• Canada
• 2015 close

Variations in sea level have a great environmental impact. They modulate coastal deposition, erosion and morphology, regulate heat and salt fluxes in estuaries, bays and ground waters, and control the dynamics of coastal ecosystems. Sea level variability has importance for coastal navigation, the building of coastal infrastructure, and the management of waste. The challenges of measuring, understanding and predicting sea level variations take particular relevance within the backdrop of global sea level rise, which might lead to the displacement of hundreds of millions of people by the end of this century. Sea level measurement relies primarily on the use of coastal tide gauges and satellite altimetry. Tide gauges provide sea levels at fine time resolutions (up to one second), but collect data only in coastal areas, and are irregularly distributed, with large gaps in the southern hemisphere and at high latitudes. Satellite altimetry, in contrast, has poor time resolution (ten days or longer), but provides near global coverage at moderate spatial resolutions (10-to-100 kilometres). Altimetric sea level products are problematic near the coast for reasons such as uncertainties in applying sea state bias corrections, errors in coastal tidal models, and large geoid gradients. The complicated shoreline geometry means that the raw altimeter data have to either undergo special transformations to provide more reliable measurements of sea level or be rejected. Developments in GPS measurements from buoys are now making it possible to determine sea surface heights with accuracy comparable to that of altimetry. In combination with coastal tide gauges, GPS buoys could be used as the nodes of a global sea level monitoring network extending beyond the coast. However, GPS buoys have several downsides. They are difficult and expensive to deploy, maintain, and recover, and, like conventional tide gauges, provide time series only at individual points in the ocean. This proposal focuses on the development of a unique system that overcomes these shortcomings. We propose a technology-led project to integrate Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS i.e. encompassing GPS, GLONASS and, possibly, Galileo) technology with a state-of-the-art, unmanned surface vehicle: a Wave Glider. The glider farms the ocean wave field for propulsion, uses solar power to run on board equipment, and uses satellite communications for remote navigation and data transmission. A Wave Glider equipped with a high-accuracy GNSS receiver and data logger is effectively a fully autonomous, mobile, floating tide gauge. Missions and routes can be preprogrammed as well as changed remotely. Because the glider can be launched and retrieved from land or from a small boat, the costs associated with deployment, maintenance and recovery of the GNSS Wave Glider are comparatively small. GNSS Wave Glider technology promises a level of versatility well beyond that of existing ways of measuring sea levels. Potential applications of a GNSS Wave Glider include: 1) measurement of mean sea level and monitoring of sea level variations worldwide, 2) linking of offshore and onshore vertical datums, 3) calibration of satellite altimetry, notably in support of current efforts to reinterpret existing altimetric data near the coast, but also in remote and difficult to access areas, 4) determination of regional geoid variations, 5) ocean model improvement. The main thrust of this project is to integrate a state-of-the-art, geodetic-grade GNSS receiver and logging system with a Wave Glider recently acquired by NOC to create a mobile and autonomous GNSS-based tide gauge. By the end of the project, a demonstrator GNSS Wave Glider will be available for use by NOC and the UK marine community. The system performance will be validated against tide gauge data. Further tests will involve the use of the GNSS Wave Glider to calibrate sea surface heights and significant wave heights from Cryosat-2.

