Coastal intelligence

With just over five years in business, Victoria-based MarineLabs is becoming increasingly popular with ports, pilots, and various stakeholders. “Our sensor technology that measures ocean waves and wind at extremely high resolution is then transmitted to ports and maritime operators for decision-making on weather,” said CEO Scott Beatty. This helps to optimize port and vessel operations as well as to provide a marine safety component and operational efficiency when used to bring ships into channels and approaches that are outside of a port’s protected area.” And, as MarineLabs’ network of sensors expands and data becomes more detailed, the system is proving useful for forecasting the impacts of climate change on coastal infrastructure and much more.

Background

With a Master’s and PhD in Mechanical Engineering focusing on Ocean Wave Energy and Ocean Engineering, CEO Dr. Scott Beatty’s decision to establish MarineLabs – realtime coastal intelligence for marine domain awareness — was the logical next step. Possessing both the vision and the skills, Beatty set about creating the core technology that monitors wind and waves.

The key hardware that feeds the MarineLabs’ CoastAwareTM platform is a self-powered, bolt-on, sensor unit that can be easily mounted on buoys and transmit every wave and every gust of wind. On their cloud platform, the data is accumulated and accessed by clients through a subscription-based account with a slick user interface. Their API ensures the data can easily work with any existing system, whether it be a website, GIS, or vessel traffic systems.

The appeal of CoastAwareTM for organizations like ports, pilots, government, and research agencies cannot be understated. Most notably, as a subscription-based service, clients are not burdened with maintenance costs. The ability to receive real-time information in high resolution (as much as four times faster than traditional government weather services) is especially useful for pilots trying to make a go/no-go decision for service or for ports managing just-in-time arrivals.

The value of CoastAwareTM for ports is equally enticing. “Many ports are moving toward real-time or predictive modelling for issues like dynamic under-keel clearance,” said Beatty. “CoastAwareTM is a powerful tool that allows them to plug in data that validates the modelling.”

The advantages of the MarineLabs model

Beatty noted that discussions with the marine industry have been invaluable throughout the development of their technology. “We talk to ports and learn about their needs and identify the gaps that exist. In addition to discussing the best locations for sensors, we are also able to tailor the information. We ensure the information can be integrated and communicated with the port’s existing systems but also used on mobile devices.”

He highlighted the benefits of using existing buoys in the area to eliminate the need for the port getting into the buoy business. “Instead of the port having to buy the hardware, deploy the buoys, and become buoy maintenance experts, they are simply charged a subscription fee for the data. MarineLabs mounts the sensor units to existing buoys and Aids to Navigation and the port is provided access to the data.” He added another benefit is that the more sensor units mounted on AtoN around a port, the better. “If one sensor goes offline, we have built in redundancy with additional sensors in the area so that no matter what, data will still be available to support port operations. Right now, we have a fleet that is from the Atlantic Coast of Canada across to Prince Rupert and all the way down to Vancouver, BC. Our uptime overall is 95 percent versus typical government run buoy data that is in the range of 75 percent uptime. And our goal is to drive that to 99 percent.”

Coastal engineering value-add

“While continuing to expand our network as more and more ports come on board, the data becomes more useful over the long term,” Beatty said when asked about how MarineLabs can assist with climate change. “As more statistics are collected, we’re able to better forecast what climate change is going to do to coastlines. This in turn helps ports adapt to issues like sea level rise. Having statistics available is helpful when considering investments in new infrastructure or critical upgrades. There is a huge value to having the data that can convince governments to invest.”

While computer modelling for coastal engineering is the traditional method for predicting changes, Beatty noted that direct measurements provide more certainty when it comes to planning for coastal protection as a result of climate change. He pointed to examples of coastal resilience planning in the Port of Vancouver’s Burrard Inlet where there is erosion occurring. “There’s a concern that continued shipping through that waterway will cause more erosion. So, we’ve been able to directly measure the drivers of erosion from increased traffic.” Interestingly enough, the results showed that recreational boating was having more of an impact on erosion than commercial shipping traffic. “We were able to extract out vessel wakes, using our vessel-wake analysis tool, from the background wind waves and then categorize them and link them to AIS data from ships and connect specific wakes to vessels.”

Other examples of how the data is being put to good use involved the development of new terminals. “We are currently deploying units for the collection of wind and wave statistics so that new terminals for LNG along the B.C. Coast can be effectively designed. Sensors are being put in place now so that in a year, we’ll have built up a catalogue of statistics that can help toward the design of the terminal.”

Not just a wave company

MarineLabs made the news last February when they reported on measuring a 17.6-meter rogue wave in the waters off Ucluelet, B.C. This was the most extreme rogue wave ever recorded. However, Beatty was quick to note that the company is so much more than just “a wave company”.

“Typical government buoys will provide updated information once every hour and that usually involves summaries of sea states. We’re extracting megabytes of data that allows us to go through every single wave undulation and every single wind gust and report more effectively,” Beatty said. “Because of that high resolution, we are able to develop a methodology for rogue wave risk assessment. Depending on the character of the seas, we are able to produce a Rogue Wave Risk Index that is similar to an Avalanche risk index with low, medium, and high-risk warnings.”

As MarineLabs continues to evolve, Beatty pointed out that uses for the sensor data evolve along with it. “For example, directional wind can be equally or more important as wave reporting,” he said. “Wind can significantly impact the operations of ships and pilots, and port operators are actually more interested in this. And vessel wake analysis is another area that can assist greatly in developing marine policies, especially those related to recreational marinas and determining speed limits for vessels. For small ports and harbors, if vessel wake is an issue, they should talk to us. We have the world’s first turnkey vessel wake analysis.”

As to the future, Beatty believes the value of the data being generated by MarineLabs will only increase. “In the five short years we have been in business, we have discovered more ways to assist ports than we ever could have imagined in those early days. And as more and more uses for the data are realized, we know our work will continue to increase in importance for the maritime industry.”