Region – SCOOT

C2B2 – Co-Creating Better Blue

Baltic Sea, Citizen Science, Data, Environmental management, Innovation, People, Sweden, Workshop / January 17, 2023 January 18, 2023

In December 2022 came the news that Mistra (the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Environmental Research) will fund the new programme C2B2 – Co-Creating Better Blue. The consortium behind C2B2 include many actors from the network around SCOOT and Ocean Data Factory Sweden. The programme C2B2 is initially funded for 4 years.

The maritime domain and the blue economy are in an exciting and transformative period, not least manifested by the rapid expansion of offshore installations. Both challenges and opportunities abound… C2B2 identifies co-creation as the most important tool for sustainability in human activities at sea. 38 maritime actors from industry, academia, public sector and civil society will start working together in C2B2, and the programme will be open for more to join. Feel free to contact C2B2 programme director Torsten Linders.

Mistra’s expectations are clear:

Sustainable blue economy and governance should be at the center of the research program. An ecosystem-based approach should be the basis for and constitute an essential part of the understanding, management and governance of existing and potential future human activities, primarily outside coastal areas. Methods and instruments that can minimize conflicts and identify synergy effects are of particular importance in this context, for example marine spatial planning. Industrial operations at sea can be of great importance for the development of a sustainable blue economy, provided that the operations are planned and conducted in a sustainable manner. Not least new innovative companies could have a role in this transition.

Central to the C2B2 approach is the LivingLabs co-creation methodology, applied to the development of three demonstration cases to trigger transformative changes towards participatory ocean governance, involving relevant sectors and actors in Sweden’s three marine basins (Gulf of Bothnia, Baltic Proper, Kattegatt-Skagerrak).

We have to start thinking differently about the marine environment, and we have to do it together!

Uta Wehn, Associate Professor at IHE Delft Institute for Water Education Scientific Director of C2B2 and leader of WP4 Co-creation of participatory ocean governance in LivingLabs

The programme C2B2 has been designed under the leadership of Uta Wehn during her time as Adlerbert visiting professor in marine citizen science at the University of Gothenburg. The programme is built around three pillars:

Open ecosystems & climate science,
Open, data-driven
innovation & emerging technologies,
Ocean governance & adaptive management.

Uta Wehn will be the Scientific Director and leader of WP4 Co-creation of participatory ocean governance in LivingLabs.

We have so many important actors already in the programme, spanning the relevant sectors. This means we have a real chance of making a difference for the sustainable blue economy.

Mikael Lind, Senior Research Advisor at RISE Leader of WP2 Open, data-driven innovation & emerging technologies

Maritime Cluster annual conference 8 December

ASV, Citizen Science, People, Platform, SP SeaCat, Sweden / November 7, 2022 January 10, 2023

December 8 it is the time for the annual conference of Maritime Cluster of West Sweden. This year we highlight some of the most discussed sustainable trends right now: Offshore wind power, sailing cargo vessels and citizen science. SCOOT is co-hosting the event together with Region Västra Götaland, University of Gothenburg, Chalmers, RISE, SMTF, Ocean Data Factory Sweden and SSPA. The conference language is mainly Swedish.

Venue: Lindholmen Science Park, Gothenburg.
Register here!
Info in Swedish at Maritima Klsutret.

Preliminary Programme

08.30 – 09.00 Registration and coffee

Block I

09.00 – 10.00 Offshore wind power
• Overview and current status – including the permit process
• The state of technology in offshore wind power

10.00 – 10.30 Morning coffee

10.30 – 11.00 Offshore wind power (continued)
• The actor perspective – an actor on the international market
• The political perspective

11.00 – 12.00 Wind propulsion
• Overview and current status
• Technology overview of wind-assisted and wind-driven ships, with examples from ships in operation
• The supplier perspective of system solutions for wind propulsion
• An example of a concept for a wind-powered ship
• The cargo owner’s perspective on wind-powered ships

12.00 – 13.00 Mingle lunch

Block II

13.00 – 14.00 Maritime citizen science
• What is marine citizen science? Current examples from Ocean Data Factory Sweden.
• Test here and now! Deployment of an autonomous measuring sensor with the help of a surface-moving robot.
• Where does this lead? How do we build knowledge about the sea?
• What knowledge about the sea do we need?

14.30 – 15.00 Maritime Cluster in West Sweden: The future?
• Information, discussion and input from the participants about wishes for the cluster’s future development.

15.00 – 15.30 Afternoon coffee

New R/V Skagerak delivered at SCOOT’s doorstep

Platform, R/V Skagerak, Research vessel, Sweden / June 23, 2021 June 24, 2021

It has been a long journey, since the new R/V Skagerak was ordered by the University of Gothenburg back in 2013… But now she is ready! And SCOOT is glad to see her right outside of our space.

Overall, a berth at Nya Varvet in Gothenburg is the best alternative, as the quay can be easily adapted and there is proximity to university activities such as the SCOOT project and organisations such as MMT and SMHI.

