures in Madagascar to Cyclones in a Changing Climate (RC3)

Principal Investigator: 

This is an interdisciplinary project funded by the Royal Society, bringing together engineers, climate scientists, conservationists and experts in disaster risk management to understand and address the vulnerability of the residential infrastructure of coastal communities to cyclones in Madagascar. Team members include Alexandre Gagnon of LJMU. https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/rc3project/

Co-benefit Solutions for Resilient Coasts (Co-Opt)

Principal Investigator: 

Co-Opt will deliver a new integrated and interdisciplinary system-based framework that will effectively support the required transition from hard ‘grey’ defences to softer ‘green’ solutions in coastal and shoreline management.  Laurent Amoudry and Amani Becker from NOC are among the team.

 https://www.smmr.org.uk/funded-projects/co-benefit-solutions-for-resilient-coasts-co-opt/

Volunteer data recovery from 19^th Century tidal records

Principal Investigator: 

Many years of scientific data only exist in hand-written records, and need scanning and transcription before they can be used for study. The Permanent Service for Mean Sea Level at NOC have been leading a project on the citizen science website zooniverse.org to transcribe tide gauge records from 1853 to 1903 from Liverpool and Hilbre Island on the Wirral. After a year's work the volunteer effort is complete, and quality control and analysis of the data is underway. https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/psmsl/uk-tides

Coastal & Shelf Seas Instrumentation Services (CASSIS)

Principal Investigator: 

Coastal & Shelf Seas Instrumentation Services (CASSIS) is a group encompassing the skills at Liverpool in coastal instrumentation, such as the design and deployment of tide gauges, landers, profilers or sediment monitoring. More information can be found at https://noc.ac.uk/files/documents/about/coastal-and-shelf-seas-instrumentation-services.pdf

CreamT

Principal Investigator: Jenny Brown

The Coastal REsistance: Alerts and Monitoring Technologies (CreamT) project is monitoring wave overtopping and beach levels change at Dawlish and Penzance. With Plymouth University we are demonstrating a new monitoring system able to issue vital real-time hazard alerts. We are building on previous research using digital communication, data networking and citizen science. Our recent project (WireWall) created a unique overtopping sensor that we will develop into a low-cost hazard monitoring system for long-term deployments using telemetry to transfer data. Another project (SWEEP) created a south west regional computer simulation that updates daily to forecast coastal hazard 3 days in advance. CreamT will incorporate our new hazard data into the SWEEP service through a new web-accessible, open source data staging web service, linking models and new monitoring to validate current hazard services. https://noc.ac.uk/projects/creamt

EO4SD Marine and Coastal Resources

Working with a range of stakeholders in International Finance Institutions (IFIs) and their Client States to define and implement a large-scale demonstration of the application of earth observation (EO) derived information to support sustainable development (SD) activities in the marine and coastal environment. It will provide IFIs and Client States with an improved capability for accessing robust evidence-based information to underpin sustainable development and management activities. This capability will help partner countries to build a resilient marine and coastal socioecological system, and support their growing Blue Economies.

C-RISe (Coastal Risk Information Service)

Through an international partnership with Mozambique, Madagascar and South Africa, C-RISe is delivering access to satellite-derived data on sea level, wind speed and wave heights. The goal is to enable stakeholders to use this information to improve socio-economic resilience to coastal hazards associated with sea level changes such as inundation, floods, storm damage, wetland loss, habitat change, coastal erosion and saltwater intrusion.

This project was completed in 2021. More information about project outcomes can be found on http://www.satoc.eu/projects/c-rise/

BLUECoast

BLUEcoast aims to inform coastal management by reducing uncertainties in the prediction of medium-term (years) and long-term (decadal and longer) regional sediment budgets, morphological change and how the coast recovers after sequences of storms.

Our teams are undertaking observations and experiments to develop modelling tools that will be used to evaluate coastal resilience and scope alternative management options. BLUEcoast combines the expertise of biologists, coastal engineers, geologists, geographers, and oceanographers with complementary field, laboratory and numerical skills.

This project is now completed, more information about outcomes can be found on  https://projects.noc.ac.uk/bluecoast/

Commonwealth Marine Economies Programme

Principal Investigator: Judith Wolf is PI for the Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation project within the CME Programme: focus on St Vincent and the Grenadines.

The Commonwealth Marine Economies (CME) Programme was announced by the British Prime Minister in 2015 to help Commonwealth Small Island Developing States (SIDS) make the most of their natural maritime advantages, to enable sustainable economic growth and alleviate poverty. The Programme aims to ensure marine resources that belong to Commonwealth SIDS are better understood and managed, with the aim of enabling sustainable and growing marine economies in Commonwealth SIDS that create jobs, drive national economic growth, reduce poverty, ensure food security and build resilience. The Programme is being funded and delivered on behalf of the UK Government (managed via the Foreign and Commonwealth Office) by a partnership of world-leading UK government marine expertise: United Kingdom Hydrographic Office (UKHO), the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas) and the National Oceanography Centre (NOC).

ANCODE Project

Principal Investigator: Judith Wolf

ANCODE aims to better understand the potential for re-introducing nature-based coastal defences, namely mangroves and oyster reefs, into the Pearl River Delta in the South China Sea, a low-lying delta particularly vulnerable to sea-level-rise, homing 67-million people. Nature-based coastal defence solutions have increasingly been recognized as more sustainable alternatives to conventional hard engineering approaches against climate change. Using wetlands, mangroves, coral and oyster reefs as a buffer zone, which can attenuate waves and, in a regime of moderate sea level rise, the sediment trapping in such zones can keep pace with sea level. This project aims to develop process-based understanding and predictive models of ecosystem size requirements and how to create ecosystems for coastal defence, using the world's largest urban area, the Pearl River Delta (PRD) in China, as a model system.

This project is now completed, more information about outcomes can be found on https://projects.noc.ac.uk/ancode/