National implementation of a platform for analysis of sub-sea images

The coastal marine environment is under enormous pressure, from legacy of overexploitation and from the growing blue economy.

A credible sustainable strategy needs balance the protection and the socio-economic development of near-coast environments.

We need methods to monitor and analyse status and changes of subsea habitats and understand these changes and their causes.Much of the technology used in research is mature and ready for a wider use by the industry and the public sector.

The combination of camera-based sensors and image analysis resources allows us to extract information from marine environments with unprecedented quantity and quality.

However, the abilities also impose a massive challenge to end users as they require infrastructure and expertise for data processing and analysis.

Hence, big data approaches are instrumental for scalable and repeatable use of image-based information from subsea environments.This project will leverage existing methods, knowledge, and infrastructure in the field of subsea image analysis and implement these for applications in marine resource management.

Specifically, we will develop seamless linkage between existing data archives, thematic eLabs for data processing, HPC infrastructure, and data portals and thereby make valuable data and data products available to societal end users.

The suggested activities (work packages) will include i) formulation of user specification, ii) implementation trials, and iii) scaling operations.