Project Deliverable D76 Final report on WP6 activities (PESOS

ESONET Contract no 036851 Work Package #6 Deliverable D76 Final Report

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Project contract no. 036851 ESONET European Seas Observatory Network

Instrument: Network of Excellence (NoE)

Thematic Priority: 1.1.6.3 – Climate Change and Ecosystems Sub Priority: III – Global Change and Ecosystems

Project Deliverable D76 Final report on WP6 activities (PESOS, Yellow Pages)

Due date of deliverable: month 46 Issued: February 2011 (Month 48)

Start of project: March 2007 Duration: 48 months Project Coordinator: Roland PERSON Coordinator Organisation name: IFREMER, France Work Package 6 Lead Authors: J M Miranda (FFCUL) Contributing authors: J F Rolin (IFREMER), N O’Neill (SLR), K. Schleisiek (SEND)

Revision: Version: 1.0, 15th April 2011

Project co-funded by the European Commission within the Sixth Framework Programme (2002-2006)

Dissemination Level

PU Public

PP Restricted to other programme participants (including the Commission Services)

RE Restricted to a group specified by the consortium (including the Commission Services)

CO Confidential, only for members of the consortium (including the Commission Services)


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Contents

1. Objectives of the WP:............................................................................................................. 3

2. Core services stakeholders..................................................................................................... 3

2.1 Relation with GMES and GEOSS ....................................................................................... 3

2.2 Sectorial Analysis.............................................................................................................. 3

2.2.1 Oceanographic Monitoring ....................................................................................... 3

2.2.2 Seismological Networks ............................................................................................ 4

2.2.3 Tsunami and Earthquake Early Warning Systems..................................................... 4

2.2.4 Environmental Protection and Conservation............................................................ 4

2.3 Relationships with the Industry ....................................................................................... 4

2.4 Esonet Label ..................................................................................................................... 8

3. Regional services stakeholders .............................................................................................. 8

4. Promotion and SME policy ..................................................................................................... 8

4.1 PESOS................................................................................................................................ 8

4.2 ESONET Yellow Pages ..................................................................................................... 10

4.2.1 The concept............................................................................................................. 10

4.2.2 Schedule .................................................................................................................. 11

4.2.3 Structure of EYP....................................................................................................... 11

4.2.4 System Administration ............................................................................................ 12

5. ESONEWS.............................................................................................................................. 12

5.1 Scope of the Newsletter................................................................................................. 12

5.2 Issues .............................................................................................................................. 13

Annex 1: PESOS newsletter ...................................................................................................... 15


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1. Objectives of the WP6: The objectives of this work package are (a) the promotion of the need of subsea observatories, disseminating the results of ESONET NoE and (b) the establishment of permanent links to socio‐economic users. These objectives ask for the development of stronger links between the present and future stakeholders of ESONET, the dissemination to the large public of the state‐of‐the‐art of the network and the promotion of the harmonious development of the different regional infrastructures vis‐à‐vis the different user communities, with an emphasis on the connection between ESONET and the private sector and searching beyond the marine sector for new partnerships.

In this report we will recall briefly the work developed under the work‐package and we will focus on two topics: PESOS and ESONET YELLOW PAGES.

2. Core services stakeholders CORE SERVICES of ESONET are defined as a number of data products and data services which will be provided by the future operational network on a stable basis and with enough standardization to be used as basic input for global players in the fields of Earth Monitoring.

Stakeholders were identified in the following areas:

- Oceanographic Monitoring (Physical and Biological parameters),

- Seismological Networks,

- Tsunami Early Warning Systems,

- Biodiversity assessment,

- Education and Training,

- Environmental protection, conservation and restoration or mitigation monitoring.

Core Services address a specific category of stakeholders which can be private, profit or nonprofit organizations that have the means and the interest to buy information, services or equipment developed by ESONET. These organizations may be at national, regional, and international levels and financed by their membership, commercial activity or government subsidies.

