Problems to be solved

Knowledge of phytoplankton dynamics and distributions in North Sea coastal waters is vital to ensure a scientific basis for coherent management of the coastal environment and the human activities which impact on or benefit from it. The common environmental policies, of the EU and OSPAR are underpinned by the role of phytoplankton biomass and its impact on sustainable development. Currently, the main problem is that monitoring of phytoplankton is carried out by all North Sea states by means of conventional, timely and costly water sampling programs. This results in sparse spatial and temporal coverage. Such sparse sampling cannot identify the causes of specific events or ensure a representative coverage of the strong variability in complex heterogeneous and dynamic coastal waters.

Scientific objectives and approach

REVAMP will develop an improved product from MERIS, namely an atlas containing maps of validated chlorophyll (CHL) concentrations for the North Sea. There exists little experience in the operational application of satellite data for monitoring the quality of coastal waters. Additionally, coastal processes induce natural variations in optical properties and concentrations on a regional scale. Therefore REVAMP will follow a regional approach where parts of the North Sea will be described by same algorithm with different parameters. CHL algorithms are still far from well established for turbid coastal waters, where bulk optical properties depend not only on phytoplankton and its degradation products (case 1 waters) but also on other optically active constituents such as non-phytoplanktonic particulate matter and colored dissolved organic matter (case 2). For case 2 waters the conventional blue-green band ratio algorithms fail. Therefore the MERIS standard neural network approach will be considered together with alternative innovative methods such as multi-spectral matrix inversion methods. Parameterization of these algorithms and validation of the end products will require high quality in-situ data on concentrations and optical properties. REVAMP will gather this data in a number of relevant regions in the North Sea. In concert with the end-user REVAMP will define and produce relevant information products (Value Added Products) based on the CHL-maps.

Expected impacts

REVAMP conforms to several EU policies and directives mainly regarding the need for monitoring coastal waters in order to protect various activities (fishing, tourism, bathing and aquaculture) and the common policy on eutrophication. It will provide an important tool for the preservation and maintenance of the marine environment exploitation at a sustainable level by means of continuous data collection and analysis. The use of trans-national satellite data sources and a unified methodological provides an objective measure of CHL, which will contribute to standardization of criteria for determining the eutrophication status of European coastal waters.