Search publications of the members of the Royal Belgian institute of natural Sciences
-
Main elements for the design of JERICO-RI
- The present application to enter the ESFRI roadmap, describes the directions chosen to consolidate the design of the Joint European Research Infrastructure for Coastal Observations, JERICO-RI. The document is structured in 4 parts respectively providing: Part A: an Overview outlining the fundamentals of JERICO-RI. Part B: the Scientific case of JERICO-RI. Part C: the Design of JERICO-RI and Part D: Feasibility and risk management. A summary of each Part is provided below. Part A - Overview of JERICO-RI - presents the Vision, the purpose, the Mission and the values of JERICO-RI. Likewise, it describes the main features of the coastal ocean, including the Key Scientific Challenges facing our society. Part A demonstrates how the strategy of JERICO-RI answers these challenges and which are the key strengths of JERICO-RI approach. JERICO-RI is dedicated to the observation of European coastal marine systems. It fills an important gap in the current EU RI landscape, by specifically addressing the coastal ocean, which constitutes a major stake for society. JERICO-RI builds on national politically supported initiatives and on the expertise acquired during several consecutive EC projects. It supports the very diverse European coastal research communities by enabling free and open access to multidisciplinary data and services and enhancing the Technological Readiness Levels (TRLs) of new observing platforms.JERICO-RI builds on both a scientific and a development strategy. JERICO-RI tackles three Key Scientific Challenges (KSC): (KSC#1) of coastal marine systems under the combined influence of global and local drivers, (KSC#2) Assessing the impact of extreme events, and (KSC#3) Unravelling the impacts of natural and anthropogenic changes. The strategy for JERICO-RI’s development accounts for the main specificities of the coastal ocean. As such, a fundamental aspect is the integrative character of coastal ocean observations (integration of disciplines, technologies, observations, communities etc.). Enhancing the integration of the coastal ocean observation provides the bedrock of JERICO-RI Development strategy, which is articulated around 3 Pillars: i) Pillar #1: Fostering societal impact for a larger community of stakeholders, ii) Pillar #2: Developing innovative technologies for Coastal Ocean observing and modelling, iii) Pillar #3: Interfacing with other Ocean Observing Initiatives. Together with the three KSCs, the three development pillars provide a novel matrix architecture structuring the implementation of JERICO-RI at nested scales from single sites to regions and at the pan-European level Part B - Science Case. In this section, the 3 Key Scientific Challenges (KSCs) and the above development strategy are presented in detail, including the regional approach and the KSC-related data flows. Some showcases are presented to illustrate this overall approach. JERICO-RI’s Science Case is diverse and multidimensional since associated environmental and societal issues are complex due to the location of the coastal ocean at the intersection between continental, marine and atmospheric systems and the immediate vicinity of dense human populations. In coastal areas, tackling scientific questions is inherently multidisciplinary and a major challenge is taking into account the needs of this multiplicity of users concomitantly (Pillar 1). Highlights of JERICO-RI’s scientific strategy are the integration of observations, the avoidance of effort duplication and the close involvement of stakeholders. Public and Academia categories represent a significant component of the JERICO User community. JERICO-RI addresses 3 main sectors: Coastal management and protection, Fundamental and applied research, and Weather and forecast services. Ensuring Virtual Access Mode is essential, and accordingly will be carefully designed and developed. Qualitative socio economic impacts have been assessed while a Cost Benefit Analysis supports the choice to implement a permanent RI under the ERIC model. In addition, JERICO-RI will be a key player in the development of strategic technology (Pillar 2) in order to develop the Smart Ocean for coastal areas. The variety of coastal platform types and methods within JERICO-RI facilitates a multidisciplinary approach and provides a sound foundation for an RI with the capacity of solving coastal scientific questions. Complex coastal observation systems, relying on multiple and multivariable platforms are complementary and allow for a holistic approach to address scientific and societal questions. There are still discrepancies between disciplines in the level of development and the Technological Readiness Levels (TRLs) of sensors (e.g. the technology of biological sensors is less advanced than for physical variables). A significant effort to achieve interoperability will be necessary from the acquisition stage and throughout the data life cycle. Supported by Pillar 3, JERICO-RI is fostering cooperation and coordination with existing RIs and other relevant communities: JERICO-RI links communities from EO, in situ observation and modelling. JERICO-RI