NARRAGANSETT – Local ocean-engineering educator and consultant Malcolm L. Spaulding has been elected president of the new Northeast Regional Association for Coastal Ocean Observing Systems.
The group, known as NERACOOS, is one of 11 regional associations developed to support the U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS), a project of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). It will oversee the networking and expansion of the observation and prediction capacities of organizations and institutions across New England and Canada’s Maritime region. (NERACOOS also is seeking an executive director, according to an announcement posted on its Web site Dec. 22.)
“Fisheries managers, water-quality specialists, researchers, mariners, the Coast Guard, coastal-land managers and many others benefit from accurate and timely ocean observing infrastructure and related decision support tools that effectively interpret data,” Spaulding said in a statement today. “Ultimately, this increased capacity leads to safer maritime commerce and improved natural-resource management.”
Spaulding – a University of Rhode Island professor of ocean engineering – also is the director of the Center of Excellence in Undersea Technology (COUET) at URI’s Narragansett Bay Campus (READ MORE); the senior adviser to developers of the R.I. Ocean Special Area Management Plan (SAMP), a project launched in October to aid in the siting of offshore renewable-energy projects (READ MORE); and the founder of Applied Science Associates Inc. (ASA), a marine-science consultancy that recently moved its headquarters to South Kingstown from Narragansett. (READ MORE);
He also represents Rhode Island on the 18-member NERACOOS board of directors, to which he was nominated by the state/federal Northeast Regional Ocean Council. The directors’ next meeting is slated for Feb. 19 at the University of New England-Westbrook, in Portland, Maine.
As the regional ocean-observing group’s first president, Spaulding will focus on establishing the organization, helping to set up working groups and a stakeholder council to guide the development and implementation of a strategic plan. He already has proposed a major regional and national initiative to provide meteorological and oceanographic data in support of offshore renewable-energy development from wind, waves and tidal currents.
“Fisheries managers, water-quality specialists, researchers, mariners, the Coast Guard, coastal-land managers and many others benefit from accurate and timely ocean observing infrastructure and related decision support tools that effectively interpret data,” Spaulding said in a statement today. “Ultimately, this increased capacity leads to safer maritime commerce and improved natural-resource management.”
Applied Science Associates Inc. (ASA), founded in Narragansett in 1979, is a global science and technology solutions company specializing in the analysis of marine, freshwater, air, and land resources; computer modeling of physical, chemical, and biological processes; geographic information systems (GIS); operational research; and data display. Based in South Kingstown, it also has offices in Seattle; Sao Paulo, Brazil; and Perth and Queensland, Australia. Additional information is available at www.ASAScience.com.
The Center of Excellence in Undersea Technology (COUET) at the University of Rhode Island was established to perform research, development, testing and implementation of a wide variety of military and civilian undersea technologies, and to help foster the next generation of undersea scientists and engineers. Additional information is available at www.coeut.org.
The Northeast Regional Association for Coastal Ocean Observing Systems – one of 11 regional associations developed to support the U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS), a project of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) – will oversee IOOS efforts related to the waters off Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut. Additional information is available at www.neracoos.org.