2.1 Relation with GMES and GEOSS The relation between ESONET and MyOcean Marine core service of GMES was initiated by the coordinator of the network Roland Person. In order to manage the link with GMES in a general way, the coordination team wrote a support document to be presented to MyOcean project for the Marine Core Service of GMES and PREVIEW project for Emergency Response Core Service. This document was included in Deliverable D16.

2.2 Sectorial Analysis

2.2.1 Oceanographic Monitoring ESONET/EMSO as a European Network of deep sea observatories will significantly contribute


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to Oceanographic Monitoring. This will be done by providing a series of long term observations concerning all nodes integrated in the network, with a pre‐defined quality level. ESONET observatories will contribute to Marine Core Services data collecting networks for four of the areas identified by Marine Core Services of GMES: Global 0cean; North East Atlantic; Arctic and Mediterranean Sea. The parameters which will be addressed at the central level will be a function of the existence of a basic sensor payload or, as an alternative, a consequence of the technical choices being made by the regional legal bodies, most probably Departments of the EMSO ERIC.

2.2.2 Seismological Networks Seismological observations in Europe are conducted by member state’s institutes, with a small level of cooperation across national boundaries. Two initiatives have increased their importance: EMSC (Euro‐Mediterranean Seismological Center) which coordinates near‐real time operation, earthquake detection and rapid dissemination of events, and ORFEUS (Observatories and Research Facilities for European Seismology), a non‐profit organization that archives and disseminates waveform seismic data. Both initiatives lack significantly marine based stations.

ESONET (or better EMSO) will be the natural partner to provide marine seismological data. This will be done in cooperation with a parallel initiative called EPOOS (European Plate Observing System) recently integrated in the roadmap of ESFRI, that aims to integrate geophysical monitoring networks (e.g. seismic networks), local observatories (e.g. volcano observatories) and experimental laboratories in Europe and adjacent region.

2.2.3 Tsunami and Earthquake Early Warning Systems Tsunami Early Warning systems are organized under the umbrella of UNESCO as a set of regional systems, covering the ocean basins where tsunami risk is relevant. Considering the geographical coverage of ESONET nodes, the cooperation will be made with NEAMTWS; North East Atlantic and Mediterranean Tsunami Warning System and the relevant nodes are: Cadiz, Ligurian, East Sicily, Hellenic and Marmara Sea.

2.2.4 Environmental Protection and Conservation The establishment of Marine Protected Areas under the Habitats Directive established the requirement for nation states to protect these areas from the harmful impact of commercial activities such as fishing and oil and gas exploration and production. This creates the need for the development of deep‐seafloor monitoring capacities which can be fulfilled by ESONET/EMSO initiative or can be articulated with it, in the sense of mobile deep seafloor monitoring devices, provided an Emergency subsea observatory (included in ESONET as a complete site) is ready for deployment.

2.3 Relationships with the Industry Within ESONET the private sector acts as a “client” and as a “supplier”. One of the fields where deep‐sea observatories are of large interest is oil industry, due to the needs related with the exploration of hydrocarbon resources in the deep seafloor. In this sense, meetings


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with oil industry were held in Brussels November 26th 2008. Twenty six participants attended the meeting, including representatives of the EC, ESONET NoE and EMSO PP, Shell, BP and Total, and several ESONET partners, including the coordination team.

A major topic addressed concerned the requirements for strategic environmental assessments related to oil exploration in the deep marine. The requirements for environmental impact assessments and the obligations relating to marine protected areas were also reviewed. Interviews with state agencies and oil companies established the current environmental protection and conservation duties of the commercial activities in the ocean and the state responsibilities. This approach established both the minimum core services and the stakeholders who will require these core services. Research on the implications of decommissioning was carried out and a report on the liabilities and indemnities produced.

A specific initiative was taken by a group of ESONET scientists as a result of their experience and of the Deepwater Horizon incident in the Gulf of Mexico. The following “Community Statement was presented during the Esonet NoE General Assembly in Marseille. It is planned to be issued and promoted during the first half of 2011.