occupies a unique place in the EU marine/coastal landscape, at the interface between open sea RIs and more terrestrial ones and in the ENVRI domain. JERICO-RI strengthens existing links with Copernicus (mainly CMEMS) and EMODnet. JERICO-RI intends to enhance its interactions with other Ocean Observing initiatives out of the EU landscape. Its 3 pillars help investigate regional capacities and needs within JERICO-RI. All regions show high observation capacities in place to meet KSCs thanks to their observations and data fluxes. Nevertheless, making full use of coastal sea observation capacity requires planning that takes into account nested spatiotemporal scales from local aspects to pan European ones. JERICO-RI needs to optimise and rationalise the use of the coastal RI. Part C describes the Design of JERICO-RI and begins by explaining the key elements needed to achieve a harmonised European RI for science and society in the coastal and littoral area. Part C presents how JERICO-RI needs to be structured at different sites, observation systems and stations. Part C then describes how to elaborate Services for science and society is addressed, the place of users and Stakeholders in JERICO-RI and collaborations with existing harmonised observation initiatives are presented. The possible governance of JERICO-RI is explained and Key Performance and Impact Indicators are described. JERICO-RI aims to be an harmonised European RI and a system of systems to promote various technologies improvements. To illustrate, JERICO-RI evaluates technologies to interconnect systems and provides an innovative technological framework for their automated steering and triggering. For this purpose it capitalizes on the development of a Virtual Research Environment to implement Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence approaches and existing e-facilities. Moreover, to set up an effective holistic approach of Coastal Ocean observation across disciplines, efforts will be invested into developing sensing capacities for biological and biogeochemistry compartments. Additionally, the JERICO-RI community will focus on developing multidisciplinary (physics, biology and biochemistry) integrated models. Finally, JERICO RI will continue to develop Best Practices that apply from the sensor to the delivery of processed data with key Institutions and aggregators. JERICO-RI’s ambition to improve site structure will positively impact its overall efficiency. The JERICO research community is investigating a range of hierarchical and organizational observation network-models, including at the Pilot Super Sites (PSSs) and Integrated Regional Sites (IRSs) levels. PSSs operate selected, multidisciplinary and integrated observation platforms at relatively high technological readiness levels (TRLs). In IRSs, coastal observation programs are well established and integrated through multinational collaborations. JERICO-RI promotes the overall organization, integration and interoperability of the coastal observations at national, regional, interregional and pan-European levels. JERICO-RI's target is to provide consistent and comparable data to answer complex science questions. This may be achieved by integrating the key regional observatories as a hierarchical and coordinated observation network based on Supersites, Advanced observatories and Standard observatories, working at nested and superimposed spatiotemporal scales. In terms of services, the main scientific challenges relevant to the integrated marine and environmental initiatives underscore JERICO-RI’s strategy. An initial focus will be ensuring robust and acknowledged services for the main (in terms of known and recognised users) JERICO sectors: Coastal management and protection, Fundamental and applied research, and Weather and forecast services, followed by the design of services for less represented sectors such as Weather and ocean forecasting, Fisheries, etc. The establishment of a JERICO-RI User Committee provides Users and stakeholders a high capacity of influence. The sectors “Coastal protection and management”, “Fundamental and applied research” are well represented by Users and stakeholders, whereas the “Maritime safety and crisis response” and “Tourism and recreation” sectors are so far represented to a lesser extent. Collaboration with established EU environmental RIs is crucial because the landscape is increasingly complex with a significant potential for overlaps. A capacity to adjust is required in the face of a growing number of RIs claiming their stake within the marine domain. Together EMBRC, EMSO, EuroARGO, EuroFleets+, Danubius and JERICO-RI present a unique opportunity to support the observation and study of marine systems from the land interface to the open ocean. In line with this, within the JERICO-DS, a review is ongoing of the main scientific questions, strategies and monitoring solutions implemented or planned in the coastal ocean at the level of the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS), and of the main worldwide OOS. The proposed Governance of JERICO-RI is organised in three levels. The Decision level includes the Assembly of Members, Director of the RI (CEO). The Executive level (or Head