ALBERT

Description: A three day workshop on turbidity measurements was held at the Hawaii Institute of MarineBiology from August 3 1 to September 2, 2005. The workshop was attended by 30 participantsfrom industry, coastal management agencies, and academic institutions. All groups recognizedcommon issues regarding the definition of turbidity, limitations of consistent calibration, and thelarge variety of instrumentation that nominally measure "turbidity." The major recommendations,in order of importance for the coastal monitoring community are listed below:1. The community of users in coastal ecosystems should tighten instrument designconfigurations to minimize inter-instrument variability, choosing a set of specificationsthat are best suited for coastal waters. The IS0 7027 design standard is not tight enough.Advice on these design criteria should be solicited through the ASTM as well as Federaland State regulatory agencies representing the majority of turbidity sensor end users.Parties interested in making turbidity measurements in coastal waters should developdesign specifications for these water types rather than relying on design standards madefor the analysis of drinking water.2. The coastal observing groups should assemble a community database relating output ofspecific sensors to different environmental parameters, so that the entire community ofusers can benefit from shared information. This would include an unbiased, parallel studyof different turbidity sensors, employing a variety of designs and configuration in thebroadest range of coastal environments.3. Turbidity should be used as a measure of relative change in water quality rather than anabsolute measure of water quality. Thus, this is a recommendation for managers todevelop their own local calibrations. See next recommendation.4. If the end user specifically wants to use a turbidity sensor to measure a specific waterquality parameter such as suspended particle concentration, then direct measurement ofthat water quality parameter is necessary to correlate with 'turbidity1 for a particularenvironment. These correlations, however, will be specific to the environment in whichthey are measured. This works because there are many environments in which watercomposition is relatively stable but varies in magnitude or concentration. (pdf contains 22 pages)

Description: NOAA

Description: Alliance for Coastal Technologies, CBL/UMCES

Description: The Alliance for Coastal Technologies (ACT) Workshop entitled "Technologies for MeasuringCurrents in Coastal Environments" was held in Portland, Maine, October 26-28, 2005, withsponsorship by the Gulf of Maine Ocean Observing System (GoMOOS), an ACT partnerorganization. The primary goals of the event were to summarize recent trends in nearshoreresearch and management applications for current meter technologies, identify how currentmeters can assist coastal managers to fulfill their regulatory and management objectives, and torecommend actions to overcome barriers to use of the technologies. The workshop was attendedby 25 participants representing state and federal environmental management agencies,manufacturers of current meter technologies, and researchers from academic institutions andprivate industry.Common themes that were discussed during the workshop included 1) advantages and limitationsof existing current measuring equipment, 2) reliability and ease of use with each instrument type,3) data decoding and interpretation procedures, and 4) mechanisms to facilitate better training andguidance to a broad user group. Seven key recommendations, which were ranked in order ofimportance during the last day of the workshop are listed below.1. Forums should be developed to facilitate the exchange of information among users andindustry:a) On-line forums that not only provide information on specific instruments andtechnologies, but also provide an avenue for the exchange of user experiences withvarious instruments (i.e. problems encountered, cautions, tips, advantages, etc). (seeReferences for manufacturer websites with links to application and technical forums atend of report)b) Regional training/meetings for operational managers to exchange ideas on methods formeasuring currents and evaluating data.c) Organize mini-meetings or tutorial sessions within larger conference venues.2. A committee of major stakeholders should be convened to develop common standards(similar to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) committee) thatenable users to switch sensors without losing software or display capabilities. (pdf contains 28 pages)

Description: NOAA

Description: Alliance for Coastal Technologies, CBL/UMCES

Description: The Alliance for Coastal Technologies (ACT) held a Workshop on Sensor Technology forAssessing Groundwater-Surface Water Interactions in the Coastal Zone on March 7 to 9,2005 inSavannah, GA. The main goal of the workshop was to summarize the general parameters, whichhave been found to be useful in assessing groundwater-surface water (GW-SW) interactions in thecoastal zone. The workshop participants (Appendix I) were specifically charged with identifyingthe types of sensor systems, if any, that have been used to obtain time-series data and to makeknown which parameters may be the most amenable to the development/application of sensortechnology. The group consisted of researchers, industry representatives, and environmentalmanagers.Four general recommendations were made:1. Educate coastal managers and agencies on the importance of GW-SW interactions,keeping in mind that regulatory agencies are driven by a different set of rules thanresearchers: the focus is on understanding the significance of the problem and providingsolutions. ACT could facilitate this process in two ways. First, given that the researchliterature on this subject is fairly diffuse, ACT could provide links from its web site to factsheets or other literature. Second, ACT could organize a focused meeting for managersand/or agency groups.Encourage development of primary tools for quantifying flow. The most promisingtechnology in this respect is flow meters designed for flux chambers, mainly because theyshould be simple to use and can be made relatively inexpensively. However, it should bekept in mind that they provide only point measurements and several would need to bedeployed as a network in order to obtain reliable flow estimates. For evaluating systemwide GW-SW interactions, tools that integrate the signal over large areas would berequired. Suggestions include a user-friendly hydrogeologic models, keeping in mind thatfreshwater flow is not the entire story, or continuous radon monitors. Though the latterwould be slightly more difficult to use in terms of background knowledge, such aninstrument would be low power and easy to operate and maintain. ACT could facilitatethis recommendation by identifying funding opportunities on its web site and/orperforming evaluations of existing technologies that could be summarized on the web site. (pdf contains 18 pages)

