Protecting valuable aquatic ecosystems through improved satellite monitoring of water quality
Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML)
Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML) is a charity, undertaking pioneering marine research for the benefit of us all
07 December 2024
The PML-led ‘Copernicus Evolution – Research for harmonised and Transitional water Observation (CERTO)’ project has been showcased in the latest European Commission CORDIS Results Pack. It highlights how the project produced a harmonised water-quality data from existing Copernicus services and extended support to transitional waters, such as lagoons, estuaries and large rivers.
Water quality is a key worldwide issue relevant to food production, industry, nature and recreation. Recognising its importance, Copernicus has satellite data and services to provide water quality data and information to end-users in industry, policy, monitoring agencies and science. However, this data is split across three Copernicus services (Marine, Climate Change, and Land) while transitional waters are not supported by any service.
The aim of the EU Horizon2020 CERTO project, coordinated by PML’s Steve Groom, was to address these issues by producing a harmonised water quality data from each Copernicus service and extend support to the large communities operating in transitional waters.
CERTO focused on: methods to classify waters using satellite observations, together with existing and new in situ data; improvements to remove the atmospheric signal, particularly problematic in near-coastal and transitional waters, and evaluating cross-cutting optical water quality indicators that may be used across coasts, transitional and inland waters.
Prof. Steve Groom, Head of Science for Earth Observation and Project Coordinator for CERTO, said: “We recognised the need to harmonise these data and to fill the data gap for transitional water bodies, such as estuaries, lagoons and lakes. We also wanted to harmonise the methods and approaches used across the services.”
The prototype data portal, which includes all the analytical tools developed through the project, is accessible from the CERTO website.
Prof. Groom continued: “The portal can be used by anyone, from students to someone in a country without expertise or specific resources. They do not need to be satellite experts, they just need to talk to us and we can show them how the data can be accessed”.
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Related information
CERTO Project partners
CERTO’s participants from PML & PML Applications
reat to see the CERTO project gaining recognition! It’s exciting how it’s harmonizing water quality data from Copernicus services and expanding focus to transitional waters like lagoons, estuaries, and rivers. Such initiatives are key to improving our understanding and management of these vital ecosystems!