Developing community marine data service for Blue Growth sectors

Abstract

Using Offshore Wind Farm (OWF) siting in the Baltic Sea as a demonstration case, key issues on developing community data services (CDS) for Blue Growth sectors are explored: e.g. data and product requirements, level of fitness-for-the-purpose and data gaps on the marine CDS for OWF. Through analysing the Blue Growth and marine service value chain as well as user requirements, a list of value-added products has been identified for two user groups: a public group for planning and managing the OWFs and OWF siting sector. Fit-for-the-purpose assessment is carried out to identify data adequacy for OWF siting per key variable in air, water, biota, seabed and human activity areas and per data characteristics, e.g. spatiotemporal coverage, resolution, timeliness, quality and accessibility. Major data gaps lie in observations of wind profiles, currents, sea ice thickness, bottom slope, sedimentation rate, grain size and transport. The results suggest that a community marine data service for OWF siting should be an integrated data portal with open and free data access. It should be a one-stop shop containing both raw data from satellite, in-situ, modelling, socio-economy and OWF sector, but more importantly tailored products which will allow performing feasibility siting on national scale.