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Britain's beaches to benefit from better water quality forecasts

16 February 2010

Britain's coastal waters come under scrutiny this week as a new European research project gets under way.

The £3·3m collaborative project, for which the Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory (POL) is co-ordinating the UK effort, aims to provide better data to provide much more precise water quality forecasts for specific regions over timescales as short as a week. Known as FIELD_AC, the project will focus on the region where the land meets the sea and where there are many conflicting demands on usage of the sea from a variety of sources.

Dr Judith Wolf from POL is leading the UK component of the project. She said, "Some of the main coastal conflicts and management problems occur within a few kilometres of the land-ocean boundary. Run-off from rainfall, for example, can have a detrimental effect as it can wash faecal coliforms - such as E. coli - from birds and animals into the sea. Fishery managers and swimmers would need to be warned of dangerous levels and we will be able to pinpoint the areas at risk. This project will provide both scientific and operational benefits which will ensure the needs of many different industries can be met."

The POL researchers will concentrate their investigations on Liverpool Bay, where they have established a Coastal Observatory. This is part of the eastern Irish Sea, bordered by the beaches of Blackpool and North Wales, and is used for many commercial purposes. Marine transport, fisheries, the dredging of marine aggregates and offshore wind-farm operators are some of the other users of our coastal seas who also need detailed forecasts of currents and waves.

The scientists are measuring and recording data such as suspended particles, the concentration of nutrients and trace metals, the effects on marine life, and the strength and direction of currents and waves in the Irish Sea. Combined with satellite observations and state-of-the-art computer models, this localised research will allow highly accurate predictions for coastal run-off and water quality, hazards for marine operations and potential flooding due to surges and waves.

Other countries involved in the project are Spain (which is co-ordinating the whole project), Belgium, France, Germany, Poland, Italy and Denmark. Along with the UK, their results will feed into a much larger data set which will inform the EU Water Framework Directive and Marine Strategy Directive. The researchers anticipate that private investment and the development of spin-out companies will follow in time.

Further information

NERC Press Office
Natural Environment Research Council
Polaris House, North Star Avenue
Swindon, SN2 1EU
Tel: 01793 411561
Mob: 07917 557215

Dr Judith Wolf
Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory
Tel: 0151 795 4800

Notes

1. FIELD_AC stands for Fluxes, Interactions & Environment at the Land-ocean boundary, Downscaling, Assimilation & Coupling.

More information on the project (9·8MB) (hosted on the European Commission website)

2. The Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory is a fully-owned research laboratory of the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). It carries out world-class research into the physics of estuarine, coastal and shelf sea circulation; wind wave dynamics and sediment transport processes; global sea level science and geodetic oceanography; marine technology and operational oceanography.

From 1 April 2010, POL will join forces with the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, to form a new national research organisation. The two organisations will become the National Oceanography Centre (NOC), which will work in partnership with the UK marine research community to deliver integrated marine science and technology from the coast to the deep ocean. The Universities of Liverpool and Southampton will be hosting partners for NOC.

Press release: 05/10

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