6th EARSeL Workshop on Remote Sensing of the Coastal Zone
Topics
The global implementation of the strategic plan for Coastal GOOS (Global Ocean Observing System) and the Panel for Integrated Coastal Ocean Observations (PICO) suggested adoption of an adaptive, Ecosystem-Based Approach (EBA) for sustainable development, including marine spatial planning and management. In this context EBA requires the sustained provision of multidisciplinary data (biogeochemical and ecological as well as geophysical) and information on ecosystems states, especially in the coastal zone where goods and services are most concentrated.
The identified priority indicators of the ecosystem state (health) are:- Surface phytoplankton biomass and subsurface oxygen fields
- Distribution and abundance of waterborne pathogens and toxic phytoplankton
- Spatial extent of living benthic habitats (coral reefs, seagrass beds, mangrove forests and tidal marshes) and ecological buffers to coastal flooding
- Distribution and condition of calcareous organisms (cold and warm water corals, coccolithophores and pteropods)
- Distribution and abundance of exploitable fish stocks
Essential variables to be measured include both ecosystem state variables and external pressures, as listed in the above mentioned PICO report:
External Pressure:- Atmospheric (ocean surface vector winds, heat flux, precipitation, incident solar radiation)
- Land-based inputs (freshwater, sediments, nutrients, pathogens, chemical contaminants)
- Extraction of living marine resources (e.g. fishing)
- Sea level rise, ocean warming and acidification
- Coastal flooding
- Natural ocean-atmospheric climate modes
- Basin scale migrations of large pelagic predators
- Geophysical (fields of temperature, salinity, suspended matter, sea surface roughness, waves, and currents, sea level, shoreline position)
- Chemical (fields of dissolved nutrients, dissolved oxygen, pH, fCO2, total alkalinity, aragonite saturation state, and coloured dissolved organic matter)
- Biological (fields of phytoplankton biomass, toxic phytoplankton, waterborne pathogens, calcareous plankton, copepod indicator species, fish eggs and larvae extent of living benthic habitats, coral skeletal density, species diversity, abundance and diet of exploitable fish stocks, bycatch, abundance and size of apex predators)
- Biophysical (water leaving radiances and downwelling irradiance)
Remote sensing methodologies represent a real opportunity for estimating at least some of these essential variables with increasing precision, starting from basic measured variables such as remote sensing reflectance, emitted radiation, or radar backscattering.
Current literature proposes a large variety of (often empirical) algorithms for estimation of environmental parameters from basic remotely sensed variables, but in most cases their quality is still far from meeting quality requirements for monitoring environmental parameters of the coastal zone, both in terms of accuracy as well as temporal or spatial resolution. This means that specific efforts must be devoted to investigation of remote sensing capabilities for applications in coastal zones aiming at the detection of key coastal environmental parameters and to propose new ideas to achieve better results in terms of accuracy requirements.
Considering this general framework and future challenges for the coastal zone remote sensing community, the 6th Workshop represents an ideal opportunity for discussing these themes and trace the route for forthcoming projects and collaborations. Themes proposed for discussions are:
- changing terrestrial run-off into coastal waters
- escalation of extreme coastal events: floods, storms, high tides
- hydrology and water budget evolution of rivers and lakes
- increasing temperatures in inland and coastal waters
- impact of vaying physical forcing on morphodynamics and ecosystems
- new developments of habitats, biodiversity and alien invaders
- fluxes and fate of seawater constituents, including pollutants
- role of Coastal Zone Management in adapting to climate change
and their investigation with Remote Sensing:
- active and passive methods in all spectral ranges, sensor combinations
- satellite, airborne and ground-based methods including ground truth
- modelling of radiative transfer, image processing and related aspects
- interaction of physical, biological and chemical conditions and processes
- Ocean Colour Remote Sensing for Coastal and Inland Waters
Previous events:
- 1st Workshop in Ghent, Belgium, 2003
- 2nd Workshop in Porto, Portugal, 2005
- 3rd Workshop in Bolzano/Bozen, Italy, 2007
- 4th Workshop in Chania, Greece, 2009
- 5th Workshop in Prague, Czech Republic, 2011