Office, HO)) includes the Management Office, the heads of financial affairs and administrative affairs, the Steering Committee (including representatives from the User Committee, JUC), regions representatives, the chair of the Research, Innovation and Excellence unit, the head of the JERICO-RI User Access unit (JUA), the head of the Data & Operation (D&O) unit. The Operation level comprises the Expert Centres, the User Access Unit (JUA), and Advisory bodies such as the User Forum and the external Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee (STAC). JERICO-RI’s performance will be monitored by indicators from 5 categories: Scientific Excellence, Technological (innovation and harmonisation), Economics, Societal, Education and Training. Further indicators will be defined in due course. Part D describes the Feasibility of JERICO-RI. It stresses how the RI capitalises on established national RIs and the efficiency of these vectors to garner the necessary political clout and secure resources at the Member State and European levels. The financial feasibility, the potential risks and the quality management are presented. Support and commitments received are listed. This section also provides a calendar from the design to the operation phase. The establishment of JERICO-RI as a fully integrated European Research Infrastructure on Coastal Observation relies on the National Research Infrastructures on coastal observation as well as the scientific achievements of the consortium’s members. The 14 national RIs on coast observation are presented. Capitalising on these established and distributed European entities, JERICO-RI will be unique by holistically embracing coastal marine systems. It fills a crucial gap in the European RI landscape. Existing environmental RIs focus either on deep ocean (EuroArgo and EMSO) or on inland and transitional environments (DANUBIUS and eLTER). Regardless of the major importance of the services they provide, none of these RIs are designed to address the issues specific to coastal marine systems. A priority of the JERICO-RI is to establish collaborative agreements with the relevant environmental RIs (as articulated in JERICO projects recently granted H2020 funding). Financial feasibility is presented. The cost estimations have been prepared in line with the framework and methodologies outlined in Str-ESFRI Study on Guidelines of Cost Estimation of Infrastructures for RIs aiming for inclusion in the ESFRI Roadmap. Risk assessment identifies hazards, their potential effects and identifies control measures to offset any negative impacts on the JERICO-RI. The methodology outlined has previously been tried and tested in a context integrating multiple scales and platforms. Finally, JERICO-RI has garnered strong support in its various phases and related projects. For the Design Phase, covered by the JERICO-S3 and JERICO-DS projects, the applications garnered approximately 20 support letters from various member state entities and agencies. For the application to the ESFRI roadmap 2021 the consortium is formalised by 47 signatures of the MoU accompanied with 45 Letters of Interest. At the political level the application is supported by Croatia, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal and Spain, with strong leadership from France. In terms of financial support, Expressions of financial Commitments have been received by two Ministries and 13 Institutions. The total yearly committed amount value is about 22M€ for operation of the national nodes. Moreover JERICO-RI is supported by established and ongoing collaborations with Environmental RIs and support letters from EuroARGO, EMBRC, Danubius, Lifewatch, Aquacosm, EMSO, ICOS, eLTER and MERCATOR/CMEMS.
-
System-to-system Interface Between the EMSA CleanSeaNet Service and OSERIT
- The European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) and the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS) develop and operate together a system-to-system interface between the EMSA’s CleanSeaNet service and OSERIT, the Belgian Oil Spill Evaluation and Response Integrated Tool. This interface is meant to provide CleanSeaNet users with a support tool for early and automatic oil drift and fate simulation results of any satellite-detected oil spills reported by the CleanSeaNet service in the North Sea and the English Channel. In view of the automatic forecast and backtrack simulations results, CleanSeaNet users have the possibility to further refine this early risk assessment either by activating their own national decision support system or by requesting new, advanced simulations through the CleanSeaNet GIS viewer. This interface is currently passing the final acceptance tests. However, the system has already been used by RBINS for the oil pollution event subsequent to the Flinterstar sinking at 8km off the port of Zeebruges on the 6 th of October 2015. This event perfectly illustrates the potential synergies of remote sensing and modelling in case of marine pollution and their integration in risk assessments that must be performed for any significant pollution of the marine system.
-
NOOS-Drift, an innovative operational transnational multi-model ensemble system to assess ocean drift forecast accuracy.
