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Cost-effective hi-tech sea level monitoring devices
for coastal analysis and management
(PRWEB) February 24, 2004 --One popular notion is that the sea level rises at one and a half to two mm per year in the global scale for the last century and somewhat faster in the recent decade. Studies show that because of this event, people living and enjoying the Philippines rich and lengthy coastline might become more vulnerable to flooding, erosion, and storm upsurge. Among others, this is where the need for sea level monitoring comes in.
According to Dr. Rex Baleņa, ocean sciences expert of the University of the Philippines-Visayas, Monitoring sea levels has many uses and knowing the variations are important to fishermen, navigators, mari-culturists, engineers, and the like."
More importantly, he said that monitoring sea level is one well known effective procedure in weather and climate analysis and prediction.
It is then important to come up with a sea level database because such dataset could only become invaluable with time," Balena said. Thats why we have established a primary sea-level station in Miag-ao, Iloilo to precisely assess the impact of a coming storm and the like."
Sea-Level Station Instruments
The Establishment of Primary Sea-Level Station (EPSLS) in Miag-ao, Iloilo" a project funded by the Philippine Council for Advanced Science and Technology Research and Development (PCASTRD), initiated cost effective technology in measuring a very simple yet useful variable which is the sea level. Sea level applications range from water level predictions to warning fishermen of storm surges or coastal populace of possible tsunami waves, to very crucial studies of the climate. It also has direct relevance to studies on aqua-culture, coastal engineering, pollution/water quality, and management," Balena said.
- Baleņas team developed the EPSLS datalogging software that translates mechanical signal from a sea level measuring device to a form understandable by the computer.
- software is the main data logging device of the EPSLS, logging very frequent (per second) measurements not possible by any human," Baleņa said. It has also been used for classroom instruction and for demonstration on application to fish ponds and laboratory set-ups to monitor accurately the water level," he added.
- team of Dr. Baleņa also set-up a skeletal trihedral structure in Miag-ao Bay which is used to support several sea level measuring gadgets. The structure also has become a beach prism that prevents offshore avalanche of coastal materials.
Aside from the mentioned instruments, Baleņas team came up with Data-Assimilating Coastal Simulation Model (DACSM), a simple oceanographic model coded into the computer for fast numerical computations. The model incorporates the physics of coastal processes such as waves and currents which are important determinants of problems like pollutant transport, production, navigation, and mari-culture.
The DACSM had been used also as a dispersal model in studying pollutant transport in a water quality model built for USAIDs coastal resource management project," Baleņa said. In addition, it was used for tracing potential drift during a search and rescue (SAR) operation of three missing Dutch tourists lost somewhere in the vicinity of Siquijor in December 2002.
The DACSM is locally available and very accessible. That is why it can adapt flexibly to certain local situations," Baleņa said. He cited that DACSM can be used as a classroom aid to demonstrate the relatively difficult dynamics of oceanography and the numerical computation.
All the outputs from the technologies are available to interested and deserving groups/users," Baleņa said. He added that these technologies are very significant and worthwhile in the sense that it is cheap and practical for scientists working in developing countries like the Philippines.
- instruments -- a computer system with the ESPLS interface software, tripod instrument platform, plus the observer shelter hardly cost some P80,000.00, much cheaper than a Leopold Stevens tide recorder or similar digital version wave recorder " Baleņa said. He added that the EPSLS software and the design of the tripod instrument platform have copyright protection.
This PCASTRD-funded project was also a response to challenges on the timely realization of the relevance of oceanography to the Philippines. It particularly attempted to aid our marine science build a comprehensive database and minimize dependency on imported instruments.
PCASTRD is one of the sectoral councils of the Department of Science and Technology tasked to develop, integrate and coordinate the national research systems for advanced science and technology and related fields including information and communications technology. (Janet Rosalie Anne H. Polita)
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