SmartBay: Better Information - Better Decisions

Abstract

The SmartBay initiative (www.SmartBay.ca) is led by the School of Ocean Technology, part of the Fisheries and Marine Institute of Memorial University of Newfoundland located in St. John's, Newfoundland. The SmartBay team includes industry partners AMEC Earth and Environmental, International Communications and Navigation (ICAN) Limited and Earth Information Technologies (Nfld) Limited. The vision of SmartBay is "to provide simple access by all stakeholders to data and information in support of effective management and sustainable development of coastal ocean areas and the safety and security of life at sea". Accordingly, SmartBay has been implemented as a user-driven ocean observing system, serving the information needs of the users of Placentia Bay, Newfoundland (including fishermen, the oil industry, marine transportation, recreation, municipalities and the people who live there) in support of better decision-making. The applications of SmartBay have been just as varied, ranging from safety and marine efficiency, to industrial development, to community socio-economics and environmental protection. Hence the motto: "Better Information - Better Decisions". Placentia Bay is rapidly becoming the industrial heartland of Newfoundland and Labrador and with this come the challenges and complexities of mixing traditional and non-traditional users and uses, as well as a host of safety, environmental and regulatory concerns. The basic premise of SmartBay is to integrate and deliver information created from both static and dynamic data in a manner best suited to the particular needs of a broad base of users. The incidental or non-professional user can access the information through a web portal requiring no special hardware or services. The mariner is able to access and display information on an electronic chart using standard bridge hardware and communications systems. SmartBay also supports the interests of a third class of user, "the professional", engaged in roles ranging from fisheries management to oceanographic research to environmental protection to sovereignty and security. After approximately 18 months of operation SmartBay has become a prominent feature of the Placentia Bay seascape. There are currently three SmartBay buoys positioned in the Bay. A 3-metre met/ocean buoy near the mouth of the bay provides critical data to support weather and sea state forecasts; a customized water quality buoy off Come by Chance Point provides met/ocean as well as water quality information for this high traffic area; and a water quality buoy fitted with meteorological sensors off Rushoon on the western side of the bay supports an emerging aquaculture industry in the area. In addition, St. John's based Institute of Ocean Technology (IOT) has provided a wave buoy for term deployments at the pilot boarding station located just south of Red Island Shoal. Included within the dynamic information provided to the Placentia Bay user community is custom weather and sea state forecasting (utilizing buoy program data), and vessel reporting and monitoring (utilizing Automatic Identification System (AIS) technology). In addition, SmartBay is the information dissemination medium for ongoing time-series water quality data acquired by the provincial Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture. As a demonstration project, SmartBay has been successful, so much so that the community, both in and beyond Placentia Bay, has come to rely on it to the extent that SmartBay is regarded by many as an essential service. In response, SmartBay has been maintained as a 24/7/365 operation, along the way facing significant financial and technical challenges. Interest in the SmartBay concept from other parts of the province reflects grass roots demand for better information. This local interest represents the catalyst for a series of local coastal ocean observing system initiatives. Using SmartBay as a template, each system can be developed to meet local needs and priorities. By designing local systems around a common high-level architecture they will ultimately coalesce to form a sustainable, province-wide infrastructure to support sustainable development of coastal ocean spaces, resources and communities.