Crowdsourcing Technologies for the Monitoring ofthe Colour, Transparency and Fluorescence of the Sea

Marcel Wernand; Luigi Ceccaroni; Jaume Piera; Oliver Zielinski

Background: Brighton Swimming Club, Photo-B.W.Botham (1863)

The EC-funded project Citclops will start in October 2012 and is focused on retrieving, through crowdsourcing, data on three main optical properties related to sea-water quality: colour, transparency and fluorescence. Novel technologies will be developed to retrieve these properties based on citizens’ measurements with common mobile devices.

CITCLOPS Citizens' observatory for coast and ocean optical monitoring

Water transparency is planned to be measured by three alternative sensor systems: i) smart-phone cameras; ii) low-cost moored instrumentation and iii) underwater, wearable cameras with added low-cost sensing systems (quasi-digital sensors).

To assess the fluorescence of different water constituents, low-cost sensors and light-sources will be customized and connected to smart-phones and other mobile devices.

FU1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21

@Patented by Citclops EU 08/2012

Smartphones, white LEDs, wearable cameras are applied above- as well as below-water to estimate ocean colour, water transparency, fluorescence and even chlorophyll concentration.

Concerning the colour of natural waters, smart-phone camera images, taken through citizens’ collaboration, will be used to either compare or calculate (RGB-colourimetry) the Forel-Ule index for the water body, providing an indication of gross biological activity.

• To enable citizens’ participation (crowdsourcing) in capturing environmental (water quality) data in coastal and oceanic areas through the use of existing devices, such as smart phones, as sensors, thus reducing the cost and effort of monitoring. • To develop improved low-cost sensors and systems for monitoring water’s colour, transparency and fluorescence, and use them in combination with geo-referencing, an Internet distribution platform and community involvement. • To provide recommendations in sectors such as energy, transport, fisheries, health and spatial planning, interpreting collected data through artificial intelligence techniques. • To disseminate interpreted information to two kinds of users: citizens (individuals and associations) and policy makers (e.g., local administrations). • To produce applied results, developing: (1) new applications for mobile devices; (2) friendlier and more flexible user interfaces; (3) social-networking capabilities to connect citizens and citizens’ associations to policy makers; (4) a better support infrastructure.

MANAGEMENT AND COORDINATION WP1: CORE WORKPACKAGES

OBJECTIVES

ABSTRACT

HOW?

Forel-Ule

Case1: Forel-Ule to Chlorophyll (Ecolight)

Chlo

roph

yll

(mgm

-3)

Forel-Ule

Chlorophyll Case2 - Ecolight

Chlorophyll and ?

CITCLOPS PARTNERS

FLUORESCENCE

TRANSPARENCY

COLOUR

1 Fundació Priv. Barcelona Digital Centre Tecnològic (BDIGITAL) - ES

2 Agencia Estatal Consejo Superior de Invest. Científicas (CSIC) - ES

3 Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg (UNIOL) - DE

4 Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ) - NL

5 Kinetical Business SL (Kinetical) - ES

6 TriOS Mess- und Datentechnik GmbH (TriOS) - DE

7 Mariene Informatie Service MARIS B.V. (MARIS) - NL

8 Noveltis SAS (NOVELTIS) - FR

9 Coastwatch Europe (Coastwatch) - IE

10 Free University Amsterdam (VUA) - NL

11 Stichting Deltares (Deltares) - NL