A TasMAN sensor node deployed off the Tasmanian coast.
Improving marine management with TasMAN
The Tasmanian Marine Analysis Network (TasMAN) is demonstrating low cost monitoring technologies, improving understanding of coastal regions and enabling better informed environmental management.
- 18 July 2011 | Updated 14 October 2011
Coastal areas are under increasing pressure from human activities such as shipping, run off from farming and urban areas, industrial processes and tourism.
Getting the most from these areas, while ensuring they’re looked after, relies on having good, detailed information, preferably in real-time.
Unfortunately, monitoring the marine environment has traditionally been costly and patchy because, apart from Australia having a lot of coastline to watch over, the equipment must be robust and reliable.
Through the Wealth from Oceans Flagship, CSIRO’s experts in information and communication technologies (ICT) are developing and deploying a low cost, near real-time monitoring system: the Tasmanian marine analysis network (TasMAN).
Current activities
CSIRO has developed low cost, lightweight, easy to install sensor nodes which have been deployed in the Derwent and Huon estuaries and the D'Entrecasteaux channel region of south-east Tasmania, Australia.
The underwater sensors measure water variables such as:
- temperature
- salinity
- dissolved oxygen.
Data is communicated wirelessly to CSIRO’s Hobart laboratories and can be accessed through a user-friendly web interface.
Our sophisticated software verifies the integrity of the data, integrates data from different sensors and timescales, and it can perform some interpolation when data is missing.
We are also developing software to detect and predict potentially harmful events such as:
- algal blooms
- depletion of dissolved oxygen
- sudden changes salinity and/or temperature.
See our data, along with data and models provided by our partners, at CSIRO Tasmanian Marine Analysis Network [external link].
Further, our Starbug autonomous robotic submarine has been fitted with sensors so it can take measurements between the moored node and imaging equipment to classify the habitat on the seafloor. The aim is to build a comprehensive map of the underwater environment.
Outcomes
TasMAN will monitor the health of the south-east Tasmanian coast in support of its sustainable management.
The aim is to develop a cost-effective automated marine observation and analysis system.
The technology developed here will be deployable in other regions.
Partners
Collaborators in this project include:
- Derwent Estuary Program
- Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS)
- University of Sydney
- Tasmanian Aquaculture and Fisheries Institute
- School of Computing and Information Systems, University of Tasmania.
- Australian Maritime College, University of Tasmania
- Marine Discovery Centre, Woodbridge, Tasmania.
Read more technical detail in TasMAN: The Tasmanian Marine Analysis Network [external link].
