IMOS Coastal Observations

A National Perspective

John Parslow

Outline

• Drivers of coastal research, and potential benefits from a marine observing system.

• Coastal observations in the IMOS structure

• Is coastal IMOS more than a set of regional nodes, stitched together by a national backbone?

• Ideas for a national approach to coastal observations and research.

• Future directions for IMOS – where are we going in the long-term?

Loving our coasts to death – population growth & coastal sprawl.

• More than 86% of Australians live near the coast

• We are witnessing continuous strip development away from major cities

• Coastal environmental impacts changing from concentrated to broad-scale

• Urban coastal settlements represent the lifestyle aspiration of most Australians

Coastal Industries

• Coastal industry sectors include manufacturing, shipping, petrochemicals, tourism, aquaculture, commercial fisheries

• How do we achieve sustainable economic development and meet the social and environmental aspirations of a coastal population?

Managing the interactions of catchment land use and water demand with coastal urban development

• Increasing demand for water and decreasing availability

• Degradation of waterways, estuaries and embayments

• Sediment, nutrient and pesticide loads, and changes to flow regimes

• How do we balance catchment and coastal uses and objectives?

Climate change impacts on the coast • Climate change is expected to result in:

–Sea level rise and increased storm frequency–Changes in catchment rainfall, runoff and loads–Impacts of temperature, pH on coastal ecosystems e.g. coral reefs, kelp beds

• How do we incorporate climate change (& variability) into coastal planning, decision-making?

• How do we downscale from global earth systems to the local scales relevant to coastal development?

• Current climate • Enhanced Greenhouse Climate 2050

AusIOOS marine sectoral benefits

National security – improved information for onboard tactical response, sonar, landings

Improved ship routing, oil spill prediction, ballast water and marine pest management,maritime search and rescue

Improved ocean forecasting, cost-effective engineering design and environmental assessment

Marine sectoral benefits (cont.)

Improved environmental forecasting, site location, production efficiency for aquaculture

Improved fish stock assessment and prediction, ecosystem-based fisheries management, increased fishing efficiency

Improved prediction and assessment of coastal water quality, ecosystems. Support for ecotourism.Sustainable coastal development.

Adapting to climate change will require improved monitoring, assessment, prediction

• Spotlight: Western Tasman Sea warms faster than elsewhere in southern hemisphere in CSIRO climate change simulations

Warming rate of SST (units of ºC local warmingper ºC global warming)

Coastal drivers, research & observations

• Coastal drivers and issues shared nationally

• Opportunity to develop common approaches, tools, methods, and/or to compare and contrast coastal systems & approaches

• Many of the benefits of an IOOS / IMOS apply to coastal sectors and issues

• IMOS will focus in the next 5 years on the ocean – shelf interactions.

The IOOS / IMOS Structure

Coastal Observations in IMOS

• Common tools in the national backbone:– Remote sensing;– Data management & delivery;– National reference stations

• IMOS National Facilities

• Is IMOS Coastal fundamentally about a set of regional nodes, stitched together by a national backbone?

• Is coastal research fundamentally conducted at regional and smaller scales?

BlueLink – a national approach to “coastal” ocean forecasting

Lessons from BlueLink

• A national approach to ocean modelling and prediction resolving ocean-shelf interactions.

• BlueLink II may extend this inshore, at higher resolution (Ribbon model)

• There are natural scales to Australia’s boundary currents & coastal oceans (EAC, Leeuwin, tropical shelves) which exceed regional node scales, and cross state boundaries.

Other national approaches to coastal observations

• Fisheries acoustic networks – spawning migrations & pelagics

• National approaches to catchment & estuarine modelling and monitoring – National Land and Water Resources Audit

• AGO & ICAG: National assessment of coastal vulnerability to climate change – a Coastal Geophysical Spatial (Information) System (links to IMOS?)

Underway observations can be “coastal” & national.

Benefits from national approach

• Natural systems extend beyond local / regional nodes – require integration across nodes.

• Intercomparison across systems eg east vs west coast ecosystems

• Pooling effort to achieve outcomes which are beyond resources of individual nodes

• More efficient implementation of technologies & tools

IMOS Coastal Future – Looking beyond 5 years

• IMOS expected to move inshore & incorporate more biology

• International directions – IGOS Coastal Observing Systems span terrestrial & marine – link GOOS and GTOS

• Linking IMOS, TERN, WRON, …