Community Statement on Monitoring in Areas of Hydrocarbon Activity in the Deep Sea

We recommend that regulations be considered which require in situ monitoring in areas of industry activity. Fishing, mineral and hydrocarbon exploration and extraction can have long‐term impacts on the seabed and in the water column, especially in the case of accidents. Policies to enable sustainable industrial activity are maturing and here we highlight both need and potential for improved monitoring related to the hydrocarbon industry.

• Industrial operations in the deep sea lack independent human witnesses.

• Open access observing systems to monitor industrial activity provide a means to increase the ability to understand and verify impacts.

• It is now feasible for future industrial operators to install real‐time observing and sensing systems at appropriate locations around the area of potential impact.

Observing systems can operate before and throughout the period of industrial activity, as well as during decommissioning. Imagery and data can be publically available for interpretation by independent scientific experts. Such systems can help differentiate natural vs. anthropogenic variation and would have greatly aided management of the Deepwater Horizon incident in the Gulf of Mexico. Feasibility is indicated by the already existing deep‐sea sensor networks used in marine science and hydrocarbon production management.

Several national and European programs have already considered key aspects of monitoring in the deep sea such as what to measure and how. The DELOS (Deep


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Ocean Environmental Long Term Observatory System) project has already begun such monitoring in an oil field offshore Angola through an international cooperative effort between industrial and research groups. The design concepts developed in ESONET and other such observatory efforts can inform industrial monitoring. These designs allow for data to flow from the seafloor in a plug‐and‐work mode into internet based networks that facilitate early warning, data discovery, and archiving. Sensors for temperature, conductivity (salinity), pressure (depth), currents, turbidity, dissolved oxygen, pan and tilt high‐definition video, and passive acoustics are all widely considered as standard in deep‐sea observatory systems. Multiple types of sensors for hydrocarbons have also become commercially available including fluorometers, mass spectrometers, and other optical sensors. These instruments can be situated together in a frame that can occupy little more than two cubic meters, can be set to stand alone or mounted to already planned infrastructures, and can be serviced annually by Remotely Operated Vehicles. Additional sensors and samplers can be brought to bear depending on foreseen requirements.

Information should be available from these monitoring systems in real time and publicly available. A framework to register sensors and track standards and data provenance has also been developed. The dissemination of information can occur through already developed or developing standards including Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Sensor Web Enablement (SWE) suite of standards. These standards allow for accessibility of data through already existing data centres.

Recognizing the strategic importance of access to deep‐water production sites to both industry and societies internationally we suggest that high‐level negotiation to include these ideas into developing policy and regulation begin as soon as possible. This urgency also bears in mind that the earlier such plans can be included into subsea infrastructure design, the lower cost related to implementation. The Group on Earth Observation (GEO) and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea offer possible frameworks to facilitate broad and consistent consideration and action through higher‐level discussions and dissemination of agreed terms to regional and national stakeholders.

Data from in situ industrial monitoring can combine with data from satellites, climate, and quantitative models to not only understand industry impact, but also understand ocean and earth change more broadly. By being openly available the data could combine with other information streams and help form part of the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) and Global Monitoring of Environment and Security (GMES).

Possible interested parties:

Deep‐ocean Environmental Long‐term Observatory System (DELOS)

European Seas Observatory NETwork (ESONET)

European Science Foundation Marine Board

Oslo and Paris Conventions for the protection of the marine environment of the


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North‐East Atlantic (OSPAR) Commission

United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)

Ocean Networks Canada (ONC)

Ocean Leadership

European Multidisciplinary Seafloor Observatory (EMSO)

UN International Seabed Authority (ISA)

UK Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC)

UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)

UK National Oceanography Centre (NOC)

US Department of the Interior’s (DOI), Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE)

