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EU Funding Success For Pioneering Water Quality Software Project
January 16, 2003A project funded in part by the European Union's Information Society Technologies (IST) programme (part of the EU's 5th Framework Programme FP5) is developing software which will revolutionise information services used in marine management along UK coasts and estuaries. Partners in the I-MARQ (Information System for Marine Aquatic Resource Quality) are receiving support to the value of EUR2.25million over three years.
Co-ordinated by Southampton marine specialists, Marinetech South, I-MARQ is a three-year European collaborative research and technological development project with the objective of creating a system for monitoring and displaying coastal and estuarine water quality in a user-friendly format.
Less than a year after the project started, the I-MARQ team, consisting of leading technology providers and user organisations from 5 EU Member States, including Marine Tech South, the University of Southampton and BMT Marine Information Systems from the UK, has already made significant progress, achieving an extensive user needs analysis and definition of the optimal system configuration.
Commenting on the benefits of working within a European consortium, Marinetech's Managing Director Dr Jonathan Williams says: "The project is already benefiting from constructive cross-border collaboration between technical partners, as well as valuable knowledge of distinct user needs across a diverse European market."
A critical feature of I-MARQ is its ability to integrate water quality data from a variety of different data sources, using a technique called 'data fusion'. This allows different types of data, ranging from that sensed by buoys or hand-held instruments to data obtained from satellite images, to contribute towards best estimate values of water quality parameters.
The goals of the project are:
1. To specify a system for monitoring and displaying coastal & estuarine water quality. This will be based on the needs of significant user categories, defined through a combination of survey and analysis.
2. To develop a system which meets the above specification, using novel techniques in data processing, management & GIS. This will offer significant improvement in timeliness of information, compared with existing on-line systems which present information based on historic, regulatory measurements.
3. To pilot the system and evaluate its performance against user requirements. This will generate pilot operating experience in two different EU coastal and estuarine regions: one coastal region in the Mediterranean; and an estuary system on the South coast of England.
4. To plan for enhancement & commercial application of the validated system. This will aim to define a feasible action plan for future development of a commercial-scale system.
Peter Walters, UK National Contact Point for the IST programme, comments on behalf of the DTI's EU funding support service 'UKISHELP':
"The I-MARQ project is a fine example of what is being achieved by UK organisations who receive financial assistance from the EU's Information Society Technologies programme. I-MARQ will generate information on water quality in a map-based format to be distributed via the internet. Access to water quality information at the touch of a button will have infinite benefits for the end user whether it's a member of the public checking out a tourist resort or a large water authority regularly monitoring their waterways.
"The EU's 6th Framework Programme (FP6) is now up and running and the IST element of FP6 has a EUR3.6 billion budget which will be allocated to successful project applicants over the next four years. I urge any UK organisations developing innovative IST ideas to log on to our website www.ukishelp.co.uk or telephone 0870 606 1515 to see whether this funding opportunity could be for them."
Glasgows
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