Newsletter
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The potable water supply for more than 18 million people in Shanghai, China, is threatened by the region’s rapid growth of both population and industry. Shanghai’s population is estimated to grow to over 20 million by 2010 when the metropolis hosts the Shanghai World Expo. 
The Source Water Reservoir Water Quality Management Project, part of the Chinese government-funded High-Tech Research & Development 863 Program, will focus on technologies that can provide high quality drinking water from the Qingcaosha Reservoir. The project will investigate key pollutants and their sources, water quality, hydrodynamics, Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL), possible pollution events, and eutrophication and harmful algae blooms in the reservoir and Yangtze estuary using the latest monitoring and modeling technology.|
The CWP aims at raising the sewer system to 95% connectivity and to triple the availability of clean water. To achieve this goal, the sewage network will be expanded, a new ocean outfall will be constructed in Praia Grande, and the pre-existing Santos outfall will be extended.
ASA’s metocean support piece of the project will be completed by the end of April 2009. The Clean Wave Program is planned for completion in 2011 when it will benefit not only the local population, but also the region’s tourists and tourism related industries. More Information & Related Links: |
Sao Paulo’s government and other local authorities launched the “Programa Onda Limpa” (Clean Wave Program - CWP) to remedy water shortages and water quality problems along the Sao Paulo beaches as a result of seasonal surges in tourism combined with inadequate sewage network and water supplies. Presently, only about 43% of the region’s businesses and residences are connected to the sewer system. 
ASA South America’s role in this important sanitation project is to provide metocean (meteorological-oceanographic) forecast data bulletins for the construction consortium. The forecast bulletins are an important tool to define the work load and project schedule. “Our task is to analyze in-situ collected data and the results of oceanic and meteorological models with different scales on a daily basis. Based on our analysis, a bulletin with the metocean forecast for the next 5 days is released every night”, explains Gabriel Clauzet, Technical Manager for ASA South America. ASA has assigned an onsite professional working full time to provide immediate response and improved interaction between the project team, oceanographer Andre Paim. Andre Paim is working full time to provide a fast response and a better interaction between the project team. “We have a lot to thank ASA for the sharp forecasts, which assist us on management decisions to make the project run on schedule” says Production Manager for CNO-Carioca Engineering, responsible for the maritime operations.|
Other contributors to the project include Galway Bay’s harbormaster and commercial fishermen, Bord Iascaigh Mhara, Ireland’s Environmental Protection Agency, the Irish Water Safety Council, and the Hydraulics Maritime Research Centre. Dublin City University, University College Dublin and the Tyndall National Institute in Cork are also involved, working to develop smarter water management systems. More Information & Related Links: |
Led by the Marine Institute of Ireland, a group of academic, government, and industry partners have collaborated in a marine technology project in Galway Bay. SmartBay is a regional network of technologies that produce and assemble marine and coastal data in Galway Bay. Tying together technologies such as sensors attached to anchored buoys in the bay, to weather gauges, to simple text messages from fisherman about their catch or boaters regarding potentially dangerous floating objects is intended to deliver benefits to aquaculture, tourism, climate research, fishing and the environment. The system is built on a cloud computing approach in which vast amounts of data can be divided among computers based at data centers around the globe. The data is then made available at a portal site for users in a range of easily interpreted formats, including graphs, lists, maps, and charts. 
