Monitoring and modeling of coastal waters in support of environmental preservation

The improved monitoring and modeling capability resulting from recent technological advances in oceanographic sensors, computer processing power, and telecommunications can play a major role in environmental preservation. In particular, this capability can help improve: safe navigation and thus the prevention of maritime accidents that lead to hazardous spills; the effective cleanup of hazardous spills when they do occur; the real-time assessment of water quality problems; the assessment of long-term trends and variability due to both anthropogenic and climate change effects; and the understanding of key physical, chemical, and ecological processes. Presented at the International Conference on Technologies for Marine Environment Preservation (MARIENV’95), Tokyo, Japan, September 24–29, 1995