The next generation of coastal hydrodynamic and water quality models will be used for prediction of bathing and shellfish water quality. This represents a step change in the expectations and demands of clients of the engineering community.
CREH has developed a set of new calibration tools to address this new agenda which have been applied to model calibration along the Yorkshire coast; throughout Wales; along the coasts of Lancashire and Cumbria; and in East Anglia.
These include:
- new multiple microbial tracer systems which deliver simultaneous time of travel and dilution/decay data from multiple sources to multiple compliance sites;
- calibration of site-specific microbial decay coefficients to drive real-time microbial decay coefficients (T90 values), a key parameter in reliable predictive modelling; and
- GPS enabled drogues for near-surface current tracking using multiple sail depths.
An appropriate equipment and skills inventory supports this capability including 4 MCA coded commercial survey vessels, 4 in-house ADCPs, multi-parameter water quality sondes, irradiance profile measurement in the water column, depth samplers for water quality acquisition and sediment grab samplers.
All our MCA coded commercial coastal survey boats are road towable and can be moved quickly to new sites.
Beach sampling is supported by 2 two-person ATVs and 2 e-fat-bikes for 24/7 operation in the inter-tidal zone and we have a full range of safety kit for boat and beach staff including dry suites, personal locator beacons, life jackets and thermal clothing.