IBM Ireland asked ASA and Nowcasting Weather Ltd. to assist in the portal by providing high resolution weather forecast data and web-based search & rescue tools. ASA embedded its SARMAP search & rescue technology in a web services architecture that allowed users at the portal site to specify locations of missing persons, or drifting objects at sea. By using automatic connection to weather forecast data, the predicted search areas are made available in a Google Maps interface within seconds.|
The data network design has focused on: Meeting user needs is a main driving force for the development of the data network. User needs identified were based on reports from the ocean management plan working groups. The working groups include: fisheries, habitat, ocean recreation, cultural services, transportation, navigation, and infrastructure, sediment, renewable energy. ASA has actively been building GIS linkages to high priority data such as marine mammal observations, fisheries data, vessel traffic, and oceanographic analysis. This data is delivered to MassCZM with the appropriate metadata so it can be integrated into the Massachusetts Ocean Resource Information System (MORIS). This data is then readily accessible through GeoServer services, which provides a number of data standards that can be used to support scientific analysis and policy decision making. More Information & Related Links: |
There is growing recognition around the world that intensifying demands on our ocean ecosystems from commerce, industry, recreation, and climate change require a new approach to ocean resource management. The Massachusetts Ocean Partnership (MOP) is a broadly representative, independent public-private partnership created specifically to advance ecosystem-based integrated multi-use management of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ coastal ocean waters. The Partnership pursues this goal through implementation of stakeholder engagement, science integration and public outreach strategies.
As part of their mission, MOP is working closely with the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA) and Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management (MassCZM) in support of a comprehensive ocean-use management plan that is based on the best available science, and that may serve as a model for other coastal states. MOP has awarded a contract to ASA to provide technology and data management support to MOP, EEA and MassCZM. ASA’s primary role has been in the conceptual design of an ocean data network. An ocean data network is an infrastructure of data, systems, services, and tools that allow a variety of users including the public, coastal managers, and research scientists to access “live” and archived data related to coastal and ocean management. This may include maps, observations, and model data.
Jennifer Cragan presented ASA’s System for Hazard Assessment of Released Chemicals (SHARC) at the Chemical and Biological Medical Treatments Symposia - Fifth World Congress on Chemical, Biological and Radiological Terrorism (CBMTS-Industry VI) in Dubrovnik, Croatia, on 5-10 April. Eoin Howlett, as a member of the Ocean Research and Resources Advisory Panel (ORRAP) Ocean Observing Sub Committee, met in Washington D.C on 18 February to meet with scientists from a number of federal agencies, and the Interagency Working Group on Ocean Observations (IWGOO). Eoin Howlett represented the Mid Atlantic Coastal Ocean Observing System (Marcoos) at the NOAA IOOS Program office for the annual meeting of the data management representatives from the IOOS regional associations (RAs). The 2 day technical workshop focused on implementation of data transport protocol and standards and allowed the RA’s to share their experiences and advice on the issues related to management of ocean observation and model data.
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ASA welcomes Deborah Crowley as a natural resources engineer and numerical modeler. She has experience in hydrodynamic, mass transport and water quality modeling, in addition to experience supporting renewable energy feasibility studies. She will continue to focus on renewable energy projects at ASA. |
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Yong Hoon Kim joined ASA as a physical oceanographer specializing coastal processes including particle transport dynamics. Beside specialties in hydrodynamics, he has broad experience in interdisciplinary research on various environmental issues in coastal and estuarine systems. Dr. Kim earned his Ph.D. in Geological and Marine Sciences from University of South Carolina, and his Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees from Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea. |
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Christin Reynolds joined ASA as a natural resources engineer, policy analyst and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) specialist. Christin’s studies include a M.S. in Engineering & Policy Analysis from Technical University of Delft, The Netherlands and Harbin Institute of Technology, China and a B.S. in Civil & Environmental Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Her focus at ASA will be solving multi-disciplinary problems through modeling, designing decision support tools, and GIS data management for natural resources management. |
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Jason Scholle has joined ASA as an entry level systems engineer. Jason has a background in computer systems, fiber optic research and development, and electronic production. Jason’s main focus at ASA will be maintenance of ASA computer systems and server maintenance. |
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Eric Comerma, Rich Sweetman, and Deborah French McCay will attend Interspill 2009 Conference & Exhibition to be held at Parc Chanot, Marseille, France on 12-14 May. At the conference, European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) will be showcasing ASA's new dispersant guidance model tool (similar to SIMAP with updated oil database and guidance on dispersant use). Deb will be in the EMSA booth demonstrating this new tool. |