Funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Innovation Action programme, the mission of the CoastObs project is to develop a user-relevant service platform for coastal water monitoring with validated products derived from Earth Observation (EO). To fulfil this mission, we are in dialogue with users from various sectors in order to create tailored products at highly reduced costs per user that stick to their requirements. The innovative EO-based products include: monitoring of seagrass and macroalgae, phytoplankton size classes, primary production, and harmful algae as well as higher level products such as indicators and integration with predictive models.

To demonstrate the multi-user approach of CoastObs and its operational services, the project will carry out four case studies in coastal areas where multiple stakeholders (dredging companies, aquaculture businesses, national monitoring institutes, etc.) have indicated a need for better information on water quality. The services will be assessed with respect to their quality, fitness for purpose and added value for the user. As a last stage, CoastObs will develop a business plan and provide training and consulting services for the target audiences dedicated to improving the capacity building of the users and to facilitate the up-take of the product after the duration of the project.

With the synergistic use of Sentinel-3 and Sentinel-2, CoastObs aims at contributing to the sustainability of the Copernicus program and assisting in implementing and further fine-tuning of European Water Quality related directive.