June 11, 2019 - BOSTON, MA -- Around the world, Smart Cities are analyzing and adapting urban environments to improve the quality of life for their residents. High-speed and low-cost sensors, open data and data science are transforming public transportation, making garbage collection better, improving air quality and helping urban planners redesign streets and public spaces.
June 8 marked World Oceans Day. The United Nations observes this day to remind everyone of the major role the oceans have in everyday life. There is no better time than today to reflect upon the role of data to help us create a better future for the oceans, which connect us all. “Forty percent of people are within 100km of a shoreline; not coincidentally, most major problems in our oceans are found within 100km of the coast, “ said Steven Adler, CEO, Ocean Data Alliance. “We must work harder at the local level to clean up coastal environments and get more people choosing to venture into the seas and beneath the waves.”
The world’s largest population centers are responsible for much of the farm runoff, sewage, plastic and other pollutants that endanger marine and land ecosystems in coastal zones. Tackling these problems requires making the oceans relevant to people in their everyday lives. A solution may lie in integrating urban coastal zones into Smart City programs. These successful programs have, to date, excluded coastal zones.
A Smart Ocean City would integrate the same observations and data collection technology already being applied in cities, spurring innovation in ocean remediation and restoration, and transforming seafronts from blighted industrial zones into clean and healthy public spaces full of amenities.
Since large concentrations of people consume the most goods and services and produce the most waste, it is our coastal cities that most directly endanger the oceans. Smart Ocean Cities can improve waste-water treatment to prevent algae blooms and restore oxygen to coastal dead zones. They can use microorganisms to transform the nitrates and phosphates in farm runoff into fertiliser and fish food. Cities can reduce plastic use and invest in making waste management more efficient, instead of exporting solid waste abroad, where it often ends up in the ocean. They can support ocean innovation incubators to advance solutions that restore natural resources like coral reefs, shellfish beds, fisheries and sea-plant farms. And city governments can pass municipal bonds to provide new funding streams for local ocean improvements with global impacts.
“All of these initiatives have one thing in common: they are all based on robust data collection and analysis,” said Franck Carassus, CEO Opendatasoft. “This data can significantly enhance our understanding of the ocean for the benefit of business, science, and society.”
About Opendatasoft
Opendatasoft offers its clients market-leading data sharing solutions that teams use to access, reuse and share data that grows business. Opendatasoft operates in 18 countries with clients ranging from small companies and towns (including Jersey City, Town of Cary, NC Commerce, Vancouver, the City of Paris, Bristol, Eindhoven, etc) to large international companies (Schneider Electric, Indigo, Energias de Portugal (EDP), Veolia, Total, Air Liquide, Enedis, Saint-Gobain). For more information, visit http://www.opendatasoft.com/ or follow company news on Twitter via @opendatasoft.
About Ocean Data Alliance
The Ocean Data Alliance is a leadership forum dedicated to open ocean data solutions. It was created to define a new vision of Ocean Observation that generates massive volumes of data about our coastal zones, ocean surface, near depths, deep subsurface regions, seabed, chemistry, biology, marine ecosystems, temperatures, currents, and weather. For more information, visit: https://www.oceandataalliance.com