SEAWATCH: a brief description
1997
Hansen, S.E. (OCEANOR Pir-Senteret, 7005 Trondheim (Norway))
The oceans have always played a significant role in the life of mankind, being a major supplier of food and means of transport. The coastal areas have therefore always been the most attractive for human settlement. Nowadays, when industrialization and increased pressure on all natural resources take place, the most precious gift of nature, a healthy marine environment is under a huge threat. The increasing of ship transportation and the development of offshore oil and gas industry have put even more pressure on the marine environment, such as the threat from accidental oil spills, caused by ship wrecking and blow outs from offshore oil production platforms. Operating on the frontiers of existing technology may represent a major safety problem to the marine environment with respect to operation and possibility of construction failures. In order to reduce the potential problems, satisfactory marine environmental monitoring and forecasting systems are needed. In this paper, the SEAWATCH system - an advanced marine environmental monitoring and forecasting system, consisting of a network of advanced data buoys transmitting data in real time, a reliable data analysis and control system, tools for environmental forecasting including a number of numerical models, and a computer-based data distribution systems - is presented. By using this system, one might increase the safety in ship navigation and offshore industry, as well as reduce the consequences from accidents. Examples describing the ability of this system are also given in this paper
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