European Commission Directorate General Research Energy

European Commission Directorate General Research Environment

European Marine Safety Agency (EMSA)

Ministry of Petroleum and Energy (OED)

Norwegian Oil Industry Association (OLF)

Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD)

Norwegian Pollution Control Authority (SFT)

CEDRE

Province of Azores

Canadian Energy Research Institute (CERI)

Industry Technology Facilitator (ITF)

International Association of Drilling Contractors

Oil Spill Response

Oil & Gas UK

BP

Total

StatoilHydro

Shell

BG

Chevron

ExxonMobil


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Petrobras

Transocean

2.4 Esonet Label ESONET label was planned to certify the good practices on the technological or methodological choices to be made by subsea observatory community. Esonet Label aims to characterize:

- Technical Auditing;

- Standardization;

- Quality Assurance;

- Equipment Testing and sensor calibration;

- Inter‐comparison of technical equipment from providers;

- Technical data acquisition for reliability analysis;

- Follow‐up of equipment to detect obsolete technical components;

- LEE assessment and council.

ESONET Label was a transverse task addressed in WP2 (interoperability) at first and finally in all WPs under supervision of WP8 (coordination).

3. Regional services stakeholders The organization of the regional services stakeholders has been mainly driven by WP5. Some of the partners (e.g. INGV) made progresses concerning the existing sites (NEMO‐SN1). Contacts were made with prospective partners or suppliers in Sweden (AMLAB, Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute), Norway (Aanderaa Data Instruments) etc...

The preliminary identification of the Stakeholders of the Regional Observatories was made still during ESONET CA project and was re‐organized as Deliverable D2 of Esonet NoE.

4. Promotion and SME policy

4.1 PESOS During the preparation phase of ESONET a stable association called PESOS (Group of Providers of Equipment and Services for Observatory Systems) was foreseen as an important step towards a better integration of SME in the future network.

The promotion of PESOS was firstly made by SLR (Ex‐CSA) during the Oceans 07 at Aberdeen with a presentation entitled “Industry Meets the Challenge of Deep Ocean Scientific Research”. Direct contacts were made with most of the private companies dealing with deep seafloor instrumentation or services. Several dozens of companies expressed their interest.

During the Barcelona All Region Workshop 1 on the 7th of September 2007, the group of


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private companies inside ESONET NoE expressed the idea of opening this group to more companies from a broader scope of industrial fields.

This was the main objective of the meeting to be held in London during OI’08. The meeting in London took place on March 11th with ESONET industrial partners and other companies interested in ESONET. The cooperation with the industry was further discussed in the framework of the MODOO project to find synergies and technical solutions for long‐term monitoring of optical properties (turbidity) and conductivity cells. This discussion resulted in the agreement that a state‐of‐the‐art multi‐sensor probe (an advanced Generic Sensor Module) could be used for free during the Demo Missions.

Exchange of information and experience between private companies and ESONET community took place during the meetings in Algarve (General Assembly 2008). Important actions were developed by the private sector (FUGRO) towards major Norwegian universities, institutes, technology companies and Statoil‐Hydro to plan and develop underwater observatories to be located in Norwegian waters.

There is a growing interest of private companies in seafloor observation. The number of companies, that are now suppliers to existing cabled observatories (such as NEMO and Neptune), is growing as is the awareness of ESONET demonstration projects and ESONET’s future plans. This was apparent at the Ocean Business 2009 Conference in Southampton where more than fifty exhibitors were visited by a member of the ESONET NoE, concentrating on suppliers of modems, ADCPs, backscatter, bioacoustics, camera systems, CTDs, CH4 sensors and current meters. The objective was to find out what new sensor technology was available and how well advanced known sensor suppliers were in developing titanium cased modules rated to greater than 3,000m for deep observatories. The survey concentrated on European companies. Where the technology was not manufactured in Europe, Canadian companies were found with the appropriate sensor technology. European agents for US sensor technologies were identified where no European or Canadian supplier existed.