Description: NOAA

Description: Alliance for Coastal Technologies, CBL/UMCES

Description: The Alliance for Coastal Technologies (ACT) Workshop on Optical Remote Sensing of CoastalHabitats was convened January 9-11, 2006 at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories in MossLanding, California, sponsored by the ACT West Coast regional partnership comprised of theMoss Landing Marine Laboratories (MLML) and the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute(MBARI). The "Optical Remote Sensing of Coastal Habitats" (ORS) Workshop completesACT'S Remote Sensing Technology series by building upon the success of ACT'S West CoastRegional Partner Workshop "Acoustic Remote Sensing Technologies for Coastal Imaging andResource Assessment" (ACT 04-07). Drs. Paul Bissett of the Florida Environmental ResearchInstitute (FERI) and Scott McClean of Satlantic, Inc. were the ORS workshop co-chairs. Invitedparticipants were selected to provide a uniform representation of the academic researchers, privatesector product developers, and existing and potential data product users from the resource managementcommunity to enable development of broad consensus opinions on the role of ORS technologiesin coastal resource assessment and management.The workshop was organized to examine the current state of multi- and hyper-spectral imagingtechnologies with the intent to assess the current limits on their routine application for habitat classificationand resource monitoring of coastal watersheds, nearshore shallow water environments,and adjacent optically deep waters. Breakout discussions focused on the capabilities, advantages,and limitations of the different technologies (e.g., spectral & spatial resolution), as well as practicalissues related to instrument and platform availability, reliability, hardware, software, and technicalskill levels required to exploit the data products generated by these instruments. Specifically,the participants were charged to address the following: (1) Identify the types of ORS data productscurrently used for coastal resource assessment and how they can assist coastal managers in fulfillingtheir regulatory and management responsibilities; (2) Identify barriers and challenges to theapplication of ORS technologies in management and research activities; (3) Recommend a seriesof community actions to overcome identified barriers and challenges.Plenary presentations by Drs. Curtiss 0. Davis (Oregon State University) and Stephan Lataille(ITRES Research, Ltd.) provided background summaries on the varieties of ORS technologiesavailable, deployment platform options, and tradeoffs for application of ORS data products withspecific applications to the assessment of coastal zone water quality and habitat characterization.Dr. Jim Aiken (CASIX) described how multiscale ground-truth measurements were essential fordeveloping robust assessment of modeled biogeochemical interpretations derived from opticallybased earth observation data sets. While continuing improvements in sensor spectral resolution,signal to noise and dynamic range coupled with sensor-integrated GPS, improved processing algorithmsfor georectification, and atmospheric correction have made ORS data products invaluablesynoptic tools for oceanographic research, their adoption as management tools has lagged. SethBlitch (Apalachicola National Estuarine Research Reserve) described the obvious needs for, yetsubstantial challenges hindering the adoption of advanced spectroscopic imaging data productsto supplement the current dominance of digital ortho-quad imagery by the resource managementcommunity, especially when they impinge on regulatory issues. (pdf contains 32 pages)

Description: NOAA

Description: Alliance for Coastal Technologies, CBL/UMCES

Description: The Alliance for Coastal Technologies (ACT) Workshop on Trace Metal Sensors for CoastalMonitoring was convened April 11-13, 2005 at the Embassy Suites in Seaside, California withpartnership from Moss Landing Marine Laboratories (MLML) and the Monterey Bay AquariumResearch Institute (MBARI).Trace metals play many important roles in marine ecosystems. Due to their extreme toxicity, theeffects of copper, cadmium and certain organo-metallinc compounds (such as tributyltin andmethylmercury) have received much attention. Lately, the sublethal effects of metals onphytoplankton biochemistry, and in some cases the expression of neurotoxins (Domoic acid),have been shown to be important environmental forcing functions determining the compositionand gene expression in some groups. More recently the role of iron in controlling phytoplanktongrowth has led to an understanding of trace metal limitation in coastal systems. Although metalsplay an important role at many different levels, few technologies exist to provide rapid assessmentof metal concentrations or metal speciation in the coastal zone where metal-induced toxicity orpotential stimulation of harmful algal blooms, can have major economic impacts. This workshopfocused on the state of on-site and in situ trace element detection technologies, in terms of whatis currently working well and what is needed to effectively inform coastal zone managers, as wellas guide adaptive scientific sampling of the coastal zone. Specifically the goals of this workshopwere to: 1) summarize current regional requirements and future targets for metal monitoring infreshwater, estuarine and coastal environments; 2) evaluate the current status of metal sensors andpossibilities for leveraging emerging technologies for expanding detection limits and targetelements; and 3) help identify critical steps needed for and limits to operational deployment ofmetal sensors as part of routine water quality monitoring efforts.Following a series of breakout group discussions and overview talks on metal monitoringregulatory issues, analytical techniques and market requirements, workshop participants madeseveral recommendations for steps needed to foster development of in situ metal monitoringcapacities:1. Increase scientific and public awareness of metals of environmental and biologicalconcern and their impacts in aquatic environments. Inform scientific and publiccommunities regarding actual levels of trace metals in natural and perturbed systems.2. Identify multiple use applications (e.g., industrial waste steam and drinking water qualitymonitoring) to support investments in metal sensor development. (pdf contains 27 pages)

Description: NOAA

Description: Alliance for Coastal Technologies, CBL/UMCES