Site 12.

Great Barrier Reef

Users and Sites

The CoastColour project aims to improve user uptake of ESA's MERIS mission for applications in the coastal zones by developing, demonstrating and validating the latest advanced techniques for retrieving information on water constituents.  In particular, the project aims to address the needs of:

• scientists studying the bio- and geophysical processes in coastal waters, and
• companies and government agencies  that specialise in providing water quality information
  services (for example to the aquaculture industry, local authority water quality managers, etc.)

During the CoastColour User Consultation (Cork, 19-20 March 2009) general requirements were identified by the participants for the development and demonstration of the advanced use of MERIS for monitoring water  constituents in Case 2 coastal waters.  These requirements covered a range of user's applications, including  for example: coastal ecosystem research, early warning for aquaculture, sediment transport, water quality and pollution monitoring.

Following the user meeting, interested users were asked to provide a detailed statement of their requirements, together with a letter of commitment to the project.  The letter of commitment asks each user to take an active role in the CoastColour project by:

• Delivering a User Requirements Document following a template provided by ESA
• Providing expert advice in the definition of the project activities
• Facilitating access to existing data (e.g., in-situ data) that may be useful for the project
• Advising the Contractor in the consolidation of the User Requirements during the initial phase of the project
• Performing an evaluation of the project outcomes at the mid-term and final reviews

Requirements and letters of commitment were collected from 32 user organisations prior to ITT issue.  These requirements have been analysed to draw up a consolidated list of data products and services to be delivered by the Contractor under the CoastColour project. The requirements of these champion users have been consolidated in a suite of 12 globally distributed test sites with corresponding product requirements.

These are described in the following pages

1. North Sea, English Channel, Bay of Biscay, Celtic Sea
2. Baltic
3. Complete Mediterranean & Black Sea
4. Morocco (Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts of Morocco)
5. Acadia
6. Chesapeake Bay
7. Oregon and Washington
8. Plumes & Blooms
9. Puerto Rico
10. Benguela
11. China, Korea, Japan
12. Great Barrier Reef
13. Red Sea
14. Indonesian Waters
15. Beibu Bay
16. Namibian Waters
17. Cape Verde
18. Lena Delta and New Siberian Islands
19. Kara Sea
20. Central California
21. French Guyana & Amazon Delta
22. South India
23. Antares-Ubatuba
24. Lake Erie & Lake St. Clair
25. Tasmania
26. Gulf Of Mexico
27. Rio La Plata