Smart coasts

The beach at Aberystwyth

A £3.7m Aberystwyth University led initiative to maximise the potential of the coastline on both sides of the Irish Sea was launched on the 5th November.
 
Smart Coasts; Sustainable Communities will improve the quality of the coastal areas of Pembrokeshire, Ceredigion, Carmarthenshire and Swansea as well as Dublin, Ireland, to boost tourism and support local economies.  
 
The initiative has been made possible with £2.7m from the EU's Wales/Ireland Cross Border programme and will see partners from both regions collaborating to protect their shorelines by  developing  a new system to predict water quality in real-time.

The system involves forecasting water quality, based on sampling and analysis as well as field and coastal data, which can be linked to electronic information systems to provide bathers with up-to-date details of water conditions.

The new system will provide a better understanding of pollution sources and help maintain Wales’ Blue Flag beaches by meeting the new EU Bathing Water Directive (2006) which requires water sampling at these sites.

Professor David Kay of the Institute of Geography and Earth Sciences at Aberystwyth University said: "This real-time management approach offers both public health benefits and the opportunity to maintain existing high levels of bathing water compliance, even with the new tighter standards.

“This is vital to keeping our ‘Blue Flag’ awards for resort town beaches. To take advantage of this we need much more detailed understanding of the sources and pathways of potential pollution from land-based sources and throughout the coastal zone as well as the development of new predictive modelling approaches to deliver the real-time-prediction of water quality linked to electronic information systems.”

Environment Minister Jane Davidson said:  "Improving the way we manage our coast will not only protect our shore line, but also boost its economic value by encouraging more visitors and further investment.

“We are committed to maximising sustainable use of our shores, not only for the environmental benefits but also for the increased prosperity it will deliver to people living in those communities.”
 
Smart Coasts, is led in Wales by the Institute of Geography and Earth Sciences at Aberystwyth University and by University College Dublin in Ireland. The project will also work with Environment Agency-Wales and Environmental Protection Agency-Ireland, City and Council of Swansea, Wicklow Council in Ireland, and Dwr Cymru Welsh Water.

The project launch coincided with an event to mark progress of £61m Ireland/Wales Cross Border programme which supports collaborative projects between partners from both regions.
 
Professor David Kay, Aberystwyth University is an expert in microbial pollution of catchments and coastal systems. He has acted as adviser in this area to the World Health Organisation, the EU, the UK Parliament, water companies and regulators in the UK and USA. He co-authored the recent World Health Organisation Guidelines for Recreational Waters which recommend real-time prediction of water quality.

The research team within IGES will lead on delivering the Smart Coasts project in Wales. The team has also delivered a series of projects on recreational water quality including leadership of  three recent EU Framework Programme projects backed with over 7m euros of funding.

EU Bathing Water Directive (2006)
Bathing beaches throughout the European Union are required to comply with the new EU Bathing Water Directive (2006) by 2015, with sampling for the new Directive commencing in 2012. The standards in this legislation have been tightened to maintain good water quality and protect public health and are derived from the World Health Organization Guidelines for Recreational Waters.  
 
The Smart Coasts project will implement source apportionment studies to identify any pollution in the waters to develop the a new system to predict water quality in real time.   The study will direct a bathing water action plan  involving partnership working from a number of  local authorities and will extend for a three year period.

The Ireland/Wales Cross Border Programme is managed by the Southern and Eastern Regional Assembly (SERA) in Ireland under the 2007-2013 EU Structural Funds programmes. Priority 2 of the Programme supports projects which have a positive impact on local communities in the cross border area and are closely aligned to EU, Irish and WAG strategies to promote sustainable development and tackle climate change.

AU20710

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