The InDeV project addresses the second bullet point of the topic MG.3.4. i.e. “… in-depth understanding of road accident causation…”. The main objective of the project is to develop a tool-box for in-depth analysis of accident causation for Vulnerable Road Users (VRU) based on a combined use of accident databases, in-depth accident investigations, surrogate safety indicators, self-reported accidents and naturalistic behavioural data. The tool-box will help to link accident causation factors to VRUs’ accident risk, and provide a solid basis for developing preventive countermeasures and a better input for socio-economic cost calculations of VRU accidents. The proposed approach is to reveal the causational factors by focusing on the process of accident development, thus overcoming the main weakness of the traditional accident data based approach that might find correlations between various factors and accident frequency, but not show the causation chains. It will also employ, to a larger extent, observation of critical traffic events that are similar in process to real accidents, but are relatively more frequent and easier to collect in sufficient quantities. The InDeV project includes the following steps: i) review of methods and identification of the critical sites and road user groups; ii) observation studies at the selected sites; iii) development of technical tools for automated behaviour data collection; iv) analysis of the socio-economical costs; v) compilation of the project results and development of the safety analyst tool-box. The project has a clear focus on VRUs and the course of events in accidents they get injured in. It will provide solid knowledge, help to avoid a skewed view on the problem of VRUs’ safety, and facilitate the proposed tailor-made countermeasures for these groups. Moreover, with the use of surrogate safety indicators, there will be no need to wait for accidents to happen in order to learn how to prevent them from happening.

The success of Galileo will largely depend on its penetration in LBS and M2M markets. While the LBS market is largely dominated by Google and Apple, it is high time to create for the M2M market a comprehensive, EU-based location platform that will bring together all of the location enablers (Galileo, EGNOS, other GNSS, Wi-Fi, Cell-ID), and also win back LBS market shares. Developing applications only, will NOT preserve EGNSS interests, unless first developing the proper location enablers, combining location technologies and taking due account of EGNSS added values. ELAASTIC (European Location As A Service Targeting International Commerce) addresses these needs by developing a European based location service worldwide to ensure EGNOS and Galileo penetration. ELAASTIC will provide: 1. A “Location As A Service” platform focused on delivering reliable location technologies with innovative features based on EGNOS and Galileo signal specificities, 2. An optimized End to End set of location services with full consistency between the Galileo signals, the chipset’s capabilities and additional location infrastructure, 3. Compliance with industry standards for location (e.g. OMA SUPL 2.0), with willingness to contribute to their extension, 4. A service opening for applications developers to rapidly take benefit of Galileo within H2020 first steps, 5. A true commitment to operate a commercial location service as developed during the course of the project, 6. An Ecosystem to ease the deployment of value added services such as eCall and E112. This service will be provided by European (independent of US corporations) companies with a focus on supporting the development of downstream European companies working in the sector. The ELAASTIC proposal has been built through collaboration of five global leaders in location technology: Telespazio France, ST-microelectronics, Thales Alenia Space France, Rx Networks, and Novero, three of them listed as major actors in Berg Insight 2013 LB

EMPHASIS is a participatory research project addressing native and alien pests threats (insect pests, pathogens, weeds) for a range of both natural ecosystems and farming systems (field crops, protected crops, forestry, orchards and amenity plants). The overall goal is to ensure a European food security system and the protection of biodiversity and of ecosystems services while developing integrated mechanisms of response measures (practical solutions) to predict, to prevent and to protect agriculture and forestry systems from native and alien pests threats. The specific objectives are the following: 1.Predict, Prioritize and Planning: pest management challenges and opportunities will be evaluated according to stakeholder-focused criteria and through pathway analysis; 2.Prevent: practical solutions for surveillance in different pathways to enhance preparedness will be provided to end-users, and monitoring tools following outbreaks and eradication will be developed; 3.Protect: practical solutions for managing native and alien pests in agriculture, horticulture and forestry will be developed, their technical and economic feasibility will be demonstrated and their market uptake will be enhanced. 4.Promote: a mutual learning process with end-users will be developed, and the solutions identified by the project will be promoted through training and dissemination. The project is in line with EU policy framework (Plant Health Dir. 2000/29/EC, EU Biodiversity strategy to 2020, Dir. 2009/128/EC on sustainable use of pesticides, Roadmap to a Resource Efficient Europe) and its future developments (Reg. on protective measures against pests of plants, Reg. on Invasive Alien Species). The project is not focused on a single management systems but the plant/pest ecosystems dealt with are treated with a multi-method approach to design true IPM methodology that will be developed for key systems with portability to other similar systems, thereby having a large impact.