ANNEX
Technical Annex (Annex 1) to the agreement signed with FCT in
November 21, 2001
This technical annex contains:
1. The introduction
2. The 5 and 10 years activities plans
3. The organization structure
4. The plan for the human resources hiring
1. Introduction
In the beginning of the 20th century, few could imagine the impact that the scientific and technological disciplines then emergent could have in the improvement of the quality of life of the societies in evolution in that century. In the 21st century, the promise of extra improvements based in new and even more complex applications of engineering systems is generally assumed as a reason for great optimism. The development of advanced systems for the study of natural phenomena, the exploration and exploitation of natural resources, and the production of new goods of consumption are only some examples.
Although it is difficult to foresee the exact form that the engineering disciplines will assume in the future, it is safe to state that there are a high number of questions to which engineering systems can, at least partially, give a reply.
The vision that supports this proposal is based on the identification of some of these questions that even though specific of the Portuguese reality, must be understood in a context where the integration of the country in an more open and interconnected environment cannot be ignored.
The underlying hypothesis is that disciplines so far predominantly seen as disjoint have to join efforts in order to stimulate the appearance of new ideas, the mobilization of people and the development of tools that catalyze a significant advance of the applications of engineering necessary to assure the progress of the country.
The Associate Laboratory proposes to promote, in a multidisciplinary context, research, development and education in order to create, improve, demonstrate and evaluate emergent alternative and complex engineering systems, and hence contribute for the incorporation of innovation and the promotion of sustainability in the domains of Robotics, Information Processing, and of the Environment Sciences and Technologies.
The support technologies will be developed and evaluated in a systems and multidisciplinary perspective for which contribute the competences resident in the various R&D units that constitute the ISR- Associate Laboratory.
The program of activities considered is organized in the following thematic areas:
A - Technologies for Ocean Exploration;
B – Monitoring and Surveillance using Robotic Agents;
C - Sustainable Technologies and Environment Systems;
D - Signal Processing for Communication Networks and Multimedia.
The detailed characterization and the concrete actions to be developed in each one of these areas are described in section 2 of this annex. In section 3 it is described the organization structure proposed, and finally in Section 4 the scheduled plans for hiring (during the first part of the contract) the human resources considered necessary to fulfil the objectives and actions defined in this plan of Activities.
2. Activities Plan
A. Thematic Area: Tecnologies for Ocean Exploration
A.1 Introduction
The last decade has witnessed tremendous progress in the development of marine technologies that are steadily affording scientists with advanced equipments and methodologies for ocean exploration and exploitation. Recent advances in marine robotics, sensors, computers, communications, and information systems are being brought to bear on the development of sophisticated technologies to enable safer, better, faster, and more efficient methodologies for the study of the oceans. These fast paced developments will undoubtedly revolutionize the way the oceans are studied, effectively placing scientists at the threshold of a new and exciting area when science and technology will join efforts to unravel the secrets behind recent and unexpected discoveries: intriguing ecosystems and life forms, thermal vents and cold seeps, and huge accumulations of methane in the form of gas hydrates, to name but a few.
In line with the above trend, the research and development work that will be carried out in the scope of this thematic area aims at bridging the gap between marine science and technology by exploring fruitful collaboration links among engineers and marine scientists, namely biologists, geologists, and oceanographers. This symbiosis is instrumental in providing engineers with complex, challenging problems in the field of marine technologies. Conversely, it will provide marine scientists with ever increasingly complex technologies to explore the ocean frontier, especially in hazardous conditions.
A.2 Rationale
The research and development efforts proposed address important practical applications in the fields of marine biology, geology, and oceanography, the main core of the missions envisioned taking place in the Azores region. The reason for this choice is manifold: the seabed and sub-seabed of the Portuguese EEZ are extensive and varied and include the continental margin, vast areas of abyssal plains, seamounts and islands, and a very large extension of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (MAR). The MAR is overprinted by the Azores hot spot, in an area known as the Azores Triple Junction (ATJ), where three major tectonic plates are in contact. The ensemble harbors complex, diverse, and attractive areas with a great variety of seamounts, active underwater volcanoes, chemosynthetic ecosystems, and life forms, including man as part of the ecosystem. Also from an oceanographic and climatological point of view the Azores offer a unique possibility for remote observation of basin scale ocean circulation and for studying its influence on long term climate changes.