- In case of maritime pollution, man-overboard, or objects adrift at sea, national maritime authorities of the 9 countries bordering the European North West Continental Shelf (NWS) rely on drift model simulations in order to better understand the situation at stake and plan the best response strategy. So far, the drift forecast services are mainly managed at national levels with almost no integration at the transnational level. Designed as a support service to the national drift forecasting services, NOOS-Drift has the ambition to change this paradigm. NOOS-Drift is a distributed transnational multi-model ensemble system to assess and improve drift forecast accuracy in the European North West Continental Shelf. Developed as a one-stop-shop web service, the service allows registered users (national drift model operators or trained maritime authorities) to submit on-demand drift simulation requests to be run by all the national drift forecasting services connected to NOOS-Drift. Within 15 minutes after activation, the NOOS-Drift users shall get access to the drift simulation results of the individual ensemble members, as well as the results of a multi-models joint analysis assessing the ensemble spread and delineating risk areas to locate possible maritime pollution. This operation of such a distributed multi-models service is to our knowledge a world premiere. In this communication, we will present the technical and scientific developments that had to be done to make this service possible, including: - a robust, secure and latency-free communication system that coordinates the execution of the different national models - a strategy to build the multi-model ensemble - a definition of drift forecast accuracy - the joint multi-model analysis tools - the standard file formats and visualisation means. Finally we will illustrate on an example how the NOOS-Drift service could change the decision making process.
-
All sunshine makes a desert'. Building interdisciplinary understanding of survival strategies of ancient communities in the arid Zerqa Triangle, Jordan Valley
- Archaeological studies typically describe arid areas as extremely unpleasant areas for human occupation and use. Without suggesting that arid areas are pleasant places, however, this paper provides a reassessment of the meaning of aridity for an area showing a vast amount of evidence of (past) human activities. Several climatic proxy data suggest that at the transition between the late Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age (around c. 1300-1100 BC) the southern Levant witnessed more arid conditions, while after 1100 BC relatively moist conditions would have prevailed. In drylands, small changes in temperature and water availability can have large effects on subsistence options. Building on cooperation between an archaeologist and a water scholar, this paper offers an approach to study how people in the past were able to craft a livelihood in the arid environments in the southern Levant and elsewhere. Focusing on the Zerqa area, the paper explores the potential of this cooperation by studying effects of climatic changes at the transition from the Late Bronze Age to the Iron Age through a modelling approach. Changes in temperature and moisture availability were simulated, showing that increased aridity could have been met by either naturally available water (especially groundwater) or artificially added water (although the timing appears to be crucial). While the model approach under discussion offers an approximation of the past, it shows the potential impact of climatic changes on the subsistence of past communities. It shows that details can mean the difference between survival or collapse.
-
Ticks (Acari: Ixodidae) infesting transhumant cattle stalled in Kisangani (DR Congo): a neglected veterinary health issue
-
The evolutionary history of manatees told by their mitogenomes
-
Detecting Xenopus laevis in Belgium using eDNA and qPCR
-
First record and DNA identification of the Pacific oyster, Crassostrea gigas (Thunberg, 1793), in the southern Black Sea
-
Regional heritage stone diversity in stone-poor landscapes, the example of northern Belgium.
-
Cloud and Cloud Shadow Masking of High and Medium Resolution Optical Sensors-An Algorithm Inter-Comparison Example for Landsat 8
-
ACOLITE for Sentinel-2: Aquatic Applications of MSI imagery
-
Seasonal and inter-annual turbidity variability in the Río de la Plata from 15 years of MODIS: El Niño dilution effect
-
Byzantine Sagalassos
-
Book review: Dar, S 2014 The dawn of the Bronze Age. The pattern of settlement in the Lower Jordan Valley and the desert fringes of Samaria during the Chalcolithic period and Early Bronze Age I
-
Le matérel anthropologique dans tous ses états : de la momie aux restes incinérés.
-
L'inconnu de la cathédrale. Tentative d'identification d'un ecclésiastique inhumé dans la cathédrale Saints-Michel-et-Gudule (Bruxelles, Belgique).
-
The tympanoperiotic complex of the blue whale, Balaenoptera musculus
-
Morphological and mitochondrial DNA data reshuffle the taxonomy of the genera Atopochetus Attems, Litostrophus Chamberlin and Tonkinbolus Verhoeff (Diplopoda: Spirobolida: Pachybolidae), with descriptions of nine new species
-
Wat archeologisch DNA ons kan vertellen over de tamme kat
-
First record of Ciocalypta Bowerbank, 1862 (Demospongiae, Suberitida, Halichondriidae) in the Eastern Pacific, with description of a new species from Peru