A PESOS Meeting was held at Bremen, during the IEEE Ocean’s 09 meeting held in 11‐14 May 2009. Here the first release of EYP was presented and the feedback was very positive, with the presence of dozens of representatives of the private sector. The role of the EYP to convey information on existing technology which can be used to develop the submarine observatory network was emphasized and highly appreciated by the private sector.

The Interest of industry increased since the Esonet Demonstration Missions. As a result companies have become more pro‐active in populating the yellow pages of ESONET Yellow Pages (see below). In June 2009 at the VISO Workshop in Tromsoe industry stakeholders of ESONET formed a working group to discuss how the service companies and customers of ESONET observatories could contribute to the implementation of ocean observatories in Europe. At the Steering Committee Meeting in Amsterdam in December 2009 this initiative was followed up when the role of the industry core services stakeholders in the implementation plan for ESONET was defined.

SEND Off‐shore company produced the first PESOS newsletter, which was mailed to companies in Europe and wider. It is focused on standardization developments and ESONET


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Yellow Pages (see Annex 1).

Autonomy of the private partners of Esonet has increased steadily since the beginning of the project. Presently they directly manage tools like Esonet Yellow Pages (see below) initially developed by academic partners.

An element from the private sector entered the ESONET Steering Committee. In the first year, this commitment was guaranteed by Neville Hazell from Alcatel. In the second, third and forth year he was replaced by Thomas Buettgenbach from SEND Signal Elektronik GMbH and then by Klaus Schleisiek from Send off‐shore Electronics GMBh.

4.2 ESONET Yellow Pages

4.2.1 The concept The ESONET Yellow Pages aim to organize the information concerning available products for the development and maintenance of Deep‐Sea Observatories, provided by the private sector. This includes a range of equipment, from simple, isolated sensors or parts, to communication systems or even integrated Observatories.

Figure 1 – Webpage of Esonet Yellow Pages

ESONET Yellow Pages (EYP) are built upon a database with descriptions of available products, as well as information from manufacturing companies that design and assemble them. In this database, not only the technical specifications (from stand‐alone to complex inter‐operative systems) but also, compatibility and standardization requirements should be


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easily accessed in the descriptive synopsis of each item.

EYP were developed using MYSQL, HTML, JavaScript and CSS.

4.2.2 Schedule The development of Esonet Yellow Pages (EYP) was directed towards the organization of all information concerning sensors, systems and service providers relevant to the development of multidisciplinary Seafloor Observatories. Information was organized as a database, to ensure future compatibility with standardization procedures concerning in particular sensor ML description. Each product is fully characterized by a set of characteristics that allow a proper comparison between different market alternatives.

Yellow pages layout was presented in Nice ESONET meeting, in 2008, and the first prototype was linked to ESONET webpage in March 2009. The database and the specifications were prepared by ESONET partners and the web development was committed to a third‐party company. A final version of ESONET Yellow Pages was finished during 2009. Data were loaded and tuning of the database structure was achieved during 2009/2010. During 2010 the development of the Yellow Pages was a priority: Yellow pages were presented at the Bremen PESOS meeting in order to obtain the PESOS group feedback concerning the information stored and made available, the quality of the web interface and the future developments. Esonet Yellow Pages were implemented in a stable way in the second half of 2010.

4.2.3 Structure of EYP The first level of information regards “sensors”. Sensors are organized in categories: ADCPs, Conductivity, CTDs, Current meters, Depth, DO sensors, Flow meters, Fluorometers, Geophones, Hydrophones, Magnetometers, Multi‐parameters, PAR sensors, pH sensors, Pressure sensors, Redox, Sediment traps, Temperature, Tiltmeters, Transmissometers, Turbidity and Water samplers. These categories and the structure of each category can be dynamically changed by a web interface opened only to high level users.