This is a unique system on a planetary scale. This situation offers truly unique research opportunities, the Azores seas being visited every year by many of the larger and more sophisticated oceanographic vessels, engaged in a variety of scientific tasks. In a more regional and national view, there is vital interest in obtaining detailed data on the seabed in the Azores region in relation with possible jurisdictional claims over new, wider limits to Exclusive Economic Zones.
The need for advanced technologies as stepping stones upon which to build the methodologies for the exploration and exploitation of the ocean is the common denominator of a number if initiatives and resolutions that target the Azores and its surrounding regions. The following are illustrative examples.
1. MOMAR (Monitoring the Mid-Atlantic Ridge) - a particularly important international initiative scheduled for the Azores region is the MOMAR (Monitoring the Mid-Atlantic Ridge) project, which is being pursued under the auspices of InterRidge, the international co-ordination body for research related to oceanic ridges. The objective of the MOMAR project is to promote international cooperation to establish long-term multidisciplinary MOnitoring on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge near the Azores. MOMAR will combine long-term monitoring of biological and physical-chemical activity at hydrothermal vents, with broader scale monitoring of tectonic, volcanic and hydrothermal processes at the ridge axis. The first MOMAR workshop (Lisbon, October 1998) provided a forum for discussion of both the scientific questions to be addressed and the technologies available that could be instrumental in answering them. Underlying the discussions was the realization that advanced technologies must be in place to allow for efficient ways of searching for and monitoring underwater phenomena in regions that are totally inaccessible to humans. This entails the utilization of remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), benthic stations, and autonomous marine vehicles (AMVs).
2. OSPAR (the OSLO-PARIS Convention) - the recent quality status report issued by the OSPAR´2000 presented a comprehensive review of information on the ecosystems of the oceanic north Atlantic. A number of issues were raised that called for greater research effort in oceanic waters of the North Atlantic, namely in what regards the acquisition and interpretation of biological data. Relevant issues include the acquisition of basic systematic information about the majority of benthic taxa, specially the smaller organisms, as well as the study of the following: i) importance of gelatinous organisms in pelagic ecosystems, ii) role of microorganisms in food webs and many aspects of biogeochemical cycling, iii) zoogeographical patterns and distributions of many keystone species and communities, iv) life cycles of many keystone species, v) structure and dynamics of most deep-water food webs, vi) biological pathways for contaminants in deep ocean ecosystems, and vii) links between biodiversity, productivity, and other ecological processes. The report states clearly that the limited quantity and scope of documented knowledge of the mid-oceanic ridge areas establishes an essential requirement for new basic and original macrofaunal description to be undertaken. This primary challenge must be met by a co-ordinated programme of species identification and distribution mapping, all set in the context of a full suite of environmental and habitat parameterization. The scope of the studies to be undertaken pose considerable technological challenges and calls for the development and operation of acoustic tracking and data communication systems, fixed stations with CTDs and bioacoustic packages, remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), and autonomous marine vehicles (AMVs) equipped with advanced vision, acoustic, and other dedicated scientific suites.
3. The Census of Marine Life (CoML) initiative - The Census of Marine Life (CoML) initiative, formalized in 1997, is an international research programme aimed at assessing and explaining the diversity, distribution, and abundance of marine organisms throughout the world's oceans. To reach this goal, coordinated regional efforts must be stimulated to provide new information on patterns and processes of marine life on a global scale. The CoML studies should be systems-orientated. This requires close cooperation among biologists in a wide range of fields, physical oceanographers, and marine technology developers. In fact, a major component of the programme involves using state-of-the-art technologies for capturing and observing the fauna. The CoML program intends to support a series of near-term, relatively brief studies designed to demonstrate the feasibility of new sampling techniques, technologies, and research concepts. So far, the CoML has organized a series of meetings and workshops to impart renewed thrust to the effort of establishing strong links between marine science and technology. ChEss (Chemosynthetic Ecosystems in the Arctic and Northern Atlantic Oceans) and Mar-Eco (Patterns and processes of the ecosystems of the Northern Mid-Atlantic) are two of the main programmes within CoML that aim at understanding the patterns of distribution, abundance, and trophic relationships of the organisms inhabiting the mid-oceanic North Atlantic as well as identifying and modeling the ecological processes that cause variability in these patterns. The studies will focus on pelagic and benthic macrofauna and will utilize innovative methods and up-to-date technology to map distributions, analyze community structure, study life histories, and model trophic relationships. Once again, these goals all but require close interaction between marine scientists, researchers, and developers at the forefront of marine technology, including marine robotics.