Göran Hilmersson

Dean and head of the ship steering group

In an era of of robotics and accelerating automation of ocean observations, one might wonder if crewed research vessels really represent value for money? Sebastiaan Swart, director of SCOOT and head of the ship user group at University of Gothenburg, explains:

– Robots are great for going where ships cannot, like under a glacier, and for making long endurance missions. But research vessels are still indispensable. There are a multitude of ocean data collection that require a combination of advanced technology and human hands and eyes. For this we need vessels like the new Skagerak. In the future we will see ever more robots collecting ocean data, but we will not see fewer research vessels.

More about R/V Skagerak:

News post at University of Gothenburg’s web.
Info, specifications and booking of the new R/V Skagerak.
SMEs in western Sweden are advised to contact SCOOT about using the new R/V Skagerak.

Ocean Changemaker: Berring Data Collective

Citizen Science, Data, Environmental monitoring, Fishing vessels, Greenland, Innovation, People, Region, Ship of opprtunity / February 23, 2021 December 21, 2021

We are extremely happy to share that Cooper Van Vranken has been selected as an ‘Ocean Changemaker‘ at the World Ocean Initiative, arranged by The Economist Group. Cooper is the founder of the Berring Data Collective. This is indeed a game-changer in ocean observing: Using fishing vessels to bring in high quality data from ocean regions where data is most desperately needed, including around Greenland. Check it out, it is already live!

Cooper was invited speaker at our online conference Ocean Data for Ocean Health in September. Afterwards he joined us for the follow up breakfast webinar on alternative platforms for ocean sensors. Cooper collaborates closely with Patrick Gorringe who works EMODnet Physics and at the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute. Together they make data collected by fishing vessels available to all users, including ocean and climate researchers, operational forecasters and environmental monitoring agencies. Cooper and co-authors have published their work in Frontier in Marine Science.

AUV Ran back in Sweden: Join the collaboration, tests and operations in 2021!

AUV, Demo, Hugin, Innovation, Platform, Ran, Sweden / January 7, 2021 March 30, 2021

In 2019 SCOOT’s flagrobot AUV Ran became first to conquer the depths under the ‘doomsday’ Thwaites Glacier. In 2020 Ran’s greatest achievement was the mapping of subsea landslides in the 2000 metres deep Kaikōura Canyon off New Zeeland (read news at NIWA and see their nice Ran pop video below!).

Now Ran is back in Sweden, and as always SCOOT makes her available for entrepreneurs, innovators and SMEs. First out is a group of SMEs during an intense mission week in early February on the Swedish west coast.

Let us know if you want to join the collaboration/testing/operations, already in February and in the planned June session. We are not looking for AUV experts only. We are looking for anyone with ideas for utilising or collecting ocean data!

SCOOT’s flagrobot AUV Ran investigates the effect of subsea earthquake

AUV, Hugin, New Zeeland, Ran, Seabed survey / October 8, 2020 October 8, 2020

This is really AUV Ran doing her thing: Deep under, manoeuvring close to the bottom, using her vast sensor suit to scan the environment. This time it is for the benefit of researchers in New Zeeland, investigating the seabed of the 2000 metres deep Kaikōura Canyon. It was transformed by an earthquake in 2016; 850 million tonnes of sediment were displaced!

We expect Ran to be back in Sweden in January. Every once in a while she takes a rest behind SCOOT’s office/workshop at Nya Varvet in Gothenburg. Please contact us if you want use AUV Ran or if you just want to take look. We plan 10 operational SCOOT days for Ran in 2021.

Uncrewed and autonomous platforms – but not robots!

Animal platforms, Antarctica, Elephant Seals, Platform, Region, Southern Ocean / August 17, 2020 August 19, 2020

Tagging elephant seals with sensors gives unique data from the ocean around Antarctica

At SCOOT we are enthusiastic about using robotics for collecting ocean data. The reason is simple: Sensors mounted on crewed platforms (ships) will never manage to increase the amount of data needed to observe and understand our oceans.

However, an uncrewed platform does not have to be a robot – it can also be an animal! SCOOT’s Louise Biddle and Sebastiaan Swart show in a recent research paper in Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans what wonderful friends ocean scientists can have in elephant seals, even though these heavy beasts are not famed for their friendliness when approached…

Biddle & Swart investigate climate critical processes in the marginal ice zone around Antarctica, where the ice cover is advancing and retreating seasonally. This is a region where the lack of data is especially severe. Small sensors attached to elephant seals provided Biddle & Swart with ocean data down to 500 meter depth, including locations covered by floating sea ice. The data was retrieved by direct communication with the sensors over satellite.

For anyone feeling that the paper by Biddle & Swart is to heavy, The New York Times picked up this fascinating research in an article, doing a good job at explaining some of the scientific concepts.

We should point out that all scientific work with animals, not least mammals, is strictly regulated. The elephant seals are not harmed or effected negatively by the attached instruments.

