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Big data to predict off shore accidents, tsunamis and other natural disasters

Big data to predict off shore accidents, tsunamis and other natural disasters: Big data to help British Columbia with a monitoring and prediction system to respond to off shore accidents, tsunamis and other natural disasters. Smart Oceans BC is a project that leverages the unique capabilities of the world’s most advanced cabled ocean observatories to inform public safety, marine safety and environmental monitoring. Smart Oceans BC will use marine sensors and data analysis to enhance environmental stewardship and public and marine safety along Canada’s West coast. It will monitor vessel traffic, waves, currents and water quality in major shipping arteries and will include a system to predict the impact of off-shore earthquakes, tsunamis, storm surge, and underwater landslides.

Smart Ocean Systems

Ocean Networks Canada (ONC) will use an IBM, on premise cloud to run simulations on earthquakes and tsunamis with a goal of predicting their behaviour and potential impact on coastal areas. This information will benefit a broad spectrum of audiences from public safety agencies to public transportation, tourism, and other industries operating in the area.

Researchers will also employ a suite of IBM visual analytics, data streams processing, machine learning and data exploration software to develop, test and run decision-support systems with commercial viability that could aid industrial and governmental agencies in sea state, pollution monitoring, spill response and other aspects of ocean management.

The project is funded from Western Economic Diversification, which is providing ($9.1M) over 3 years to assist with the purchase and initial installation of the initial infrastructure required to deliver Smart Oceans BC.IBM Canada is providing significant investments to enhance the data analytics capacity required to support Smart Oceans BC. Smart Oceans BC is built upon the existing Ocean Networks Canada infrastructure and operations, developed over the past ten years. ONC, which is the University of Victoria’s largest research project, already operates the world’s most advanced cabled ocean observatories off BC’s coast. IBM is investing $12 million in cloud computing infrastructure, analytics software, services and skills training to support this next phase of the system, which will position Canada as a global leader in ocean technology.

Western Economic Diversification is also contributing funding to bring online a number of additional underwater observatories and high frequency coastal radars.