4. ATOC (Acoustic Thermometry of Ocean Climate) - knowing the crucial role played by the ocean in the process of global change, this initiative aims at estimating long-term temperature change in the ocean (and hence by inference, atmospheric and climatic trends). The techniques under development use acoustic source-receiver pairs to measure sound travel time and thus infer about mean ocean temperature. This is a technique inspired on biomedicine known as Ocean Acoustic Tomography, where acoustic waves serve as probe signals for measuring oceanic properties such as water temperature and currents. The triangle formed by Azores - Madeira - continental Portugal offers a unique possibility for studying most of the oceanographic features with impact on the portuguese EEZ. Of course, long range circulation has an impact in smallscale features such as development of life forms at particular locations, fisheries, sediment transport, etc...
A.3 Actions Proposed. Deliverables.
The proposed research effort is well rooted on previous collaborative links established among the Institute for System and Robotics (ISR/IST), IMAR/DOP/Azores, and Creminer / FCUL). The ISR brings to the core of this initiative its proven expertise in marine robotics, information processing and computers, and underwater acoustic signal processing. Namely, design and development of marine robots, study and implementation of advanced algorithms for acoustic signal processing, development of vision systems for environment reconstruction and classification, and operation of autonomous platforms at sea. The Creminer and IMAR/DOP/Azores provide the scientific counterparts with their interests and/or expertises in the areas of submarine hydrothermal activity, submarine methane production, accumulation, and dispersion, deep biosphere, marine volcanology, marine biology, and oceanography.
Creminer views with great interest the application of advanced technologies to:
i) Study the characteristics of sea floor hydrothermal fields and related sub-seabed hydrothermal systems, including time series studies of sites up to 1000 meters deep, the deeper (sub seabed) portions of hydrothermal systems, and hydrothermal systems related with ultramafic rocks (serpentinites), with rare identified ancient analogues (e.g. the Rainbow and Saldanha hydrothermal fields);
ii) Study the relation of cold seeps with the methane produced by submarine serpentinization, and quantify the amount of methane discharged to the oceans versus that retained in sediments (this will change, perhaps radically, our perception of the global carbon cycle);
iii) Study the microbial community living under the sea floor, detected so far to depths of around 1000 meters (there is the general perception that many, if not all, crustal processes taking place under about 100ºC may in fact be related to this deep biosphere, but the details and implications are still largely not understood);
iv) Carry out submarine volcanological observations in the Azores region, where targets can be detected in close proximity to land and at relatively shallow depths (hundreds of meters). The recent Serreta eruption (1998-1999), only a few miles west of Terceira island, illustrates well the relevance of these observations.
IMAR/DOP/UAzores has by now amassed considerable expertise in the areas of marine biology, eco-toxicology, fisheries, and oceanography, and is keen on applying advanced technologies to the study of hydrothermal vent ecosystems, deep sea, mesopelagic and epipelagic environments, seamounts ecology, and coastal ecology on islands. IMAR/DOP/UAzores is particularly interested on developing a holistic approach to the study of ATJ ecosystems, integrating the sampling, evaluation and modeling of biotic and abiotic factors. IMAR/DOP/UAzores has been dedicated to the implementation of standard observation programs of the biology and ecology of the region, integrating multiple set of factors, habitats and species or group of species. More recently, the setting up of a land-based laboratory (LabHorta, which is now being supplied with deep-sea live animals) was a major conceptual and technical breakthrough in both vent and deep-sea research in general.