The Toralla Marine Science Station (ECIMAT) hosted this month the working meeting of the European project CoastObs, an initiative that is part of the European Union’s H2020 call and aims to advance the use of satellite remote sensing to monitor coastal water environments. The University of Vigo, through the Applied Physics group led by Professor Jesús Torres and with the collaboration of Professor Gabriel Rosón, from the Physical Oceanography group of the CIM-UVigo, is one of the partners of the consortium, which is coordinated by Water Insight, from the Netherlands, and which also includes the University of Stirling (Scotland), CNR (Italy), the University of Applied Sciences of the Netherlands, the University of Nantes (France) and the companies Bio-Littoral (France) and Geonardo (Hungary).
For the development of the project, which started in 2017, four study areas were established: the Dutch coast, French Brittany, Venice and Galicia. The objective is to evaluate the potential of Sentinel satellites for monitoring coastal environments and, in this workshop held in Vigo, the partners of the initiative are sharing the advances made during the last year. As the researchers explain, CoastObs “focuses on the development of a series of validated products based on satellite images and field data, such as phytoplankton size, toxic microalgae blooms, primary production, mussel growth and macroalgae which, in combination with predictive models, allow us to address specific problems in each of the study areas”, indicates Jesús Torres.
Coping with red tides
Red tides and massive proliferations of toxic algae (Harmful algae blooms, HABs) are a very frequent phenomenon that has a strong impact on the Rías Baixas, both from an economic and ecological point of view. Due to the risk they pose to people’s health, these toxic episodes often force the temporary closure of mussel farming platforms.
To detect these proliferations of toxic microalgae, traditional monitoring systems have been used that are based on direct observation, that is, “the analysis of data obtained from sampling carried out at previously established points”. The CoastObs project aims to make a substantial leap in this regard since the joint analysis of satellite images and physical and biological parameters using statistical techniques and machine learning methods “can be useful for the detection and prediction of HABs and thus complement sampling-based monitoring programs”.
The ultimate goal is to develop a platform that can offer users information that includes monitoring of marine algae and macroalgae, classes and size of phytoplankton, primary production, toxic algae and even higher level products as indicators and integration with predictive models. In addition, the project also aims to contribute to the sustainability of the Copernicus program and help implement and improve the European directive related to water quality.
The work of the Applied Physics group
The work of the University of Vigo within the framework of CoastObs focuses on the development of chlorophyll index algorithms for complex waters in the interior of the estuaries, derived from images from Sentinel satellites and the use of machine learning methods for the detection and prediction of HABs of some toxic species, such as Pseudo-nitzschia spp. or Gymnodinium catenatuml. The Applied Physics group, led by Jesús Torres, develops this project methodology, based on previous studies using MERIS images developed by this work team from the University of Vigo in the Envisat program of the European Space Agency.
Within the framework of the project, researchers from the University of Vigo also have the collaboration of the Galician Mussel Regulatory Council and the Fishing Shipowners’ Cooperative of the Port of Vigo (ARVI) as end users of the products validated through sampling campaigns carried out in CoastObs.
Source:DUVI