The second level of information regards “hardware components” for deep sea observatories. It contains information on a set of devices, namely acoustic releases, cameras, connectors, etc… These devices are described in a way similar to sensors, and organized by categories: Acoustic releases, Cameras, Connectors, Data loggers, Floats, Housings, Lasers, Lights, Underwater batteries, Underwater cables, Underwater switches.

The third level of information regards services. This level is still under construction but intends to give information on services provided by the private sector in a broad view: hardware, data processing, operation, etc…, which are relevant to deep sea observatories.

The forth level of information regards manufacturers. Here, information on the companies that are able to provide equipment, supplies or services connected with the objectives of ESONET are included. More than a hundred different manufacturers are already included and correctly linked to the products they market.

The amount of information is increasing continuously, together with the volume of users. In


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annex we present the automatic analysis of EYP users. A tool was designed to allow the follow up of the user community. Results are presented in deliverable D17.

4.2.4 System Administration System administration of EYP is needed because there is a need to manage the structure of the database whenever a different category or a different type of sensor or equipment is inserted. This is the only way to provide users with structured information, in such a way that they can really compare different alternatives existing in the market for a specific set of goods or services.

Figure 2 – Interface for the administration of EYP site.

5. ESONEWS

5.1 Scope of the Newsletter One of the products of ESONET was designed as a Newsletter devoted to the dissemination of (i) the importance of scientific issues, (ii) the mastering of the technology and business plan, (iii) the role of political support for underwater observatories, (iv) the partnership with successful implementations in North America and Japan, and (v) complementary role of ESONET in situ observation with satellite, coastal surface and subsurface ocean layer data collection.

An issue of "ESONET News ‐ Europeans observe the deep sea" was planned to be produced every 3 months. It was prepared in digital form and distributed to a large mailing list prepared by ESONET central office. Each issue, with 8 pages, is also printed to be disseminated among partners and distributed in international meetings.

The design and production of ESONEWS, the newsletter of the European Sea Observatory


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Network, has been developed and constantly improved. Paper versions were prepared and disseminated by mail among partners. All ESONEWS Newsletters intended to spread basic information on ESONET initiatives and basic aspects of technology and science associated with deep seafloor observation. Most of the partners of ESONET contributed to the Newsletter.

Figure 3 – Final Layout of Esonews

5.2 Issues Issues of ESONEWS include information on SMEs, focused on their potential contribute to ESONET. The different issues of ESONEWS gathered cooperation from a series of ESONET partners (University of Lisbon, Send GmbH, Ifremer, INGV, CSA, IMI, University of Aberdeen, CNRS IN2P3‐Antares, nke, FUGRO‐Oceanor, University of Azores).

Volume 1, issue 1 of Esonews was devoted to the launching of ESONET NoE initiative. The second issue was devoted to the technological aspects of deep sea observatories. The third issue was dedicated to the outcomes of ESONIM project and centered in the financial aspects of regional nodes.

After a redesign of the Newsletter layout, three issues of Volume 2 of ESONEWS (Summer, Fall and Winter 2008) gathered contributions from the different partners and SMEs and focused on the main observatory technologies developed in Europe (GEOSTAR, ASSEM and DELOS) were prepared.


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Figure 4 – Volumes 2 and 4 of Esonews

Volume 3, issue 1 was dedicated to the Marmara and MomarD demo missions; Issue 2‐3 was a 16 page newsletter entirely dedicated to LOOME. Issue 4 was devoted to Neptune Canada, focusing on a major step in the development of Ocean Sciences in Canada: the launch of NEPTUNE Canada on 8 December 2009, the world’s first regional‐scale underwater ocean observatory that plugs directly into the Internet.

Volume 4, issues 1 and 2 were dedicated to Interoperability. A set of texts centered in a critical topic for subsea observatories, with experiences from the teams which developed some of the observatory prototypes, in Europe and the US.

These issues were printed (1500 samples each) and distributed by post to the ESONET community. The same newsletters were also distributed electronically as pdf files through ESONET webpage.


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Annex 1: PESOS newsletter


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