Green Cables for ocean and climate monitoring and disaster warning

Erica Campilongo, ITU

Why are sensors required? Tsunami

East Japan, 11 March 2011 15,883 deaths US$235 billion

Why are sensors required? Global Climate Change

The InitiativeThe deep ocean is largely unknown…

There is a need and opportunity to extend observations and monitoring over much wider area of the global oceans

How could submarine cables be used as a real-time global network to monitor climate change and to provide tsunami

warnings?

A new generation of regional scientific cabled ocean observatories is emerging

Submarine telecommunication cables equipped with sensors to measure key variables such as water temperature,

pressure and acceleration on the ocean floor are viewed as vital to monitor climate change and to provide tsunami

warnings.

ITU with UNESCO-IOC and the WMOestablished a joint task force (JTF) tasked to investigate

using submarine telecommunications cables for ocean and climate monitoring and disaster warning

over 80 international experts from the science, engineering, business and law communities

Five Committees1. Science and Society2. Business Models3. Engineering4. Legal5. Publicity, Outreach and Marketing

Three reports were commissioned and published on Strategy and Roadmap, Engineering Feasibility, and Opportunities and Legal Framework.

JTF Vision and Goals Define needs Prove technical feasibility Build trust and confidence Demonstrate impact Estimate costs Identify partners Draw up business model Study legal aspects Sketch out a pilot project for development and

deployment of an initial “green cable” system

Distributed seabed sensors across oceans have unique value

Without such sensors we cannot really understand ocean processes

Submarine telecommunications systems offer a platform for these sensors

Supporting such sensors would be a positive gesture by system owners

Links & Additional Information

Joint Task Force: http://www.itu.int/go/ITU-T/greencable

Contact Hiroshi Ota and Erica Campilongo: greenstandard@itu.int

Join the JTF!