Liverpool Bay Coastal Observatory

Oceans 2025 Theme 10, COBS

Sustained, systematic observations of the ocean and continental shelf seas at appropriate time and space scales allied to numerical models are key to understanding and prediction. In shelf seas these observations address issues as fundamental as 'what is the capacity of shelf seas to absorb change?' encompassing the impacts of climate change, biological productivity and diversity, sustainable management, pollution and public health, safety at sea and extreme events. Advancing understanding of coastal processes to use and manage these resources better is challenging; important controlling processes occur over a broad range of spatial and temporal scales which cannot be simultaneously studied solely with satellite or ship-based platforms. The stimulus is both scientific curiosity and also the desire to improve the underpinning knowledge required for sound management decisions concerning the quality and sustainability of our coastal seas. The eastern Irish Sea is considered a sensitive region for several reasons: it has a long (150 years) history of industrial contamination, which has been reducing in recent years; it experiences higher than average nutrient loading, a concern for government under the Water Framework Directive and Urban Waste Water Directive because of the potential risk of the onset of undesirable disturbance (Anon, 2004) through eutrophication, with the EA adopting the Ribble Estuary (in Liverpool Bay) as its test area; Liverpool Bay is subject to coastal erosion and deposition and the coastal waters interact with the three main estuaries in the region (Dee, Mersey, Ribble); it has a major cluster of renewable energy installations (windfarms) as well as more traditional offshore oil and gas; it has major shipping routes, particularly for Liverpool, and an active marine leisure industry affected by the recently introduced Bathing Waters Directive.

Considerable effort has been spent in the last 5 years (2001-06) in setting up the integrated observational and now-cast modelling system in Liverpool Bay. The recent POL review (SMA, 2004) stating the observatory was seen as a leader in its field and a unique 'selling' point of the laboratory. Cost benefit analysis (IACMST, 2004) shows that benefits really start to accrue after 10 years. In 2007-12 we will be able to exploit the time series being acquired, the model-data synthesis and the increasingly available quantities of real-time data (e.g. river flows) to provide an integrated assessment and short term forecasts of the coastal ocean state. The plans also include extension to the wider Irish Sea.

Team

John Howarth
Roger Proctor