Background
In order to comply with the huge requirements of the WFD, a sensor-based monitoring system would be desirable. Recent communications with the Irish marine Institute have highlighted a dedicated move by them to develop a coastal monitoring programme, based on sensor technologies, towards compliance with WFD.
The SmartCoast Project was launched in June 2005 and is supported by the Marine Institute and The Environmental Protection Agency. This project (Grant Aid agreement No. AT/04/01/06 ) is carried out with the support of the Marine Institute and the Marine RTDI measure, Productive Sector Operational Programme, National Development Plan 2000-2006.
This project represents an important building block in the realisation of an ‘environmental nervous system’ composed of multiple sensing nodes deployed as a ‘sensor-net’ capable of monitoring the spatial and temporal distribution important environmental target species as prioritised in the Water Framework Directive. The area of wireless sensing, and particularly, the concept of wireless networked sensors, is fast becoming one of the most dynamic and important areas of multidisciplinary research.
This ambitious vision is a fundamental element of the emerging concept of ‘internet scale sensing’. Sensors are the missing piece of the e-world, the piece that will finally bring true self-awareness to the networked world, as the digital and molecular worlds begin to mesh together. Autonomous sensing devices are the key to progress, as these will be the basic information gatherers for the networked world. These will have to operate completely independently, gathering data, assessing the importance of the information coded within the data, and deciding whether to share this information with the networked world. The future world will have trillions of such devices monitoring a multitude of parameters related to the quality of our environment, food and health. The Smart system will be a significant first step towards that future in the area of marine / firewater monitoring
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