AUV Ran cooperates with start-up company Marflow AB

AUV, Hugin, Platform, Ran, Sweden / July 14, 2020 July 15, 2020

SCOOT’s flagrobot AUV Ran is one busy two-tonne-piece of equipment. From the Southern Ocean to the Baltic Sea, and later this year off to New Zeeland. However, last month a window of availability opened… Startup company Marflow AB with founders Erik Nordborg and Glenn Hederot jumped on this opportunity.

Erik explains:

“Marflow aims to investigate and map ocean currents with very high accuracy. Precise measurements of the oceanic conditions in both time and space are valuable to us but indeed difficult to achieve in reality. AUV Ran will however allow us to do just that, studying ocean currents along with numerous other parameters with a spatial coverage that we have not been able to do before.”

“Marflow are very excited and happy for this opportunity to try AUV Ran and to discover what we can actually achieve with a tool like this. Before launching, Anna Wåhlin helped us setting up a course for Ran to follow. It was really impressive seeing AUV Ran navigating so accurately along this predefined route in relatively confined waters –all the time logging valuable data.”

Research engineer from Moscow wins the Killer Shrimp Invasion Challenge!

Baltic Sea, Citizen Science, Data, Data Factory, Innovation, Invasive specieses, Workshop / June 11, 2020 December 21, 2021

In March the Killer Shrimp Invasion Challenge was opened on Kaggle by Ocean Data Factory Sweden (coordinated by SCOOT): Use innovative machine learning (ML) solutions to predict the spread of the so-called “Killer Shrimp” (Dikerogammarus Villosus) into the Baltic Sea. The challenge is now closed , the referees have completed the evaluation and announced that the winner is…

Dimitriy, research engineer at IBRAE RAS in Moscow, Russia! Dimitriy nicked the winner’s place with a score of 0.99954 (out of a maximum possible 1) and by complying to all rules. Dimitry will be presenting his model in an open webinar on June 16th, see below:

The Benefits and Challenges of Open Innovation and Citizen Science for Solving Ocean Challenges through Applying ML to Ocean Data

Join us on June 16th for a Zoom discussion (Please register here):

15:30 to 15:40 Introduction to Ocean Data Factory Sweden and afternoon discussion
15:40 to 16:10 The Killer Shrimp Invasion Challenge on Kaggle: An online competition tackling the spread of invasive marine species through machine learning
16:10 to 16.20 Break
16.20 to 16.50 The Koster Seafloor Observatory on Zooniverse (still open to join!): Using citizen science and machine learning to annotate subsea imagery
16.50 to 17.00 Concluding remarks

ROAM-MIZ successfully deploys a fleet of autonomous technology to observe small-scale processes in the Antarctic sea ice

ASV, Drifter buoy, Sailbuoy, SB Kringla, Seaglider, SG Semla, Southern Ocean, SWIFT / March 18, 2020 April 7, 2020

Louise Biddle summarizes the Austral winter-spring season for this robotics heavy project:

The ROAM-MIZ (Robotic Observations And Modelling in the Marginal Ice Zone) project aims to capture high resolution observations of how the upper ocean near and under sea ice responds to sea ice growth or melt. The team, led by SCOOT’s director Sebastiaan Swart at the University of Gothenburg, deployed multiple platforms in, and at the edge of, the marginal ice zone in austral winter and spring 2019. Using the South African icebreaker, the SA Agulhas II, as a deployment platform, three profiling ocean gliders (Seagliders), a surface glider (Offshore Sensing Sailbuoy), multiple wave-recording surface floats (SWIFT buoys) and two ice-moored buoys were deployed between 56-60°S. Between the 10 platforms, over 370 days of data were collected from this remote and under-sampled region of the Southern Ocean, with the longest continuous time-series of over 130 days.

The challenges that the deployment team and platforms faced included rapid freezing up of sensors in temperatures that dropped to minus 20°C (before wind chill), rough seas and rapid movement of sea ice floes. With support from collaborators around the world including CSIR (South Africa), CalTech (USA) and University of East Anglia (UK), this project has demonstrated that autonomous instrumentation holds the capability to explore and monitor some of the most inaccessible oceans on Earth. Data is now being processed by the team based at the University of Gothenburg, with the “live data” viewable on roammiz.com and the first paper recently published in Geophysical Research Letters. Projects update can be followed on @PolarGliders .

Project website:
www.roammiz.com

Paper: Swart, S., du Plessis, M. D., Thompson, A. F., Biddle, L. C., Giddy, I., Linders, T., et al. ( 2020). Submesoscale fronts in the
Antarctic marginal ice zone and their response to wind forcing. Geophysical Research Letters, 47, e2019GL086649.
https://doi.org/10.1029/2019GL086649

Twitter: @PolarGliders

Seaglider deployment from SA Agulhas II
Sailbouy in the Southern Ocean
Sea ice work in the Southern Ocean, with SA Agulhas II
SWIFT buoy in the Southern Ocean
Work with Seaglider on deck of SA Agulhas II, master student Hanna Rosenthal and PhD student Isabelle Giddy.
SA Agulhas II in the ice in the Southern Ocean