Program Update – October 2010
For funding beginning in FY 2011, the National Oceanographic Partnership Program (NOPP), the Office of Naval Research (ONR) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) welcome research proposals on Marine Mammal Detection and Monitoring. The partner agencies are particularly interested in new technologies and systems to detect, identify, locate and track marine mammals within a specified area with a high level of confidence. Proposals may address one or more of the following topic areas:
Topic 1: Detection, Classification and Localization Algorithms
Topic 2: Active Acoustic Monitoring
Topic 3: Database Services and Computational Capacity
Topic 4: Novel Use of Existing Technologies
Applicants are invited to submit proposals for one or more of these topic areas. The deadline to apply is November 23, 2010 at 2 p.m. EDT. For more information, please visit http://www.onr.navy.mil/~/media/Files/Funding-Announcements/BAA/10-024.ashx.
The NOPP Office received 29 proposals in response to the FY 2011 funding announcement on Implementation of the U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System, which closed on October 1, 2010. Scientific review panels are currently being coordinated by the NOPP Office.
NOPP is pleased to announce a session on, A National Marine Biodiversity Observing Network to Inform Ecosystem Based Management and Science, which is being held at the North Pacific Marine Science Organization’s annual meeting in Portland, Oregon on October 29, 2010. The recommendations from the Attaining Operational Marine Biodiversity Observations workshop report will be discussed and feedback will be solicited. The draft report with the recommendations is available for review and comment on the NOPP website until November 19, 2010. We hope you will provide constructive commentary and suggestions as appropriate to strengthen the overall report and/or individual sections and appendices.
We would like to welcome Allison Miller to the NOPP Office team. Allison joined the Consortium for Ocean Leadership in 2007 and most recently worked on the National Ocean Sciences Bowl. Allison will be taking on responsibilities with the Interagency Working Group (IWG) committees and their sub-groups, as well as with coordination for the NOPP funding opportunities. The NOPP Office is happy to have her on board.
NOPP has selected to fund eight research projects that cover various aspects of renewable energy. These studies will develop environmental protocols and monitoring to support ocean renewable energy and stewardship as part of NOPP. Topics cover a variety of research including, but not limited to, gathering information, identifying and evaluating best management practices and protocols, assessing equipment, developing new GIS tools, and researching social and cultural implications of renewable energy development. The eight funded proposals were selected through NOPP’s independent peer-review process and are co-funded by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, the Department of Energy, and the Department of Commerce’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The following are the eight selected projects:
- Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Biacoustics Research Program: Characterization & Potential Impacts of Noise Producing Construction & Operation Activities on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). This project will study field data to measure, characterize, and evaluate the influence construction and operation from Offshore Alternative Energy (OAE) noise has on seasonally resident and migratory, acoustically active marine vertebrates. Secondarily, it will evaluate the influences of construction and operation from OAE to seasonally resident but non-acoustic marine organisms.
- Pacific Energy Ventures: Protocols for Baseline Studies and Monitoring for Ocean Renewable Energy. This project will develop a Protocol Framework that will identify, collect, and compare environmental data relevant to offshore renewable energy projects. The Protocol Framework will outline criteria for collecting baseline data and operational monitoring studies for wave, tidal, and offshore wind projects on the U.S. west coast.
- University of Massachusetts – Marine Renewable Energy Center: Roadmap: Technologies for Cost Effective, Spatial Resource Assessments for Offshore Renewable Energy. This project will develop a technology roadmap for the application of advanced spatial survey technologies of offshore wind and hydrokinetic renewable energy resources and facilities. The emphasis will be on techniques that provide spatial-temporal measurements.
- University of Washington – School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences: Evaluating Technologies to Monitor Aquatic Organisms at Renewable Sites. The researchers will evaluate the ability of echosounders, multibeam sonar, and acoustic cameras to characterize and monitor animal densities and distributions at a proposed hydrokinetic site.
- University of Texas at Austin – Bureau of Economic Geology: Sub-Seabed Geologic Carbon Dioxide Sequestration Best Management Practices. This project will use existing knowledge and experience with onshore carbon sequestration monitoring and risk assessment, existing and proposed policy, and international collaboration with groups already conducting offshore carbon dioxide transport and sequestration to compile information needed to establish best management practices for U.S. offshore geologic sequestration.
- University of Arkansas – Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies: Renewable Energy Visual Evaluations. This project will develop the Visual Impact Evaluation System for Offshore Renewable Energy. The proposed software will allow users to do a variety of things, including design an offshore facility, prepare geospatial data that will affect visibility, run visual analyses, define various conditions, and generate realistic visualizations from multiple viewpoints.
- University of Rhode Island: Developing Environmental Protocols and Modeling Tools to Support Ocean Renewable Energy and Stewardship. This project will develop and test protocols for baseline studies and monitor for the collection and comparison of scientifically valid data. The project will also develop a conceptual framework and approach for environmental impact evaluation of offshore renewable energy development. The research team hopes to provide agencies with a comprehensive, flexible, and tested means of making efficient and balanced assessments regarding the impacts of various offshore renewable energy projects.
- Parametrix: Bayesian Integration for Marine Spatial Planning and Renewable Energy Siting. The project team plans on applying Bayesian methods to create a system that will be able to support the needs of ocean renewable planning in the context of coastal and marine spatial planning. They plan to propose a system that can make use of a variety of existing components by integrating oceanographic, ecological, human use, stakeholder, and impact data for the evaluation of ocean renewable energy siting projects.
For more information on the research teams, please click here.
