A Hampshire, UK-based company has been awarded a prestigious tide gauge contract.
The 'National Tide Gauge Network' (NTGN) contract from the UK Government's Environment Agency (EA), who own and operate 42 'Class A' tide gauges on behalf of the UK Coastal Flood Forecasting (UKCFF), has been awarded to Hampshire based OceanWise Ltd who alongside RS Divers, will deliver this multi-year contract.
Dr Mike Osborne, OceanWise's managing director, explained: "We are delighted to have been given the responsibility of maintaining the NTGN on behalf of the nation. We already support and maintain numerous tide gauges, as well as weather stations, around the UK for our port customers, so this contract is a natural extension of our work. We are particularly looking forward to working with the EA and NOC to upgrade the network, using our expertise and experience in sensor, and data acquisition and management technologies, whilst at the same maintaining and enhancing the legacy 'bubbler' based systems to improve the reliability and quality of the data overall.”
Sea level observation
The purpose of the (NTGN) is to observe sea level throughout the UK in near real-time, as input to monitoring and forecasting coastal surge, and to provide a long-term and strategic record for climatological and coastal engineering studies.
The network currently consists of 21 sites in England, 10 in Scotland, 7 in Wales, 2 in Northern Ireland, 1 in Jersey and 1 in the Isle of Man. The data provided by the network of gauges is also used by academics and researchers for a variety of other scientific purposes.
By Rebecca Jeffrey
